Two comments since my grandfather's death have left me rattled and rightly so. I often think about him and his life in general did seem representative of the christian life and that I cannot argue. Still, I have never heard any profession of faith from his lips or anyone that knew him closely. How can I say a man died a christian without knowing the whether the most crucial part of it all even happened. Without an assurance that he confessed, "Jesus is Lord." and believed in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9), I cannot say with any certainty the man died a christian. I can hope he made a profession of faith before his final day, but I'm not always sure he did.
Before this, I had always doubted my parents salvation, but now I am sure of their faith. You know, faith without works is dead (James 2:26). Faith and action are integral to each other and living the Christian life without professing it is just as meaningless.
posted by Tex @ 11/14/2006 10:26:00 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
"How can I say a man died a christian without knowing the whether the most crucial part of it all even happened. Without an assurance that he confessed, "Jesus is Lord." and believed in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9), I cannot say with any certainty the man died a christian."
In other words, if he didn't profess his faith to you personally, you can't believe it with certainty even after you were told? That's pretty self-serving, don't you think? He never told me either, but I believed he was a Christian before anyone told me. How could you say he died the worst of all deaths when you don't know "with any certainty" that he did? It's the same thing. No one told you he was an atheist, but you thought he was. No one told you he was a Christian, but you thought he wasn't? You assumed the worst and it has given you more heartache than was necessary.
Think about that for a while.
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