Final Warning

A member of my congregation was handed a little note in the street. It read:

Beware!

This may be your

FINAL WARNING

 

Your final destination is of imperative

importance - it's either

HEAVEN OR HELL

There's no "in between"

You are either saved or lost for eternity.

If Jesus Christ is your Saviour and Lord then

Heaven is your home forever.

If you reject him on day (sic.)

HE WILL REJECT YOU

 

 

This was followed by a series of quotes from the Gospel of John. There were no contact details, no indication of where to go for help, nothing.

 

I am bemused. What is the point of handing out messages like this on the street? Do some Christians really believe that people have to be terrified into converting? What happened to brotherly / sisterly love? What happened to compassion?

 

 

 

I cannot help thinking of Karen Armstrong's reflection in her autobiography The Spiral Staircase:

She writes: "The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God's name, it was bad theology."

 

Yes, yes, and yes. It is what we do in this life that matters, not what we believe.