Published: Friday, August 30, 2013 at 10:14 a.m.
In today’s religious circles, I have attended hundreds of
funerals in my lifetime and have never heard of anyone dying and going
to hell.
Apparently, according to
the people, everyone that dies say they are going to heaven. Proverbs
16:2 says, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the
Lord weigheth the spirits.”
Man must always be conscious and aware that God is the great discerner of our thoughts, intents and motives.
The
apostle Paul had to address the church at Corinth because evidently
their were some who were professing Christianity as their rule of faith.
Nevertheless, they were living lives contrary to the Scriptures. He
tells the members that it is a fatal mistake to have a divided
allegiance.
The following biblical verses explain God’s criteria for those who qualify for the eternal benefits and blessings of the Lord:
1
Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulteres, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkers, nor revilers, nor
extortioners shall inherir the kingdom of God. And such were some of
you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God.”
Romans
6:1-2 says “What shall we say then. Shall we continue in sin, that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live
any longer therein.”
Sin
is an act when men willfully disobey the commandments of God. Sin means
to miss the mark. Adam and Eve, the original inhabitants who lived in
the Garden of Eden, were given an opportunity to obey or disobey the
commandment of God. The biblical account comes from Genesis 2:15-17,
which says, “And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden to
dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
God
had designed Adam and Eve to live forever had they not violated the
integrity of God’s word. God means everything he says. The devil or
enemy of God deceived and persuaded Adam and Eve that God did not mean
what he said. However, we know now the consequences for not being loyal
to God.
The same kind of
fate will befall us. They were thrown out of the Garden of Paradise, and
eventually some 900 years later, Adam died naturally.
In
conclusion, the prophet Ezekiel sums it up this way by declaring in
Ezekiel 18:4: “Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the father, so
also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth it shall die.”
Jesus
says in Revelation 22:12, “And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is
with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
The
Book of Revelation was written to the seven churches in Asia-Minor.
Don’t let the Lord come and find you with your work undone.
Bishop
Arthur V. Verrett Jr. is pastor of Faith+Dominion and Power Ministries,
129 Samuel St., Houma. He can be reached at 868-2328, 856-0867 or verrett_a@bellsouth.net. Columns represent the opinions of the writer, not necessarily this newspaper.
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