Why don’t people go to church anymore?

Flares nightclub

What do you believe?

According to researchers, the number of Christian churches is declining in the United Kingdom. Some church buildings are being redeveloped as government offices, tourist information centres and even businesses.

Over the last decade, I have interviewed hundreds of people on this subject, and many folks say they either stopped attending church or never attended in the first place because they don’t believe churches are relevant to their lives. Others say they have been disappointed or hurt by people in the church, and some even say they are angry or disappointed with God, so they choose to pursue happiness apart from Him. Some say they choose to believe there is no God.

Do you believe in God?

What shocks me most is how many people say they do believe there is a God, and they believe there really was a Jesus, but they don’t take the time to consider what the Bible says about Him.

According to the Bible, Jesus is fully God and fully human, and He came to Earth, born of a woman, about 2,000 years ago. He lived a sinless life, and when He was 30 years old He began His public preaching and teaching ministry in Israel. Jesus is the Messiah, Who was foretold in the Old Testament (first part of the Bible) to be the Saviour of all who would believe in Him.

The Bible also tells us that, though man was originally created sinless on what was then a perfect Earth (Genesis 1), we have all chosen to sin (disobey God), and according to God’s Law, the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). When Jesus allowed Himself to be killed on a cross, he was taking the punishment for us. He died in our place so that we might live (John 3:16-17).

God didn’t leave Jesus in the grave. He raised Jesus from the dead on the third day (John 20).

Are you a good person?

I often ask people what would happen to them if the words of Hebrews 9:27 turn out to be true and they have to meet God in judgment immediately after they die. Many say they will go to Heaven, because they think they are a good person. So I ask them if they’ve ever lied, stolen or used God’s name in vain. These are only three of the Ten Commandments, and most people have to admit they have broken at least one of these. According to the Bible, sinners will not be allowed into Heaven unless God grants us forgiveness.

What’s so great about Heaven?

Quite a few young people have asked this question. They say they don’t want to spend eternity hanging out with old people and angels anyway, so they would rather go to Hell and hang out with their favourite celebrities. But again, this is a gross misunderstanding of Heaven and Hell. Jesus talks a lot about Hell in the book of Matthew, and it will be a place of eternal torment. No partying. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place of eternal delights in the presence of God. And there’s more…

A New Earth?

The Bible also explains that this Earth, which has been cursed because of mankind’s sinfulness, will be redeemed. God will make it perfect again, and those who give their lives to Jesus will occupy it in eternity. Who wouldn’t want to see that?! (If you want some great reading on Heaven and the New Earth, check out this page on Randy Alcorn’s blog: http://www.epm.org/faq/question/heaven.)

How will you respond?

People often say they will think about death when they get closer to that point in their lives, but the truth is that we don’t know when that point may be. We must think about eternity now. Read the Bible for yourself (I recommend starting with the Book of John) and ask God to reveal His truth to you.

Then repent (turn) from your sins and ask God to forgive you.

Any questions?

If you have any questions, or if you would like to share your own beliefs, please contact me: OnceToDie@yahoo.com. Also, feel free to leave feedback on this blog post.

Will the world really end in 2012?

Mayan Pyramid

End-of-the-World Predictions

Some of the latest doomsday predictions circulating in the media suggest the world will end by December 21, 2012. That is, of course, the winter solstice, and on that day in 2012 the Earth and sun will line up near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy as well. But some would-be prophets are also saying a mysterious Planet X, or “Nibiru”, is going to do a near-miss of the Earth at that time, and then they say the Earth will be thrown off balance and everybody will die. Some of these folks say the fact that the ancient Mayan calendar ends on that same date adds credibility to their predictions. Others say powerful solar storms will wreak havoc on Earth during that winter solstice, though there doesn’t seem to be a consensus as to the potential of damage to the planet.

NASA scientists publicly deny any existence of the so-called Nibiru planet, and they say if it were close enough to reach Earth by 2012 we’d have seen it visibly in the sky by now. They do acknowledge, however, that powerful solar storms could affect Earth around that time. (Visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html.)

The End is Always Near

The truth is that nobody but God knows for sure when the world as we know it will end. According to the Bible, the end is definitely coming. Hebrews 9:27 says, “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. Whether or not there is any truth to the 2012 apocalyptic theories, we will all die eventually, and we only die once. And that’s when God will judge us for the way we lived our lives.

The Bad News

According to Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death”, and Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”. So the bad news is we are all in trouble when we meet God in judgment, because we have all sinned. We have all done things that are wrong in God’s sight.

Are You a Good Person?

Some people think they are good enough to escape God’s judgment and go to Heaven. But have you ever lied or stolen anything, even something small? Have you ever used God’s name as a swear word? Have you ever entertained lustful thoughts? These are just a few sins, and you are possibly guilty of many more than these. So what will happen to you on your Day of Judgment?

The Good News

Naturally, according to God’s standards we all deserve Hell. But the good news is that Jesus, who is fully human and fully God, already paid the penalty for our sins on the Cross over 2,00o years ago. He died so that we might live (John 3:16-17). God didn’t leave Jesus in the grave, though. He was raised again on the third day (John 20), and this gives us hope of being raised to eternal life with Christ after we die as well.

Sadly, human pride often gets in the way of us admitting we need forgiveness for our sins, or that we have even sinned in the first place. This sort of pride is deadly, because we read in James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”.

How will you respond?

Friend, will you today humble yourself and admit you are a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness? And then will you repent (turn away) from your sins and ask God to forgive you and to give you a new life in Jesus Christ?

If you have a Bible at home, or if you have access to online Bible sites, read the Book of John and especially Chapter Three. Learn more about Jesus from His own words. Don’t put it off another day, because you don’t know when the world or your own life will end!

Darwin’s big idea

Charles Darwin

This is a big month for Charles Darwin fans, because it is the 150th anniversary of his landmark book The Origin of Species. Let me be clear at the outset of this column: I am neither an expert on Darwin nor on evolutionary theory, but I’ve got a few reasons to believe billions of people have been duped when it comes to origins of life.

I remember being in the eighth grade at Fayette County Junior High School (Fayetteville, Georgia, USA) when we were required to read a science book chapter about the age of rocks. The author insisted that the rock strata in a certain canyon dated back millions of years, because they knew that’s how old the fossilized bones were, which were trapped in those rock layers. I was dubious when I read this, because I believe in a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis in the Bible. You can’t really believe in millions of years and believe in a literal account of Genesis (but more on that in a minute).

A few days later, we were told to read the next chapter for homework. This chapter said certain bones can be proven to be millions of years old, because scientists know that’s the proven age of the rock strata containing them. What?! That was effectively my first academic lesson in circular reasoning.

Since that time, I have listened out for plausible evidence supporting evolution… the kind that proves humans evolved from “lower” life forms… but there just isn’t any. Everything I see still points to Earth being about 6,000 years old, and we all agree that people back then pretty much had the same bone structure as we do now. Every so often, the so-called science community gets excited and publishes some new study that promises to be the legendary “missing link”, but it always comes up short.

So I have two main opinions I want to share on the matter:

Number One – I think the whole evolutionary science thing is a scam. There, I said it. I think the people at the highest levels of it are fully aware that their whole lives have amounted to unprovable theories, and they must continue the ruse to continue receiving paychecks. I say we give them a short deadline to prove evolution or pack up and go get real jobs. They’ve had the better part of two centuries already.

Number Two – Christians who say they believe in both Biblical creation and Darwinian evolution are mistaken. Romans 5:12 says sin entered the world by one man (Adam), and death entered the world because of this sin. So there was no death before Adam sinned, which makes sense, because the world and everything in it were only a few days old, and God created everything perfect. (He called everything “good” and “very good” at the end of each day.) So if the Bible is right, there couldn’t have been creatures living, evolving and dying for millions of years before people were on the scene.

Following this point further, it also wouldn’t make sense that God would call each stage of creation “good” if it all involved death and destruction the whole while.

What I believe is that real science eventually turns theories into laws or moves on to other theories.

I also believe there is one universal law that gets lost in all of this evolution nonsense: the law of sin and death. This law, which we’ve referenced already, says that people die because of sin, and then according to Hebrews 9:27 we all meet God in judgment. God alone decides if we go to Heaven or Hell, and the only way we can go to Heaven is if we have accepted Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross as the payment for our sins.

If you want to know more about Biblical salvation, please read my previous posts, leave a comment below or e-mail me: oncetodie@yahoo.com.

And have a happy Darwin Month!

New direction for OnceToDie.com

Several years ago, I launched OnceToDie.com as an interactive Gospel tract of sorts, where people could learn more about eternity as taught in the Holy Bible. Recently, I dropped that feature and relaunched OnceToDie.com as a blog, which you see here.

While I hope to some day reinstall some sort of interactive Gospel tract feature, more immediately I want to provide a forum for collecting people’s thoughts on what happens after we die. I believe in a literal Heaven and Hell as taught in the Bible, and I believe we will all be judged by God at the end of our earthly lives. You can read more about what I believe in the previous blog post, dated August 25.

Anyone who agrees, disagrees, has questions or comments is welcome to fire away. I’ll listen. I will, of course, moderate comments, so it is likely some will never be posted on this site. However, I will try to reply directly to any comment or other submission whether I publish them or not.

So please let me hear from you, no matter what you believe!

Click the comment button below or send me an e-mail: dannyharrison@ymail.com.

It’s the ‘ultimate statistic’

We’re all going to die. Some have called this fact the “ultimate statistic”, because 10 out of 10 people will experience death.

How we choose to respond to this fact differs widely. Some seek as much pleasure for themselves as possible in this life, because they think it’s their only shot at happiness. Others see death as a ticking timebomb, and they worry about it, which diminishes any hope of happiness in this life.

I could opine for hours on how different people view this life, but what really matters is what the Bible says about it, though not many people seem to agree with me on this point. Just the same, I have called this blog “Once to Die”, because I think the words found in Hebrews 9:27 are chilling and important…

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:“

Having discussed life and death with hundreds of individuals in the West Midlands of England, I have heard many ideas of what happens after we die. But whether people believe it’s all over after death, or whether they think we are reincarnated into another living form on Earth, their theories don’t match up to what the Bible explains in very simple terms. So either the Bible is wrong or all of these other people are wrong.

What really amazes me is how many people say they believe in God and the Bible, but they still come up with so many conflicting theories regarding life after death. Clearly, we die, then we meet God in judgment.

Of course, many world religions agree on this basic point, namely the Jews, Muslims and Christians, but they don’t all agree that eternal salvation is guaranteed through Jesus Christ alone. In fact, not even everyone claiming to be Christian agrees with this, but again, either they are wrong or the Bible is wrong, because the Bible is clear on the matter.

Who is Jesus?

According to the Bible, Jesus is fully God and fully human, and He was born to a faithful (but imperfect) woman about 2,000 years ago. He lived a sinless life, and when He was 30 years old He began His preaching and teaching ministry in Israel, which was highlighted by many miracles, several of which are recounted in the New Testament books of the Bible.

Jesus is the Messiah, Who was foretold in the Old Testament of the Bible to be the Saviour of all who believe in Him. The Bible also tells us that, though man was originally created sinless on what was then a perfect Earth (Genesis 1), we have all chosen to sin (disobey God), and according to God’s Law, the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). When Jesus allowed Himself to be killed on a cross, he was taking the punishment for us. He died in our place so that we might live (John 3:16-17). God didn’t leave Jesus in the grave. He raised Jesus from the dead on the third day (John 20).

Are you a good person?

I often ask people what would happen to them if the words of Hebrews 9:27 turn out to be true and they have to meet God in judgment immediately after they die. Many say they will go to Heaven, because they think they are a good person. So I ask them if they’ve ever lied, stolen or used God’s name in vain. These are only three of the Ten Commandments, commonly known as the Moral Law, and most people have to admit they have broken at least one of these. According to the Bible, sinners will not be allowed into Heaven unless God forgives us.

What must I do to be saved?

Sadly, many people think their good works will earn them a place in Heaven, but reading from Titus 3 teaches us that nothing we do is good enough. Ephesians 2:8-9 also explains this.

All throughout the Bible, we are told sinners must repent. Consider what the Apostle Peter preached in Acts 3:18-24. He says Jesus died on the cross, suffering in our place, and that we must repent and be converted so our sins will be blotted out. We must admit we’re sinners, trust that Jesus through His death and resurrection will save us and ask Him to forgive us.

What’s so great about Heaven?

Quite a few young people have asked this question. They say they don’t want to spend eternity hanging out with old people and angels anyway, so they would rather go to Hell and hang out with their favourite celebrities. But again, this is a gross misunderstanding of Heaven and Hell. Jesus talks a lot about Hell in the book of Matthew, and it will be a place of eternal torment. No partying. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place of eternal delights in the presence of God. And there’s more…

A New Earth?

The Bible also explains that this Earth, which has been cursed because of mankind’s sinfulness, will be redeemed. God will make it perfect again, and those who give their lives to Jesus will occupy it in eternity. Who wouldn’t want to see that?!

What’s the point of church?

Sadly, many churches have indeed become irrelevant, because they have turned their focus on trying to make this life perfect instead of preparing people for eternity. That’s the real work of the church: Sharing the truth of the Gospel so that people will be prepared for eternity.

Any questions?

This is only a brief commentary on the most important consideration a person will ever contemplate. If you have any further questions, or if I can be helpful to you in some other way, please contact me via e-mail: oncetodie@yahoo.com.