How shall someone who closes his or her eyes for the last time hope to open them in heaven? Since we do not know how we might convey our soul to heaven, we must hope in God to bring us to Himself, first in this life by calling us to saving faith, and then in completeness when we die and in the resurrection.
But what is this saving faith? The Devil – God’s enemy and ours – has always confused the issue. When the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf it was a mere idol, and yet Aaron and others said, Exodus 32:4 … “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” If anything could be called a god, then why not?
Even though the leaders of the Jews had the Word of God, what we call the Old Testament, they did not put their faith in the Savior who was revealed there, but had a confidence in their own righteousness worked out by keeping rules and regulations. So Peter had to declare to them that salvation only comes through faith in Jesus Christ: Acts 4:12 12Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Just as the Israelites could call the golden calf the god who saved them, so people today take their own ideas and call them Christian faith. Only if we know the true Christ can we spot the counterfeit, and know THE faith, the truth about God and His salvation.
There are many counterfeits today. Some say all religions are different ways to the same god. Others believe in Islam and the good work of submission. Still others believe in nature as God. All such doorways are broad roads that lead away from the true God and into eternal darkness.
But it sees that most in our country are led away by a counterfeit that is even more dangerous because it is so vaguely defined and has no set name, even though many wrongly call it Christian. Call it indifference or complacency, perhaps. It is the idea that we all just try the best we can, and God will understand. If we do our best, we can expect that everything will happen with a purpose and turn out OK. That includes life after death in heaven. According to this bit of wishful thinking nearly everybody will be saved.
A few people have started calling this “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” “Moralistic” means that when we do our best to do good, then good things happen. “Therapeutic” means that this moral behavior will help to solve the problems in the world, including those in our own life. “Deism” means that the god in charge can be whatever you want it to be, a sort of a warm and fuzzy, non-demanding deity. This does away with the need to worship, to know the Bible, or to distinguish truth from error.
This is a far cry from what Paul was talking about when He faced imminent death and declared, the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.