E.R. Discovers the Flaw in Post-Modernism
February 28th, 2008 by Sean
This two and a half minute clip powerfully demonstrates the hidden flaw in the popular notion of everyone having their own private religion. The idea that all paths eventually reach God doesn’t really help in a crisis because when a dying man needs to know about certainty and forgiveness he needs real answers. The lady is a chaplain of sorts and the man becomes increasingly irate as he realizes that she is just asking him questions rather than giving him answers.
Heh, “So what are you saying?”, I’d like to ask all the post-moderns that
I would like someone to post how they would have answered this man’s desperate 11 hour plead on “how to fine forgivness?”
Sir,
From what you have told me, you have done some awful things in your life. You are indeed guilty of things that just should not be forgiven because God is to good a judge to not punish people. But let me tell you about 2 other men I think you should know about.
The first is the son of God Jesus. He was a sinless perfect man that unlike you did not do anything to deserve to die. He taught the laws of God and had power and authority over sickness, death, wisdom and even angels. Yet, he was tortured and humiliatingly killed on false charges.
The Second man actively sought out, had arrested and even had killed the people who followed and preached Jesus, Gods only son. These people were killed because they followed the instructions of the one that God, the Judge that you are afraid of on the other side. This man was responsible for there Deaths. This man’s name was Peter and not only did God forgive him, he used Peter to right twice as much of the New Testament as any other Author.
The reason why Jesus Died is because there is nothing anybody can to to atone for themselves. When Jesus’ died that day, he took on the punishment that you deserve to receive when you face God. You can be forgiven if you accept that Jesus was the son of God, that God raised him from the dead, you repent of your sinful ways, and make Jesus your Lord and master of your life. This is the only way Peter was able to be forgive and its the only way you can be forgiven.
So if this is something you are ready to do, im going to get the that chaplain back in here, because I believe you owe her an apology.
I think we need to be very careful in our judgment of post-modernism. Making broad, sweeping statements about the beliefs of all “post-moderns” doesn’t seem to be very wise. Now I do think that there are many, too many in fact, who have accepted this Universalistic, subjective form of religion, but there are a lot who don’t accept these views and may still consider themselves “post-modern”.
However, this man does make a very good point because I think many Christians (even modern Christians for that matter) tend to skirt the issues when it comes to a face to face confrontation. I’m glad E.R. is showing this because it reminds me of all of the times that I may have done exactly what this woman did.
THE vital thing for the man (played by long-time character actor “Jonathan Banks”) to do (besides confessing Jesus as Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead), is to intelligently receive the saving message of “The Gospel of the Kingdom”.
In order to follow Jesus as your Lord and Master, one must follow Jesus’ intructions/commands. And nothing was as emphatically preached by him over and over again, than the “good news” of the coming Kingdom of God.
So with that in mind, IMO here’s the steps that this man should be told that he needs to go through.
1. Repent/Ask God to forgive his former sins.
2. Hear and understand the message of the Kingdom of God.
3. Accept the Kingdom of God is going to come.
4. Accept that Jesus is the King of his Father’s (and our Father’s) Kingdom and as such confess that Jesus is now and will forever be his Lord and Master.
5. Believe that Jesus died as an innocent man in his place as a guilty man.
6. Believe that God raised Jesus from the dead as proof that he was God’s Son and that God will also raise all other believers in like manner from the dead when Jesus returns to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth.
7. Be baptized as a symbol of not only of belief in those resurrections, but more importantly as a public renouncing of your former sin and a firm commitment to serve God and His Messiah.
(Of course looking at the man’s situation of dying in a hospital, #7 might be impossible to do - but I’m sure God would look over that if the man’s heart was in the right place otherwise.)
For a detailed look at the importance of understanding the Kingdom of God, Sean has a ton of good articles posted here on the Kingdom of God main page. And I’d also highly recommend this article from a few years ago by Sir Anthony Buzzard in his “Focus on the Kingdom” newsletter - “What Must I do to be Saved?”: http://www.focusonthekingdom.org/76.htm
And if the man were going to die in the next hour? Surely that list could be condensed a bit, no?
I would have to agree with Kyle #4. I would suggest that PM is no friend of the gospel but then again neither is modernity. Where PM seeks an experience and reaches forth with its feelings, Modernity presents a formula that is neat and tidy and pigeon holed and a bit cold (do this and get that).
But perhaps I could say it this way. Modernity offers us the lyrics and PM offers us the music and the gospel needs both. To the man dying on the cross next to Jesus it was a simple request: And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
That is a beautiful record of forgivness and redemption - the music and lyrics coming together.
Karen,
I don’t know about “condensing”, as I see all those steps as vital.
However I believe that the list I gave (save #7 - as I mentioned) could possibly be accomplished in less than an hour.
But deathbed confessions can be extremely problematic in that the person dying may not be able in the short time they have left to truly understand, accept, and act on what is needed for salvation. Unfortunately at some point every person’s time to get that “one last thing accomplished” will end. Our time will be up! That’s why it is so very critical to not put off THE most important thing in our life - understanding and openly accepting God’s free offer to gain eternal life in the coming Kingdom.
Ron
May be slightly off topic here, and I probably already know this answer, but…
I knelt by my dad’s bedside last year while he was in his last days. I prayed with him and talked to him; shared God’s word with him and tried my best to get him to understand that Jesus was coming back. I’m not sure how much of it he was able to understand before he fell asleep. You see, my dad was not a real nice man. He didn’t do anything illegal but, being raised Roman Catholic (no bashing intended, I was raised RC as well) he was a VERY legalistic person. He lived with a huge weight of guilt in his life and took it out on many family members. Anyway, my dad’s life was spent living with (what I believe) is a false faith in Jesus. He did not live the ‘Christian’ life.
While I had time with him at the end of his life, he was not strong enough to pray out loud with me before he passed and he definitely was not strong enough to be baptized. Please, no messages of sympathy here; that is not my purpose in writing this. I am realistic in my assumption that my dad will probably not be part of the first resurrection.
My question is what is known/understood about salvation being available after the second resurrection. The answer may be that we just don’t know enough from what God has written. I do understand that Jesus will judge from the Lamb’s Book of Life:
Rev 20: 11-15
11And I saw a great white throne, and Him sitting on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And a place was not found for them. 12And I saw the dead, the small and the great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13And the sea gave up the dead in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead in them. And each one of them was judged according to their works. 14And death and hell were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death. 15And if anyone was not found having been written in the Book of Life, he was cast into the Lake of Fire.
Is there a ‘first chance’ (as some call it) at this event?
“But deathbed confessions can be extremely problematic in that the person dying may not be able in the short time they have left to truly understand, accept, and act on what is needed for salvation.”
How about a simple prayer of heartfelt contrition to God? Do you not think He would hear and honor that in a person’s final hours?
And even if one had more time, what of those who don’t have the mental capacity to understand what is, in the way you state it, pretty complex information? It seems to me that you’re putting intellectual hurdles in place for a great many people, when what God truly wants is a transformed heart.
I like to bear in mind Luke 7:47 (”Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much….”)
In post #7 Prita brings up a great example in the famous request of the criminal that was being crucified with Jesus. It is one that many use to validate the simple “deathbed” confession. But a close look at what transpires there can reveal a whole lot more. Let me explain.
The record of this event comes from Luke 23:39-43. Here it is for reference (from NASB).
39 One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
41 “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”
43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you today, you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
(Note: Yes I moved the infamous comma in verse 43 to where it should be - sorry I couldn’t resist.)
Looking at what transpires here I think that the criminal that defends Jesus and makes the request does the first 6 steps I outlined above in post #5.
Admittedly the first step of his repentance to God is not clearly known, but from the criminal’s statement in verse 40 - “Do you not even fear God…”, it seem obvious to me that the man believes in God and quite possibly has asked God to forgive him for what he did wrong. But I also think that criminal must have heard/seen Jesus delivering his Kingdom message somewhere (or at the very least fully understood the expectation of the Kingdom of God). And I think he fully believed/recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Hence he made the telling request of Jesus - “remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”. The criminal understood the Kingdom message, accepted that it would come, believed Jesus was the Messiah - the king of that kingdom, and he believed that Jesus would return from his impending death to one day bring about that kingdom.
So right there I see that he covers steps 2 - 6. Step #1 could be assumed and step #7 is totally unknown. And with that who knows? They guy could have heard Jesus preaching just before his capture by the authorities and was in deed baptized. But that’s a total unknown compared to what can be argued from the recorded exchange during their crucifixions.
In the end I think that Jesus promised to remember him when he brings “Paradise” to earth in the Kingdom of God in the Age to Come, because he understood the Kingdom message, who Jesus was, and because he recognized his sins and was repentant.
Ron
Frank,
Sorry to hear about your father, but I’m sure you’re thankful for the time you had with him at the end and for your evangelistic efforts with him.
You bring up a great topic concerning the second resurrection and the final judgment.
I totally get that the first resurrection is to impart immortality to all of Jesus’ loyal followers (both the dead brought back to life and those living at the time) so that they can work with Jesus to bring the world into order. There will be a great need for proper government, administrators, teachers, etc. in that new world order in the age to come. During the 1000 year millenium the world will have the first world-wide rule of perfect order and total peace that has ever been known on the planet since the Garden of Eden.
But what happens after that is where I begin to have questions.
Revelation 20 also tells us that Satan is to be unbound from the pit that he was chained up in during the millenium and will be allowed to start to deceive the world again - which allows him to regain followers. But what is the point of that? Unless the second resurrection occurs around the same time and everyone that has every lived and hasn’t known Christ or was deceived by The Devil when they were alive, is resurrected and shown the full truth. Shown fully what happened on the earth the first 6000 years of man’s existence under mankind’s rule and the devil’s influence vs. the last 1000 years of Christ’s rule without the devil’s influence. With that kind of demonstration only the incorrigibly wicked would choose to side with the Devil again (which I’m sure there will still be a fair share).
As to be “Book of Life”, I don’t see anyhing in Scripture that really explains what gets you in or out of that book other than it is evidently a record of a person’s “deeds”. I still imagine though that those of the second resurrection would still need to choose Christ once they fully understand who he is and what is being offered and required.
So to answer your question: “Is there a ‘first chance’ (as some call it) at this event?”, I would say there has to be. There are just too many people that have never known Christ at all (or even heard of the one God of Israel) to not be given the opportunity to be fully informed and then given the freedom of choice to make an informed decision. And there also have been a great number of people that have been deceived (and continue to this day) by the devil’s lies and have never known it. They too have to have the chance to act once the real truth is shown to them. It seems to me that would be only fair and just for a God that desires all of his creation to repent and have a honest and loving relationship with Him.
Ron
Thanks, Ron. I guess my question starts to take the discussion in the direction of the final judgement and is probably raised in an existing blog.
“Unless the second resurrection occurs around the same time and everyone that has every lived and hasn’t known Christ or was deceived by The Devil when they were alive, is resurrected and shown the full truth. Shown fully what happened on the earth the first 6000 years of man’s existence under mankind’s rule and the devil’s influence vs. the last 1000 years of Christ’s rule without the devil’s influence. With that kind of demonstration only the incorrigibly wicked would choose to side with the Devil again (which I’m sure there will still be a fair share).”
This is the first time I’ve heared this posed. I’ll do some more reading and study. I do find it very interesting (and unbiblical) how ‘Orthodox’ Christianity teaches eternal torment if people don’t make the choice for Jesus as Savior in this life. Do the Jewish Scriptures talk much about the final judgement?