You are out driving on a country road and you come upon a bad accident. I’m alone in my car and I’ve run off the road where I hit a tree and a branch has impaled me. You are the first one to come upon the accident. You realize that an ambulance will never get to me in time. I’m bleeding badly and you estimate from my wound that I have three minutes to live. What do you say to me?
Well if you are an atheist, I assume you ask me if I have a message that I want to get to a loved one or a friend. Other than that, I can’t imagine how an atheist would comfort me in my last moments on this earth.
What if you are a Muslim, Buddhist, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness or Roman Catholic? What do you say to comfort me? Since these are all works based religions, you know there is no way that I can do enough good works in three minutes to make difference. You know I will never leave the car, so in your mind I’m doomed.
Maybe instead you are a “typical” or “casual” Christian who follows a modern day leader such as Rob Bell, Joel Osteen or TD Jakes. All you’ve ever heard before is that God has a wonderful plan for your life. How do you convince me that God has a wonderful plan for my life? I’m dying in approximately three minutes. There is no wonderful plan for my life (not at least on this earth).
Finally, what if you are a born again, devout follower of Jesus Christ? What do you say to me? We’ll in three minutes (or less) you can share with me that God made me and that God has given me every breath of my life. You can point out that I’ve sinned in the past – that I’ve lied, probably stolen something that didn’t belong to me, probably used God’s name in vain at one time or another; that if I had ever looked at a woman with lust that God considers that adultery of the heart.
You would probably point out to me that you had only gone over four of the 10 Commandments and that if I had broken any of them I was guilty of breaking them all. Then you would lovingly tell me that the punishment for breaking even one of the 10 Commandments was eternal punishment in a very real place called Hell. The Bible tells us that it is appointed to men to die once, but after this the judgment. You’d point out that I am going to stand before God on Judgment Day and that He would find me guilty of breaking the 10 Commandments. The punishment for that guilt is eternity in Hell.
Now I’m not going to want to hear this with only a minute or two left of my life. But it is the sobering truth. Then you tell me that was the bad news, but wait, there’s Good News! God sent his son Jesus to walk this earth 2,000 years ago and He lived a perfect, sinless life. Jesus didn’t sin in thought, word or deed. He was beat beyond recognition and then died a horribly painful death on the cross. On the third day He rose again. Jesus did two things we cannot do: 1. He lived a sinless life 2. He came back from the dead. Jesus defeated sin and death.
If we repent and believe the Gospel, God will grant us eternal life. Our sins can be forgiven and we will go to Heaven when we die instead of to Hell (which we deserve). Salvation is a free gift from God and we accept this wonderful gift by turning away from our sins and putting our faith in Jesus. Now I have 30 seconds left. I have time to ask God to forgive me from my sins, repent (this starts in your mind and your heart) and surrender my life to Jesus. I say a heartfelt prayer, get right with God and breath my last breathe.
Now put yourself in my shoes in this example. You have three minutes to live. What are you going to do? Are you going to stick with your atheist views? Become agnostic (which still won’t help you)? Choose Mohammad, Buddha, Joseph Smith (Mormonism) or Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses)? Or if you only had three minutes to live would you choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you would choose Jesus with only three minutes to live, why don’t you go ahead and choose Him today? The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Don’t put this off. Some day, you really will have three minutes to live, but most of us will never know when those last three minutes are. Choose life and choose it today. Our lives are but a vapor. Repent and put your trust in Jesus Christ.