The good news of Jesus Christ is a royal invitation sent from the King of Kings to every human being, bad or good, to share His joy in heaven. If they respond, they will have a glorious future of joy, celebration and total absence of sorrow – for ever more.

Incredibly, there is a low take-up on the offer. The Lord Jesus speaks of this with a parable (Luke 14:15-24) where a King is giving a lavish banquet,sends out the invitations, then says “Come, for everything is now ready.” But those invited snub and insult their gracious host with lame excuses for not attending.

Here’s a few 21st Century excuses people give for choosing hell over heaven.

“There is no God!”

Some would rather cheerfully hide behind a Stephen Hawking theory which expects us to believe that everything came from a speck-sized particle. Many  scientists who are not Christians find this too much to swallow. Gerhard Kraus says: “The idea that a speck of matter smaller than a dust particle on my table could have accommodated the condensed mass of the entire universe stretches credibility beyond its limits… the Big Bang theory must be seriously questioned”1

The Bible states unapologetically, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”2

Stephen Hawking says, “In the beginning was a cosmic egg, the size of a speck of dust”3

Why the readiness to accept an unreasonable theory rather than that there is a ‘beautiful Mind’ behind it all? The apostle Paul speaks of those “who suppress the truth by their wickedness,since what may be known about God is plain to them…For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”4

“When you’re dead, you’re dead, there’s no afterlife!”

God has placed within each of us an instinctive desire for justice. We watch the TV news and exclaim, “That’s not right! That’s not fair!” We make judgments using our inbuilt ‘moral monitor’ and are glad when the perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice. All this points to the day of perfect justice set by God – which all of us must face.

The Bible states: “Man is destined to die once, and after that is the judgement”5

“Life is too short, live it for yourself!”

The thinking of today which is preached at us wherever we turn is; “Your happiness is all that matters”. Lose your mind in drink or drugs, leave your spouse and kids, pursue your dream, live recklessly: <insert your own excuse here>! Others may get hurt…but as long as YOU are happy, that’s all that matters.

The Bible tells of a man who, having worn himself out in the selfish pursuit of his own happiness, came to the right conclusion that the purpose of life (and the way to discover TRUE happiness) was to:

‘Fear God and keep his commandments,for this is the duty of all mankind.’6

“I am spiritual, but I’m ‘sitting on the fence’ with the Jesus thing!”

The Bible speaks of only two groups of people – those who have repented of their sin and trusted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and those who have not. We are in the kingdom or out, in light or in darkness, born again or not born again, on the road to heaven or on the road to hell. There is no fence.

The Bible states: ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.’7

“Come!”

No more excuses. “Come, everything is now ready’ says Lord Jesus. “Come!” All are invited to share in God’s everlasting joy. Young or old, respectable or vile. Come with all your doubts and all your fears.

Come now, you don’t know if you have tomorrow.

The Bible says:

‘NOW is the time of God’s favour

NOW is the day of salvation’8

Mike Mellor

Listen to Mike’s message on this subject here


References:

1 Gerhard Kraus: Has Hawking Erred?

2 Genesis 1:1

3 Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time

4 Romans 1: 18-20

5 Hebrews 9:27

6 Ecclesiastes 12:13

7 John 3:36

8 2 Corinthians 6:2