The COVID pandemic has also spawned what has been termed a “pandemic of despair.” One article says, “Suicide rates are higher today than at any other time since the Great Depression.” Could the loss of social interaction brought on by quarantines and lockdowns have created a deadly side effect?

     There are some who say anyone who takes their own life is damned, but I am reticent to agree. I think someone in the grip of profound pain, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual, may be deceived and driven into thinking death is the only option. But I also recognize suicide is not an act of faith and “whatever is not from faith is sin,” Romans 14:23.

     The subject of suicide is not addressed directly in the Bible. The Scriptures record seven suicides, but little is said about them apart from a brief description of each.

     Some scholars claim suicide is self-murder, but that has always seemed to be a strained application of the Sixth Commandment to me. To the degree one’s rationality is unimpaired and an act of the will, suicide can never be said to be an act of faith and is in that respect a sin.

     To me the greater question would be, is suicide forgivable? Some argue since one cannot ask forgiveness after killing oneself it is damnable. That position seems just as strained to me as the idea of self-murder, that our forgiveness is more dependent on our request for it than on God’s mercy.

     I think the grace of God extends to the one whose extreme circumstances may render him confused and irrational enough to do something in a thoughtless moment of desperation he would not normally consider. Ergo, I do not believe hell is the default destination, but neither can we say heaven is assured to the one who takes his own life, a faithless act.  So where does that leave us?

     After God reveals to Abraham, He is about to investigate the outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham, aware his nephew Lot and his family reside in Sodom, asks God, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” Genesis 18:23. Abraham employing a rhetorical question assures God he knows He will do what is right, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” Genesis 18:25.

     While this narrative is not about suicide, it does reveal the just nature of a Holy God who will in every situation do what is right by every person. Since the Scriptures do not condone suicide, neither should we, lest we encourage it, nor should we condemn what the Scriptures do not condemn lest we rob others of their hope in a merciful God.

God knows what is in the heart and mind of the one who takes his own life, and He is a benevolent God. It is the best that I can say with a clear conscience, but it is the best anyone could hope for.

The late Dr. D. James Kennedy related an account of sharing the Gospel with a woman telling her if she believed in the atonement of Christ she would be saved. She replied, “If I say I believe I can be saved.” Dr. Kennedy corrected her, “No, if you believe you will be saved.” His point was there is an eternity of difference between saying you believe and actually believing.

     This point is made in a couple of places in Scripture. James rhetorically asks, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” James 2:14. Saying you have faith when there is no actual evidence that you possess faith is useless now and later.

     Jesus made that very point Himself, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

     “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

     “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness,’” Matthew 7:21-23.

     On judgment day when those who disbelieved are confronted with the reality that Jesus is God and they are to be judged, they will try to lie their way into heaven, but Jesus will tell them He “never knew” them. Simply put, saying something does not make it true.

     I thought about this this past week when I read an article titled, “’Drifting Away’ from Scripture: 30 Percent of Evangelicals Say Jesus Was Not God, Poll Shows.” Every two years Ligonier Ministries sponsors a State of Theology Survey. The study conducted by LifeWay Research revealed that thirty percent of “Evangelicals” say Jesus was not God merely a good teacher, a departure from what the Bible teaches.

     An Evangelical can be defined as a Christian who believes in God’s saving grace through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ; they are Christians who believe in the authority and reliability of the Scriptures. People who say they are Christian or Evangelical may drift away from biblical truth, but Christians and Evangelicals do not.

     I am not denying that Evangelicals may go through dry spells in their relationship with God because of neglect in reading the Bible and prayer, but those dry spells are used by the Spirit of God to create a thirst in the believer for the very things he has neglected.

One of the conclusions derived from this study was the need for the church to put more emphasis on the doctrine of Christology. But the person and work of Christ are clearly presented in the Gospels. People just need to read and believe them.

     There was an article published at ChristianHeadlines.com titled “60 percent of U. S. Born-Again Christians under 40 Say Salvation Can Be Received through Jesus, Buddha or Muhammad.” That statement came from the results of a “Religious Views and Practices Survey” conduct by Probe Ministries.

     I do not find this to be a startling revelation. There has never been a time in the history of mankind when the Bible has been available in more versions and formats, and yet biblical literacy and ignorance of what the Scriptures teach has been at an all-time low.

     Most people think the various religions are very much the same fundamentally and only different superficially, but that idea is predicated on nonsense. The world’s religions are fundamentally different and only superficially the same.

     I am not aware of any credible Buddhist Priest or Muslim Imam that would agree that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as declared in the Bible. Recognizing that these three “religions” are fundamentally different is not a matter of prejudice, it is a matter of intellectual honesty.

     Of those 60 percent of people under 40 who say “salvation can be received through Jesus, Buddha or Muhammad,” few could probably tell you where the term “born again” is at in the Bible, nor that it was broached in a conversation between two men, and who those two men are. Sadly, their curiosity will not cause them to read the Bible, but at best will cause them to “google” the answer.

     Also, there is an eternity of difference in saying you are born again and actually being born again. “Saying” is not the same as “believing,” (Matthew 7:21-23, James 2:14). And it was Jesus Himself who declared, “I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,” John 14:6.

     Buddhism does not teach that there is a God, Muslims believe Jesus was just a prophet, Christians believe that Jesus was the incarnate Son of God; those are fundamental differences not superficial similarities.

     No one who has ever been genuinely born again became so believing Jesus Christ was just a man or just a prophet; they were born again repenting of their sins and trusting in Jesus as the Son of God who could save them from their sins. That is what it means to be born again.

     No one is confused or deceived about what born again means except those who want to be willfully confused or deceived.

     The apostles echoed the words of Christ when defending their proclamation of the Gospel, they said, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved,” Acts 4:12.

I believe the Bible is the Word of God and if it proclaims Jesus is the only way of salvation, then those will be disappointed who look for another.

I am going to share my personal thoughts regarding the COVID vaccines. At the outset I want to make it clear that I am not making an argument for or against being vaccinated. I think each person should make whatever decisions they deem necessary about their personal health. What follows are just my personal thoughts on vaccines at the intersection of reason and faith.

     Generally speaking, I am not for or against being vaccinated. Over the years I have gotten the flu vaccine sporadically. I have had the flu a couple of times in my life and those times rank very near the worst I have ever felt and still survived. But I have been ambivalent getting a yearly flu vaccine because my thoughts waver between not wanting to get the flu again and questioning the efficacy of flu vaccines.

     I am not opposed to the advances made by medical science. I believe the strides that have been made are an example of God’s common grace to alleviate human sickness and suffering, but my confidence is not in medical science alone.

     This pandemic has been politicized more than many other diseases that statistically speaking are more deadly. This has been accomplished with the help of a very biased and liberal news media to the point I do not know what to believe exactly about this pandemic. I read conflicting reports by supposed experts daily.

     Based on news accounts medical science cannot guarantee the COVID vaccines will prevent contracting the disease or lessen the severity of the disease’s impact. That is what is hoped, but there are reports of some who have been vaccinated and still contracted COVID and died from the virus.

     Medical science cannot guarantee there will be no serious side effects to the vaccines, nor long term complications as a result of being vaccinated. Stories are emerging about the side effects that are raising concerns over the vaccines and the vetting process that was fast-tracked.

     Now we are being told we will need booster shots. The pressure from politicians, celebrities and the press to get vaccinated seems to be fueled more by hysteria than science.

     I am 69, five years ago I had a brain stem stroke, and I am diabetic. Last year I had COVID and my natural immunity produced the antibodies to get well. I think my natural antibodies are better than any antibodies produced by a vaccine. So, I decided not to get vaccinated.

     I do not think I am immune from getting COVID again or my experience will be the same as before, but I am not afraid. Solomon advised, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding,” Proverbs 3:5.     

There is much about this pandemic I am confused about, but I had rather trust God than journalists, politicians, or celebrities when it comes to my health, and I am ready to live and, if necessary, die by that decision.

The magazine Christianity Today published an article titled, “Will My Lost Neighbor Have Another Chance to Receive Jesus After Death?” The article is a book review of James Beilby’s book, “Postmortem Opportunity: A Biblical and Theological Assessment of Salvation After Death” in which Beilby makes an argument for “postmortem conversions.”

     This issue arises from the idea of what will happen to those who may have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had an opportunity to trust Him in this life; will they have an opportunity to trust Him in the next. Can such a one convert after death?

     I have been told that those who study currency can easily spot a counterfeit bill, not because they have studied the different counterfeit bills that have been produced and circulated, but because they have studied what an actual bill looks like so carefully it is easy to spot a counterfeit.

     I read the article in Christianity Today,I have not read Beilby’s book, but I have read the Bible. The Scriptures are the Word of God and is the truth by which all teachings are compared. If those teachings do not agree with what is taught in the Scriptures, that teaching is a counterfeit.

     I am not aware of a single verse in the Bible that teaches “postmortem” conversion. I have no idea what Beilby has written in his book, but I know the Scriptures give no support to his idea of “postmortem” conversions. He is kicking that can down a dead-end road.

     My chief concern with his thesis is that people will be so distracted by the nonsense of “postmortem” conversion that they pass up their “premortem” opportunity to trust Christ. The Scriptures declare “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,” Hebrews 9:27. Death is not followed by an opportunity to convert; it is followed by judgment.

     Christians everywhere are concerned for those benighted souls who have not seen the Gospel light or heard of Jesus Christ. That is why Christians so strongly support missionary efforts to bring the message of salvation to those who have never heard. I am also convinced that Father God is even more concerned for them than we are.

     But that still leaves us with the question of what eternity holds for those who have never heard the Gospel. The Scriptures do not address the matter. But Abraham reminded God in a rhetorical question, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” Genesis 18:25. Certainly Father God will treat every individual right.

     I do not know what eternity holds for those who have never heard the Gospel; but I do know that the Judge of all the earth who holds eternity will treat every person justly.     

Do not let concern for those who have never heard the Gospel interfere with the decision you need to make with what you have heard.