“Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matt. 15:14).
It is impossible to trace the origin of the idea that all a person has to do in order to go to heaven is to be sincere in their religious belief. If this position is true than the sincere Voodoo priest in Haiti can be assured of going to heaven with as much confidence as the evangelical Christian who puts their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning work at Calvary.
In fact, if sincerity is the ultimate criteria for a person having eternal life in heaven, then Jesus foolishly died a violent and bloody death on the cross at Calvary.
The Bible says “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Sincerity is not the same as truth. An engineer may be sincere in his blueprints for an airplane, but if his design is flawed, precious lives will be lost. A doctor might be sincere, but if he is mistaken in diagnosing his patient, great harm can be done.
It is truth, not sincerity, that is the great objective in life, especially in the matter of the eternal salvation of the soul. Jesus understood the importance of truth and said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
For centuries, the people of God have believed that Jesus spoke the truth, for He is the Son of the Living God.
In 1636, when John Harvard established the “New College” to perpetuate the Christian faith, a motto was adopted, “Truth for Christ and the Church.”
Nearly four centuries later the motto of New College, now Harvard University, has been made into a mockery.
In 2021, Harvard’s organization of chaplains elected as its next president an atheist, according to The New York Times, “The New Chief Chaplain at Harvard? An Atheist.”
The indefensible decision of the organization of chaplains in making this selection is only matched by the arrogance of the Atheist who does not even modestly confess to being an agnostic. No, the new chaplain knows there is no God. How he can be so certain is not known, but he knows.
An intellectually honest man will confess that since he is not omniscient, nor omnipresence the best he can say is that he has no knowledge of God. However, that is not good enough for The Atheist, whose heart is worse than the devil, according to Scripture.
The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9, NKJV)
“The Devil is a thing,” noted Charles Spurgeon. The heart can be worse than the devil.
How is the heart of The Atheist worse than the devil?
First, the heart of The Atheist is more prideful than the heart of the devil. The Bible says that the devil knows God does exist. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High,” said Lucifer (Isaiah 14:14). The Atheist does not even concede what the devil knows.
Second, the heart of The Atheist is worse than the devil, and his demons, because they believe there is one God, and they tremble (Jas. 2:19). The heart of The Atheist is so stone cold that it does not quiver before the Almighty God (Gen. 17:1). The heart of the Christian fears and trembles in holy awe before the might and majesty of Almighty God (Phil. 2:12), but not The Atheist. There is no fear of God before his eyes (Rom. 3:18).
Third, the heart of The Atheist is worse than the devil because the devil is open and honest about his grand objective, which is to devour and damn as many souls as possible, including Jesus. “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:1-4).
While the devil stalks about the world like a roaring lion, seeking souls to devour, The Atheist comes as an Angel of Light to offer people a heavenly way to go to hell.
The message of The Atheist is not new. It is an old, old lie. The Atheist simply tells people they can be good without God.
This is a message people want to believe. This is a message a person must believe if they want to live a life without God, and without ultimate accountability, which, according to The Atheist, reflects the hope of more than one billion people.
The practical problem is this: “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10).
The reason why no one is righteous is explained: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
There is a divine penalty to be extracted from those who sin and come short of the glory of God. The Bible explains.
“For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23a). That is what a person earns, and deserves. The Bible says that every sinner has earned their separation from God, for ever and ever, in a place called hell where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28).
If that is all the Bible had to say about the plight of man, it would be a tragedy. However, there is good news. The Bible teaches that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound (Rom. 5:20. Despite a person not being good in the sight of God due to their transgression of the moral law, there is a gift of eternal life to be received. The Bible speaks of “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord” (Rom. 6:23b).
How does a person receive this free gift of salvation from the power, penalty, and pollution of sin? The Bible says “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9-10).
The new chief chaplain at Harvard University, The Atheist, and those who follow him into eternal perdition, will discover that sincerity does not guarantee salvation. What can wash away sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For those who follow The Atheist, at Harvard University and elsewhere, be warned. God is going to honor your desire to be judged as a good person based on your good works. If you want to know your future verdict, heaven, or hell, the answer is given in Revelation 20:12. Go to a Bible, and discover your future, if you dare.
