Church can’t save you! You must be born again!
It would be great if every church had a big sign in front of their church building saying, “Church can’t save you! You must be born again!”
If you want to get to heaven you must be “born again”. (see John 3:3-5)
I’m probably not going to be able to say this any better than other times I’ve tried, but when is the church going to wake up and start taking this truth seriously?
One of the greatest tragedies on planet earth is that God showed us how to get to heaven, and instead of clearing the debris so people can find the way, we let the path be littered with human traditions of “church” that will do us no good when we die!
For most of my formative years I never knew that I “must be born again” to get to heaven. Jesus made it as plain as day, and even though I went to various churches and was seeking for “spiritual things” I missed that message. I missed the most important truth that any human being needs to hear! You know what I do remember from my youth and my time spent “going to church”? A sermon where the pastor used a hot dog to illustrate his message. (Actually, I don’t remember the sermon, I just remember the pastor going up front with a ketchup bottle and a hot dog.) Now that will really help prepare me for eternity! I also remember sitting in the car at various times hearing something on the radio about God. I was seeking so I’d sometimes tune in and listen, but it always seemed so “fake” to me, like they were trying to make God look cool, and it was a big turn off. I figured if God was truly “GOD” He had to be about more than what we would think of as “cool”- I mean this is God we’re talking about here!
You know what else I remember from my time in church when I was young? Sitting in church sometimes and being so bored I wanted to scream! Yes, literally scream. I never did, but I certainly felt like I could at any minute. “Why does any of this matter? Why am I sitting in this place?”, was pretty much what it boiled down to. I felt closer to God going outside and taking a walk than I did in that building! Creation at least seemed alive!
Now the tragedy is that “going to church”, and being around God’s people, should have been the perfect place for me to experience the living God. It should have been the one place where I’d be told, “You must be born again to get to heaven.” Maybe I was told that, but I sure don’t remember it. I was there enough times that I should have remembered something of that sort! When I was really, really young I remember having to go to the Catholic church. I remember the robes, the statues, the candles, the priest’s voice echoing so much I couldn’t understand it- and I remember how I hated kneeling all the time on those kneeling boards. I also remember the prayer beads and rote “chanting” over and over the same things. I don’t remember being told that I must personally be born again to get to heaven! I can remember a lot of religious stuff from my youth, but what did this stuff have to do with Jesus?
You know where I finally found Jesus? In my bedroom. It happened after my brother had a conversation with me about the psychic stuff I was involved in and my brother told me I needed Jesus and not astrology. I began to seek the truth after that conversation. You know where else I first began to become aware of my need for Jesus? On a car ride home from Nashville as I listened to a man I’d just met while performing for a TV show there. He needed a ride home. I gave him a ride, and as we went down the highway he asked me if I “knew Jesus”. I thought I did, and I told the guy I did… of course, I now know that that I didn’t know Him at all. I knew religion, I knew stuff I’d been told and seen in church, saw on TV or heard on the radio- but I didn’t really know Jesus; I wasn’t actually “born again”. I believed I was “a Christian” just like most people you ask in America will say they are “Christian” if you ask them. I never knew that to be a real Christian you had to be “born again”. If I would have died that night driving home from Nashville I never would have made it to heaven. You can’t get there without being “born again”, and I wasn’t.
That’s why I press this issue so hard. I can’t understand why the church doesn’t go on a huge campaign to let people know the truth! Shouldn’t this be job #1 for the church? Churches should be the first ones tearing down the walls of misunderstanding and helping people to know that “going to church” isn’t enough, that being “religious” won’t get people to heaven. They should be clearing up this mess! When you’ve got most of America believing they’re “Christian” simply because they “go to church” or “believe in Jesus” in some vague way like I once did, there’s a real problem. I was lost and headed for hell, don’t you think it might have been important for me to know that fact? Isn’t it unconscionable to let people slip into hell without warning them? We’ll collect their tithes and give them religious services, make them members and tell them all is well with their souls- but we fail to mention the single most important thing that they need to hear to get to heaven and spend eternity with God? “All is NOT well with your soul… You must be born again!” Why didn’t somebody tell me that in the years I went to church? When are we going to seriously address ONE OF THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES that looms over the church? Are we are so worried about being “nice” that we fail to warn people about this subject?
I’ll finish this post as I started it-
It would be great if every church had a big sign out in front of their church building saying, “Church can’t save you! You must be born again!”
- Every church should be frequently reminding people that without being “born again” there is no hope of heaven.
- Without a “saving faith” in Jesus Christ that results in being “born from above” there is no entrance into heaven.
- Without being “Born of the Spirit of God” there is no eternal home in heaven waiting for you.
- Religion cannot save you.
- You must be born again! (see John 3:3-5)
Eternal life is only found in Jesus Christ- You must be born again to get to heaven!
I spent most of my years growing up never knowing the truth about Jesus Christ and my need to be “born again”. I don’t want you to be able to say on the day you die, “Mike never told me this! How come I went to his website over and over again, and he never told me this one simple thing I needed to hear the most?” Well, I’m telling you: You must be “born again” to go to heaven. You must be born of God’s Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ otherwise you will never get to heaven- He is the only way.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
The following links are here to help you to learn more about being “born again” and how to get to heaven:
If you want to learn more about being ‘Born Again”:
Heaven, hell, and eternal life in Jesus
More posts on this topic:
I can’t believe I’m born again!
The “unsaved church”: Do we care at all?
Today is the day of salvation: share Jesus before it’s too late!
Gaining the world, but losing your soul?
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