Today I talked to a very dangerous man.

Today I talked to a very dangerous man.

Every year I emcee a Robotics competition in Downtown Dallas. Now as a Christian I am always careful to go into any performance situation prepared to be used by God, because I usually expect to find myself in conversations with those who are outside the Church. Today though, I found myself having a very frightening discussion with a gentleman who calls himself a Christian.

Our conversation began with him saying “I think we will all be surprised at who all is in heaven when we get there.” A point on which we agreed because I had a pastor once that would say “the biggest surprise in heaven is whose there, whose not there and that you are there” which I always keep in mind when I start to feel to good about myself.

Unfortunately, the point this man was trying to make from his statement was that he believed that people had a chance after they died to accept Christ. Now, if this was a non-Christian I would have nodded my head and said “hmmm…that is an interesting idea, what religion is that?” but seeing how this was a guy who called himself a Christian I said, “Where in the Bible does it say that?” he replied, “The parable of the Landowner” (This is a parable that Jesus told that can be found in Matt. 20.) He then began to tell me the main points of the parable, how the Landowner hired some guys in the morning to work his vineyard and then hired some more guys in the afternoon but then he said, “And remember the last guys he hired? They didn’t work at all and they still got paid the same!” Right then I stopped him and let him know that he was mistaken because the last group did indeed work but it was only for an hour or so.

The parable is describing the grace of God that is given equally to those who come to the faith late in life. This parable, along with the account of the criminal on the cross that trusts in Christ, implies that even on a persons death bed they came be saved but it in no way gives the impression that people can accept Christ after they have died. The man continued on with his claims and I told him that I was willing to consider his point if he could find me some scripture to back it up. “It’s not in the Bible,” he said, “But I personally believe it.” “When it comes to the topic of salvation I don’t care what you personally believe I want to see it in the Bible!” I said, but the man had nothing to show me. I would like to say that was his only false claim for the day but I would be lying. The fact is that I had to correct many of his claims about God, but unlike him, I did so strictly using scripture as opposed to my opinions.

Here is what I want you to catch: Our Biblical literacy and our intimate knowledge of the scriptures is our only defense against the false teachings that are confidently parading around in sheep’s (Christians) clothing. If I was not familiar with that parable and many other books of the Bible today I could have easily been lead astray by this man. In fact, our conversation was being witnessed by some other Christians and during the day I had to go to each of them and show them scripture that destroyed his claims because I didn’t want them to go away with any part of the falseness being presented.

The Bible tells us in 2 Cor. 11 that there will be false prophets among us that will teach a different Jesus than the one proclaimed in the scriptures, but if we don’t know the scriptures then we will not be able to recognized the falsehood. The Bible is called our sword for a reason. It is a weapon. And in the hands of one who knows how to use it can be a great defense against the lies of the devil.

I began this post saying “I talked to a dangerous man.” Do you know why this man was so dangerous? Because he is the worship pastor at a church in Dallas that has over 2,000 people, all of which look to him for spiritual leadership. Get into your Bible’s people for the “pulpit” is not always the safest place.