"In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." —2nd Thessalonians 1:8-9
Famous
actor and comedian, Jackie Gleason (1916-1987), once said on
60-minutes in a
1984 interview that he didn't believe God is a “vengeful” God. Gleason
states in the interview, when asked what he thought about going to Heaven .
. .
“I'm sure that if you've committed a sin He's not going to send you to Hell for eternity.”
, 1984
Unfortunately, Jackie Gleason was very wrong. Mr. Gleason failed to understand the Gospel. The truth is that God does send people to Hell for eternity if they die in their sins without Jesus Christ. This is clearly stated in our text Scripture from 2nd Thessalonians 1:8-9, “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” I am sad that Jackie Gleason didn't go to Heaven. I did not write this article to hurt anyone's feelings nor be unkind; but rather, to warn you according to the Scriptures, so that you want go to Hell too!
Mr. Gleason relied upon his own human reasoning as the basis of his religious beliefs. What he should have been doing, to find out how to get to Heaven, is what the Lord Jesus commands all of us to do, that is, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES (John 5:39). Jackie Gleason needed the Gospel! What is “the Gospel”? The Bible plainly tells us in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” Please note that all Scripture references are from the trustworthy King James Bible.
My friend, if you receive Christ's sacrifice on the cross as full payment for your sins, and believe that He raised up from the dead three days later, then you are saved. The only requirement to be saved is to realize that you are a guilty sinner in the eyes of a holy God. This does not require turning away from sinful behavior; but rather, turning to Christ by faith to be forgiven of your sins. Eternal life is a free gift. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.
I wish with all my heart that Jackie Gleason is in Heaven, but by all indications he failed to believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ before he died. Instead, Gleason plainly stated, “I'm sure that if you've committed a sin He's not going to send you to Hell for eternity.” I wasn't there on Mr. Gleason's deathbed, so there's always a slim chance that he received Jesus Christ before he died in 1987, but I am not optimistic. It was just three years earlier that he made the previous heretical statement.
Roman Catholicism is a false plan of salvation, substituting sacraments for the Gospel. From watching the 1984 60 Minutes interview, it is clear that Gleason's Catholic upbringing was still at work, convincing him that doing good works are necessary to get to Heaven. He is honest enough to admit that he doesn't deserve to go to Heaven because of his heathen, wild and sinful lifestyle; but yet Gleason foolishly reasoned that God would let him slide. The Bible does not teach that. John 3:3b, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The Devil's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born-again. We are warned in Proverb 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
The great need of this hour in the world is to get back to the Word of God. Phooey on the latest New York Times Best Seller. Phooey on Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life. Phooey on the secular psychology of James Dobson's Focus On The Family. We need to focus on the Bible! The Devil has provided many substitutes for the Gospel throughout the world today.
Here are some helpful, gentlemanly, MP3 sermons about the simplicity of salvation:
Jackie Gleason made the same fatal error that so many people are still making today (and that Cain made in the days of Adam), which is, relying upon their own human wisdom and effort to get them into Heaven. Sadly, Cain went to Hell, as did Gleason and everyone else who believes that God is not a vengeful Person Who sends sinners to Hell. 2nd Thessalonians 1:8 warns that God is VENGEFUL and will punish the wicked with flaming fire forever. James 2:10 plainly states, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
That means even the person who sins the least is still as guilty in God's eyes as Adolf Hitler. Why? Because committing even one sin makes us unworthy of Heaven. No matter how much good we may do, the sins we have committed are still there. This is why Jesus came to pay our sin debt. God knew that we could not redeem ourselves, so He sent His only begotten Son to redeem us with His own precious blood. 1st Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Amen!
The bottom line is this... you
have no righteousness of your own and God is NOT going to let you slide,
nor compromise His Word, nor let you into Heaven by “some other way” (John
10:1, 9) than through His
dear Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). You need God's righteousness,
which is obtained through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:9,
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith.” The Bible says that
God's righteousness is “IMPUTED”
to the believer by faith in the Gospel (Romans 4:5-6).
Gleason reiterates in his 1984 interview that his greatest fear was not making it to Heaven when he died. Sadly, Gleason's worst fears have become a reality since his death in 1987. It breaks my heart. The Devil blinds men's minds to the Gospel. 2nd Corinthians 4:4, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Satan blinds people's minds with religion, psychology, evolution, humanism, philosophy and morality. If you foolishly think as Jackie Gleason did that God is not a vengeful God, and that God will let you into Heaven apart from being born-again in Christ Jesus, then you are greatly mistaken.
There is no salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Father will punish the wicked with eternal fire and vengeance. Jude 1:7, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” God is a vengeful God as much as He is a merciful God. Salvation can only happen through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the risen Savior, Whose blood washes away our sins. There will be no exceptions. END
