Last minute converts. (Jesus, grace, preacher, sin, bible)

[royol]

How do people who have been firm believers in a God feel about people who, if they get a chance, convert ( or say they belive in a God) just before they die?
would you feel cheated? especially if the person doing the repenting had been a right B*****d.

[sahra-t]

I'm not a firm believer in God, but I feel that if I was, I'd not feel cheated at all. A God, should there exist one, would know exactly how much the believer had really believed, anyway. And again, if I did believe in a God, I would not expect my God to reward only those who believed. If they had been good people, what does it matter? If they hadn't, a last minute 'conversion' would fool no one, unless they had truly repented, in which case, good for them.

[MidnightBlue]

I think it's very sad to renounce one's whole life at the end of it.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by royol

How do people who have been firm believers in a God feel about people who, if they get a chance, convert ( or say they belive in a God) just before they die?
would you feel cheated? especially if the person doing the repenting had been a right B*****d.

If the person truly had repented, and only God knows that for sure, then I say "praise the Lord. His miracles never cease."

[EnhancedSpirit]

Originally Posted by royol

How do people who have been firm believers in a God feel about people who, if they get a chance, convert ( or say they belive in a God) just before they die?
would you feel cheated? especially if the person doing the repenting had been a right B*****d.

Better late than never. The bible says that the last shall be first and the first shall be last. There is a story in the bible about this very thing. About a farmer who goes out early in the morning and hires some men. He goes back later in the afternoon and hires some more men. And goes again later in the day and hires even more men. At the end of the day, the farmer pays all the men the same pay for a days wages. The men who worked all day were upset because they got paid the same as the men who only worked a few hours.

If you are truly in God's Grace, you would know 'the more, the merrier', and you would certainly rejoice in your brother being saved. You would not see it as 'waiting till the last minute' you would see it as 'just in the nick of time'.

[MidnightBlue]

On the hillbilly side of my family, whenever notably irreligious people are buried, the preacher always tells a little story about how they "accepted Jesus" a week or two before they died. I guess the purpose is to comfort the survivors, but I've never believed these stories, and I think they're insulting to the memory of the deceased.

[jorylore]

Originally Posted by royol

How do people who have been firm believers in a God feel about people who, if they get a chance, convert ( or say they belive in a God) just before they die?
would you feel cheated? especially if the person doing the repenting had been a right B*****d.

I don't belive in death-bed confessions. First of all, the Bible states that more is involved to gain God's approval. Namely backing up your declarations of faith with works. When a person is about to die, there is no time to prove himself. So what good is it to God. It's like promising to give someone a million dollars right before you croak. Sure! Now prove it. "Oh, well. I don't have to. I'm dead." Means nothing!

Anyway, he's about to pay the ultimate price for living a sinful life: death. Romans 6:23 says that once a person dies his debt for sin is paid. If he's resurrected he'll have a chance to prove himself to God. That's where the real test will be.

[dawny0826]

Originally Posted by royol

How do people who have been firm believers in a God feel about people who, if they get a chance, convert ( or say they belive in a God) just before they die?
would you feel cheated? especially if the person doing the repenting had been a right B*****d.

Why on earth would I feel cheated? I would be elated for the individual who repented and gave their lives to Christ before death. THAT is how awesome God is...His mercy and grace is always extended to us.

If anything the individual who waited so long would be "cheated" (but not really). We're rewarded in heaven according to our works.

However...it's a win/win situation when someone gives their life to God...even if in the last minutes of life. That's a BEAUTIFUL thing. Christ's forgiveness is extended to even the nastiest of b*****ds.

[Bishka]

Originally Posted by jorylore

I don't belive in death-bed confessions. First of all, the Bible states that more is involved to gain God's approval. Namely backing up your declarations of faith with works. When a person is about to die, there is no time to prove himself. So what good is it to God. It's like promising to give someone a million dollars right before you croak. Sure! Now prove it. "Oh, well. I don't have to. I'm dead." Means nothing!

Anyway, he's about to pay the ultimate price for living a sinful life: death. Romans 6:23 says that once a person dies his debt for sin is paid. If he's resurrected he'll have a chance to prove himself to God. That's where the real test will be.

I agree with jorylore, I really don't believe in deathbed confessions/beliefs, but I cannot judge the person, only God really knows their heart.

[stemann]

My only thought on deathbed confessions, pertaining to myself, is that I would never say it unless I believed it. It seems obvious that God will know, and, if God does exist, then I figure that I will understand in the next life why I do not believe in God in this.