How Great Thou Art
by David J. Stewart
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We serve a wonderful God. Truly God is great! God is more than amazing. It saddens my heart to think that anyone could deny the existence of our great Creator.
One of my favorite actor personalities is Gene Wilder (1933-2016), Sadly Gene was a self professed Jewish, Buddhist, Atheist. Tragically, that means according to the inspired Holy Bibl that Gene Wilder went to Hell to burn forever in fire and brimstone. I do not rejoice in that, it haunts my soul, because I really like Gene Wilder. As a 4 year old boy, I was intrigued in 1971 when the blockbuster movie, Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory was released. I've seen the movie hundreds of times over the past 51 years. It is one of my favorite films.
The Jewish religion of Judaism rejects Jesus as the Messiah. Buddhism also rejects Jesus as the only way to Heaven. And of course, atheists deny Christ altogether. John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” I cannot think of a better man in Hollywood then Gene Wilder. I once heard Gene admirably say publicly in an interview, that he decided mid-career to leave Hollywood, because as a role model for children he refused to be filmed in any more immoral film scenes. That is a good man! Unfortunately, being good is not enough to merit Heaven, because all of our righteousness are as filthy rags in God's sight (Isaiah 64:4).
It breaks my heart as a born-again Christian, when I hear about the deaths of famous people, learning that they didn't have faith in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. Eddie Van Halen (1955-2020) was a lifelong Roman Catholic. According to Pew Research data, roughly 21% of Americans identify as being Roman Catholic (i.e., $51,000,000 people). That is horrific when one considers that there is no salvation in religion. My father used to say that religion is the worst thing that ever happened to the world. My Dad was so right! Salvation is NOT found in any religion, but in a person—the Lord Jesus Christ!
Catholicism errantly teaches that you get to Heaven by faith and works. But the Bible says you get to Heaven by faith without works. Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty! Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.
Jesus warned in John 3:3, that 'YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN' to enter into God's Kingdom. There is no other way to have eternal life (Acts 4:10-12). Have you received the new birth dear friend?
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
2nd Timothy 2:13, “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.”
God is always faithful. 1st Corinthians 1:9, “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Since God faithfully waits for all men to receive His free gift of eternal life, which is through faith alone in His only begotten Son, no one will ever be able to blame God if they spend eternity suffering in the Lake of Fire. Many people choose to deny that Hell exists, but that doesn't change the horrifying reality that it does. Since God allows suffering, pain and torment in this temporary world, only a fool would assume that there is no suffering, pain and torment in the next life (especially in view of the fact that the Bible says that there is). Revelation 20:15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
