The couple stood there arguing. As I approached to hand them gospel tracts, they stopped. I smiled, handed them tracts, and asked if they knew what their eternal destiny would be if they died today. He said he knew he was going to heaven, because he believed in Jesus. She didn't say anything. I asked him (in a friendly, non-confrontational manner) if he was familiar with the verse that says, "even the demons believe" (James 2:19). You could see from the reaction on his face that he immediately grasped the import of my question--there is a difference between mere passive belief and an active belief that leads to repentance, salvation, and a new birth bearing the "fruits of repentance." No, he said, he wasn't aware of that verse.
But I also believe in karma, he quickly added, as if that would count for something when he steps into eternity. Wikipedia describes karma as "an Eastern religious concept .... In theistic schools of Hinduism, humans have free will to choose good or evil and suffer the consequences, which require the will of God to implement karma's consequences, unlike Buddhism or Jainism which do not accord any role to a supreme God or gods. In Eastern beliefs, the karmic effects of all deeds are viewed as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences. The results or 'fruits' of actions are called karma-phala."
The Bible also teaches about God's law of sowing and reaping--what you sow (whether good or bad), you will reap (Gal. 6:6-8). God's Word makes clear that because man has sown sin, he shall reap death, for the wages or just penalty for sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Jesus said there is none good but God alone (Mark 10:18). We all fall short of God's perfect moral standard (Rom. 3:23).
This man was in trouble despite his belief in karma and didn't know it. Through the Prophet Hosea, the Lord lamented that His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. I asked him how his belief in karma would help him on the day of judgment, and he could not explain it. He didn't know. Like so many others, this man was gambling with his eternal destiny. He was betting that his vague, general belief in Jesus, karma, and spiritual things would be enough to assure him a pleasant place in the afterlife.
Instead of letting him continue to live oblivious to the fact that he is still by his own unknowing admission "dead in his trespasses and sins" and subject to the "wrath to come" (Eph. 2:1-3), I gently but seriously explained to him that just as he was about to appear before an earthly judge for his earthly legal affairs, the Bible says he will appear before the Judge of the Universe to account for his countless spiritual transgressions (Heb. 9:27; 2 Cor. 5:10). I explained to him that God will judge us according to his law, the 10 Commandments. I helped him see that he, like the rest of us, has violated God's laws countless times and is deserving of death, but Jesus paid this man's eternal fine with his perfect blood so he could receive mercy and eternal life.
I asked him if he knew how to receive the free gift of eternal life--Jesus explained it in Mark 1:15. You must "repent and believe" (Mark 1:15). I asked him and his wife or girlfriend if they had ever repented--cried out to God for forgiveness of all of their sins and turned from going their own way to following Jesus Christ with their lives.
He said he had done so. Only God knows. At least he heard the full, clear gospel. She thanked me for taking time to speak with them and suggested that it cleared some things up for her. She also suggested she was talking to God at the very moment about her situation both spiritually and in the courtroom. I pray they both turned that day from their own way to the Lord. The results are in God's hands.
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