Thoughts From Hebrews - Day 6

                                                             Heb. 2:14-18

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶ For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷ For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.


       Growing up in a Christian family and living my whole life under the Christian world view, I have a hard time getting into the unbeliever's mind. The Bible tells me lots of things about them that I have to believe are true because the Bible is true, yet I take it by faith because I don't have "insider information". For example, Romans 1 says that nonbelievers know God is true and real but they suppress it and deny it. It goes on to say that they know right from wrong even though they may claim there are no moral absolutes. Paul even goes so far as to say that they know the things that they are doing deserve death, yet they do them and encourage others to. That is some insider information that is hard to fathom because the world sure has suppressed that knowledge to the deepest recesses of their minds as judged by the lifestyles we see today.

     The writer of Hebrews gives us some more insider information that I have an easier time relating to - "their lives are held in slavery by their fear of death." Fear of death is probably the number one fear in this world as evidenced by most polls. As I mentioned last blog, the most successful, if numbers are the bar of success, method of evangelism is to appeal to people's fear of death and promise them Heaven. We have done judgement house at our church and seen huge numbers of conversions as we put people face to face with death and Hell. Of course they choose Heaven and eternal life - who wouldn't! I tend to shy away from this method because it causes self centered conversions, yet as I reflect on my testimony, that's how I was saved. So in chapter 2, the author of Hebrews has referred to salvation as "the world to come" and "freeing those from the fear of death", therefore who am I to say presenting salvation in that way is wrong?

       Knowing that to be the case, coming up with creative ways like Judgement House or Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames should be pursued. For me, as a doctor, to even mention death would freak my patients out. "Before I operate on you, do you know where you are going if you die?" I'm pretty sure all I would see is the backs of their hospital gowns, which isn't much, as they try to get as far away from me as possible. Also to go up to someone in the mall and say, "Are you afraid of dying?" would probably get security on you in a hurry. However, in proper contexts, this is an appropriate and effective means of evangelism. Our church used the F.A.I.T.H. method which had the diagnostic question, "In your personal opinion, what does it take for a person to get to Heaven?", and I have done E.E. which has the question, "When you stand before the Lord someday and He asks,'Why should I let you into My Heaven?', how would you respond?" We somehow need to lead into that kind of conversation, and certainly not steer away from Hell and judgment from the pulpit since Jesus discussed this a lot.