“If you were to die today, where would you go?”

For some reason, that question has always bothered me, and I think I have finally figured out why.

The first time I heard that question, I was not a Christian and I thought it was absurd. I think I thought it was a huge assumption that I would “go” anywhere. I was only a teen, but it seemed necessary to first establish the metaphysical assumptions behind the question. Even now, I find the concept that we “go” somewhere to be a bit problematic.

But now I realize that the problem with it is that it lies at the entrance to the self-centered gospel. It’s all about you. It suggests that the goal is to secure your ultimate destination, as though that is why someone might become a Christian. This plants a little evil seed in your head. “Just say this little prayer and God will have to accept you.” The ultimate goal is to get to heaven. Never mind who’s there; it’s better than the other place.

What I’m suggesting is that these things matter. How you preach the gospel creates a context for the life of the new believer.

I’m arguing that this little question carries with it certain assumptions, like a virus that infects your computer without you even noticing. Do you see that if your only goal is to get somewhere, you will only do what is necessary to get there? That, in and of itself, carries another huge assumption: that you must DO something.

You see, It only stands to reason that if some people go to the good place, and some people go to the bad place, there must be a difference. This gospel has already established the difference is that you said a prayer. YOU did something. Therefore, the logic goes, you probably have to do something to maintain it. This leads us to the assumption of many that your behavior matters in your eternal destination. After all, isn’t it about good people and bad people?

The result is a “believer” who adheres to a new law, a list of things that one must do to prove they are actually a believer. The “Law” of the Old Testament may be gone, but we have a new one, which likely includes Church attendance, saying prayers, maybe some Bible reading, and probably something else that the individual believer decided God would probably like.

You see, this new “believer” thinks that it’s not about a relationship, or a new orientation; it’s about avoiding the bad place. But at the end of the day, his duties to God fulfilled, his life is still his own. He isn’t a new creation; he’s just the same person with a golden ticket.

Along the way of course, he will have to ignore those pesky verse like, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17:33).  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

Or even more important: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3)

These verses, especially the last one, create a completely other understanding of Christianity than worrying about what happens at the end of your life. This IS eternal life. It’s a NOW thing. It’s not something you get at the end of your life, then you just get more of it. The new life starts now.

Not to hold myself up as an example, but I can tell you that when I came forward at a Calvary Chapel 150 years ago, the last things on my mind were heaven and hell. In fact, what would happen to me was not even a concern at that moment. What I finally knew at the moment was truth. He is real, and I could know him, and that changed everything.

From that moment on, there has never been a destination that I felt I needed to get to. In what I call the “Eternal Now,” I am here and He is here, and there is no need for anything else.

But the implications of this are staggering. If you actually believe that you are somehow connected to the ultimate power in the Universe, all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful, all-loving, you can never ask, “What must I do to be saved?” There is nothing you can do. But you know that, because you know it has already been done. You don’t ask what is required to stay there, because you know that it is out of your hands, and in much better hands.

You wouldn’t dare insult him by doing the bare minimum: “How many times must a I forgive my brother?” It reminds of the old line from the military, “When I say, ‘Jump,’ you say, ‘How high?’” except, in this case, you don’t even ask, you just jump as high as you can.

If the immediate response to a meeting with God isn’t to give your life to him, something is wrong. I don’t mean to oversimplify; it’s a lifelong process. But you can’t come to him for what you can get out of it. That’s not really coming to him at all. That’s making a deal. There are no deals to be made; there is only unconditional surrender.

Finally, how you say things matter. I suppose there is a temptation to get people in the door anyway you can, but if they enter under false pretences, there are very real dangers of misunderstanding what this is really all about. Let’s not bait and switch. Let the truth stand.

Also, if the original question still seems to make perfect sense to you, is it possible that you are laboring under the same false assumptions?