This has been on my mind and heart lately.  Will everyone who professes the name of Christ make it to Heaven?  This is a frightening thought.  To think that many people in our churches, who have taught Sunday School or been a deacon or attended church every Sunday, may not gain entrance into God’s Kingdom is unsettling!

However, let us consider some thoughts from the Scripture.

Matthew 7:20-23.  20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.  21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

This passage of Scripture is a wake-up call to many who profess the name of Christ.  One cannot go on living like they want and expect to get into Heaven.  There are many who profess salvation but not all possess salvation.

We live in the last of the last days before Jesus will come and the trumpet will sound for His children to come home to glory.  We know that in the last days we will see the church sinking into apostasy.  Read some of the predictions from Scripture.

2 Timothy 3:1-5  You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.  2.  For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred.  3.  They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good.  4.  They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God.  5.  They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

Sounds very familiar, right?

In our mainstream denominations today, many have tossed out the foundational principles of God’s Word.  They no longer believe that God spoke through holy men that penned the Scriptures.  They teach that the deity of Christ is not important.  They do not believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins as our substitute.  They do not believe that Christ rose bodily from the tomb and ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of God to make intercession for us.  They do not believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming again to take His adopted, blood-washed children to Heaven forever.  They do not believe that one can be saved by grace alone apart from works.

Instead, they teach that we are going to live on earth and we need to work to make it a better place to bring in a millennium of peace.  That all sounds good, but God tells us that this world will get more corrupt as man lives on it and lawlessness will increase.  He tells us that we cannot save ourselves because we are sinful.  He tells us that we need a Savior to rescue us from our sinful corrupt state.

However, many, so called Christians, are falling for the devil’s line that we can make the world better through our works.  That somehow we can save ourselves.  Such nonsense is not true.

In this state of the apostate church, people are going through the motions of what they think is Christianity, but they are being fooled.  Somehow, people think that if we entertain the masses, they’ll come to Jesus.  People are not being genuinely saved.  They are drawn to the hype of living and looking like the world while somehow embracing Christ.  It is a ruse perpetrated by the old devil himself.

Second Timothy sounds like the newspaper of today.  Folk go to church on Sunday and forget about Christ the rest of the week.  It’s just like Satan would want it to be.  They do not want too much of this holy living thing.  They drink like fish and live like the world.  They would rather watch a movie than read God’s Word.  Their pride tells them they know what it is all about and they do not need instruction.

In the case of Israel, God says that only a remnant will be saved.  I think that is the case with the church also.  People in our churches are selfish, backbiters, covetous, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, hateful, proud, at times blasphemous, lovers of money, and idol worshipers.  We want to look like the world so that we will not have a conflict with the world.  We are compromisers of truth, morality, and honor.  Children are not taught to honor their parents.  We do not follow what God says about the home.  God placed the man in leadership, yet many ungodly wives usurp the man’s rightful place before God.  The so-called church is in a mess spiritually.

I do not know what percentage of professing believers are truly saved, only God knows that.  However, the warnings in the Scriptures ought to make each of us take a sober look at our relationship with God.  If you are not careful, the devil will sideline you in a heartbeat as he has done to many others.  God says the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.  Take heed to your ways.  Does your fruit suggest some warning signs?