Were they Saved?

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many… (Hebrews 9:27-28 NIV)

My wife and I were talking about a celebrity who we learned had died recently. One of my first thoughts (as is customary) was “were they saved”? Did that person accept that Jesus died for their sins so that they could live forever in Heaven?

Though neither my wife nor I could know the real answer to that question, if we went by the “evidence” of how that person lived their public life, then it appeared highly unlikely that a salvation conversion would have occurred in their life. If so, then their death was indeed a tragedy. Acceptance of Jesus is indeed the difference between life and death (for eternity).

Look at this diagram below (taken from a previous publication by author Bruce Wilkinson). The size of the circle denotes the average life span of our present life on earth. The length of the line denotes the first .00001% of our eternal life (either in heaven or in hell).

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