Scott Adams and Death Bed Conversions
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip died recently, and reports are saying that he had a death bed conversion. Lord willing, he meant it. I enjoyed his cartoons. He had some clever commentary. But of course, no amount of good works, humor, or wit can get anyone to heaven. I hope for his sake that his last rites were sincere, and that I’ll be able to meet him in heaven one day. Death bed conversions however pose a real problem.
The problem isn’t about the fact that they happen. That’s not a problem for Christian theology. We teach that salvation isn’t earned as a reward, it’s a received gift. So, death-bed conversions are possible even for people who’ve lived a long and rebellious life. Just ask the thief on the cross. God’s grace allows for all sorts of people to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and NO ONE is good enough to deserve heaven. So, that’s not the problem.
The problem with death bed conversions isn’t about justice or grace, it’s about pragmatics. There are some looming practical problems for anyone who is planning to save their Christian conversion till after they’ve lived life on their own terms.
1. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.
You don’t really know when you’ll die. Your doctor might say you have 6 months or 60 years to live, but honestly, not even tomorrow is guaranteed. That’s why Paul “today . . . is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).
2. You might not want to when the time comes.
Over the course of your life you’re cultivating your own character, for good or bad. You might think you’ll convert on your deathbed because, for now, you plan to “Live it up,” sow your wild oats, or some pithy nonsense like that. But, in the course of your rebellion you’re building moral momentum in a certain direction to where you just won’t make that turn, and do the right thing, even when your eternal life is on the line. Or, if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor, you may think you’ll turn over the wheel to Jesus once you’re done driving, but you don’t realize after a lifetime of hogging the steering wheel you’ll never want to let someone else drive your life.
3. You might not be able to, when the time comes
There’s no guarantee that willfully rebellious people will somehow have the will-power and the prevenient grace to loosen their stiff neck, and soften their hard heart, to finally respond – on their death bed – to the gospel that they’ve been rejecting all their life. Now God can soften even the hardest heart, but that’s a literal miracle and we cannot assume that we can twist God’s arm and force him to perform a miracle to transform our hearts AGAINST OUR WILL That kind of work is God’s fiat, His choice, His rules. We don’t get to tell God what to do especially not after rejecting his gracious offers repeatedly assuming the window of opportunity would stay open to us forever.
4. You might be bargaining with a fake Savior
What makes you think that you can “bargain” with the literal King of Kings, the sovereign ruler over all the universe, and the resurrected God-Man who died on a cross to prove once and for all that his sacrificial love cannot be questioned and His infinite merit is our only hope of salvation? What makes YOU think you can bargain with HIM? If you think Jesus is some kind of roadside vendor to where you can haggle with Him over matters of eternity, you aren’t talking about the real Jesus. Sure, you might envision Jim Cavezil, on a bloody cross, or maybe some patchwork Sunday school version of Jesus H. Christ. But if you think he enacted the Gospel, written in his own blood, so that you could bargain with him for a “better deal” then you don’t understand the Gospel, you don’t know who you really are, and you don’t know who you’re dealing with.
5. God cannot be mocked.
When we finally understand who God is, and what he’s done for us, and the great gift He’s offering us, the only proper response is to receive that gift in grateful humility. But what if someone were to reject that gift saying, “I’m not interested right now, but try me again in a few years.” Every time we reject God’s gift of salvation, we are insulting the gift-giver, making a mockery of the Gospel, deluding ourselves into thinking that our self-sufficiency and personal plans are somehow more valuable than eternal glory. We cannot safely assume that we can mock God repeatedly and get away with it. For now, God might be keeping our hearts just soft enough to respond to the Gospel, but He is well within his rights to let us finally have the hard-heart we’ve been training for all these years.
Death bed conversions do happen sometimes. I pray Scott Adam’s conversion was sincere. God’s grace can save lifelong sinners, young believers, teenage Jesus freaks, gang members, murders, rapists, and that’s just biblical examples. He can save all sorts of people from every life circumstance. But, please please be warned. Every day you spend rejecting God’s saving grace you are training yourself to reject Him on your last day. If you’re planning to “live it up” and then, on your death bed, pray a little prayer sneaking into heaven by the skin of your teeth, then you might have been bargaining with a fake savior. No one gets to have salvation on their own terms. That was never an option. God is liable to grant you the locked door you’ve been asking for every time you rejected Him before.
“The times of ignorance God overlooked,
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.”
Acts 17:30 (NIV)
Recommended Resources:
The Great Book of Romans by Dr. Frank Turek (Mp4, Mp3, DVD Complete series, STUDENT & INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, COMPLETE Instructor Set)
Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity by Frank Turek (INSTRUCTOR Study Guide), (STUDENT Study Guide), and (DVD)
How to Interpret Your Bible by Dr. Frank Turek DVD Complete Series, INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, and STUDENT Study Guide
Debate: What Best Explains Reality: Atheism or Theism? by Frank Turek DVD, Mp4, and Mp3
Dr. John D. Ferrer is an educator, writer, and graduate of CrossExamined Instructors Academy. Having earned degrees from Southern Evangelical Seminary and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he’s now active in the pro-life community and in his home church in Pella Iowa. When he’s not helping his wife Hillary Ferrer with her ministry Mama Bear Apologetics, you can usually find John writing, researching, and teaching cultural apologetics.
