The Matthew 28:19 Project

Imagine this, if you will: You’ve just endured the worst years of your life. You did everything necessary to survive, and the things you’ve seen and done are not something you’d wish on your worst enemy. Some experiences are completely unimaginable. If someone had told you about some of the hardships you faced, you would have thought they were describing a science fiction story.

You had heard rumors over the years that all those missing folks didn’t fall victim to alien abduction or human trafficking, but that they were actually raptured into the air to meet Jesus. You had dismissed the idea because you thought that you would have been raptured too. You knew the Bible, could quote scripture, and you went to church every Sunday morning and Sunday night. You even attended church on Wednesday. You sang in the choir and volunteered whenever needed. You even taught Sunday School! You knew salvation was through Jesus, that you had to repent of your sins, and that you needed to ask for forgiveness. You didn’t miss the rapture. You’re starting to think everything you were taught about the rapture might be wrong, and that it might happen before the second coming of Christ.

Except….

Your family went missing. Your friends went missing. A lot of your church family went missing. Deep down, you knew you forgot something vital because you knew the Bible, and you knew the only reason your family, friends, and church members went missing was because they had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and were caught up in the air when Jesus came for His Bride. You didn’t want to think about that, so you pushed that thought aside and focused on simply living life.

Things were good at first, but it didn’t last. Eventually, you were fighting for your life and just wanted to survive, so you did what you had to do. As the years passed, the warnings you had read in the Bible, the mystery of how you missed the Rapture faded away. You were trying to survive.

The last thing you remember was running from one of those awful things attacking the Earth. You heard the most blood-curdling cry escape from your mouth, and then everything went silent. You were no longer running for your life. You were no longer on Earth. You don’t know where you are. This isn’t what you imagined Heaven to be. It’s also not what you imagined Hell to be. As you scan your surroundings, time stands still. Days pass, or maybe it has been years, or even centuries, you don’t know. Time has ceased to exist.

Then, all of a sudden, everything shifted, and it was like everything came back to life. You are no longer in that state of existence where you aren’t really in Heaven and you aren’t really in Hell. You are in a different place entirely, and as you look around, you realize that there are other people here, too. You hear weeping. You hear someone screaming, “No! Please God no!” You can’t suppress the shiver that runs down your spine.

You find yourself standing in line behind dozens of other people. You continue to look around, trying to figure out where you are. Even though you can hear muttering, weeping, and the occasional scream, it’s eerily silent. You can’t shake the fear that is crawling around the pit of your stomach. Your heart is about to gallop out of your chest as you finally look up and notice a Big White Throne. It finally dawns on you where you are. Before you can process this thought, you find yourself standing in front of that Big White Throne. Sitting before you is the most beautiful, peaceful being you have ever seen in your life. This being was so majestic that you couldn’t even look Him in the eyes. You averted your eyes and looked down. You know that you are not standing in front of Jesus at the Judgment Seat of Christ, but you are standing in front of Him at the Great White Throne of Judgment.

You don’t understand how you could be here. You believed in Jesus, followed His teachings, and tried to lead as good a life as you possibly could. Your heart skips a beat when you try to think back to that moment when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You can’t breathe. You can’t recall that moment. All those sermons where the preachers begged you to make sure, make sure, make sure that you have salvation start to reverberate through your mind. All the times that you quoted ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me,’ also echo in your mind. All your service, all your Bible study, all your good deeds, and you neglected to do the one thing you needed to do. You never asked Jesus into your heart, and you never repented of your sins. You do not have salvation through Jesus Christ.  You hear the words you never thought you would ever hear: “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

~~~~~~~~~

I recently listened to a sermon on the Great White Throne of Judgment, and this scenario popped into my head. The Great White Throne of Judgment takes place at the end of the tribulation period, and it’s for those who have rejected Christ. “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books” (Revelation 20:11-12).

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my name is written in the Book of Life. It was written when I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior as a little girl. Then, I had a crisis of faith and invited Him into my heart for the second time when I was a teenager. I have double assurance, so I know where I’m spending eternity, but this scenario left me feeling disturbed. It has taken me months to finish writing it. I know with 100% certainty that I do not want anyone to hear the words, “I never knew you; depart from Me” (Matthew 7:23).  This is why I have started the Matthew 28:19 project. I want to reach that one person who has been unreachable. I want to reach that one person who reads something that I’ve written and pauses for a moment to reflect. I want one person to read this blog, encounter the words “I never knew you; depart from me,” and feel so disturbed that they reach for their Bible. It leaves them feeling so unsettled that they reach out to their Christian friends. It leaves them feeling so scared that they reach out to their pastor, and they ask, “How do I get to Heaven?”  I want them to know the answer to their question, “What is salvation through Jesus Christ, and how do I get it?”

I do not want anyone to forget, gloss over, or otherwise ignore that Jesus Himself has said in John 14:6 that, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Do not spend your life ignoring this one truth: Jesus is the ONLY way to Heaven. If you do not have salvation through Jesus, you will find yourself one day standing in front of Him at the Great White Throne of Judgment, and you will hear Him tell you to depart from Him because He never knew you.