Bruce Collins, Evangelist

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Most of us have trouble getting anything challenging right the first time we do it. We practice sports skills over and over again. When I was working for a CPA firm, we had our audits audited by a managing partner. One of the staff accountants would see his comments and say, “We learn by doing―it over!” But there is one thing we never get to do over and over until we get it right. We don’t get to die more than once. If we don’t do it right the first time, we will not get to live life over so we can do it right the second time.

The Lord got things right the first time. He came the first time to be a sacrifice for our sins and He finished the work that the Lord gave Him to do. First He finished the work that proved He was Who He claimed to be (John 17:4). Then He finished the work that saves (John 19:30). This work was done right the first time and will never have to be done over according to the writer of Hebrews. There are those who offer a bloodless sacrifice for sins over and over again in their worship of the Lord, but my Bible says that the work that saves is complete. Done! Finished! It will never have to be repeated.

When I see so many people who claim to be Christians, differing with Biblical instructions on the basic issues of salvation, I wonder if we really believe that the Bible is divinely inspired and that God has revealed Himself to us through the Living Word which is Christ and through the Written Word which is the Bible. If the church produced the Bible as some claim, why didn’t they produce a Bible that agrees with their practices? And if the Bible produces the church as I believe (see Romans 10:17), why then would not the church that the Bible produced preach what the Bible says? This great Truth that the work that saves is finished can not be compromised, and the idea that there is a second chance to get right with God after we die must not be tolerated.

I am so glad that Christ only had to suffer once for my sins, but I am also glad that He is coming again a second time. For those who think that they have seen the last of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are woefully mistaken. Many people think that if they don’t believe in Him, then they won’t have to worry about meeting Him, but the Lord is coming a second time. I wouldn’t want to meet Him after having rejected Him.

I know that the general attitude of the religious world is that Christians are intolerant and are the cause of the ills of society. And some who call themselves Christians are intolerant and do cause ills in society. But Christians should not be considered intolerant just because they preach that there is only one way of salvation. Or because they preach that there is no second chance to be saved after death. Or because they preach that there is only one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:5). Or because they preach that those who reject Christ will be rejected by Christ eternally.

It is not intolerant to care enough for the welfare of people to yell, “Get off the track, the train is coming!” when the train is coming. What is intolerant, is to try to force people to believe what they don’t believe and to try to destroy them if they don’t believe. Christ died once to give life. He didn’t die once to produce bigotry and sorrow and intolerance and death. That is the present work of Satan and his followers, not the present work of Christ and His followers. He is coming the second time to bless those who are prepared for His coming. However, He will be very intolerant of those who have rejected Him at that time. That is why it is so important to get this right the first time.

Bruce Collins