Today we live in a time of uncertainty regarding religion. There are so many different belief systems, each claiming to be the truth. What to believe? Who to believe? Some faiths teach that there is a God or “higher power”, but they don’t know Who He is. Many don’t know how they can have a relationship with Him and have assurance of eternal life. Some give basic guidelines for life on earth, but cannot give a definite assurance of life in Heaven once a person dies.
When you think of all the different religions in the world it seems like there are so many paths to Heaven (or what some may call Nirvana, Paradise, or the Kingdom – basically their name for the destination of the afterlife). Interestingly, although there appear to be so many, all faiths can be boiled down into two broad categories.
Path #1: DO – Religions in this category believe that a person must do something to earn their salvation. Whether it be giving money to the church, keeping certain sacraments or requirements of their faith, or simply “trying to do the best they can”, they hope they will satisfy God’s requirements with their own efforts.
Path #2: DONE – True Christians believe that there is nothing that a person can do of their own efforts to get to Heaven – everything necessary has already been done for us. The Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” We are given eternal life in Heaven not for deeds that we do, but for turning from our sin and rebellion against God and placing our faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. His death on the cross paid the penalty for our sin and satisfied God’s requirements for us!
Pastor Cary Schmidt wrote an excellent book called Done. He speaks about the two religion streams DO and DONE. This book is either available for purchase in it’s print format. Pastor Schmidt has also graciously made it available for free as an eBook of an Audiobook.