The Unknown Bible - Pastor Bevans Welder

Will God take a born again believer home before his time if his sin filled flesh severely interferes with God's plan? Yes, sometimes.

The full text of this radio listener’s email includes the following comments and additional questions.

I have always thought 1 Jn 5:16-17 teaches that if this flesh starts interfering with your saved soul and spirit then God will take you home early. Is this correct? Do you think the Bible teaches that we have a pre-destined time and date for our death? Or, is it that we go home when our work here is done?

Our answer follows:

I believe the Lord is careful to take a fellow home when he is ready to take him. But there are mitigating circumstances. David said we get 70-80 years [Ps 90:10] but it doesn't always work out like that. I have a 97 year old friend who is a faithful soul-winner and he believes God keeps him around because he continues to lead people to Jesus. But then, Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy and Adrian Rogers were all faithful to their calling and very interested in winning souls. They died in 2007. They didn't make it out of their 70's. A friend of mine died at 92 and said his long life was given to him because he obeyed his mother and father (Eph 6:1-3). Who knows? Many have obeyed Mom and Dad and have been faithful servants of the Lord and they died young of cancer, other illnesses, or accidents, and some have even been martyred. Right now in the Philippines, men are getting saved and dying at the hands of Moslems while they are still very young.

So, there is no guarantee that a faithful man will have a full life. He may and he can certainly thank God for it. But then again, he may not and yet he should be just as thankful as the man whose life spans many years. Each man has an appointment with death. This we know, unless he is raptured out of here by the Lord before he dies [1 Thes 4:16-17]. We just don’t know the appointed time.

Now, regardless of when God is ready to take someone home, his life can definitely be cut short by sin. Ananias and Sapphira can testify to that [Acts 5]. They lied to the Holy Ghost and dropped dead on the spot. Rom 8:1, 13 are good verses to show you that a person who lives after the flesh will die. Alcoholics and cigarette smokers, for instance, may be saved and yet may cut their lives short through psoriasis or lung or bladder cancer. Then again, some of them live full lives.

In 1 Cor 5:1-5, Paul prayed that the devil would kill a young man because of his fornication. In 1 Cor 11:30, people were dying for taking the Lord's Supper unworthily. 1 Cor 10:5-10 were written to warn us that God could end our lives early for doing some of the same things the Jews did in the wilderness [1 Cor 10:11]. And on the list goes.

Definitely men can cut their lives short through sin. So, we should do what we know God wants us to do and be ready to go when he is ready to take us home. And we should be ready to give the testimony of Paul when our time comes [2 Tim 4:7].

Hope this helps,

Pastor Welder