“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 33:7-9)
The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantees the freedom of religion, that the government will make no laws “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” . And yet many people in our government, across the nation and around the world would prefer that Christians just keep their religion to themselves even though evangelism is one of the primary missions of the Christian Church. Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel to all humanity. And here in Ezekiel, we find that we are each called to be watchmen, to sound the warning to the lost, to share the gospel with them.
In this passage in Ezekiel we see the urgency for spreading the gospel to everyone. And that urgency has to do with the consequences that will befall the people we neglect or who we reject: the torments of Hell for all eternity. A lot of people, even many who call themselves Christian do not like to think about that. Some may even think that there’s no such thing. Hell is only a story, a fairy tale meant to frighten kids so they will mind their manners and obey their parents. Besides as many say and think “God is so forgiving that He would never send anyone to Hell”.
This attitude of denial is quite common in our culture. Everyone likes to think that they and their loved ones all go to heaven when they die. This is especially true when the loved one is a child or is someone who has died tragically in an accident, a terrorist bombing, warfare, or at the hands of a psychopathic killer. Naturally we like to think that the loved one, the innocent person has gone to heaven simply because of the violent, unexpected, and tragic way they died. Although this belief may provide comfort, the alternative is really very scary and disheartening to think about.
The gift of faith is given by the Holy Spirit. Yet the Lord calls us to sound the warning. It is vital that we carry out this commission and bring the gospel to the lost before it is too late. We who know the truth, we who see the danger are called to try to prevent anyone from going to Hell. We must go and preach salvation in Jesus Christ to the lost, in word and deed regardless of what they make think say or do to us, regardless of any discomfort it may cause us. If we don’t, the discomfort of those we fail to evangelize will be far greater than any we could experience and it will be without end. If they choose to reject God, let it not be because we failed to carry out the warning.