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January 16, 2026 |
| Deathbed Conversion | ||
Conversions to Christianity before imminent death have always been a problem for Christians. There is something about it that seems unfair to Christians who have been striving to live the life for many years. Jesus felt it necessary to address this feeling of unfairness.
There is also the concern that the conversion isn't real or even that it can't be real. Part of that is the concern that the person who is advising the dying person will cause a false conversion, leaving the dying person to think everything is good and to discontinue searching for Jesus.
I've never touched this topic before, but now I find myself with a friend who went through a deathbed conversion as Death was knocking. Also the news now has a story about an author, whose books I've enjoyed, who went through a deathbed conversion.
In this study, we will look at these concerns.
As mentioned, the fairness concern comes from two directions.
How is it fair that a person should receive eternal life without ever serving the Lord or without ever growing in holiness?
To answer this, we need to understand that there are two things that are promised to believers: a gift and a reward. Everyone knows about the gift - eternal life. Few know about the reward.
But the product of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. (Romans 6:23)
From the moment a person converts to Christianity, the promise of this gift is his. It is not earned and cannot be earned.
It can be lost. Because that life is through Jesus, as the verse says, those who turn away from him lose that promise.
And you will be hated by everyone because of my name, but whoever will endure until the end, he will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
We can say that we have eternal life now, and the Bible does that, as long as we understand that there is that condition.
Kaypha began to say, “Behold, we have left everything and have cleaved to you.” 29 Yeshua answered and said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no man who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or town for my sake and for my Gospel’s sake, 30 Who will not receive each one a hundred-fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and towns with persecutions, and in the world that is coming, eternal life. (Mark 10:28-30)
Jesus is saying that the things we do and the sacrifices we make for him will be rewarded in this life, though maybe not in the circumstances we would like, and also in the next world, one hundred times over. Note that he separates the next world from the reward. So the next world is not the reward for service.
Jesus makes reference to an almost idiomatic phrase of his time, "Min ha olam, vad ha olam", which means literally, "From the world, to the world," but has the meanings, "From this world, to the next world," and "From the beginning, to eternity."
For God is not evil, that he would disregard your works and your love which you have shown in his name, which you have ministered to the Saints and you do minister. (Hebrews 6:10)
The author of Hebrews says that the things you have done and are doing are not going to go unrewarded. God is not evil like that.
Therefore the reward is something that you build up over time through service to God. It is also something that is lost permanently if a person turns away from God.
I call this the Hitler problem - what if Hitler, on seeing that everything he had done was crashing down, realized what he had and repented and converted. How is it just that God would not punish him for all the evil he had done, but instead give him the gift of eternal life?
The answer to this is easy but hard to hear. Hitler's pile of evil is no different from your pile of evil when you converted. The same forgiveness of your sins would be granted to him. No pile is so great that Jesus can't forgive it, and he forgives everything when we convert.
Your sin of stealing office supplies separates you from God as much as killing a person … or 6,000,000 people. There are no greater or lesser sins in that way.
We've seen that there is nothing unfair about a deathbed conversion. Such a person would have eternal life but no reward.
There are various ways to have a false conversion, where the person thinks he is a Christian and is on his way to eternal life, but he is not.
There is something called "conversion by the sword," where a person is given the choice of converting or being killed. Christians don't believe in this. The Muslim say they don't believe in this because they know they must say that, but the Quran teaches it.
Similar to that is conversion from fear, where the person is afraid of what is due him in the next world, and converts because of that fear. Christians say they don't believe in that, but the "fire and brimstone" message is based on that.
Another kind of false conversion is the "pray this prayer" conversion. This was going around Christian circles when I was a boy. A prayer of repentance was given to people. They were told that, if they prayed that prayer, which sometimes had a line for their signature, then they would go to Heaven when they died.
It is not possible to choose to become a Christian. I saw a person claim that he had studied the Bible, the Quran, and many other religious texts, and he had decided that Christianity was the true religion, so he became a Christian. He did not.
There is a general sequence to converting to Christianity. It begins with God. God must bring a person to a place of true repentance. Once there, God provides the faith that is necessary to believe. Without that faith, a person is not a Christian.
It should not be misunderstood that God can do whatever he wants. The person mentioned above may yet become a true convert. Even though he thinks he is already a convert, God can work with him to make it real.
From what we've seen in this study so far, I think that it is possible to have a true deathbed conversion. But I also think they are rare. Most of the deathbed converts "converted" out of fear of what happens at death. But just because it happened on a deathbed doesn't tell us anything about whether it is true or false.
I was raised in a Christian home, but my strategy as a young boy was to convert just before I died. I knew there was a chance that I might die suddenly, but I figured the odds were low on that.
So, I think there is a question that will help separate a true Death Bed Convert from a false one.
Why didn't you convert before Death was knocking on your door?
If the answer is something like, "I didn't want to," or "I was waiting for the right time," then the person knew about Jesus but had no interest. Therefore it is likely a false conversion, driven by fear.
If the answer is something like, "I didn't really know anything about Jesus or Christianity," or "I had a bunch of wrong ideas," then the person has changed.
The author I referred to at the beginning is Scott Adams. If you are an engineering nerd, it's hard to imagine you haven't giggled at his books.
He died recently and left behind a note describing his deathbed conversion and other things related to his death. It's a page long, but there are only two paragraphs that relate to our topic. The highlighting is mine.
Next, many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I'm not a believer, but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive.
Scott admits that he isn't a believer. Then he says he is doing this because it is logical to do so. If I understand him correctly, though he doesn't mention Hell, he is saying the risk that there is a Hell and a Heaven makes his next statement wise.
So here I go: I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I look forward to spending an eternity with Him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won't need any more convincing than that. And I hope I am still qualified for entry.
He is trying to meet the requirements of a particular verse in the Bible, as he understands the verse.
And if you will confess with your mouth our Lord Yeshua, and you will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall have life. 10 For the heart that believes in him is made right, and the mouth that confesses him has life. (Romans 10:9-10)
He understands the verse out of context. It isn't a formula for how to become a Christian. Even if it was, he decides the believing part can come after he is dead.
He says he doesn't believe, so he has no faith. There is no sign of repentance. He thinks becoming a Christian is like joining a club. He shows that when he says, "I hope I am still qualified for entry."
He is trying to scam the system, much as I tried to do as a boy. That attitude lacks the humility that would be characteristic of a repentant person.
Scott says his Christian friends have advised him to "find Jesus," and he has taken this step. Because he says "friends" (plural), we can say he isn't acting on the bad advice of one person. So this must be standard church teaching.
The laity of the modern church seems to have little idea what it means to be a Christian, or even how to become one.
I wonder if his Christian friends will pop their heads up to dissociate themselves from what Scott has done. I suppose it is always possible that this is one last joke by Scott. We'll see.