How Do I Question Someone’s Salvation at the End of His Life? Ask Pas...

How do we approach the deathbeds of professing Christians whose faith we are not sure is real? Pastor John offers four ways to love them. Few conversations are harder to have than those we have with a professing believer who has shown little to no fruit in their lives over the years. Those are hard conversations to initiate and to do well. Today’s question arrives anonymously.

“Hello, Pastor John! In episode 803 you tackled the question ‘How Do I Wisely Tell a Professing Believer I Don’t Think He Is Saved?’ I’m struggling to consider how to apply the principles you put forth in that episode with an elderly professing Christian who I think may be unsaved and who is close to death. In thinking about this, I thought about your love for dying saints, and figured that in your pastoral experience, you have been with dying individuals who profess faith in Christ, but have had strong signs that they may not be saved. How do you personally speak to these seemingly nominal individuals, especially elderly ones, when they’re so close to death?”