Dilemma of an Evangelical Minister in preaching a funeral of a nonbeliever

Dilemma of an Evangelical Minister in preaching a funeral of an nonbeliever.
By Rev L. Dale Horton
Definition of an “nonbeliever”-
a person who has reached the age of accountability, and has not made a public confession of their faith in Jesus Christ, nor exhibited any signs of being a Christian, such as church attendance, Bible reading, praying or witnessing, a person who doesn’t want to go to church and does not, a person who does not tithe and complains loudly if his spouse does, a person who acts like and probably says, “the roof would fall in if I went”, and in the last minutes of life did not repent, confess sins or declare faith in Christ Jesus.
What the family wants-
1. Assurance that the deceased is safe in the arms of Jesus, even though the only times he has uttered the name of Jesus, is as a cuss word.
2. Public proclamation by a respected member of the cloth that the deceased is safely in heaven, even though he hated church and only attended 2 times- at his wedding and his funeral. It doesn’t matter that the deceased will be miserable there, because heaven is like a real long church service, everybody praising God and the Lamb! 3.
3. They want official pulpit authorization that it is ok to live and act like the devil, and still get by Saint Pete at the golden gate.
What the minister wants-
Is to be able to comfort the family over the loss of the loved one, and to warn the nonbelievers they had better shape-up or they won’t make it either.
What usually happens?
The minister attempts to comfort the people by implying that maybe the deceased did make it and ends up in heaven anyway.
What should happen?
The minister says that unless the deceased believed and make a confession in the last few minutes of consciousness that he was in hell, before you could say it. And any of the rest of you that are not saved, had better repent, confess, and believe pronto, or you will end up in hell as well.
The Bible means what it says. No sinner will get into heaven. And if we have sin in our lives when we die, we aren’t going there either.
Being a good person is not enough either. Adam and Eve were about as good as people ever get. Yet God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden, so they could not eat of the “Tree of Life”.
The only way Saint Pete will let us in, is if we have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. We must not only say we are Christians, but we must act like we are Christians. We must have been active in church, witnessing about the resurrected Christ, and serving him with all our heart, soul, mind and body.
Having a religious song sung at your funeral will not make any difference.
Printing a poem about being with Jesus or the 23rd Psalm on your obituary hand-out that is given to people at your funeral, won’t do any good either.
Saying that you are, “at rest”, on your tomb- stone, does not mean that you are.