KIRK DOUGLAS DIED TODAY AT AGE 103. What did he believe about God? Did he go to Heaven?

In an Esquire interview in 2001 he said this:

“The more I’ve studied the Torah, the less religious I’ve become, the more spiritual. We Jews are taught to read Hebrew, but we don’t know what the hell we’re reading. At Yom Kippur services, I was reading the English translations, and it came to me: There’s so much adoration of God, but God doesn’t need us to sing his praises. He just wants us to be better people.

“Muslims follow Muhammad to reach God. Christians follow Jesus. Jews follow Moses. But it’s all the same God.

“Maybe when you die, you come before a big, bearded man on a big throne, and you say, ‘Is this heaven?’ And he says, ‘Heaven? You just came from there.’

“Religion has killed millions of people. Something must be wrong.”

In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2017, he explained,

“I grew up praying in the morning and laying tefillin, but I gave up much of the formal aspect of religion. I believe in God and I’m happy to be a Jew. But I think too much religion has not helped civilization. Caring for other people is my religion.”

Caring for people is wonderful, but no amount of good deeds will get anyone to heaven. The only way anyone has a relationship with God is by putting their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins.

The Apostle Paul, self-described as a Jew of Jews, anguished that his own people would perish because of unbelief in their Messiah.

“My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them…for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children.” (Romans 9:2-3, 6-7)

Jesus made it very simple and clear by saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

As difficult as that is for some people to hear, it’s the Gospel truth. Yet people want to believe that regardless of how that icon, that idol, that actor, musician or sports star lived, he’s still going to Glory.

One said, “I’ll hold out hope that…he met Jesus and made him the Lord of his life.” Another declared, “He’s with the Lord Jesus now, much happier than ever, everlasting happiness.” Still another announced that he’s with the angels.

I understand their well-meaning hearts—the thought of Hell is dreadful—but I don’t want unbelievers reading this post to think that someone goes to Heaven simply because we wish them to be there.

Notorious atheist Christopher Hitchens told one journalist before he died that if it is written that he converted to Christianity, then that was proof that the cancer had gone to his brain. .

Indeed, his son Alexander Hitchens confirmed as much.

On the deathbed conversion – I spent my father’s final weeks and days at his bedside and watched him draw his final breath and die, and can assure you that there was no hint of any sort of conversion (as I’m sure you have already guessed). In fact, we barely spoke about religion at all except for joint expressions of frustration at the god botherers who made the rounds in the ICU and other units where dying people could be preyed upon by vulturous Christians.

“In the 19th century American believers claimed Tom Paine had died ‘howling and terrified’, recanting his assaults on organized religion and the reliability of the Bible. After the New York Observer repeated the canard one too many times, the atheist Robert Ingersoll made a large bet that it could not justify the claim. He forced the editor to run a retraction headed “Thomas Paine died a blaspheming Infidel” when he won.

“Charles Darwin’s daughter, Henrietta Litchfield, had to go to similar trouble to stop the lie that her father on his deathbed had regretted his theory of evolution gaining credence.”

Nick Cohen, The Guardian, “Deathbed conversion? Never. Christopher Hitchens was defiant to the last” June 2016

The reality is, if someone lives a reprobate life, and NEVER even mentions any relationship with Jesus, shows no evidence nor fruit, then the likelihood of that person being saved is infinitesimal.

Hell is a horrible reality for all who die in their sins, and no wishful thinking on your part will save a person no matter how much you want them in Heaven.

I write about celebrities’ deaths as warnings for others to consider the reality of eternity.

I want no one to trust in cheap grace or false hope, because no amount of great talent or popularity will ever get one into the good graces of God.

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Read about Kobe Bryant here: http://bit.ly/2vX5t4q

David Bowie: http://bit.ly/2EM6tKE

Carrie Fisher, Prince, George Michael, John Glenn, Patty Duke, Nancy Reagan and Antonin Scalia: http://bit.ly/2VDWVHf