ONE HEARTBEAT AWAY - PART 84

                                          ONE HEARTBEAT              AWAY

        PART 84


(copied from Mark Cahill's Book)

Pascal's Wager

Blaise Pascal, the great mathematician and
philosopher, suggested if living as if there is
a God, is far better than living as if there is
no God. This has come to be known as 
Pascal's Wager.

Here is the Wager  written out:  "If you live as
if  God doesn't exist and you are right, you 
just die and go to your grave. But if you live as
if God doesn't exist and you are wrong, you go
to eternal misery in hell. Conversely, if you 
live as if God does exist and you are wrong, 
then you would just die and go to your grave.
But if you live as if God does exist and you are
right, and have just hit the jackpot for an
eternity in heaven."

Pascal's point was : Why not take a gamble 
that there is a God?  If you are wrong, you
have lost nothing and you have had a good
life here. But if you are right, and  God is
real, you will have eternity to be thankful
that you chose wisely. 

We gamble every time
 we get into a car or
 an airplane, use an appliance or eat at a  restaurant. So, why 
wouldn't we take a 
gamble on this, where
there is everything to gain and nothing to lose?

As I was looking at this argument one day, I
thought Pascal had missed something, because
he didn't mention Jesus. You can believe that a
God exists, but if you don't choose the right
 God, Jesus Christ the Saviour, you have made
an eternal mistake. 

Something can't be true and not true at the same
time. Either Jesus is the Son of God , Who is
the Way, the Truth and the Life, Who rose from
the dead - or He is not and did not. 

On further investigation, I learned that Pascal
was not only saying that one should believe in a
God, but in God as represented in Christianity.
He was also saying that if you believe in some-
thing, you will act on it. So, he was really
recommending Jesus, but because he was 
speaking to atheists, he did it indirectly by
starting with God.

Where do you stand on this question?

There is 100% chance that you are going to die.
Do you have the right ticket to get into heaven
one day?  The ticket must - and I do mean must -
be stamped with the blood of Jesus.  Either you
will arrive in heaven as God's child or you 
won't arrive there at all. No middle ground here.
A choice must be made. 

next post 15th February