D. Scott Meadows

Letters of grave spiritual concern to unbelievers might do much good. John Newton offers a fine example in this one to a friend holding to “Deism,” a set of beliefs that God is remote and may safely be ignored, that the Bible is not the Word of God, that miracles never happened, and that one’s own reason is an adequate test of truth.

Something similar to this today is called being “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). It also resembles nominal Christians who live no differently than unbelievers. Typically, such people are not committed to any local church with its weekly worship. These days, they constitute a very large percentage of our neighbors in the USA.
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1. No doubt many have written you to congratulate your recovery from recent serious illness. I join them with my own letter of greatest sincerity and affection toward you. Please believe me and let this excuse anything in this letter that you may dislike.

2. After a friend has returned from a long and dangerous trip, we are understandably curious about his experience. Because I consider you a dear friend, let me inquire about yours. You were recently at the very edge of eternity. You nearly died! But God has restored you to this world again in good health. Has that changed your perspective at all? In the worst of your illness, did you have any different feelings about invisible things? If you tell me that nothing has changed with you except that you got better physically, I would not know what to say. I would just sigh in amazement, though I must admit that this is a common thing. Before my own conversion, I had the same experience. I remember being deathly ill and yet I had no more fear of dying and going to hell than the sailor who fell asleep in a storm on top of the mast with no idea he was about to be tossed into the ocean and drowned. But finally a day came, at once both terrible and wonderful, which I now recall with grateful joy, when in my extreme sickness God made me see spiritual reality. Imagine you are about to be pushed off a cliff by an enemy with disaster in the abyss below. Even this pales in comparison to my fears then. It was such a powerful conviction which changed my thoughts and ways that it constitutes unshakeable evidence to me of its truthfulness. While my specific experience is unique in some ways, I have heard from many who once were Deists or openly immoral and since have been brought to glory in the cross of Christ and to live by that faith which they once disrespected and opposed. I see from this that nothing is too hard for the Almighty. The same power that humbled me can also bring the most arrogant unbeliever in this world to his knees. Knowing that the Lord often uses weak instruments like me, I have been encouraged to warn any friends with whom I may have some influence of the danger of continuing impenitent in a worldly life. If I were to neglect this ministry of godly counsel, I would be unfaithful both to God and to my dear neighbors.

3. I do not mean to provoke a debate. Even if I could bring you to agree intellectually, unless God changes your heart, you will remain hardened. People may give assent to the gospel and yet continue as lost sinners. But consider this. Unless your point of view is demonstrably true, common sense requires you to treat it as false because the stakes are far too high in this matter for you to risk eternal damnation. Even if a Christian could be proven wrong, he would be in the same boat with the Deist, but if the Christian is right and the Deist is wrong, then the Deist cannot avoid unspeakable torments. I know this is a well-worn argument, but it will never finally prove to be worn out or overthrown.

4. Of course the spiritual realities are settled no matter what we think about them. Our talking about them will not change a thing. Also remember that everyone will eventually find out by experience who was right in this controversy. I wrote of your recovery, but a better term would be reprieve, because you are still headed for the grave. Unless God should strike you dead suddenly (God spare you in His mercy), you will surely lie sick upon your bed again, and then you will die. These warnings I am giving you now make you more inexcusable than you were before. I have done my duty, but if you will not give serious attention to these things, and look up to the God who made and keeps you, asking Him for direction and help about how to please Him, and if you will only consider one side of the question, and if you will let all your experiences pass without reflection and reformation, and if you will spend your whole life as if you were only meant to eat, sleep, and play, and then be snuffed out like a candle—then you will have to suffer the dreadful consequences. Sooner or later, God will meet you. My heartfelt daily prayer for you is that He will come to you with much mercy, so that you will become another trophy of His invincible grace. Signed, JN.
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Study this approach of a master evangelist and consider writing to an unbelieving friend along the same lines. Be affectionate, respectful, serious, and earnest, and entrust your effort to the Lord. Ω