Shortly before his death in 2007 the... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2026

It is appointed to men for die once, but after this the judgment.
Hebrews 9:27.

Shortly before his death in 2007 the author Norman Mailer stated in one of his interviews: "In my life I was a decent mixture of good and bad. If I go to hell, then I can't think what will happen to the worse half of mankind."

This man had some idea of the existence of God and His opposite number. But he had formed his own image of them and his own imagination of heaven and hell. The worst thing about it was: Jesus Christ was also for him only a "mixture of good and bad". In such a case Christ would Himself be in need of redemption and could not be our Saviour.

That writer therefore anticipated death and the life beyond without the assurance that his sins were forgiven. Might that be the reason for his derisive remarks?

There are indeed people who consider that with a proportion of people the good outweighs the bad, and with the rest vice-versa. Such persons, of course belong to the former group, or so they think!

Whether one goes to heaven or hell is not decided by the number of good or bad deeds that people do. The question is: is there any wrongdoing at all in our life? We cannot undo it, and so we have no standing before our holy God.

For this reason everyone needs the Son of God as his Redeemer. Because Jesus Christ was Himself pure, and holy, never having committed any sin, He was able to bear the punishment of the guilty on the cross in their stead. If we wish to die in peace, we must have Him as our Saviour.

Today's reading: Lamentations 1:12-22 · Psalms 42:7-11