What if ... ?

By Thom Jonas

“What if Jesus soon returns and you are left behind?
What if you are judged and your eternal life declined?
What if the kingdom really comes and loud you hear the shout?
What if the Christos enter in but you yourself miss out?”



Perhaps this makes you tremble and bow down because of fear
Or maybe that's the real intent behind that thin veneer
For if they said your life was yours to live just as you choose
Would their religion stay intact? What might they have to lose?

It seems quite disingenuous to frighten those who doubt
By triggering an innate fear, the fear of missing out!
They dazzle you with promises no one has ever seen
Then pressure you to get baptised when you are seventeen.

They promise you amazing things, an everlasting bliss
(But may forget to mention there’s no evidence for this)
“So be alert and watch”, they say, “lest you be found asleep
And sent to outer darkness where they gnash their teeth and weep!”

Why all the threats and terror? Well, by now it should be clear
The Christos speak one language and their dialect is fear!
But there’s no need to be afraid of their deceptive trick
For it is just their version of the carrot and the stick!

A method of persuasion, and you know how well it works
By how few later question any of the promised perks;
Just teach them young to fear and pray and then you can be certain
That very few will ever dare to look behind the curtain!

To challenge one’s own core beliefs is therefore sometimes scary
Emotions often take control and truth is secondary
And if by chance since birth another faith you were spoon-fed
Then you’d have grown up terrified of something else instead.

So next time Christos ask you, “What if Jesus soon returns?”
Ask them if they are afraid of everlasting burns?
And if they dismiss hell as false without even a pause
Then you can tell them, “Now you know why I do not fear yours!”

The fact they eagerly dismiss each differential reading
While claiming to possess the truth is simply special pleading.
They may convince insiders that what they believe is true
But all religions do the same so that is nothing new.

I understand their yearning for a better life someday
But wishing on a star won’t make their problems go away
And while I do agree that some aspects of life are tragic
Do they have any solutions that do not require magic?

But what if all the things they preach are actually a lie?
Would they still be so eager to hold fast until they die?
If there’s no future paradise, no gods on whom to call
Then wouldn’t that make this life our most precious thing of all?

So if while they are sitting in their little meeting halls,
Half wondering what’s going on outside those four brick walls,
The rest of us are doing all the things we dream about
Then who is really living now and who is missing out?