If Heaven and Hell Never Exist

Chrisye, an Indonesian pop singer legend who died on March 30^th 2007, composed a very interesting song entitled Jika Surga dan Neraka Tak Pernah Ada (If Heaven and Hell Never Exist). Here is the lyric:

Apakah kita semua benar-benar tulus menyembah pada-Nya?
(Are we truly sincere in worshipping Him?)

Atau mungkin kita hanya takut pada neraka dan inginkan surga?
(Or probably, are we just afraid of hell? And we simply want heaven?)

Jika surga dan neraka tak pernah ada, masihkah kau bersujud kepada-Nya?
(If heaven and hell never exist, will you still worship Him?)

Jika surga dan neraka tak pernah ada, masihkah kau menyebut nama-Nya?
(If heaven and hell never exist, will you still call His name?)

Bisakah kita semua benar-benar sujud sepenuh hati
kar'na sungguh memang Dia, memang pantas disembah, memang pantas dipuja?
(Can we truly worship Him ultimately because of He himself deserves to be worshipped and to be praised?)

This song challenges everyone who claims that they believe in God. Why do you believe in God? Why do you go to church, mosque, temple, or other worship places? Is it simply because you want to go to heaven and are afraid of going to hell? If this were the reason, you are actually not worshipping God. You are worshipping yourself. You are just using God for your own goodness and safety. You are basically worshiping Him because of what He can give to you.

Christianity never teaches this kind of egoistic faith. You may want to check the Bible to find out that whenever the writers of the Bible are referring to Jesus, they always mention Him as “Lord and Savior”, not “Savior and Lord”. Why? I think it is because they are trying to tell the readers that what Jesus has done is a secondary reason of why we should believe in and follow Him. The most important thing is who Jesus is. Jesus is Lord! If he is the Lord, he deserves to be worshipped! If God is truly God, God deserves to be worshipped! We do not need other reasons in order to believe in Him.

Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” I partly agree with him. I would say that religion MIGHT BECOME the opium of the people. It happens when people worship God only because of what God can do for them. For those who claim that you believe in God, let me challenge you to think: Why do you believe in God?