“If it were my leg, I wouldn’t do anything about it. It doesn’t look like a bat bite to me. Of course,” said the doctor, “I can’t be absolutely sure, but I’m ninety-nine percent certain.”

We were sitting in the Emergency section of the local hospital an hour after finding blood around a bite on my leg and a bat lying on the floor of my bedroom. I had already thrown the bat out the front door before it was apparent that I had been bitten by something while I was sleeping. It was too late to have the bat tested.

During the rest of the day the thought kept coming back to me: What if the doctor is wrong? Once a person is diagnosed with rabies it is too late for effective treatment which can ward off a most terrible way to die. The next day we went to get a “second opinion.” That doctor said, “He’s probably right, but I wouldn’t take the chance. He might be wrong!” Thus began the twenty-eight-day series of vaccination shots.

A pastor was trying to convince a man that he needed to become serious about eternity. “I’ll take my chances on that,” the man stated.

“But when it comes to eternity, it is not a matter of chance,” replied the pastor, “it is an absolute certainty, according to the Bible.”

Unfortunately, some people believe there is no life after death, even though the Bible says there is. What if they are wrong? Some believe that if hell really exists and they find themselves there, that God will give them a second chance, even though the Bible teaches otherwise. Again, what if they are wrong?

Others assume that God will welcome them into heaven if they live a life where their good deeds outweigh the bad, even though God in His holy Word clearly shows us sinners no one can reach heaven by how he lives, but rather by trusting alone in Christ’s beautiful Gospel. For the Gospel tells us that Jesus has earned heaven for us by dying on the cross two thousand years ago. He did everything in order that we don’t end up in hell. However, God’s Word also makes it clear that only those who believe on Jesus’ saving work will reap the benefits.

Most people have never met a person who has gone through the rabies shots experience. Those who have heard about my encounter with a possibly rabid bat, including three doctors, several nurses, and many friends all have agreed that they would not have taken a chance, even a one-per cent chance, that my first doctor was wrong. Yet they are willing to take a chance that what God tells us in the Bible is not true and will not happen.

Anyone willing to take a chance on eternity and ignoring that what God has told us in His Word, should really face up to the question “What if I am wrong”?

John Moldstad, Sr. is a retired pastor living in McFarland, Wisconsin.