A Picture With Denzel Washington, His Profession Of Faith, And The Return Of The King

Pauletta Washington, Denzel Washington's wife (since 1983; over 40 years!), is from the area where I grew up - Newton, North Carolina. My cousin (on the far right) had a flower shop there, and he provided the flowers for the Washington's wedding. Above is a picture of them together that Denzel signed: "To Alvin, God Bless, Denzel Washington"

Denzel Washington's Profession Of Faith

Denzel is a talented, successful actor, and he seems to live a relatively moral life. After all, he has been married to the same woman for over 40 years! How many Hollywood actors have done that? At one awards ceremony, he thanked his wife, saying: "40 years of sacrifice. 40 years of forgiveness. She taught me about faith, spirituality, love, real love, unwavering love, in spite of myself." He also speaks of God and has encouraged young people to put God first in everything. But some have wrestled with the question whether or not Denzel actually is a true Christian, even though he himself professes to be one. We know that many professing believers will be rejected by Jesus on the last day:

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Matthew 7:21-23

Being a moral person doesn't save you. Being faithful to your wife for 40 years and being a good husband doesn't save you. Going to church and talking about God doesn't save you. Those are all good things, but you can do all those things and still go to hell. You must be born again. You must repent of your sins and trust in the Christ of the Bible, and trust in Him by faith alone. That justifies you before God. And then, the evidence that you are truly born again and trusting in Christ alone is that you will seek, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to obey all that Jesus has commanded for the glory of God.

One reason to be concerned about the genuineness of Denzel's profession of faith is his association with a false teacher. I was sad to see that he did an interview with T. D. Jakes, who is a dangerous, false teacher and a wolf in sheep's clothing. Jakes' "Christianity" is a brand of "Christianity" that is NOT Christianity. Jakes preaches a false god (This is the true God!) and a false gospel. Please see this excellent documentary, American Gospel: Christ Alone, for more on that.

Ray Comfort made a video on the question of the genuineness of Denzel's profession of faith with a bold Gospel presentation at the end here:

Only our great triune God knows for certain whether Denzel truly belongs to Christ or not, but we can always pray for him to know, trust, love, obey, and pursue Christ. We should pray that for ourselves and for all people everywhere. May God save sinners from hell!

God commands everyone to take the utmost care to ensure they are trusting in Christ alone:

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. 2 Corinthians 13:5-6

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 2 Peter 1:10

It's not wrong to ask good, Biblically informed questions about the genuineness of our own faith and about the genuineness of another's faith if the questioning is motivated by love and grounded in the truth. It's good and loving to be as discerning as possible about the reality of genuine faith because there is a great day of judgement coming, and, in love, we want everyone to be ready.

The Return Of The King In Wrath

One of the reasons it's so important that we examine ourselves to see whether we "are in the faith" and are diligent to "make our calling and election sure" is because of the terrifying picture of the final judgment we see in God's Word. There is lots of graphic violence and blood in the book of Revelation when Jesus comes back. The return of the Warrior King, Jesus Christ the Almighty, will be a frightening event for those outside of Christ. As one of the most terrifying hymns I've ever heard states: 

Judgment is surely coming

Coming to you and me

We will be judged that morning

For all eternity

Some will go into heaven

Others will be denied

Will you be in that number

Standing outside?

Standing outside the portals

Standing outside denied

Knowing that with the demons

Ever you shall abide

Never to share the beauty

Awaiting the sanctified

Oh! what an awful picture

Standing outside.

Standing outside while loved ones

Enter the pearly gate

Knowing that there forever

You will then separate

To be away from loved ones 

And by our God denied

Oh! what an awful picture

Standing outside?

Can you not see the picture 

Of those who're lost in sin

Standing outside the portals

Without a hope to win

Soul-crushed with deepest sorrow

Without a friend to guide

Oh! what an awful picture

Standing outside. J. A. McClung

Jesus' return described in the book of Revelation shows us His total and absolute victory, His ushering in of perfect justice, and the utter destruction of all of His and of His people's enemies:

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Revelation 6:15-17

So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia [that's about 184 miles - that's a lot of blood!]. Revelation 14:19-20

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Revelation 19:11-16

Are you ready to face the LORD Jesus Christ on that day and give an account of your life?

On that day, God will accomplish perfect justice; He will punish all of His enemies; everything sad will become untrue (a line from J. R. R. Tolkien); all wrongs will be made right; every evil will be perfectly punished; there will be no more sin, no more death, no more sadness, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. We will finally see the God-Man, Jesus Christ, face to face. The LORD Jesus Christ is King of kings and LORD of lords Who has the name above all names, and He will bring about perfect justice someday, either in hell or because of the cross. Which will you choose?

If you are not a true, genuine, born again Christian, then you are cut off from Christ and in rebellion against God. Christ will punish you in hell forever someday where there will be weeping and burning and gnashing of teeth for all eternity. The Warrior King will crush you in hell forever. And there will be lots of blood. And there will be no mercy. But if you repent of (turn away from) your sins and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ - if you trust in His perfect life, His death on that cross, His burial, and His resurrection - then He will save you from your sins and justice will have been accomplished at the cross:

. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus (John 3:16) (For more on this verse, see: 1. The Danger: Perishing; 2. The Design Is Love; 3. The Duty: Faith; 4. The Destiny: Eternal Life)

The Return Of The King For Our Everlasting Joy

But if the only reason you trust in Christ is so that you won't go to hell, you aren't truly trusting in Christ. You don't have to be born again in order not to want to go to hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. John Piper preached about this insufficient reason some people come to Jesus:

Or "I don’t want to go to hell. And so I am coming to you, Jesus. I hear that you can get me out of hell. Please don’t let me suffer forever. I don’t want to go to hell. Save me from hell." Well no demon wants to be in hell. Nobody wants to be in hell. You don’t have to be regenerate in order to have the desire not to want to go to hell. There is nothing holy or godly about not wanting to go to hell and be unhappy forever. Nobody wants to go to hell.

The deeper, more fundamental desire of the truly born again Christian is not merely to escape hell, but a desire for God Himself. We want Christ to come back because we want Christ above all. We don't want to go to hell because God will not be experienced there in His love and mercy but only in His anger and judgment. We don't want just to escape the punishment of hell; we want the presence of Christ! In his book, God Is The Gospel, John Piper asks a riveting question:

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?

The true believer will cry out from the depths their heart: NO! NEVER! I WANT CHRIST ABOVE ALL! 

Again, Piper writes in God is the Gospel: 

Justification is not an end in itself. Neither is the forgiveness of sins or the imputation of righteousness. Neither is escape from hell or entrance into heaven or freedom from disease or liberation from bondage or eternal life or justice or mercy or the beauties of a pain-free world. None of these facets of the gospel-diamond is the chief good or highest goal of the gospel. Only one thing is: seeing and savoring God himself, being changed into the image of his Son so that more and more we delight in and display God’s infinite beauty and worth.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God . . . . 1 Peter 3:18

Jesus died to bring us to God. We want God, not His gifts, above all. This is the testimony of the saints throughout history. They delight in God Himself. Not merely in His gifts. But in God:

You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You. Augustine

Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him [God], they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him. John Calvin

I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You." Psalm 16:2

You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. Psalm 73:25

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:17-18

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ . . . . Philippians 3:7-8 

Hell is going to be so horrific that you want to escape it at any cost! And heaven, because God is there, is going to be so glorious and amazing that you want to enter in at any cost! Sam Storms, while describing Jonathan Edwards' view of heaven, gave this wonderful description:

Edwards often talked about what we won’t see in heaven. Praise God for this. In Revelation 21:4 we are told there will be no tears of grief, no death or sorrow or pain. [In] verse 8 of chapter 21 we are assured by John that no one who is cowardly, lying, or unbelieving will be present; no murderers or anything abominable, immoral, or idolatrous. And again in [Revelation] 21:27 he says nothing that is unclean will be allowed to enter there. People think of the implications of what is being said. When we get to heaven there will be, said Edwards, nothing which shall offend the most delicate eye. In other words, nothing that is abrasive, irritating, agitating, or hurtful; nothing harmful, hateful, upsetting or unkind; nothing sad, bad, or mad, harsh, impatient, ungrateful, or unworthy; nothing weak or sick or broken or foolish; nothing deformed, degenerate, depraved, or disgusting; nothing polluted, pathetic, poor, or putrid; nothing dark, dismal, dismaying, or degrading; nothing blameworthy, blemished, blasphemous, or blighted; nothing faulty, faithless, frail, or fading; nothing grotesque or grievous, hideous or insidious; nothing illicit or illegal, lascivious or lustful; nothing marred or mutilated, misaligned or misinformed; nothing nasty or naughty, offensive or odious; nothing rancid or rude, soiled or spoiled, tawdry or tainted, tasteless, or tempting; nothing vile or vicious, wasteful or wanton - none of it! 

And all of this for hell deserving sinners like you and me. 

What will we see there? Wherever you turn your eyes you see nothing but glory and grandeur and beauty and brightness and purity and perfection and splendor and satisfaction and sweetness and salvation and majesty. We’ll see only and all that is adorable and affectionate, and beautiful and bright and brilliant and bountiful and delightful and delicious and delectable and dazzling and elegant and exciting and fascinating and fruitful and glorious and grand and gracious and good and happy and holy and healthy and whole and joyful and jubilant and lovely and luscious and majestic and marvelous, opulent and overwhelming, radiant and resplendent, splendid and sublime, sweet and savory, tender and tasteful, euphoric and unified. And why? Because we’ll be looking at the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

If you are not a Christian, would you please flee from the wrath to come in hell, and flee to the all satisfying God and trust in Jesus Christ alone today? And pray that Denzel Washington and everyone else in the world would do the same as well! And meet me in heaven!

To learn more about the great King Jesus and His glorious Gospel message, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here with a free, 3 day trial.