Athiest Christopher Hitchens dies at 62

[Psalm 51:17]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/christopher-hitchens-dies-62-051006229.html

Christopher Hitchens, the author, writer and Vanity Fair contributing editor, has died, the magazine announced late Thursday. He was 62.

Hitchens, who had been battling esophageal cancer since early 2010, died at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, surrounded by friends, Vanity Fair said.

"There will never be another like Christopher," Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter said in a statement. "A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar. Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."

The brash, combative and provocative Hitchens was an "incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant," Vanity Fair's Juli Weiner wrote in one of what will assuredly be many testimonials and appreciations to come.

read more

[Mark]

Im betting hes regretting some of his decisions right about now. 

[PeanutGallery]

Eze 33:11  Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD , I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

[Kilika]

"Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted." Psalms 107:17 (KJB)

17   Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 
18   Lest the LORD see [it], and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Proverbs 24:17,18 (KJB)

45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 
46   For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 
47   And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more [than others]? do not even the publicans so? 
48   Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 
Matthew 5:45-48 (KJB)

[Psalm 51:17]

Agree with what everyone said here - frankly, there's nothing we can do. Hitchens is no different from any of the previous Popes, your random serial killer(that ultimately doesn't get saved either), your typically nice albeit unsaved neighbor to his/her death, the list goes on.

Hitchens made a choice, and now like the previous Popes he has to live with the consequences eternally, like that rich man in Luke who lived a rich, albeit evil lifestyle before he was thrown into hell for eternity, and begging for a drop of water.

Again, this isn't something we should rejoice over, but at the same time, there's nothing to feel sorry for him b/c he made a choice. He came into this world with nothing, and returns back with nothing behind him when he died.

As for these so-called influential people in the news that spill their athiest beliefs? The only option is the OFF switch when you see them on tv, and when you see their products in the bookstore, just turn around and go another way. It's not like Hitchens is Satan and is the only evil entity in this world, as there are many.(ie-there's a big New Age section in Barnes and Noble et al nowdays, and your typical 501c3 church is no better either)

[Mark]

Christopher Hitchens Might Be in Heaven
— Friday, December 16th, 2011 —

Christopher Hitchens, the world’s most famously caustic atheist, is now dead.

Hitchens expected this moment, of course, but he anticipated, wrongly, a blackness, a going out of consciousness forever. Many Christians today are sadly remarking on what it is like for Christopher Hitchens to be now opening his eyes in hell.

We might be wrong.

The Christian impulse here is exactly right. After all, Jesus and his apostles assured us that there is no salvation apart from union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, a union entered into by faith. And Hitchens not only rejected that gospel, he ridiculed it, along with the very notion of anything beyond the natural order. The Christian Scriptures are clear: there is a narrow window in which we must be saved, the time of this present life, and after this there is only judgment (2 Cor. 6:1-2; Heb. 9:27).

But I’m not sure Christopher Hitchens is in hell right now. It’s not because I believe there’s a “second chance” after death for salvation (I don’t). It’s not because I don’t believe in hell or in God’s judgment (I do). It’s because of a sermon I heard years ago that haunts me to this day, reminding me of the sometimes surprising persistence of the gospel.

Fifteen or so years ago, I heard an old Welsh pastor preach on Jesus’ encounter with the thieves on the cross. The preacher paused to speculate about whether the penitent thief might have had any God-fearing friends or family members. If so, he said, they probably would never have known about the terrorist’s final act, his appeal to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk. 23:42). They never would have heard Jesus pronounce, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43).

These believing family members and friends would have assumed, all their lives, that this robber was in hell, especially dying as he did under the visible judgment of God (Deut. 21:22-23). They would have been shocked to meet this man in the kingdom of God. “We thought you were in hell,” they might have said, as they danced around him in the heavenly places.

That sermon changed everything for me about the way I preach funerals for unbelievers. Now, deathbed conversions are very rare. Typically, a conscience is so seared by then, so given over to the darkening of the mind, that the gospel rarely is heard. We shouldn’t count on last-second repentance.

But, however rarely, it does happen, and who knows? Perhaps you have relatives who, in the last seconds of breath, breathed out a silent prayer of repentance and faith. You might be as surprised as the thief’s believing cohort.

And, who knows? Christopher Hitchens heard the gospel enough, often while debating believers. Maybe the seed of the Word might have embedded in his heart somewhere and maybe, just maybe, it broke through sometime in the night, as he gasped for last breath.

Christopher Hitchens was a blasphemer, true enough, and a nasty character. Aren’t we all, in our different ways. Christ Jesus came for nasty characters like us. And the same blood of Jesus that can deliver us from wrath could do the same for Hitchens had he, if he, at any point, embraced it. It’s not likely, but it’s possible, and, if he did, then Christopher Hitchens’s past atheism would be no barrier to communion with God. It would be, like my sin, crucified with Christ, buried, and remembered no more.

I don’t know about Christopher Hitchens, about what happened in those last moments, but I do know that, if he had embraced it, the gospel would be enough for him. I know that because it’s enough for me, and I’m as deserving of hell as he is.

Hell is real and judgment is certain. The gospel comes with a warning that it will one day be too late. But, as long as there is breath, it is not yet too late. Perhaps Christopher Hitchens, like so many before him, persisted in his rebellion to the horror of the very end. But maybe not. Maybe he stopped his polemics and cried out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

I don’t know. But I do know that the gospel offers forgiveness and mercy right to the edge of death’s door. And I know that the kingdom of God is made up of ex-thieves, and ex-murderers, and ex-atheists like us.

http://www.russellmoore.com/2011/12/16/christopher-hitchens-might-be-in-heaven/

[Kilika]

Now that is a decent article that actually tells the truth by saying we just don't know ultimately about a person. It may appear they are hellbound, but it's God that makes that decision thankfully. Makes it all the more important to not hate our enemies, but to love them as Jesus loves us.

[Psalm 51:17]

Now that is a decent article that actually tells the truth by saying we just don't know ultimately about a person. It may appear they are hellbound, but it's God that makes that decision thankfully. Makes it all the more important to not hate our enemies, but to love them as Jesus loves us.

Recently Hitchens said nice things about the King James Bible. Yes, the 1611 AUTHORIZED VERSION(someone posted an article here about it).

I don't know if he got saved, but for someone who railed against Christianity for so long, this says ALOT.

And remember too, when unsaved people are on their deathbed, they are so desperate, that WHO ELSE can they turn to? I remember Patrick Swayze once admitted before his death that he feared of what would happen in "the next life". Swayze was a New Ager himself.

[Kilika]

And remember too, when unsaved people are on their deathbed, they are so desperate, that WHO ELSE can they turn to?

Exactly. And at that time, only God could know what their heart truly believes, and thus is the only one who can say who will be in paradise.