With so many people over the past couple of generations not attending church, we have many today that have never been inside a church with the exception of Weddings and Funerals. These people have not spent time in church hearing sermons, or Sunday School learning about Christianity. Many have never read the Bible, much less study it.

It is for these people that this book has been written. It would be a monumental task for these people to pick up the Bible and make their way through it to understand Christian doctrine, their lost state and their need for a Saviour. This book is brief, containing only 114 pages. It has extracted the necessary information to permit these people to readily understand God’s Plan for salvation and their need for a Saviour.

Christians should make this book available to those that they have witnessed to that did not accept Christ. They may have many questions about salvation and Christ that they do not know how to express. When you encounter this, please make an attempt to either give them a copy of this book, or to loan them a copy. Try to at least get a commitment from them that they will take the time to read it. Once they have read it, try to set up another witnessing session with them.

Also, a Christian may have relatives or other loved ones that live a distance from you. You are not able to witness to them in person. A gift or a loan of this book may open the way for them to understand their state and lead them to accepting Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

As your finances permit, keep as many copies of this book as you can, and again, as your finances permit, gift or loan this book to as many as you witness to that do not accept Christ, and to as many that distance precludes you from directly witnessing to. Not many people with discard this book. They know that it cost money. You never know how many hands this book will pass through during its’ life, and the impact that it will have. This book has the potential to sew a seed of salvation, water a seed of salvation and harvest a soul.

If you are visiting this site, it is not by mistake. The Lord has brought you here for a purpose! While this site is dedicated primarily to aid Christians in their witnessing efforts, the book Choose Christ and Everlasting Life, available on this site, is specifically written for those that for whatever reason, have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

This book is brief, containing only 114 pages. While the Bible is the Word of God, and true in every aspect, making your way through it when you are not familiar with it or Christianity is a difficult task. This book has extracted the necessary information and scriptures for you to understand God’s plan of salvation for you and your need for a Saviour.

Please obtain a copy of this book and read it, no more than one chapter at a time, with prayer and contemplation. When you have finished the book, I hope you will decide to accept Christ as your Saviour and Lord. You can pray the Sinner’s prayer, and if you believe in your heart you will be saved. If you have questions after you have read it, please contact a Christian that you know, or a pastor of a local church and visit them.

This is a serious matter. When we close our eyes in death, there are only two destinations for us. One is heaven, if you have accepted Christ; or Hell, if you have not accepted Christ. Make no mistake, this is a decision that will affect you for an eternity. Choose Christ!!

In recent times, our culture is experiencing a falling away from church and Christianity. In the last two generations, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of people that do not attend church. Many people have reached adulthood without ever having been inside a church. If your parents didn’t attend church, you probably didn’t attend church. When you marry and have children of your own, you can’t teach your children what you don’t know. It is critically important to reach people like this with the Christian message. Maybe you are one of them.

It is critical to spread the Word of Christ, since there are only two places that a person will go to when they die, either heaven or hell. These verses illustrate what we are faced with:

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

This verse of scripture tells us that everyone that has ever lived and ever will live has sinned. Even one sin carries the penalty of death. Even one sin prevents you from going to heaven (come short of the glory of God), unless you are redeemed. All of us need a redeemer in order to be forgiven of our sins. Acceptance of Christ does this. There is no other way.

Matthew 7

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that 
find it.

This verse is telling us that few go in through the strait gate. The strait gate is Jesus Christ. It states that it is narrow, meaning that Christ and Christ alone is the only way to God and eternal life. The wide gate and broad way is all other means that people live their lives, without Christ. Now, what is the reason so many people are going through the wide gate to destruction? Consider the following verse of scripture:

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end therof are the ways of death.

People that ignore God’s word concerning sin and man’s need for a Saviour (redeemer) are using human logic. The wide way represents all the ways that man has come up with to justify how they live and why they believe that they deserve to go to heaven when they die. The wide way also includes those who simply don’t know what God says on this matter.

To be very clear, all of mankind, every man and woman that has ever lived and ever will live has committed sin. God has determined that one sin or many, whether small or large in the eyes of man, requires the death penalty for the sin. This means that when that person dies, they will open their eyes in hell, to be punished for their sins, and ultimately stand at the Great White Throne of Judgment. All whose names are not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life (which contains the names of those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour) will be cast into the Lake of Fire (the second death, which is eternal).

The only way to prevent this outcome is that the person accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and receives the free gift of salvation. The sins that they committed still require the death penalty, but Jesus Christ willingly and lovingly laid down his life on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins, enabling Him to become their redeemer. Those that accept Christ as their Saviour and Lord will experience physical death, but will open their eyes in heaven and spend eternity there. That is the only way to heaven that is granted to man.

This book has been written so that if you are as yet unsaved, you can read this and understand God’s purpose for man, man’s state without Christ, the great love that God has for man, and the sacrifice that God made on man’s behalf. I am deeply committed to showing every unsaved person how God loves man (including you, whoever you may be and whatever your history) and wants man (you) to be with Him for eternity as His son or daughter.

If you are not familiar with the Bible, it can be intimidating to read and understand. This book’s purpose is to provide the Bible’s salvation message in a logical and methodical way so that even if you are not familiar with the Bible, you can read the selections that are in this book and learn about God’s perfect plan of salvation and how it applies to every one of us. No one, no matter your past or even present sinful state, is excluded from receiving the free gift of salvation and a glorious eternity with our Heavenly Father.

Please do not read this book as you would read a novel. Read only one chapter (or less) at a time, with prayer and contemplation. Try to understand each chapter before proceeding on to the next chapter. This will ensure that you receive the full benefit of this book and help you to make the most important decision you will ever make.

This decision is whether to accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour, or not. Please understand that not making a decision is actually a decision—to reject what Christ is offering. On the other hand, deciding to accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour ensures a glorious eternity. Rejecting Christ as your Lord and Saviour ensures a time in Hell and finally being cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity, never to be seen again. It is an absolutely serious decision that each of us has to make, since all of us are guilty of sin and have no hope without Christ as our redeemer.

Please join me on the most life-changing journey of discovery that you will ever make, as you learn about the amazing plan that God has for you.

—Iven V. Holt

Open the PDF

Open the excerpt PDF

This book has been written from a Christian perspective. God conceived of man before this universe was created. God’s plan for man is for man to become His children, both sons and daughters. God never planned to create man as a robot, programmed to love and accept Him. God gave man free will, and man’s free will is paramount to God’s plan for man. For God to have children, He had to create them. Man had to have free will to come to God by choice. With free will came the ability of man to violate God’s will by choice. God is supreme and sovereign. God determined that any person that becomes His son or daughter must be perfect, as He is perfect. Since man is not a robot, programmed to always obey God’s will, we are not perfect. One sin, one violation of God’s will, condemns us to death. We do not have the ability to save ourselves from sin.

Had God done nothing, all of mankind would be doomed to be punished in hell for our sins and end up being cast into the Lake of Fire. Thankfully, that was not God’s plan. He knew man needed a redeemer. All of creation was searched and not one being was found to be worthy, with the exception of God Himself! The redeemer is required to be perfect and only God filled that requirement. God the Son was determined to be man’s redeemer before the creation of the universe. God so loved man, and God’s purpose for man was so important to God, that God Himself was willing to come to Earth in the flesh, live with man and die on the cross in order to save man, and fulfill the purpose for which man was created.

Think about this for a while. God Himself was willing to become sin and suffer the penalty for all of mankind’s sin by death on the cross. This was both a physical death, since Christ was in the flesh, and also a spiritual death. When Christ became sin on the cross, it required a separation of God the Father from God the Son. As awful as the physical beating was that Christ endured before the crucifixion, and the suffering on the cross before his death, I am convinced that the spiritual death of Christ was much more agonizing. God has always existed, and to our knowledge, God the Father and God the Son had never been separated. Christ described He and the Father as One! We, as man, cannot fully appreciate the suffering this caused both God the Father and God the Son.

When someone laments that God’s judgment is too harsh, that of condemning the sinner to both physical death and spiritual death, it rings pretty hollow when we realize that God was willing to pay the penalty for man’s sin by His own physical and spiritual death. We have a perfect redeemer, and our salvation is given to us as a free gift. In fact, eternal life with God in a glorious existence is so precious that it could never be earned. It is so precious that nothing in existence could be an appropriate payment, so it could never be bought. It had to be provided as a gift from God. God in effect purchased us with the price of Christ’s death and provides eternal salvation to us as a free gift. That is why when we accept Christ, we need to rely wholly on Christ as our redeemer, and absolutely nothing else. Our works play no part whatsoever in our salvation.

Now, when we accept Christ and become a Christian, we commit to live our lives to the best of our ability in accordance with God’s will. We will still not be perfect and so we will sin. However, God forgave all of our sins, both past and future when we accepted Christ, and this secures our salvation

Now, when we become Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. The Holy Spirit has two main objectives, to lead and guide us to become more Christ-like and to seal our salvation.

1 Corinthians 2:9

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

What God has prepared for man when we join Him for eternity is better than anything that can be seen on Earth, and better than anything that we have been told about or read about. God is telling us that, even as vivid as man’s imagination is, we can never come close to knowing the blessings that God has in store for us. Clearly, there is nothing on this Earth that can be enjoyed for what is no more than the blink of an eye compared to eternity, that can measure up with what God has planned for us. It also will last for an eternity!

One day, God will destroy this current reality and exit with His sons and daughters, and He and his sons and daughters shall begin a glorious existence in a new reality. The purpose of the current reality was for God to create His family. He and His family will be together for all of eternity. Won’t you please join us?

Amen

The spiritual author of this book is the Holy Spirit.

The human author of this book is Iven V. Holt.

As much as is humanly possible, the human author has attempted to make this book the work of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual author. The human author has done this by using God’s Holy Word as the source of truth extensively throughout the book. For the duration of the time that it has taken to write the book, the human author has constantly and continuously prayed for the Holy Spirit’s guidance with the goal that the book will say what the Holy Spirit wishes it to say.

If the human author has been successful, then I am simply a vessel for the Holy Spirit to act within. The human author therefore feels blessed that he has been used as an instrument by the Holy Spirit.

Any errors or wrong conclusions that may exist in the book is the result of the human author failing to be the perfect instrument for the Holy Spirit, and not the spiritual author, since the Holy Spirit is perfect and makes no mistakes. Where the human author discusses a subject that is not clearly called out in scripture, the subject is clearly identified as the human author’s conclusion, and it’s recognized that God may well indeed have accomplished his purpose by other means.

The spiritual author, who is the Holy Spirit, resides in the heart of every Christian, and is in the world to win over the world to Jesus Christ.

The human author is a born-again Christian. I am imperfect and still sin, and am therefore a saved sinner. I am made perfect in the eyes of God by being covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect sacrifice. I live in Decatur, Alabama, and attend church regularly. Enough said.