My story

Paul Holliday

What is the meaning of life? Is there an afterlife? These were two questions that kept intruding in Paul Holliday’s life. He considered himself an agnostic for the most part, not really caring whether God existed. But events and circumstances would happen and he would ask himself whether God could actually exist and what He would be like.

“I mainly wondered if there was an afterlife when I knew of someone who had passed away,” Paul says. “It didn’t make any sense why anyone would come into this world, live to a certain age, then die without any sort of reunion. Often, I would think to myself, what about all those things that people didn’t do, places they wanted to see but never got a chance to? What about the people who they never got a chance to meet?

“It seemed to me that there had to be an afterlife, a good one, where we would never have to say goodbye to a love done or friend again.”

Paul concluded that if God did exist and there was a heaven and hell, he would go to heaven.
“I was mostly a good person and I believed that all religions led to God,” he says. Yet Paul knew that he was not always good, and he wondered whether this would jeopardise his entrance into a good afterlife.

“I had a big problem with lying,” he explains. “I used to lie to make myself look good, mostly in high school but it continued at work as well.” Then one Friday afternoon while he was working in the city, Paul had some of his questions answered.“A friendly young man approached me and, as we talked, he invited me to go to church and discuss the Bible,” he
recalls.

“I went along and asked a lot of questions such as, ‘If I just live a good life will I go to Heaven? And, ‘how can we know whether God exists?’ In response they showed me the book of Romans in the Bible, especially the first three chapters. I also asked, ‘If someone turns to God for forgiveness one day, then dies the very next day, do they still go to Heaven?’

“The people from that group answered ‘Yes’. It was at that point I realised that it’s not what we have done, but what God has done for us (Matthew 20:1-16 and Luke 23:40-43). I also asked whether following other religions led people to Heaven. They responded by showing me John 14:6, ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”’ and Acts 4:12.”

“I asked other questions and they answered them all from the Bible. I only stayed with this group for about a week because I found them very exclusive and critical of other churches. Instead, I attended one of my mum’s friend’s church and enrolled in a course that explained Christianity. I soon realised that my own standard of living compared to God’s was a long way apart.

“I knew that if I died I would end up in hell, eternally separated from God. So, on one Sunday afternoon in December 1996, I went into my room and confessed to God that I fell short of His perfect standards and that I needed His free gift of salvation that He offers to all of humanity through the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul no longer believes being good is enough to get anyone into Heaven, and sees this as the difference between Christianity and religion. “Before I became a Christian if anyone told me ‘If you just live a good life and don’t harm anyone, you will go to Heaven’, I would have accepted that answer,” he says.

“But I’ve realised this is religion and not true Christianity. Now, I get very sad when I meet so many nice people that say that, and in reality they are facing eternal separation from God. There are no second chances after a person dies, as shown in Hebrews 9:27-28, which says, ‘Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.’”

“When nice and good people get sick or die at quite a young age, I often hear people say, ‘It always happens to the wrong people, and not to the bad people who stab innocent people.’ In reality, all of us are just as bad as one another. Romans 3:23 says, ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ And it says in James 2:10, ‘For whoever keeps the whole law, yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.’

“The difference between Christianity and religion is that Christians believe Jesus Christ lived the perfect life, not just a good life, and that He died willingly on the cross, taking the punishment humans deserved and then He rose again.

“No other person in all of history has ever done that and no religion teaches Heaven is a free gift. According to God’s Word, this must be a personal decision between us and God. Nobody else can do it for us, each and every one of us needs to respond in faith personally.”

Paul is passionate about travelling and has served in his church for the past few years, where he enjoys meeting and greeting people.