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(But are the Lies of the Devil)

By Jeffrey D. Dean, Sr.

There are many major “sayings” or “cliché’s” in Christianity that sound very
wise until you closely scrutinize them. I am going to look at three such
phrases and do just that, in an effort to shed some light on how modern
Christians believe they are wise but are becoming fools, day by day, one
“saying” at a time.


You often see this on bumper stickers on the backs of cars. You also see
WWJD on necklaces, clothing, hats, just about anything warn by the
Christian. When we were a part of a home schooling group here in this
region, the leader of the group asked everyone to read a book (I will not
mention the name of the book for fear of promoting it). Apparently this
book is credited with starting the entire WWJD movement to begin with.
When you read the forward of the book it becomes apparent where the
author is at, spiritually. He encourages his readers to try and “guess” what
Jesus would do in any given situation and actually suggests that this is the
“road to success” for any Christian!

This sounds very wise doesn’t it? I mean, if, during your lifetime when you
encounter trials and tribulations if you would just stop and try to “figure out”
or “guess” what Jesus would do, IF he were in your shoes, then proceed to
handle that situation as HE would handle it, how can you fail? It’s a
GREAT theory, one that is intrinsically FLAWED! Why? Because you
INTELLECTUALLY what JESUS would do in any given situation, for
Jesus’ actions were all SPIRIT (LOVE) DRIVEN and MOTIVATED! I’m
amazed at the suggestion that you should try to “figure out” what Jesus
would do and imitate him, and I’m most amazed that this suggestion comes
from Trinitarians! How does the author of this concept, (and those who
recommend the book to others) expect us, mere mortals, born into sinful
fleshly bodies, to be able to figure out what GOD INCARNATE COME TO
given situation, much less how do they expect us to EMULATE this

Yet, what is the REAL problem with the saying “what would Jesus do?” It’s
the word “would” in this phrase. “Would” is a hypothetical! Basically
when you ask, “what would Jesus do” you are REALLY asking, “what
would Jesus do if he were in my shoes.” It’s purely hypothetical. Yet, our
walk is NOT hypothetical. The scriptures COMMAND US not to
HYPOTHETICALLY CONSIDER what Jesus would do and then
HYPOTHETICALLY attempt to do as he does, the scriptures command us
to LITERALLY DO WHAT CHRIST DID! Christ, being our Lord and
Master and King, demands that we follow in his footsteps (not
hypothetically but for REAL).

I know some of you are going to accuse me of mincing words. Yet, I’m not
mincing words here. There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between the questions
“what WOULD Jesus do,” and “what DOES Jesus do.” Christians claim to
believe that Jesus is ALIVE and LIVING IN THEM THROUGH THE
HOLY SPIRIT, so why are they asking what WOULD he do? Shouldn’t
they be, rather, finding out what HE DOES DO and do it? It’s no small
distinction here! Saying, “what WOULD Jesus do” turns serving and
following Christ’s example into an hypothetical and saying “what DOES
Jesus do,” makes serving and following Christ a categorical imperative. In
asking what “would” Jesus do we leave the door open for the person to
REJECT Christ’s example!

Yet, Jesus turned to the multitudes and demanded, “why do you call me
Lord, Lord but do not what I say?” He also commanded us to LOVE ONE
ANOTHER even as HE HAS LOVED! The apostles echoed this command
and made it clear that it is an IMPERATIVE that we follow Christ and DO
WHAT HE DOES, (not hypothetically living our lives wondering what he
WOULD do and trying to repeat it).

Then, there’s the matter of the Holy Spirit. How can anyone who says that
they BELIEVE Jesus lives IN THEM, and who says that Jesus is with them
ALWAYS, then turn around and wonder what Jesus “would” do? It makes
no sense at all. He who has Jesus “with them” does not have to wonder
what Jesus “would do!” They reveal themselves with this saying, so that,
when you meet someone who is stuck on this saying and examine them
closely you begin to see that they RARELY actually DO what Jesus does.
Rather, they spend most of their time WONDERING what Jesus does and
that is because they are attempting to understand intellectually what can only

There are three types of people in this world. People who make things
happen, people who watch things happen, and people who don’t have a
single clue what happened! I submit, he who has to wonder “what would
Jesus do” is of the latter category, they can rack their brains all day long but
they are NEVER going to grasp what Jesus WOULD DO for it is beyond
them and this is simply because if they HAD THE SPIRITUAL
UNDERSTANDING to grasp what Jesus “would” do they wouldn’t have to
WONDER what he would do, they simply would know what he does and do
it themselves, for everything that Jesus does comes out of LOVE, and this
sort of love cannot be taught and it cannot be intellectually hypothesized!

Therefore, while the saying “what would Jesus do” sounds very wise, in the
end those who propagate the saying reveal themselves as devoid of any
spiritual understanding at all and are, spiritually speaking, the most foolish
of all the Christians! I find this to be an irony that the scripture mentions
when it says, “professing themselves to be wise they become fools.”


This is one of my favorite diadems! On the surface it seems EXTREMELY
wise and spiritual. The idea of the saying is to remind people that they are
not sure of tomorrow and tell them that they should live each day as if it
were their last (because in fact it could be their last). However, the saying,
in fact has quite the opposite meaning and effect than its seeming intention,
for it is a “simile.” To say, “live LIKE” you are (or WERE) dying states
outright that you in fact ARE NOT dying and should therefore live “like” or
“as if” you WERE dying! How unwise is it to tell people that they should
live “as if” they are dying when point in fact, from the day you are born you
begin to age and ultimately to die of old age. Everyone on this planet is
dying. Everyone and everything! A more correct version of this saying
therefore would be to say, “live, therefore, because you are dying,” or
perhaps, “live life to it’s full for you are dying.” There are any number of
more accurate ways to convey this concept, yet, it is not just that the
statement passes off a statement of fact as a simile that bothers me. It’s the
PURPOSE and INTENT of the saying and more importantly how it is
unwisely applied.

Let us take for example the popular song by that same title “Live Like You
Were Dying.” Written and performed by Tim McGraw. In the song the
man is in his early forties when the doctors inform him that he is going to
die soon. What is the man’s reaction?

“I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing

I went 3.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu”

As we can clearly see by these lyrics the main message in the world with the
saying “live like you are dying” is to get the MOST out of LIFE that you can
because you never know when it all might end. It is a SELFISH response!
Take the song for example. The man is going to die and where are his
priorities? Sky diving, mountain climbing, in short, getting as MUCH

This is the EXACT same thing the apostles spoke of concerning the world of
the END TIMES, when they predicted the people of the world would tend to
their own fleshly lusts saying among themselves, “let us eat drink and be
merry for tomorrow we die.” It is also akin to what Christ said of the last
generation that they would be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage” until the day sudden destruction came upon them! When people
say “live like you are dying” they are sounding very wise and spiritual but
what they are actually suggesting is that you should live your life in such a
way that you get as much SELFISH PERSONAL GRATIFICATION as you
can out of life before the end comes!

Even when they are trying to be spiritual, the people who use this saying
reveal themselves. Look again at the lyrics to the song:

“I finally read the good book and I took a good long hard look at what I’d
do if I could do it all again.”

These people that “live like they are dying” have to KNOW FOR CERTAIN
they are dying before they’ll even READ the good book or take a good long
hard look at the consequences of their living! The grand irony of this is,
EVERYONE IS IN FACT DYING, so we don’t have to PRETEND and live
like we WERE dying, for we ARE dying!


This saying is probably one of the most misguided of them all (and one of
the oldest). My dear old Great Grandfather (who was a Southern Baptist
Minister) used to say this one all the time. The supposed ”wisdom” of it is
that many times people can do terrible things with the best of intentions at
heart. That’s the thinking anyway. For example, a war! How many wars
have been fought for “noble causes?” How many good people have been
sucked into battles and wars because they thought the cause was “just?”

I myself believe the saying comes from the words of proverbs. Stated
simply, “there is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof is
death.” (Proverbs 14: 12). Also, Christ said “narrow is the way that leads to
life and few there be who find it and broad is the way that leads to

Yet, this saying could not be further from the truth! The road to hell is NOT
paved with good intentions. I submit to you all that this is IMPOSSIBLE,
knowing what we know from scripture. “Intent” of the heart is all that
matters in the end and really it’s all that separates the “lost” from the saved!
This saying actually directly CONTRADICTS many statements of the
apostles and of Jesus himself! The real trouble I have with the saying is that
it does MORE than INSINUATE that the “broad way” that leads to
destruction is a path of “goodness,” or “good intentions.” It makes darkness
for light and light for darkness, it puts bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, it
makes the pursuit of righteousness and goodness an “unholy” thing!

Don’t kid yourself, those who love to use this saying, use it for that very
reason. Long ago they have given UP on the notion of a righteous path and
a life full of goodness. They have decided among themselves that
righteousness is UNATTAINABLE, IMPOSSIBLE, and furthermore are
now attempting to convince themselves that those who PURSUE the
righteous path with good intentions in their heart are the deceived ones, and
are the deceivers, and are on the highway to hell! They make the
who take it are therefore worthy of destruction!

How does such a thing happen? How do things get so turned around in
religion that those who now pursue “good intentions” are evil spoken of?

As I said before, the saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”
directly contradicts the teachings of Messiah and the apostles. Jesus said,
“an evil tree cannot bear good fruit and a good tree cannot bear evil fruit,
therefore a tree is known by it’s fruit.” From this teaching we can be
assured that if EVIL has come of your actions there were no REAL “good
intentions” driving your actions! Perhaps you may THINK that your
intentions were good (or you may claim your intentions were good) but I can
assure you, if evil fruit was produced from the tree of your actions, the root
of that tree was “evil” and not “good intentions.” Otherwise, Jesus did NOT
know what he was talking about.

Jesus said:

which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:

If “good intentions” can lead to paving the road to HELL then Jesus simply
was wrong in this statement in Luke!

I believe that this long held cliché’ “the road to hell is paved with good
intentions” perhaps better than ANY OTHER saying among Christians
PROVES that Christianity VILLIFIES goodness and righteousness!
Christianity has LONG SINCE given up on righteousness, holiness,
goodness, (all of the fruits of the spirit) and now teaches quite the opposite,
namely that those who go down the road with the intent to do “good” in this
life are deceivers, or liars, and that they are paving a road straight to HELL.
On the converse side of things, those who give UP on good intentions and
the hope of doing that which is right in this life are “rewarded” in the
Christianity of today and called the “faithful.”

Christians will even quote famous verses, such as the one found in the Letter
of John which says “he who says I am without sin is a liar and the truth is
not in him,” and they will quote such verses as the ones that warn against
going about to “set up your own righteousness” or warn us against “self
righteousness” and they shall apply these verses to people who desire to BE
FORUMS and BIBLE STUDIES. Suddenly, not just seeking to be “self
righteous” is condemned but seeking to be GOOD, or RIGHTEOUS (both
things that we are COMMANDED TO DO) are now condemned by the
Christian! He who seeks to be “without sin in this life” is now called a

Anyone who can look at the SAD STATE of affairs in the Christian religion
and not see just how BADLY they have become “antichrist” in their
lifestyles and in their life philosophy, well, such a person is simply blinded
by their own ignorance, for a child can look at these errors I’ve pointed out
and see them clearly for what they are. The LIES of the devil!

I will now modify this cliché for you to make it far more accurate….

The road to hell is paved by Christian (religious) intentions!

I’ll leave you with that thought for now.