Is Remorse for Killing Ants Salvific?

The Altar Call is Wherever You Find It

by Tim Roger, pastor
Ebenezer Baptist Church
Indian Trail, N. Car.

An acquaintance of Tim Rogers – pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Indian Trail, N. Car. – wanted to chat with Pastor Rogers, so he asked Tim to drop by a sixth-grade football practice session, where the two could talk. Pastor Rogers recounts the visit:

“The last place I want to be at supper time is a sixth-grade football practice, but the pastor in me said go. When I got there, the man began explaining that when he was three-years-old, he was killing some ants one day and then became very remorseful about it. He wondered if the ants were in heaven, and if he would go to hell for being a murderer.

Concerned, he begged his parents to take him to church. They did, first to a Methodist church; and some time later, a Presbyterian one. The Methodist church accepted childhood remorse for killing ants as the boy’s salvation experience. The Presbyterian minister was not sure, but told the lad that because was doing good works, then he more than likely was saved.

This boy grew up to marry a woman who is a member of Ebenezer, where I am pastor, and even this church’s former pastor accepted his salvation and immersed him as a member of the church.

The man asked me if I thought he was a Christian, and I said that if he were depending on the remorse for killing ants as his conversion, then no.

You should have seen his head snap. He was shocked. He said: ‘Are you telling me I am not saved?’ I told him that only he could know that, and I couldn’t tell him what God was doing in his life. But, I told him the Bible says: ‘Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ It does not teach ‘whoever feels remorse for killing ants shall be saved.’

He was astounded that I would point him to that verse. I asked him why, and he said that he could not get away from Romans 10:9-10; 13. He said those verses haunted him, and he wanted to know if I believed he had to verbally ask Jesus to come into his heart. I told him I not only believed it, but I believed the Bible teaches it in the verses he could not stop thinking about.

Because of our conversation and leading him to other Scriptures, right there on the sidelines of a sixth-grade football practice, the man asked Jesus into his heart. It was glorious. He told his son, and then told me he would tell his wife when he got home.

I wanted to share this with SBCToday readers as a reminder that, as you speak with others who are depending on anything for their salvation other than the work of Jesus on the cross, to be ready to share the true Gospel with them.”