The 95 year-old lady

"One of the sweetest ladies I have ever known just died recently. She was 95 years old. I knew her all my life. She never said a harsh word to anyone. Love for others oozed out of every pore. She was always so helpful and kind and the most non-judgmental person I have ever known. However she was not a Christian, she was Buddhist. I just can't believe she ever did anything to deserve being cast into a place of eternal torment. If that's what Christians really believe then I don't want any part of it." Starstuff

I have no doubt that she was a sweet lady, and it’s great that you think that she never said a harsh word to anyone. I'm sorry that you lost a dear friend. My dad died a few years ago, and I thought the world of him.

Still, I have to be honest with you and ask how you knew that in her 95 years she never said a harsh word to a soul. Perhaps you are being charitable yourself and kindly giving your friend the benefit of the doubt. But let’s say that she was almost morally perfect, except for three slips a day. Just three times each 24 hours did she perhaps think a lustful thought, or fail to love God with her heart, mind, soul, and strength, or she didn’t love her neighbor (everyone) as much as she loved herself (which is the essence of the requirement of God’s Law). Maybe she became angry without cause, was greedy, unthankful to God, or selfish. But she only slipped three times each day. So she sins against God a thousand times a year. If we take a count from the age of ten, that’s 85,000 sins (crimes against His Law) that God has seen and must punish because of His perfect holiness.

Most of us would sin ten times as much as that, with our lustful, selfish, self-righteous, unthankful, and greedy thoughts, as well as our lying, stealing, blasphemy and our failing to do that we know we should. That’s why the Bible says that each of us have a "multitude" of sins (see James 5:20).

So, if your elderly friend was as perfect as you say she was, she doesn’t need a Savior. She will be fine on Judgment Day. However, if she was like the rest of us, and she actually became pious in the old age because she was driven by a guilty conscience, she desperately needed God’s forgiveness. And she could have found that in the person of Jesus Christ, not in atheistic Buddhism.