It’s Your Destiny: Don’t Make This Mistake

I was saddened to hear about the recent passing of cartoonist Scott Adams. His Dilbert cartoons were a frequent source of delight to me, brightening many lunchtime conversations. It left a vacuum in the comics section of our local paper when Dilbert became a victim of the culture war. I laughed at the insights Adams gave us about the corporate world and society. However, I grieved over Adams’ last statement about eternal destiny. As you read this, please remember, it’s your personal destiny that matters now, don’t make the mistake Adams made.

Adams wasn’t the first to err in this way. Hermann Goering, commander of the Nazi German Air Force, was sentenced to death during the Nuremberg war trials. A remarkable Lutheran chaplain, Henry F. Gerecke, was assigned to minister to those on trial at Nuremberg. Yesterday after I read the news, I remembered the chaplain’s notes about one of his last conversations with Goering.

After a heart-wrenching farewell visit from his wife and daughter, Goering asked Chaplain Gerecke if he could partake of communion in the Lord’s Supper. From his many conversations with Goering, the chaplain knew that the commander was not a believer. Goering had repeatedly mocked the Bible’s teaching about creation, inspiration of the Scripture and the saving work of Jesus Christ. But on this occasion, he asked to partake of the Lord’s Supper.

According to Chaplain Gerecke, “His attitude was, ‘Just in case there is anything to this business of yours.’”¹

Gerecke countered, “You remember what your little daughter said?”

Goering responded, “’Yes, she believes in your Savior,’ he said slowly. ‘I’ll take my chances.’”

Gerecke wisely refused to conduct the Lord’s Supper celebration for Goering.

As widely reported, Scott Adams, the artist who produced the Dilbert cartoons, wrote on January 1, 2026:

“Next, many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go. I am not a believer, I have to admit the risk/reward calculation for doing so looks so attractive to me, so here I go,” … ‘I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and savior, and look forward to spending an eternity with him.’ The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in Heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. I hope I am still qualified for entry.”²

Do you see the similarities between Goering’s response and Adam’s statement? Both had heard the good news of Jesus Christ. In Goering’s case, we know that Chaplain Gerecke had proclaimed the message of repentance from sins and the need to believe in the saving work of Christ. We can but hope that those who shared the gospel with Scott Adams did the same.

But many today are presenting the gospel with a “quick-and-easy-believe-it” approach with predictable results. For instance, when the Babylon Bee staff interviewed Elon Musk, Ethan Nicolle asked Musk, “To make this church, we’re wondering if you could do us a quick solid and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?”³

Musk responded, “‘Forgiveness, you know, is important and treating people as you would wish to be treated,’ added Musk. ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself. Very important. … But hey, if Jesus is saving people … I won’t stand in his way. Sure, I’ll be saved. Why not?’”

Is this an expression of the faith that saves?

A “Faith” That Won’t Save

The tragedy is that Commander Goering and cartoonist Adams shared the same “faith” – a faith that won’t save. Goering, as a non-believer, thought the Lord’s Table might grant him some advantage, and Adams, also a non-believer, thought that his written statement might help.

The Scriptures give us a precise warning about this kind of “faith.”

Hebrews 4:1-2 warns us,

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”

To both Goering and Adams, the gospel (in some form) was preached. But both men failed to mix their faith with the promises of God.

What About You?

Now stop to consider: does this describe your faith? Whether through a Christian upbringing or the faithfulness of an acquaintance, you have heard the gospel of Christ. But have you embraced the assurance that God’s Word offers you, and mixed your faith with God’s personal promises to you?

Jesus warned those who did not believe, but He also welcomed those who believed His promise to save them. According to John 10:26-28, Jesus said, “But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

Do you see why it is so important to place your faith in Jesus Christ to become one of His sheep? Those who are shepherded by Jesus Christ will listen to Him and He knows them. To them He has promised to give eternal life; those who trust Christ will never perish and no one is able to take them away from Jesus.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus Christ preached the same message: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17). They did so because Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. The right response to His glory is for each sinner to repent of his or her sins and embrace His saving work. Christ died for your sins and rose again to demonstrate God’s just response to sin and His mercy to repentant men.

Don’t make the mistake of Hermann Goering and Scott Adams.

---

After a lengthy pastoral ministry, Gordon Dickson now serves as a writer and conference speaker. You can contact him at LiveServeLead.

1. This conversation is recorded by Chaplain Gerecke as told to Merle Sinclair and as it appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, September 1, 1951. [↩]
2. Brian Flood, “’Dilbert’ creator Scott Adams dies at age 68,” Fox News, accessed at https://www.foxnews.com/media/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-dies-age-68. [↩]
3. Terry Mattingly, “Concerning Elon Musk, the Babylon Bee, and the Wise Teachings of Jesus” January 16, 2022. Accessed at https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2022/1/12/concerning-elon-musk-the-babylon-bee-and-the-wise-teachings-of-jesus. [↩]