I readily admit to NOT being a Toma Hanks fan (the reason for this opening sentence will become apparent upon reading the article below). Yes, he’s a gifted actor. I used to watch every Tom Hanks movie and I even met and took care of Mr. Hanks one time long, long ago when I lived in the Los Angeles area. I was working for a very nice gourmet wine and liquor shop right across the street from a major TV and film studio.

One evening Tom Hanks walked into the shop where I worked an evening job to pay the bills as I wrote full-length feature film scripts on spec. That means speculation. Imagination. Not being asked to and not being paid but hoping to one day have that happen.

Tom was dressed in hipster actor, “I’m a cool actor” black leather jacket and white scarf, looking like he was auditioning for a role as a World War II pilot. He had just been informed his TV program, Bosom Buddies (some here now may be old enough to remember that TV program) had been canceled and he was rather dejected.

I knew who he was. I offered to help him, asking him what he was looking for, and he informed me he had just been canceled, lost his job and he was looking for a nice bottle of red wine. Our shop stocked some of the finest low-volume boutique wines in the area. The owner knew his stuff and also knew our clientele, which was many folks from across the street and in the upper-class residential area not far away.

Mr. Hanks and I spoke a bit. I told him I was sure he’d find more work soon and his career wasn’t over.

I picked out a bottle of wine for him. He trusted my knowledge, bought it, left and I never saw him again except in movies.

A few days ago I read a couple of articles about his son, Chet, and how Chet had gone from an atheist to believing in God. He had a “moment” when in his teens while being a difficult youth and his parents sending him away to a boot camp type experience in Utah, upon sitting on a mountain top he suddenly;y realized there is a “higher intelligence” in the universe.

Now many so-called Christian media outlets and so-called Christian writers jumped on this and pronounced Chet Hanks a Christian, Chet Hanks believes in God!

I read about 3 of the different articles.

You may have noticed none of them appeared here reprinted.

There’s a reason for that.

Not so fast, Chet, and everyone annoying Chet Hanks a Christian and believer in God.

Even the devil believes in God. And we know Satan isn’t going to be spending his eternity in heaven, don’t we?

Don’t be deceived. Misled. Distracted.

This is not to sit in judgment. And I truly hope Mr. Chet Hanks, as well as his mother and father come into the Light, the Truth, the Life, and the Way and become renewed of mind and spirit, transformed by the power of the Spirit of God and they all commit their lives to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and become living disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ while merciful and patient God richly blesses them and blesses them with life.

But let’s slow down and be discerning and accurate. Knowledgeable in our knowing shall we? And every true disciple of Jesus, every true child of God knows what is involved. What it takes. What must happen in order to one day see the Father and spend eternity in heaven.

Let’s pray Mr. Chet Hanks, his mother, his father, and countless others come to also know this and live it to one day while God grants them breath and a beating heart — but let’s not easily jump onto the bandwagon that everyone is a Christian, everyone is going to heaven just because they say they believe in God.

Remember…the Evil One also believes does he not? As do his angels and the demons? And will they be spending their eternity in heaven with the Father just because they believe in Him? Or are some other vital matters necessary for that to occur?

Ken Pullen

Tuesday, March 9th, 2021

ACP — A Crooked Path

It’s not enough to believe God exists

09 March 2021

By Rob James

Reprinted from Christian Today

I readily admit to being a Tom Hanks fan. In my opinion he is an outstanding actor, and the universal acclaim he receives is well deserved. You only need to watch Forrest Gump to appreciate that! It should come as no surprise then, to discover that his name has real pulling power. Indeed this celebrity factor was clearly evident in the reaction I witnessed to the recent story about his son Chet’s ‘life changing encounter’ with God.

I must admit I was hugely encouraged when I first began to read his story because I am always thrilled to hear of people coming to faith, whatever their family pedigree and whatever their religious background. I was especially delighted to find that his encounter with ‘the divine’ had had such positive impact on his life too. Things can only get better when anger and hate are replaced by hope and peace and love.

But the more I read the more I began to wonder how much Chet Hanks knows about the Christian faith or whether he had simply realised that God is no figment of the imagination. Comments such as these have raised questions for me.

“It was at that moment,” he said, “that was the birth of my spiritual life, that was when I was overcome. I knew, OK, no, there is something else out there. There is a higher power, there is a higher intelligence because it felt like it just tapped me on the shoulder.”

I wonder then, does Chet know that this ‘higher intelligence’ has said that the only way to get right with ‘Him’ is through a relationship with Jesus? It might sound arrogant and extremely exclusive to many today, but if we want to remain faithful to the apostolic gospel, we have to recognise that He claimed to be ‘the way the truth and the life’ and no one can enjoy a proper relationship with His ‘Heavenly Father’ other than through Him.

Like His first followers, Jesus clearly believed that we need to be ‘saved’. As the late, great John Stott once said, Christianity is a ‘religion of salvation’ and that ‘The God of the Bible is a God who keeps coming to the rescue of his people’. I wonder if anyone told Chet that death is not the end of life? The New Testament clearly tells us that we will either spend eternity rejoicing in the new heaven and new earth or ‘perishing’, and that the outcome will be determined by our relationship with Jesus.

That means we need to believe certain things about Him. It is essential that we believe He died that we might be forgiven, and have the assurance that on the last day we will hear God declare us ‘not guilty’. It is crucial too that we accept the New Testament claim that He was raised to life again on that first Easter Day.

Most crucially, we must come to terms with the fact that authentic faith necessarily issues in obedience. This is what it means to acknowledge Jesus as ‘Lord’. The first Christians clearly understood that. They knew that in the final analysis, they had to choose to obey Caesar or Jesus. It’s no different today. If we want to be a Christian we have to let Him take control of our lives.

I do hope that the hand that ‘tapped’ Chet Hanks on the shoulder shared these truths with him too, or if not, that someone else has grasped the opportunity to do so. I would be thrilled to be told that he is a believer.

The Christian message could be a delusion of course, and we are all free to believe that. But everyone needs to understand what they are dismissing. After all the stakes couldn’t be higher.