Knowing what to say

Religion | Pastor D. James Kennedy dies at the age of 76 | Joel Belz

If ever there were someone who had rehearsed—again, and again, and again—the very words he might use to greet the Lord of Heaven when he died and stepped through the pearly gates, that person had to be D. James Kennedy. On that core issue, Kennedy wanted no false assurance and no confusion. Your theology didn't have to be fancy—but it had to be sound. Don't count on your own good works; lean on the goodness of Jesus.

Kennedy's death on Sept. 5, following a devastating cardiac arrest late last December from which he had little recovery, ended a career that had launched a dozen significant ministries. None of the others, though, carried a Kennedy trademark as indelible as the work of Evangelism Explosion International, which for years has taught Christians to share their faith by asking two disarmingly simple questions: Are you sure you're going to heaven when you die? What do you base your certainty on?