Tell us a little bit about your
religious background and upbringing. I come from the Caribbean. I
was brought up in a church funded by a priest that was against
slavery, John Smith, an English priest. So the congregation over
the years has formed a Rastafarian faith. I find myself, even though
I come under a Rastafarian faith, I'm much more like a priest. I think there is a resonance
of God in every religion. That I think he is one and that
there are different religions and different cultures. So you
have had Rastafarian, Hindu, Muslim background, Congregationalist,
Christian background. Well let me ask you this. Let's
say you had a close friend or a family member, father, mother,
brother, sister, that had 24 hours to live. And you might
have given me some of your answer earlier, but I'm going to ask
it anyway. 24 hours to live, and they came to you and they
said, I want to live forever with God in His house, Heaven. Tell me how to get there. What
would you say to them? They've got 24 hours to live
and then they're going to die and meet their maker. I don't think for instance when
you die God judges you. I think God puts you in a space
where you have to judge yourself. I think it's almost like putting
you in a room where all the truths about yourself are seen. He doesn't
have to say it to you. When you were 12 years old, you
did that to steal something. You kind of recognize it yourself.
You recognize it. Well, what are we going to do
if I get into that room and I kind of recognize that I've done a
lot of bad things. Take me from there. I would have
to ask him for forgiveness. I think God is compassionate,
but I don't always think that he always forgives just like
that. I think you have to earn it. How much of the scriptures
have you read? The Bible? I don't know if I've read the
Bible from cover to cover. I couldn't say quote things from
it. I've come from the Caribbean,
and Caribbean people are church people. I mean, every Sunday,
you have to go to church. Tonight, maybe. Just open the
Gospel of John, and when you talk about Jesus being a little
different than we are, yes, the Bible also calls him his only
begotten son. And then that book of John really
tells us why he came how he was different than we are, and it
also tells us why he died, and it makes reference to his resurrection,
why he rose from the dead. And the simple message in the
Gospel of John is that because you and I, like you mentioned,
you ask his forgiveness every night, and you struggle through
life. Every single one of us do. We're all sinners. We're
all broken as laws and we struggle with, why do I do these things?
Everyone does things we don't want to do and then don't do
the things that we should do. I mean, that's just human nature.
But the gospel of John tells us that Jesus came to do something
we couldn't do. And that is he obeyed God's law
perfectly. He was God's obedient son. And
the Bible does reveal he died in the place of sinners as God's
offering. Not something that you and I
could have done. God did it for us in his son.
He rose from the dead. And the message of John, when
you come to the end of the gospel, he says these things are written.
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name. and that thing of faith, how
people feel about faith I can say this to you I don't have
a whole lot of faith in myself because I know if I died and
I stood in that room you were talking about and I had to evaluate
my life I already know what my life's been and I know that it's
not as perfect as the God who made me and that he can't fellowship
with me because of my life but I also know that he has a son
and that his son is the son in the father's house And I have
put my faith in His Son. And so I feel secure, not because
of who I am, but because of who Christ is. It's not so much faith,
it's the object of our faith. You can put a lot of faith in
yourself, or a lot of faith in me, or a lot of faith in Stephen,
or a lot of faith in Buddha, or Mohammed. Read the Gospel
of John. Chapter 14, Jesus said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father
but by me. I hope you and I have another conversation in the future,
my friend.