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On the Death of a Friend

This year, 2008, a person whom I counted as a close friend, Heinz Klein, died of complications associated with cancer. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I have to come to terms with the fact that, as far as I know, Heinz did not turn to Christ. (Of course, it is possible that he did unbeknown to me or perhaps in his heart just before he died, but I do not feel it is right to cling onto such possibilities. For one thing, Heinz himself would not want me to do so, for reasons that will become apparent.) How have I done so? The process I went through is actually part of an on-going process, just applied in Heinz' case.

Heinz Klein

My view of Heinz Klein is complex, but here is some of it. The main things that struck me about Heinz, a very sharp mind coupled with honesty and a great humility. In addition, he was great at things like skiing and tennis, though I could not share these. He had a rather nice wit and sense of humour. He loved good food and so on.

His sharp mind meant that he was able to do what few of us have done, to understand deeply the ideas of four or five major streams of philosophy, sufficiently to apply their ideas to information systems and to critique them. Most people who use philosophy in relation to IS (including me) take one stream of philosophy and explore and apply that, but Heinz understood several but did not attach himself to any. As a result, he gave four Leverhulme Lectures at Salford University on these various streams (two more planned were never delivered). From all this, he published a large number of key papers. He was always scrupulously honest, and I learned that, by comparison with him, I had not been as honest as I assumed I was.

His humility. Most of his papers are written with someone else. It seems he saw his role in the information systems community as encouraging and mentoring others, rather than promoting himself. As a result while those he mentored obtained full chairs, Heinz never did. This, I think, was not a failing on his part, but rather arises from a deep humility in him. Not modesty, but a realism and common sense, being able to see himself as talented and yet just one among many. When he came to Salford University for a spell, he was not demanding of expensive or prestigious accommodation or facilities.

In both these ways, Heinz was a better person than I am. Of course, he had flaws - I don't know what he was like to live with, for example - and even his intellect, honesty and humility were limited. He had some particular blind spots. I do not mention them here, because I don't need to.

Perhaps what I valued most was that I felt in him a kindred spirit with my own. He and I seemed to understand each other, even though we knew each other for only a couple of years. I felt comfortable with him, and able to talk with him in ways I talk with few others. One thing we talked about was Jesus Christ and theology. We were planning a trip round Scotland together, and I was hoping for some good theoretical chats. Heinz was a bit hung up on whether Jesus was son of God or not. Though we had a number of discussions on this, I had hoped to turn the conversation in a different direction, expressing something of my living relationship with Christ and my hope in him. But it was not to be.

Heinz held himself to be an agnostic. At one stage he doubted whether Jesus Christ ever existed as a human being, let alone as God. But on reading 'The Gnostic Gospels' (Elaine Pagals) he came to believe that Jesus had indeed existed as an historical figure (ironic!). But, as far as I know, that is as far as he got towards any faith in Christ.

My Theological Problem

I believe that Jesus Christ alone is the way to salvation and to acceptability with God. According to the traditional view, which I held for years, a strong implication of this is that only those who turn to Christ (e.g. by asking Jesus Christ to be their Saviour and Lord: being 'born again') can become accepted by God. In which case - to put it bluntly - my friend Heinz is lost, as far as I know. This would make me deeply sad on God's Judgement Day, because my friend, who was better than I am, is lost while I am saved. So what do I do?

Do I try to find 'comforting verses' in Scripture which might suggest otherwise (e.g. a doctrine of universal salvation)? Honesty forbids that, because I cannot bend Scripture to my preferences, but must bend myself to its truth as far as I understand it. Moreover, Heinz's honesty would also disallow it, so I would be dishonouring Heinz if I were to bend Scripture.

However, I have seen a few other things in Scripture, and these I want to set forth.

Jesus Christ is the only way to God the Father. I believe we are saved, not by any goodness in us nor by lack of flaws (usually called 'sin'), but only by the work of Christ (often referred to as 'atonement', referring to his death, by means of which alone we can be made 'at one' with God).
But for whom is Christ's work effective? Is Christ's death effective only for those who have turned to him consciously? Or might it also be effective for others? I believe it might be.
God's Judgement. In that case, on what criterion are we accepted by God? By whether we are good people? No! As the prophet put it, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. By what we believe? No! Those most right in their beliefs were castigated by Jesus. Jesus answers this question quite clearly in his story of the sheep and the goats recorded in Matthew 25:31-46. The Son of Man (himself) will judge all humankind, separating them into 'sheep' and 'goats'. The sheep are welcomed, with:
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance ... For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I as a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ..." The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
Read the whole story, of which that is part. Notice: the sheep did not realise they had done this for the King. The sheep served the 'least' out of their inner attitude of heart. Which was Heinz? We are not permitted to judge, because only God knows for sure. But I believe that Heinz' genuine humility and desire to help others might suggest he was a sheep. And he will be asking "When, Lord, did I do this for you? I was not even sure you existed for a long time." Maybe the Lord is saying to him "Whatever ..." Who knows?
God's knowing. God judges the heart, the inner self. What was Heinz' inner self like? Only God knows. We so often do not see the other person's inner self clearly either because they hide it (even from themselves) or because we have a biased view of the person. However, what we experience of a person is usually at least partly an expression of that inner self. That is what I take my experience of Heinz' honesty and humility to be, even if limited. I am content that God knows truly and will not make a mistake.
But would I be happy with God's judgement, whichever way it goes? This brings me to the next and final point ...
God is Just. Whatever judgement God makes, I am deeply convinced not only that it is Right (in the sense that it truly suits the New Creation that will continue eternally and that any other judgement would be destructive) but that all humanity (including Heinz) will agree deep down with it. There will be nobody who will be saying in their hearts "God, that's not fair!" because we will all see things as they really are. All humanity - and indeed the whole of Creation - will be deeply Satisfied with God's judgements. Note also that God's Justice is because of his love, not in spite of it (See 'Justice as Love').

I find these make sense to me. They suggest that I will not find myself, on God's Judgement Day, harbouring in my heart a sadness that my friend is lost while I am saved. Heinz' eternal destiny is ultimately a matter for God, who is Justice and Love.

If what I understand from my experience of Heinz is not completely wrong, and the above four points are correct, then I think it reasonable to expect that both Heinz and I will be deeply satisfied with the result, and we will both see clearly. Heinz will then know what he did not know in this life, that Jesus Christ is the God-Who-Saves. In response, not only I but perhaps Heinz too, will fall down in love and praise before Him. Then Heinz' superb intellect and humility - and many other qualities - will be purified from dross and blind spots and will be enabled to grow in ways that were not possible here. I look forward to that time beyond Time, that Resurrection effected by Christ.

For a more general discussion, see my page on Salvation.

This page, "http://abxn.org/hkk.html" is part of Andrew Basden's abxn.org pages - pages that open up discussion and exploration from a Christian ('xn') perspective. Written on the Amiga with Protext, in the style of classic HTML.

Comments, queries welcome.

Created: 20 December 2008. Last updated: 21 December 2008 thanks to M+MAS and AF for comments. 1 January 2009 new .end, .nav, corrected link; page made public with Linda Klein's permission. 25 January 2009 a few changes, making the argument clearer with extra bullet. 21 April 2014 corrected link. 6 March 2020 corrected unclear prose; rid counter, new .end, .nav.