Two Roads

On Kids’ Radio, Whit presents Simon Ferris and Sonny Belial, two boys from the same neighborhood, school, and church. When a football knocks over a cafeteria vending machine, candy spills onto the floor. Sonny decides that taking it is more like finding than stealing, while Simon refuses and walks away.

That first theft begins a long decline for Sonny. He stops attending church, steals a car in high school, and enters juvenile detention. There he meets an older criminal who recruits him after their release. Store robbery leads to organized crime, and by age twenty-six Sonny is a wealthy mob leader. The law eventually catches him, and he receives fifty-nine years in prison without parole. He dies there and discovers that the road he chose has ended in hell.

Whit then returns to the cafeteria and follows Simon. Simon tells his parents what happened and commits himself to doing right. He attends church faithfully, memorizes Scripture, rejects cheating, leads his youth group, attends Bible college, and becomes a successful motivational speaker. He grows rich, creates a famous charity, and is eventually elected to Congress.

Simon’s public goodness hides a deeper problem. He takes pride in his accomplishments and in the admiration they bring him. While running for president, he avoids questions about his failures and will not affirm that he has personally invited Jesus into his heart for forgiveness. He respects Jesus as a great religious teacher, but he trusts his own moral record instead of Christ.

Simon dies shortly before the election and is shocked to arrive at the same destination as Sonny. He protests that he avoided theft, told the truth, and lived as a good man. Yet all his outward goodness could not remove his sin, because he never chose the grace, mercy, and forgiveness Jesus offers through the cross.

Whit explains that Sonny makes choices that destroy both his earthly life and his eternity, while Simon makes many choices that benefit this life but rejects the one choice that matters for the next. Their roads look completely different, but neither leads through the narrow gate of Jesus. Good works cannot make a person good enough for heaven; both the obvious criminal and the respected leader need a saving relationship with Christ.