Expiration Date? October 5, 2014

⁶ “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;"  Isaiah 55:6 ESV

Today's verse implies that there may be a time when people will not be able to access God.  That window will be closed.  Growing up in a Baptist church, I was taught that after death it was impossible to move from lost to saved, but Isaiah seems to imply that time may be prior to physical death.  This new thought sent me to the commentaries.  Below are come verses from commentaries that seem to support the idea that we only have a window in which we can accept Christ as Lord and Savior.  There is an expiration date on the Holy Spirit's conviction.  Or is there?

¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ¹² But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'  Matthew 25:11-12 ESV

² For he says,

“In a favorable time I listened to you,
    and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV

²⁴ Because I have called and you refused to listen,
    have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded,
²⁸ Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer;
    they will seek me diligently but will not find me.

Proverbs 1:24, 28 ESV 

Are these verses speaking only to the after-death experience, or are they warning us that if we continually turn our backs on God we will lose the opportunity for eternal life?  If this is the case, it certainly ratchets up the urgency of every witnessing interaction, every evangelism sermon, and every alter call.