An old wager (Pascal's wager) I used to hear in Sunday School and Children's church went like this: "If you choose not to believe in Jesus and you are wrong, you will be forced to spend an eternity in hell. However, if you choose to believe in Jesus and it turns out the Bible is a myth, you still would have lost nothing. You will have lived a good life."
I believe people can come to a saving faith through a variety of circumstances and outreach scenarios - since it is God that does the pursuing and saving, thankfully we don't have to be right in order for God to be faithful to the chosen to bare His name. So I suppose an unbeliever could possibly hear this message, and, after processing it realize he cannot afford to be wrong about the afterlife. I can see how this may be a mechanism for the unbeliever to turn to Christ.
Setting that aside, the anecdote is 100% wrong. It's another pitch that following Christ is just a "good" life. In this hypothetical if we use history as a guide, and then suppose one follows Christ's teachings on a superstitious hunch, we could surmise that one would be in for a very uncomfortable life. One should expect to be mocked, possibly tortured, demoted, passed over, imprisoned, denied rights, subject to unrepaid wrongs, deprived of justice, marginalized, looked down upon, and impoverished, to name a few. All the while you would be denying yourself all the creature comforts of conforming and following the crowd. Your super bowl parties may be emptier, your boss may despise you because you convict him of immorality and your raises will be skinnier, society with castigate you because you are intolerant and your social circle will be smaller, and you may starve to death because one day you may not be allowed to even buy food without "playing ball" with the world so your modernly opulent lifestyle will be compromised. After all, the Jesus who we hypothetically wager to follow promised that the world would hate us in Matthew 10:22. I think we're ok with the world hating us, as long as it is the parts of the world we feel we're better than and desire nothing from.
If one "came to Christ" under the guise that "this is a good idea regardless if that Jesus turns out to be real", he would be rejecting any real experience with the savior. He would, under his own power, try to rid himself of vices that, although pleasurable, seemed to be inconvenient to his self-seeking purpose. Asking for "fire insurance", he may find himself getting hell here on earth, and possibly even thereafter. So by wagering to avoid one hell, he may find two.
Can fire insurance really give you eternal assurance? I propose that if you had assurance, you would not need the insurance. This week I'm taking the "it's a good life" card out of my playing deck. Perhaps I'll replace it with the freedom I believe in when we put aside serving ourselves and take up serving someone who's purposes are much higher. Now I am not saying you cannot characterize the believer's life as "good", just that it would not be good if it weren't for the absolute certainly of tomorrow. If it "turns out" not to be true, it was a really bad idea.
My prayer this week is that I stop prizing a Christian life that is good in the eyes of the conveniently pious, and start prizing one that is hard, but of lasting value, to our wonderful and very near Savior.
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