Thomas Tarrants was a violent terrorist for the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. In June of 1968 while attempting to bomb the home of a prominent Jewish businessman in Meridian, MS, he was ambushed and shot several times by the FBI and Meridian police. He survived and was sentenced to thirty years in Parchman Penitentiary. He later managed to escape only to be recaptured a few days later.

Tarrant’s whole life had been dedicated to hating blacks and Jewish people. He had become widely known within the Klan and elevated to celebrity status. After his escape and recapture, he spent several years in solitary confinement. He began to read everything he could get his hands on from Plato to Carl Marx. Finally, he began reading the Bible and soon gave his live to Christ all alone there in his jail cell.

For Thomas Tarrants, this would not be a shallow dose of jailhouse religion. He had been radically born again and for him, everything was changed. After being released from maximum security, he became a consistent witness for Jesus Christ. He also befriended several black men, one of those being a former civil rights activists. Other believers that were not inmates befriended him, several that were in positions of authority and influence.

Eventually, after serving eight years of his thirty-year term, he was paroled to begin a new life. What the parole board didn’t understand was that the man they were paroling was not the same man that the state had locked up. He had become a new creation in Christ having been born again. Several years later, Thomas Tarrants would become President of the C. S. Lewis Institute in Washington D.C.

What was the cure for this man’s intense hatred for those of other races? Was it the well thought-out prison system and their competent staff that changed this bigoted terrorist? Was it techniques and methods of reform including solitary confinement that caused him to choose to refrain from criminal activities? Although all of these are necessary and certainly help keep order, it was none of these that caused Tarrants to abandon the life and philosophy of his past. Thomas Tarrants took the one and only cure that could work for him both in this life and the next. That cure simply put was that he came to realize that there was only one way to make amends that would be accepted by a Holy God.

He realized that he must be born again! (John 3:3) He finally cane to understand and accept that there was only one way to Heaven and to God the Father.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6

Is this something that just worked for Tarrants and a few others, but doesn’t necessarily work for everyone? Can we be creative and design another way just for us that will get us into Paradise? The answer to this question is in the verse you just read. Jesus is the way, the only way … and no man or woman can come to the Father (who is in Heaven), but by Him (Jesus). Is there some part of that we cannot understand?

But there is more that must be said here. What will it take to turn a hateful murderer into one who is filled with love for his fellow-man?

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

Is this really that complicated? If it is, wouldn’t you want to spend the time necessary to understand and accept it as truth? Our eternal destiny depends upon it, you know. This is what Tarrants and millions of others have done. They made it a matter of priority so that they could be sure they would not miss Heaven.

If you haven’t yet done it, take the cure … take Jesus at His word. Trust Him now while there is still time.