WRONG THOUGHTS ON THE ETERNAL DAY
It was the thought for the day on Radio 4. You never expect too much, but you live in hope. The speaker was a Canon in the Church of England and he was even worse than was expected. The worst thing was his denial of eternity or more precisely of the immortality of the soul. To this poor man “when you die you die”. He felt this gave urgency to life and a sense of the preciousness of human life.
To try to justify this approach he quoted 1 Timothy 6:16, “(God) who alone is immortal”. He should, of course, have read v14, “keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And that refers to the physical presence of the Risen Christ in time and space. He who is “our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:10).
At the same time I read the review of a recently published book, “Love Wins”. This is written by the proponent of the emerging church, Rob Bell. His book questions the reality of Hell. He again has seriously to misuse Scripture and to ignore some obvious passages that teach the reality of Hell. But the essence of his argument is that heaven and hell are part of this life and this world. He also seems to be more taken up with what we do with each other than what we do in relation to God.
The reason for raising this issue now is that it shows how that within the church there are serious deviations from the truth. The values of this age have taken deep root in the thinking of many who lead and teach within the church. Relativism cannot accept the idea of eternity. To modern man it is unacceptable that by His death and resurrection Christ has brought true life to men, and He has also brought immortality to the fore. There is a life that knows no end. It is the life of Christ within a believer. This fact deeply challenges the idea that when you’re dead you’re dead. And it also reinforces the fact of hell because heaven is made real.
Both the men we have quoted, and many other people in our society, believe that by denying the eternal they establish the present. So “death gives life its urgency: Now is the opportunity to love and to respond to love.” But for every Christian the motivation to love is the love of God in Christ. That love is a love produced by the work of the Holy Spirit. In other words the true exercise of love in this life needs the input of the Eternal.
But there is yet another argument against this preoccupation with the present to the exclusion of the eternal and that is the evil of death. Think of the great tragedy that has just taken place in Japan. Recall the major calamities of recent history - the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the devastating cyclone in Myanmar in 2008, the awful earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the terrible earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011 and now the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan in 2011. These are awesome events that brought devastation and loss of life on a huge scale. And these are not alone; there have been myriad natural disasters that have struck countries around the globe with terrible consequences. What comfort is there in saying to people that “when you are dead you are dead”? What hope is there for any person struggling with the hardships and unpredictability of life?
The views expressed do exactly what most people do in our day. They ignore the Lord Jesus Christ and the impact of His glorious death and resurrection. Why do people want to do that? Jesus answered that question – “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.” (John 15:22). Once the facts about Jesus Christ are accepted then there are very demanding implications. Disasters come and remind us of the shortness and uncertainty of life. We live on the verge of eternity. How much we should live this life in the love of God with an eye upon eternity. This is the message that our relativistic age needs to hear. How dangerous is the pre-occupation of even evangelical Christians to talk almost exclusively about the blessings of the present and to ignore the realities of eternity.
Roger Hitchings 12/03/2011