Eternity

Is.57:15 - For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity...

Only God is eternal, but He has chosen to share futuristic eternity in His creations. Why, we can only surmise, but it must be woven throughout the unfathomable character and love of the Creator God. And with eternity as the backdrop, the redemptive story sheds its earthly ties and soars past Adam, past David, past Bethlehem, past Calvary, past Revelation, and lifts up on eagles wings flying into the loving certainty of the Heavenly Father's care. And when the Eternal One Himself says, "What should it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul", well, Jesus accentuates the eternal as opposed to the temporal. The Holy Spirit through Paul tells us to "look on the things that are not seen, not the things that are seen" and "the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are not seen are eternal".

Being a child of the sixties I can remember the growing emphasis on social issues and earthly relationships, all of which were a "show of will worship" but only to the satisfying to the flesh. It was well intentioned but not eternal. If a man slips over a cliff and is hanging on to a little bush trying not to fall into the abyss, and if someone recognizes his plight and rushes to his aid, leans over the cliff, and lowers him a cold drink, and while he watches him quench his thirst the man slips to his death, what good did he do? There is a giant, sixties like movement within the church to bring humanitarian and social justice issues to the forefront at the expense of the everlasting gospel. For the record the American church is in the hedonistic bed of capitalism and greed, building great buildings with state of the art everything and with every micro-ministry to each segment of the western church. All the while Christians and unbelievers alike starve and are in great want throughout the world, but most churches now have large screens within the sanctuary so as not to miss the most entertaining vantage point. God wants our children to have large gymnasiums but he declines to feed His African children. We are so blessed.

Now several movements have recognized this colossal waste and in the process of attempting to right the ship they have left the message, which is "that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life". Christ did not die on a Roman cross to pay for a better and more productive earthly life, and in some cases men and women were significantly better off in this world before they became followers of Jesus. We now are hearing people "put into context" the eternal consequences of heaven and hell, you do your own definition. Let us agree that whatever the particulars of heaven and hell after death, they are forever and heaven is infinitely more desirable than hell. People go to great lengths to remove any apprehension and fear of their coming eternity and in that they do a great disservice to people and disdain to the cross of Christ.

Word studies, cultural compromise, new understandings, and a wider definition of God's mercy that doesn't even include the name of Jesus is the theology du jour. And the truth is no one wants to think about eternity, this life and this world are front and center and a rearranging of salvation parameters is necessary to remove the archaic moorings that have suffocated the church for centuries. It is now a "roll of the dice" and from so many corners teachers today have more questions than Biblical answers. And here we stand, two thousand years later, and we still are hashing over the paramount question of the ages, "What must I do to be saved?" And if the answer to that question is so intricate and complex, and if it depends on the situation, and if it must be extracted from the intellectual writings of the modern literary theologians, then we are doomed. All have a view, all have a doctrine, all have a question, and all can pull the rug out from under the sturdy and proven foothold of orthodox redemptive teachings with just philosophical words that present hypotheticals which leverage uncertainty. Great essays, great literature, great philosophy, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

So here it is, simply told by a simpleton. Does every person born exist for eternity in either heaven or hell? If the answer is yes, then the question becomes how can I arrive in heaven? If the answer is "it depends" then save your breath because it depends upon you and your interpretation. And if all the different emerging streams of thought concerning salvation only muddy the waters and expose our departure from basic historical teachings concerning the born again experience, then let us quit being hypocrites and publicly go on television and say like the Pharisees said to Jesus "We cannot tell". At least we will have honesty as a foundation.

But if we are convinced that as much as within us lies, that the road to eternal life passes directly and only through faith in the finished work of the Person of Jesus the Christ, then let us lovingly, powerfully, and exclusively proclaim that to a desperately needy and dark world. And let us guard against allowing all the other fragmented issues cloud the eternal message of hope itself. The church is the ark of the New Covenant, and our responsibility is infinitely greater than rearrainging the chairs of this Earthly Titanic without offering a life saving course correction.

Eternity is the high prize than can only be won through the Eternal One, Jesus the Christ. And six quintillion years from today, as we are gathered in worship before the unspeakable sight of the glorious majesty of the Risen Lion of the Tribe of Judah, will we not realize that all was vanity and vexation of spirit - except the knowledge of Him?

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.