The State of Eternity

 

There is a great amount of debate in the world of Christendom regarding the afterlife. Some people believe in “once saved, always saved”, some people believe in earning one’s salvation and some believe that being nice gets one into heaven, while being evil sends one to hell for eternal torture.

But all this completely misses the point of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Jesus Christ defeated the power of death and restored the relationship between God and men. No one is guaranteed bliss, and no one is guaranteed torment. What we ALL are guaranteed is eternal life. No one matter who you are or what you have done, you will live forever. When all men stand before the judgment seat of Christ at the end of history, we are not being judged for what we’ve done wrong, we are being judged for what we have done right (Revelation 20:11-12).

It is the responsibility of every person to love God and to love their neighbor. This is the criteria for our judgment. We will live forever, temporarily after death in a disembodied state, but after the final judgment we will live in a perfected body that will last forever. That state that we live in will be determined by the shape into which we formed our souls. Was our life built on love or selfishness? The more we strove after being like Christ, the more glorious our bliss will be in the presence of God. Those who only sought after pleasing themselves and being comfortable will not find the holy presence of God a pleasant experience.

Time and Money

 

Everything is on a scale. How we spend our money will be determined by what is most important on that scale. How we spend out time will be determined by what is most important on that scale. This is not to say that some things are not important but simply that, because we have limited time and limited money, some things are not purchased, or time is not spent.

The difficult part is when your scale is radically different than others. There seems to be a demand to explain oneself and how one spends time or money. While on one hand, we don’t owe anyone an explanation for our use of time and money, at the same time, responsibilities have demands and this forces us to spend our time and money in ways that we would probably not prefer.

From a Christian understanding of reality, our use of time and money needs to be a balance of addressing actual needs and helping others. If our life is focused simply on satisfying our whims and seeking to be comfortable, we are living with misaligned priorities.

The Meaning of Death

 

Reading the narrative of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden ought to raise the question, “What did God mean when he told man that in the day that he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would die”? Clearly, God was not speaking of physical death, for Adam went on to live more than nine hundred years.

The relationship between the death that came as a result of Adam’s sin and physical death are connected but are not a one-to-one relationship. When we look at the description of death all throughout the New Testament, it is a state of separation from God, which, coincidentally is what happened when Adam sinned. The moment that Adam and Eve sinned, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden, which represents the immediate presence of God.

Describing Eternity

     You have certain criteria that you use to decide with whom you spend your time. For those who decide that religious activity is not deemed worthy of one’s time, what happens when your eternity becomes a state in which the holiness of God is unavoidable? How would you describe that?

Moral Certainty

 

There is such thing as Christian morality, and it is easily identifiable. For the last two thousand years, the historic Christian church has clearly identified what is moral and what is immoral. There is no ambiguity. Since the advent of sectarianism amongst those who call themselves Christians, these moral standards have been maligned and questioned, usually based on the premise of personal interpretation and feelings.

While there are no grounds for condemnation or judgment of someone, there is two thousand years of historical precedent for us to align with. Just because someone feels a certain way or feels inclined to certain behaviors, does not mean that this is suddenly acceptable. Recognizing sinful inclinations and approving these behaviors is two very different things. We should acknowledge that people sin, but we must never normalize those sins or define them in a way that makes them socially acceptable. Regardless of how one feels about it, sin is always damaging. It may not be immediately damaging and sometimes we cannot see the damage that takes place to a person’s mental state/heart/soul.

We need to return to the moral standards that have always been the position of the Christian faith and we must never retreat or move beyond these lines.

Truth or Passion?

 

If people don’t like you because of things you believe or things you practice, there is nothing you can do about it. Arguing with them is usually pointless, for most people simply believe, don’t question what they believe, and don’t work through their worldview. They simply live it because that is what they grew up with. The best response is to give them no reason to not like you. Kindness in the face of petty ignorance will always win.

At the same time, some may choose to disdain you simply because you are you. Doing right and living according to truth will always come at a price, for there are those who want to live according to passion and not truth.

Maturity

    Are you, as a parent, an abusive and controlling monster for not letting your two-year-old drive the car by himself? Are you being unreasonable and oppressive for imposing this limitation on his freewill? 

    Of course not. A child that small, aside from it being illegal, is not capable of that sort of responsibility. He cannot do what needs to be done, he does not have the experience or the knowledge to do this. This approach is in the same category as having child proof lids on medicine. A child does not have the wisdom or experience to decide for themselves to take or not take medicine. This is also why we do not leave loaded guns lying around our house. 

    These are metaphors for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden being forbidden from eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. At creation, man was brand new, he had no experience, he had no wisdom, and he had no ability to handle such an incredible tool. Had Adam and Eve simply obeyed and followed God’s lead in this, God would have brought them along and raised them up to maturity so that at some point they could appropriately handle this knowledge.

Definitions and Private Interpretation

    If a small group of people began labeling themselves in a certain way and began promoting and behaving in a way contrary to that label, and eventually took over the name so that anyone in common parlance associated the label with this group, would it not be right to call this out as a lie? To classify someone by the behavior of one group who have dishonestly appropriated a label is unacceptable. This has been taking place throughout the last two thousand years. Early in history, the church gathered and addressed these situations, making official declarations about what the church has always taught and believed. The church would then call these deviant groups to repentance and in the case when that repentance did not take place, the church would identify this group as outside of communion.

    But since the 16^th century with the invention of the world of Protestantism, this all changed. In common public thought, when people think of a “Christian” they think of American evangelicals, which is an unassociated, disconnected mass of splinter groups who all take the same name but differ radically in belief and practice.

    Ultimately this comes down to how the label “Christian” is defined. Is it really an amorphous blob that can be shaped anyway desired? Or does the label Christian have an actual historical foundation that can be compared against? Jesus taught the disciples, and these disciples became apostles and faithfully passed this teaching down to the churches they started around the known world. This has been taking place since the first century. Technically speaking, any group that takes the name “Christian” yet does not belief and practice that which was handed down from Jesus to the apostles is one of two things. They are either not Christian or they are unfaithful and to be considered outside of the boundaries of communion in the case of unrepentance. There are no other options. 

    This would be akin to two men playing ping-pong but calling it football because they want to define it that way. Anyone looking in from the outside, with a knowledge of the game, would know that what is taking place there is not true.

Interaction

 

You’ve heard the expression, “Falling on deaf ears.” The idea is that some people do not want to hear anything contrary to their worldview. There is no level of logic, reason, or facts that will change their opinions or ideas. What responsibility does this leave with us then? None. 

If someone else is not interested in what you have to say, don’t bother. There is no need to force a conversation, to prove yourself, or to prove them wrong. “Making” someone understand is not our responsibility. All we can do is love them despite everything negative involved in the situation.

You aren’t even responsible for making them love you in return. The only thing you are responsible for is to love them and give them no reason to hate you. Just remember, Jesus did everything exactly right and he was still hated by those who should have known better.

A Moral Foundation

    The odd thing about morals is that so many people seem perfectly fine with arbitrariness. “I’ll just make up my own version of right and wrong.” But the question remains, if you can arbitrarily make it up, you can arbitrarily change it on a whim and anyone else can do the same with their system of morals. Are you going to say that they’re “wrong” for doing so? Unless one has a standard outside of themselves upon which to base a set of morals, any moral stance taken is by definition, arbitrary and therefore without authority.

Giving Advice

How do we respond when someone holds a belief that is contrary to our own or simply is wrong? First, it depends upon the person. If we are talking about a complete stranger who has posted a thought on a social media account, there is no need to respond unless they are specifically asking us for input or direction. If this person is someone under our authority, we should direct them towards the truth. If this is someone who is an equal and with whom we are in a relationship, it can be brought up as a discussion point if they are interested in dialog. If they are not, we need to let it go. If this is a spouse and the point needs to be resolved, it can only be resolved if both people are interested in resolving it. In short, unrequested advice is nothing but imposition.

Thoughts, Speech, and Grace

  

Whenever we speak and whenever we act, we are doing so, hopefully, with the best of intentions. We speak or act those things that we believe to be the best word or action for the moment we are in. But far too often, this is not actually the case because we are very limited in our wisdom and understanding.

Realizing this, we should be far more gracious toward others. We can easily see, and critique others mistakes but, for some reason, we want grace and sympathy from others when we err. Our grace to others should far, far surpass the grace we give to ourselves.

Truth in the Arts

 

Over the years I have argued for the importance of truth in art. Every song, every story, every movie, every sculpture or painting or photograph needs to be true. And when I say true, I don’t mean ‘historically accurate’, I mean that the story that is being told by the work of art must be foundationally (or to use a technical term, metaphorically) true.

For example, the “Lord of the Rings” books are true works of art. Obviously, they are not historically accurate but the foundational story that they tell is true. When a work of art is true, it faithfully represents human nature, it exists in a world in which evil is truly evil and has ultimately been defeated and God is in control.

This is the real danger of American culture. So much of the music that is made, the books that are written and the movies that are created do not tell the truth. When we subject ourselves to a steady diet of untruth, we are shaping our thinking to align with falsity. We are slowly confusing ourselves and moving ourselves away from the pursuit of holiness.

We have one thing to do in our time on this planet, we are to love others. That’s it. That’s all. And by all means possible, do not let the worldview of American culture define “love” for you. God is love, not lust, not emotion, not happy feelings. To love someone is to do what you can for them that will move them toward holiness.

Life, Death, and Eternity

 

It is unfortunate and misleading that our existence after death is so often presented as terrifying and dark. So much of what is believed about our state after death was fabricated in the last 500 years by those who did not understand the nature of God and the nature of his relationship with man. Jesus Christ, because of his resurrection and ascension, defeated the power of death, freeing us from its grasp.

Our state after death is based on two things. First, our life after physical death is eternal. Death was defeated so death will never overpower us. We will never cease to be. Second, the way that we choose to live our lives in this lifetime will form our souls into the state we will be for eternity. If we have chosen to serve only ourselves, if we have chosen to seek after pleasure, and if we have chosen to ignore the pursuit of holiness, we will endure an eternity in the presence of the one holy God that will feel unbearable. If we spend our mortal lives ignoring God and living in selfishness, our eternity in the immediate presence of the one holy God will be contrary to how we have formed ourselves.

When we read of an eternity in the fires of hell, it is important to remember that this is a metaphor, an illustration to help us understand how unholy men will feel in the presence of holiness. It is not literal fire, it is not suffering at the hands of demons, and it is certainly not suffering under the wrath of a vengeful God. God is love and the suffering we will endure will be because we neglected to receive the love and relationship that he offers us.

Our state after physical death is eternal life, temporary disembodied but eventually reunited body and soul. But the quality of that experience is our own responsibility. Whether our eternity feels like heaven or feels like hell our eternal state is simply the fruit of a lifetime of response to the love of God.

Self Assessment and Judgment

     Take a thorough look at your life and assess if you are growing or not. Do you see change in your life? Do you see yourself becoming stronger, smarter, wiser, or more loving? Has your thinking changed since you were in high school? Are you less judgmental and more considerate? Do you have sympathy for others and their shortcomings? Do you judge yourself more harshly than you did when you were younger?

    A life that is changing in comparison to one that is not, can be likened to a river that is flowing, shifting, changing and finding the best path versus a pond that only sits stagnant and generates scum.

Identifying Christian Belief and Practice

 

If someone said, “I believe that the rules for the NFL are “x, y, and z” and someone else says, “No, you’re wrong, they are “a, b, and c”, only one of them is correct but they could both be wrong. Why is that? Because those who are the actual authorities over how the NFL is defined have clearly articulated the rules. The understanding of and articulation of, those rules are up to just anyone but those in authority.

In the same way, when one group of people who call themselves Christians say that Christian belief and practice is “x, y, and z” and another group says, “No, you’re wrong, they are “a, b, and c”, only one of them is correct but they could both be wrong. How is this resolved?

It is certainly not resolved by appealing to “well, the Bible says this”, or “well, this is the way we have always done it.” One cannot simply appeal to the Bible because sin the Protestant Reformation, the idea of private interpretation has become the presumed right of every believer. But this, in itself, is a presumption that may or may not be correct. And as far as antiquity of practice goes, simply because one branch of Christians has believed and practiced a certain thing for a long time does not make it true.

I argue that we are approaching the question from the wrong direction. If we start at the beginning, we end up in a very different place. Beginning with the belief that Jesus Christ is a real person who actually exists, we can build an interesting argument.

1)      Jesus taught his disciples specific truths.

2)       His disciples, becoming apostles, took those teachings and began to teach others across the known world.

3)      That teaching became known as ‘Christianity’ and was embraced by some and rejected by others.

4)      That teaching, over time, began to be twisted and maligned so that the leaders of the church (a hierarchy established by the apostles), needed to articulate, and identify what actually was Christian belief. We see this in the seven ecumenical councils of the first eight centuries of the church.

5)      Jesus promised his followers that he would not leave them alone but would give them the Holy Spirit to guide and protect them.

6)      Jesus promised his followers that hell would never prevail over the church.

So, we have to ask, because Jesus said and did these things, do we believe what he taught them about faith and practice, and do we practice these things ourselves?