In the final part of this series, I’m trying to explore what the notion of heaven and hell should imply for our daily lives. Should this notion of heaven or hellhave any impact on how we live or what we do? In short the answer is “Of course”. But then the immediate follow-up question is “How?” Not if it should impact our life, but how should it impact our life. Let’s have a look.
I’ll have a look at it from two different perspectives. First from the perspective of one who has heard the message of the Christian gospel, but rejects it. Second from the perspective of one who has accepted the message of the saving grace of Christ. As mentioned in the third part of the series, the usual objections to a doctrine of heaven and hell such as “How can a God condemn those that have never heard the gospel to hell?” is one that has stirred sufficient debate and controversy already. And I am far from qualified to make any solid statements in this regard. Read part III if you want to find out my opinion on that.
So first, the perspective of the unbeliever.
What I am about to say may sound harsh and I want to re-emphasize that I am not judging or being condescending. I am trying to be as truthful to the Christian faith as I can and within the framework of my current understanding. It is something I struggle with since I have to face the realization that if I am consistent it means I may have family and friends who will not share in our Christian hope and future. And I have to deal with that and do something about it. Perhaps that’s what God is stirring up in my heart more and more. For those that know me well, nuf’ said. For the others, please realize that what I am about to say weighs heavier and heavier on my heart.
For those that have heard the gospel, that have heard that our Christian God is a loving, wrathful, just, merciful, jealous and righteous God; and that the work of the Son on the cross is the only, and I repeat the only, way to reconcile yourself with God, I am afraid that if you continue to reject this message in this life, that God will judge you at the end of times. You will not be welcomed in the new earth, you will not be able to participate in the new creation. It could be annihilation, it could be eternal punishment, but it won’t be the new creation.
Why is there no second chance? What makes us think that those who reject the message in this life will take that second chance? We have heard the message, we have heard the news. Will then those that reject all of a sudden because they see it with their own two eyes upon judgment day change their mind? Will they all of a sudden go “Ooops, sorry God, I see now. You were right. Can I have a second chance please?”. Think about that. If you reject the gospel today, what would sway you the other way in the afterlife?
By the way, Jesus had something to say about that. In Luke 16:19-31, he tells this parable about this guy who’s in hell, torment, anguish. Who sees heaven and asks Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers. Note that the guy, named Lazarus, is not repenting. He’s not changing his mind. But he’s asking for a warning to those in this life still. And Abraham says “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31). Hold on here, first he says: “If you don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets”. We have those. There’s tons of passages in the Old Testament about the righteousness and wrath of God. So there’s enough in that to make one realize how sinful we are and how prone we are to turn away from God. Enough material that it should make us wonder how we can be reconciled to God. The second part of that sentence “Neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead”. Hold your horses there Abe ! Do you know how weird that sounds to a 1st Century jew? Most of them, with the exception of the Sadducees, believed in a resurrection. But not one person just by himself. All would rise together and face the final judgment. But just one person? Yes, that would indeed be a surprise and quite a convincing argument. And that’s exactly what Christ did. He rose from the dead. He is the living proof that death will be conquered eventually and that judgment will come when He returns.
Christ teaches that if we don’t listen to the prophets, we won’t listen to one raised from the dead. Quite nicely put ! Christ already warned us by saying “Look, if they don’t listen to the prophets, they won’t listen to me or you even after I have risen from the dead. There’s enough evidence in the prophets and my resurrection will be the final convincing argument. If they don’t accept that, what makes you think someone will accept any argument whatsoever to convince them there is judgment coming”.
So for those that have not accepted the gospel, I would invite you to read up, ask questions, find someone to talk to, and accept this message that is proclaimed by Moses, the prophets and the risen Christ. I am not convinced that if you can’t accept this message for what it is today, here and now, that you would accept it when you see it with your own two eyes. But as I mentioned before, fear is not a good motivator. There has to be more.
So then, for those that have heard the gospel and accepted this saving act of Christ on the cross, how now do you live and are impacted by this realization of heaven and hell? How do we wet the appetite for those who are rejecting the gospel for them to want to share in our future hope?
Let’s look at it two ways. First, it should invite us to get a good understanding of what our Christian hope truly is. Only when we understand our true hope can we convey the message accurately. And that should be the biggest impact. How do we convey this message? How do we invite others to listen and embrace this message?
So what is our true hope? As mentioned in part two, the image that we often have of the afterlife is influenced greatly by the medieval stories of Dante and others. We imagine a semi-spirit life in which we sit on clouds, play some musical instrument and sing in eternal worship. We are being told there will be no more suffering and that we shouldn’t be pre-occupied with those that don’t go to heaven because we won’t know anyone and just sing endless hymns for his glory. Hold on here. Not know anyone? Sing hymns forever? Sound like an eternal boring Church service. Where you don’t know anyone to boot. And, as all my family members can testify, I am not very musically inclined. I’m about as vocally gifted as a cat whose tail got caught in a shutting door and I can read a music sheet worth for nothing. So what am I going to do in this vision of heaven? Sounds depressing to me. Not sure I want to go to a “heaven” like that. Do you?
My gifts are in cooking. And providing for people. Cleaning the kitchen on Wednesday evenings after the Church meals. Setting up tables and organizing get togethers and fellowship. Why should that gift not be one that can be used forever and ever in a way to glorify Him? As I pointed out briefly in part II of this series, I believe we will live forever in a physical creation. If we carefully study the Scriptures, we get an image of a new creation. Different, yet entirely and wonderfully physical. A creation as God intended it to be. So try to imagine this. A world in which there is friendship, fellowship, healing, gathering, worship (obviously). No strife, jealousy, disease, anger. What do you love to do? Imagine you get to do that for eternity. I have found “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn to be a really good help in going back to the Scriptures and re-discovering what the new earth and the new heavens could look like. Note I used the word could since no one will truly know until it arrives. But it is definitely much closer to Scripture and the historical Christian faith and doctrine than the cloud-sitting-harp-playing image we all tend to have. We will be resurrected with a significantly different body, but we will remain us. We will remain who we are, but together. Randy Alcorn said it well when he said:
We will always be individuals, but Heaven will not be a place of individualism.(1)
I don’t think we’ll all drift away into some oblivious semi-ethereal state where our personalities will disappear. Sure our sinful sides, tendencies and habits will be, if not removed, curtailed. Once again in “Heaven” we read:
In our resurrection bodies, we will again dwell on Earth—a New Earth— completely free of the Curse. Unencumbered by sin, human activity will lead naturally to a prosperous and magnificent culture. (2)
A magnificent culture, focused on Him, to share with others. Note that this is not some “Beverly Hills” in the sky. Those luxurious estates with all amenities to make us feel comfortable are nothing but a shadowy image of what is to come. Christ has taught us He went ahead of us to make a place for us in his Father’s house. Think of it more like a “home”. And what makes “home” truly “home” ? Home is where:
Everything here speaks of time spent with significant people: playing together, talking together, eating together, reading together, crying together, praying together, charting the course of our lives together. Home is where we’re with the ones we love. (3)
A place where we spend life together and are with the ones we love. That is our true hope and should be our Christian understanding of our eternal destiny.
If we then understand this new creation to be our ultimate hope and destination for those saved by the act of the cross, how should that impact our lives ? Once again, I think it’s twofold: How do you respond to the current creation and how do you convey that message ?
We should respond to the current creation as if it were God’s. Oh… wait a minute. It is. Shocking? Perhaps. But it should be part of our daily understanding. The way we respond to the creation in its current state is probably a good indicator how we will respond to the new creation. Do you build your home on “stuff”? The newest flatscreen, the newest gizmo’s, the nicest furniture? Or is home a place were you welcome people? Were warmth and a good meal are always provided? And just like I doubt that someone who has constantly rejected the message of the gospel in this life, I sometimes wonder about those who are consistently rejecting the current creation. What makes one believe that if we are abusing the current creation, we won’t fall in the same trap in the new creation? What makes us think if we currently ignore our fellow human beings, that we would not do the same in the next life? If we abuse creation and our fellow man for our own comfort and glory, what joy will we have in a creation where we use creation and support our fellow man for their comfort and for Gods glory? If that doesn’t sound appealing to you, perhaps there’s something wrong with your vision of heaven? If that does sound appealing to you, then let’s start living that way here and now.
Which brings me to the final point on how we convey this message of our Christian hope to those living around us.
How better to convey a message then when being asked why we do something, we can respond that it’s what we’ll be doing in eternity, so we might just as well start now. I believe that that’s what Christ meant when he instructed us to “Love our neighbor as ourselves”. We’ll be doing it for eternity. We’ll be living with those around us whose little habits annoy us, whose hairstyle we don’t like, whose singing makes us cringe. We will be put in charge of a new creation just like Adam was put in charge of it at the beginning. So we better learn how to take care of it, take care of natural resources, take care of our fellow man in providing food, shelter, water and care for them. Because we will be doing it for eternity while Christ is walking amongst us. We will glorify Him and praise Him and worship Him. So we might just as well get used to doing that too. Our entire lifestyle should exuberate a love and care for others, a concern for the well-being of our fellow human beings, a focus and worship of a creator God and a care of our surroundings and environment. It should become so obvious, so forefront of our entire being and demeanor, that people are prompted to ask “What do you have? Whatever you have, whatever makes you so joyful and caring, that’s what I want. Wherever you find your hope in afflictions, setbacks and trials, I want to find that too”. That is clearly the message N.T.Wright is proposing in “Surprised by Hope” and if that is the message Rob Bell is sharing in “Love Wins“, I’m all for it.
Because that life, that is a testimony we can all aspire to. That is a life, here and now, living in the Christian hope of a restored creation that should impact us here and now. And it should be so obvious that it impacts those around us. Do you pray for the Spirit to help you display that kind of life? Does your daily behavior display that kind of care, love, compassion and hope that others wonder what you may have? I know for a fact that mine doesn’t. But it’s something we should all pray for. Perhaps this prayer, commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, is one we should pray more often. Perhaps then we will demonstrate our true hope and our obsession will turn from hell to heaven.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.Amen. (4)
References:
For ISBN and Copyright information, see part I.
- “Heaven” by Randy Alcorn, p.230
- Ibid. P. 134
- Ibid. p.191
- Prayer commonly associated with St. Francis of Assisi, but more likely created by an anonymous writer and published in 1912 in a French spiritual magazine called “La Clochette”.