Death or Life?

Last Sabbath I attended a wonderful baptism service for the Glasgow-Faifley-Paisley fellowships in which 23 folks became members of the church. I was privileged to address the candidates and spoke on the tragedy of people who choose death when by the grace of the Lord Jesus they can choose LIFE and life eternal. The act of baptism places us in the camp of the Lord of Life and millions of years hence we shall still be rejoicing at our choice while those who refuse the offer of Life have only whatever life offers them in the few years before death.

This morning I visited a young man I am having Bible studies with and one of the questions he asked me was “What if this earth is the only thing there is – there is no heaven?” John Lennon asked his fans to imagine there is no heaven and claimed that if we all did this the ‘world would be one’.

The ‘White Witch’ in C S Lewis’ book The Silver Chair tries to convince the children in the story that there is no Narnia [Heaven] and that the dark cold underworld where she lives is the only reality. The children are nearly persuaded except one of them suddenly burst out saying that she would rather live life with the dream of a better place then live as if this ugly and cold ‘reality’ was all there is. Someone should have asked John Lennon where the hope is if we are all ‘one’ about a world with no heaven.

To the young man above I replied that not only is Heaven better than our very best ‘imagined’ heaven but our hope is not based on mere dreams for as Peter says “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty” NIB 2 Peter 1:16. God Himself became manifest in time to show us the nature of that kingdom – a gracious kingdom with no more pain, no more suffering, no more death, and no more tears.

May you be encouraged to hold onto the promise that says that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”- NIB 1 Corinthians 2:9

Llewellyn Edwards