The last of the fundamental questions of a worldview that I want to cover is the question of Destiny. " He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God has made us different than the other creatures in that we have part of us that is eternal. We instinctively know this and have thoughts about what will happen to us after we die--not so much our bodies as that part of us that is really "us." What will happen to that part of us that we know survives after the body dies?
The Bible is clear that there are only two choices for our destiny, and Jesus wraps up The Sermon on the Mount by putting everyone into one of these two categories. Those who are truly His disciples and are citizens of the kingdom of God will have a certain kind of faith, will live in a particular way, and they will be given eternal life and live forever in the presence of God. Those who not His disciples and are kingdoms of this world will be judged for their wickedness and rebellion. That judgment is described as both darkness and fire and those in judgment there have a thirst that can never be satisfied. It is described as torture and all who live there will experience all the just consequences of the choices they made. The only other option is to trust that Jesus took all the punishment that you deserved upon Himself when He died on the cross and was buried for three days. Jesus is the Firstfruits of what we can expect if we are in Him. This is, we can expect that we will be resurrected to eternal life with a body that will be incorruptible without hint or stain of sin, and it will be a body made for the New Heaven and the New Earth that is described in the book of Revelation and by the Old Testament prophets. The LORD will fulfill all his covenants that He has made to His people and He will make all things new--including heaven and earth. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4) 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11-15) There are more passages, but these are the two choices. lie before us. "It is appointed man once to die, and after that the judgment." There is no purgatory, no reincarnation, and no annihilation. We cannot go somewhere for a while and be purified from our sins until we are pure enough to enter heaven--we either are dressed in the righteousness of Christ, or we are dressed in the filthiness of our sins. There are no do-overs in life. We should not put off the call that the Spirit makes for us to be saved today, because we are not promised tomorrow (or even the rest of today) and we are stuck with whatever decision we made when our body dies. There will be no telling God that you meant to make a decision later--that won't cut it, nor will you be able to say that you would have made a different choice if given another chance. We all must be told that we too, like Nicodemus, must be born again and unless we are born again, we can never enter the kingdom of heaven. We also can't do anything to change the decision that someone else has already made, nor can we make the decision for anyone else, nor can anyone else "inherit" the decision that we have made (you can't be saved from birth because of a decision that your parents made). Each person must individually trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and receive the eternal life that only He can offer to those who belong to Him. He has gone to prepare a place for us that belong to Him so that where He is, there we can be with him also forever and ever. Being in the presence of God is the most important thing about heaven--more important than the walls of precious stones or the gates made of solid pearls, or the streets of gold or the crystal see, or the River of Life and Tree of Life. All those things would be meaningless if God were not there. Without Him, it wouldn't be heaven, for heaven is His throne room. Those in what we call Hell (The Lake of Fire) cannot escape His presence, though many think that hell is a place where the presence of God is absent. He is present everywhere at all times, and He is actively punishing those in rebellion for their sins. Whether or not you choose to believe in hell or a god that would send you to hell is irrelevant. Hell is the destination for all those who are not in Christ. It is the destiny for the devil, the demons, the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and all those who are part of the kingdom of this world--the kingdom of darkness--who follow and devil in rebellion and are known by the works of their flesh (their sinful passions and desires). It's pretty much that simple. Even if you think that you will spend eternity without God because you hate Him and think by going to hell that you'll somehow be somewhere where He is not, you are wrong. You can never go anywhere to get away from God. I'm sure that's part of what makes hell what it is--people there hate God and want to escape His presence, but they never can because He is omnipresent. Read Matthew 7 if you have any question about the fact that there are only two paths--two roads--one that leads to life and the other to destruction. There is no third option. We either call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation or we die in our sins. We either are transformed into the image of Christ, or we live like the devil--the one who is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. We are either in Adam or in Christ (see Romans 5). We are all called to choose today which destiny we want, but we can't have Jesus as Savior without also making Him Lord. If we are saved, then we will be transformed--we talked about how we should live in a previous post. Let those of us who are in Christ live as citizens of the kingdom that yet to be revealed to us and not as citizens of this world, for the end of this world is destruction as the elements will melt with fervent heat. 2 Peter 3:10-18 English Standard Version 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
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ABout This SectionThese articles will cover topics about the Christian worldview. They will largely address the questions of Origins, Meaning, Morality, Destiny and Identity, but they may also have more practical applications to our orthodoxy (what we should believe) and our orthopraxy (how we should live out our faith). Nothing is off the table here as if we are Christians we should be Christians in everything we say, do and think. Archives
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