As a Follow-Up to last month’s special article on the Bible reading seminars, we have printed a query from Bro. Ken Curry of Toronto which resonates with what many of us are experiencing. We are having relative success explaining the principles of the gospel to our friends but are having trouble bringing conviction that these right doctrines make a difference.
Heaven or a heavenly kingdom
Consider, for example, Bible teaching regarding life after death. If we were instructing those holding to Hinduism, the difference in believing the truth versus the teaching of reincarnation would be easy to see. Once our student came to an understanding of the Truth, he could eat his cow without worrying about eating his ancestor. But what difference does it make whether we believe in going to heaven at death or in being raised to enjoy a heavenly kingdom on earth?
In either case, after death, the next thing we experience is a divine evaluation and, if faithful, great blessing with the worthies of all ages. Either way we look forward to enjoying the company of relatives, friends and the heavenly host.
One is right the other wrong
There is clearly this difference: God has promised one, the other He has not. We certainly don’t want to reject the promise of God. If we do that, we are, in effect, calling God a liar, which is obviously a very serious transgression (I John 5:10).
Further, right belief in this matter affects a vital doctrine of Christianity — our faith is counted for righteousness. Or, in other words, our sins are forgiven on the basis of our faith. But this faith is not just a vague stirring of the heart; it is a specific belief in the promises of God. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3, citing Gen. 15:6). Abraham believed God’s promise of a heavenly kingdom upon the earth; he did not believe in going to heaven at death (Heb. 11:13,16,39-40).
“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:23-24). The basis of our association with God is the same as Abraham’s — a belief in God’s promises, not in some contrivance of the human mind The faith that saves believes the truth.
The other side of the issue
If we believe in an immortal soul so that a person lives on after death, what happens to the wicked? What happens to those who were never Christian? The old hell-fire and brimstone teaching seems to have fallen into disrepute as being too ghastly to countenance; but the fact remains, according to orthodox teaching, the rejected must spend an uncomfortable, conscious eternity somewhere because of their sins during 70-80 years.
We have yet to run into a person who honestly feels his “immortal soul” will suffer for ever. Every one contemplates going “up there” and every person who dies seems to be “looking down” on the rest of us. No matter how compromised a person’s Christianity may be, no one feels he deserves millions upon millions of years in some form of an alleged hell. “God is merciful and I’m not so bad God would do that to me!” seems to be the common attitude.
Immortality a promise, not inherent
This view of life after death can rob Christianity of its compelling urgency. Speaking of his own eternal salvation, Paul said: “I do not consider that I have made it on my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13- 14 NRSV).
Realistic punishment, not hell fire
If this was the urgency in Paul’s heart, surely it should be the same in ours. But how can that be if we automatically feel we are all right with God because there is no way we are bad enough to go to hell? We can sense this urgency however, if we believe the fate of the wicked is a limited period of anguish and then eternal death. Many of us can contemplate deserving such an end.
Accordingly, our view of life after death can have a dramatic impact on our present attitude and conduct.
The idea of avoiding an after-life
We have commented on the implications of believing in an immortal soul, but there is also a belief that we can, in fact, control whether or not we face any after-life at all. Some would believe God will only raise a person from the dead if he chooses to be in covenant relation with Him. Such believe they can avoid facing any after-life by simply not being baptized into Christ
As with the immortal soul view, this belief, too, can have dramatic implications for our present behavior. We can view ourselves as free to live as we please without regard to the Lord’s hand in our affairs. Perhaps God might inflict some punishment in this life, but based on what happens to people now, there is no observable pattern of this happening. In fact, if anything, the earnest, godly people frequently have a large dose of trouble now. Which may truly happen; if we are fruit-bearing members of the Christ-vine, we will be pruned so we will bear more fruit (John 15:2). Many a faithful person thus finds himself experiencing illness, family problems or financial strain as God develops his character through trial.
Both a wrong view regarding the immortal soul and a wrong view as to whom God will raise from the dead can have significant impact on present behavior. It does matter what we believe about life after death.
A clear vision of the blessing
Abraham was told: “All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever…Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for! will give it unto thee” (Gen. 13:15,17). To Abraham, there was nothing vague about this promise; he could visualize its fulfillment (cf. Heb. 11:10).
The same is true of Zechariah’s vision and of all the prophets: “There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem …And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.. .Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD” (Zech. 8:4,5,22). The hearers could readily visualize the glorious kingdom of God that was some day to be established.
Those who hold the teaching of heaven-going are surprised to find there are no scriptures which detail the righteous in heaven. All the pertinent passages describe an earthly kingdom in which Christ and his redeemed will rule the world in righteousness (Matt. 5:5; 6:10; 19:28, etc.).
Mortals in the kingdom
In this regard, we should keep our own views of the kingdom of God accurate to scripture revelation. Often that age is described among us as being free of sickness, problems, sin and death. That will be true of the ruling immortals of whom we pray to be a part, but it is not true of the mortal population. While they will be living under vastly superior conditions to the present, they will still be mortal with all the inherent difficulties we experience in our mortality — they will be prone to sin, will experience weariness and will ultimately face death. The goal for them is the same as our present objective — to develop in godliness. In order for that to happen, the mortals must experience trials and must be allowed to learn from failure.
As king-priests of the age to come, the faithful of this era will have the ever-stimulating task of helping these mortals develop into godly human beings that they might be saved to immortality at the end of the era. We can help keep these joyous visions before our eyes by accurately speaking of that glorious time.
A right belief about life after death can make a very great difference in our present behavior. May these important teachings have their full and beneficial impact on our lives now.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One