How does God prepare us for our final eternal destiny? He
gives us a mind to contemplate many things. For one thing, His existence! We
can tell a lot about the unseen by the things that are seen. We can understand
a lot about the unseen laws of science by the ways they impact what is seen.
We can also understand a lot about the origin of these
universal, immutable, and elegant laws. They stand in contrast to what we know
about the universe, where nothing is immutable. We are therefore forced to look
beyond the universe to understand the origin and immutability of these laws.
Our minds are also the conduit for other thoughts that point
to God and our need to think about such a Being. The tormented thoughts of King
Solomon inevitably focused on questions of the eternal fate of man:
·
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its
own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people
cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes
3:11 NLT)
These thoughts of eternity also bring us back to the
essential question of God’s existence and character. Scott Christensen cites
philosopher Bryan Magee who speaks of the fear of what he calls the void of
“eternal nothingness” that awaits those who die:
·
“If the void is the permanent destination of all
of us, all value and all significance are merely pretended for purposes of
carrying on our little game, like children dressing up. It is, of course, a
willing pretense: we cannot bring ourselves to face eternal nothingness, so we
busy ourselves with our little lives and all their vacuous pursuits, surrounded
by institutions that we ourselves have created yet which we pretend are
important, and which help us shut out the black and endless night that
surrounds us. It is all, in the end, nothing—nothing whatsoever.” (What
About Evil)
For Magee, since eternity is a void, so too is this life, an
empty and meaningless rehearsal for the inescapable eternal void of death.
Such concerns are forced upon us as a man gasping for air.
To be unconcerned is to be dead.
We are given a mind so that we would consider both the
temporal and the eternal and to make a choice. This choice should be easy. Just
consider the evidence. There is not a single piece of evidence that would lead
us to discount the existence of God. Nor is there the slightest bit of evidence
that anything is natural or has been caused by natural laws. Even the smallest
atom is a marvel of design.
If that is not enough, the terror of the Void should cause
us to rethink our steps, but often, it doesn’t. Why not? The answer is repeated
in many ways in the Bible. The problem is not about any lack of evidence for
God, but a lack of desire for Him (John 3:19-20), even a greater terror of God
than of the Void. NYU Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Thomas Nagel, had
asserted that no one can be impartial about God (at least, the God of the
Bible):
·
I am talking of...the fear of religion itself. I
speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want
atheism to be true...It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally
hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God. I don't want the universe
to be like that...I am curious whether there is anyone who is genuinely
indifferent as to whether there is a God. (The Last Word, Oxford
University Press, 1997, 130)
None are indifferent! Even the atheist has built his
identity upon the hope that there isn’t a God. Why then the intense opposition
to God? Not only do people want to live their own life, but they also correctly
sense that if there is a God, He has expectations for all of us and a price to
pay for defying them (Romans 1:32).
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times Christians assure them that God is love (Matthew 11:28-30), they remain adamant in their refusal. Why do they remain hellbent in their mad dash towards the Void?
It doesn’t seem to matter how many times Christians assure them that God is love (Matthew 11:28-30), they remain adamant in their refusal. Why do they remain hellbent in their mad dash towards the Void?
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