Eternal Approach

The world believes that it can create a planet of peace and happiness for all people.

And that there is no exclusive source required for that peace, love, joy and spiritual fulfillment other than from some universal hope that resides in the human spirit.

In An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope claimed, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast…” 

Following his thought, most men presume that hope and goodness is universal, that it is eternal and that it follows them from this life to the next.

However, reality differs greatly.

The Source of All Good Things

At the very core of all things that men pursue — of things such as peace, hope, joy, love, truth and justice — a staggering truth can be found.

The Truth that all these things exist only because of Christ.

That He is The Source of all goodness. The source, not only of good things in this world, but also in the world to come.

Of Christ, the scriptures say, “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;” (Colossians 1:19)

This is so basic a truth. It is so profoundly obvious that it is overlooked by the vast majority of humanity.

The Elusive Pursuit of Goodness

When we look at all that men around us pursue — even among the “best” of men — there is this misplaced obsession with creating a world that has some form of neutral truth or neutral goodness.

This pursuit avoids, at all cost, even the hint of exclusivity. It rejects the idea that good must come from only one God or from just one spiritual belief system.

As if there exists in this world the ability to create “good” out of sheer determination. As if “goodness” flows out of man in a very natural way. And that he can sift it out like a gold nugget in a stream.

All without any submission to a specific moral code or a specific concept of God.

Such as a life of goodness created out of the pursuit of pure science. Or an honorable life based on the political pursuits of social justice, progressivism or liberation theology. Or molded on a modern, Disney-style-life of  tolerance and acceptance where it “makes no difference who you are”. Where your dreams will come true.

As long as “you wish upon that star”. As long as your heart is sincere. As long as you have a good intention.

Where Christ is optional.

In fact, where any old god will do. Or no god at all.

Hiking into Forever Territory

The Garden of Eden is gone. It cannot be re-discovered and reclaimed. And, neither can mankind rebuild some utopian society upon this tainted, sinful world.

Because God is not in the rehab business. He has cursed this sinful world and forever barred the way to Eden to fallen man.

In the existence that follows this life, men will either know Christ or they will know Death. There is no middle ground. There is no neutral territory. No second chance. No place to purge out the sins and failures of this life.

Neither will there be any love there. No hope. No peace. No rest. Only darkness and despair. No pleasure. Only pain unceasing forever and ever.

Because in the New Heaven and the New Earth, that Christ will create, only God’s manifest presence will prevail. There will be no evil there. No sin. No imperfection.

God’s purity and holiness will be without limit there. His glory will stream unhindered from one end of the universe to the other. And all who know Him will have new bodies that will be able to behold Him in His fullness. And to know the full wonder of His love forever.

Those without Christ will discover that all they ever knew of love, of joy, of pleasure, of ecstasy, of peace and of rest ended with their lives here on earth.

A man without Christ will take nothing of the goodness of God with him. He will be left on his own.

Left only with an unceasing and fully-conscious existence. With nothing of the good that God provided for him upon this earth. Plunged forever into the darkness and horror of Death.

Taste and See!

Because, God’s earthly blessings are only for a season. On this earth, we have a limited time to taste of His goodness. To know a sample of His things to come.

All of the blessings of this world God has given to men that they may know Him. That they may seek Him out. To explore the unfathomable depths of an infinitely unique, eternal relationship with the One who is the Lover of our souls.

It is Christ who is the Original Source. He is the Holy One whom all the religions of the world have tried to counterfeit. He is the One True Light compared to whom all religion is merely a faint, flickering reflection.

“O, taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Psalm 34:8)