"If it were not so, I would have told you.” (Jn.14:2)
As my dear old mentor, Dr. Joe Henry Hankins, used to say, “If it wasn't so, He’d have told us so.” Some say our Lord is only using a figure of speech, thinking it will lessen our hope. I say, if a figure, a figure of what? Even if true, the substance is greater than the shadow, and the object than the picture. I agree with C.S. Lewis. If what our Lord is saying is symbolic language, then He is attempting to express the inexpressible to us. WOW! How much greater then, will heaven be?
The atheist, who is all dressed up with no place to go, takes it a step further. He holds there is no heaven. The pagans of old would disagree with this pseudo-enlightened, intellectual dunce. The ancient Eskimo believed there was a land awaiting him where he would sit down and eat his whale blubber to the full. The American indian spoke of a happy hunting ground, he would enter at death. And the Egyptians were buried with their treasures, believing they’d take with them into the next world.
Think of it, if there is no heaven, Jesus lied to His followers. This means we’ll never see our loved ones again; we don’t have a home to go to. We’ll be eternally homeless, wandering the streets of nowhere. And in this life we’ll be miserable, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (1Cor.15:19)
But, thank God, in spite of the lack of preaching today on heaven, and the difficulty of finding a good contemporary book on the subject, along with the muted songs about this place we saints call home, this doesn’t void it. We, with father Abraham and all the elect through the ages, are also looking for that City whose builder and maker is God. And as my dear wife has sung for years, upon entering it, we all will say, “Finally Home!”
“I believe in Heaven. If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me; let me dream on.” (Evangelist D.L. Moody)
As my dear old mentor, Dr. Joe Henry Hankins, used to say, “If it wasn't so, He’d have told us so.” Some say our Lord is only using a figure of speech, thinking it will lessen our hope. I say, if a figure, a figure of what? Even if true, the substance is greater than the shadow, and the object than the picture. I agree with C.S. Lewis. If what our Lord is saying is symbolic language, then He is attempting to express the inexpressible to us. WOW! How much greater then, will heaven be?
The atheist, who is all dressed up with no place to go, takes it a step further. He holds there is no heaven. The pagans of old would disagree with this pseudo-enlightened, intellectual dunce. The ancient Eskimo believed there was a land awaiting him where he would sit down and eat his whale blubber to the full. The American indian spoke of a happy hunting ground, he would enter at death. And the Egyptians were buried with their treasures, believing they’d take with them into the next world.
Think of it, if there is no heaven, Jesus lied to His followers. This means we’ll never see our loved ones again; we don’t have a home to go to. We’ll be eternally homeless, wandering the streets of nowhere. And in this life we’ll be miserable, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (1Cor.15:19)
But, thank God, in spite of the lack of preaching today on heaven, and the difficulty of finding a good contemporary book on the subject, along with the muted songs about this place we saints call home, this doesn’t void it. We, with father Abraham and all the elect through the ages, are also looking for that City whose builder and maker is God. And as my dear wife has sung for years, upon entering it, we all will say, “Finally Home!”
“I believe in Heaven. If I’m dreaming, don’t wake me; let me dream on.” (Evangelist D.L. Moody)
No comments:
Post a Comment