Some people have no hope in an afterlife. For them this is it! That viewpoint is deterministic. That's the philosophy that each person's destiny is predetermined and nothing can change it. Predestination and election is a deterministic doctrine. For no particular reason before a person is ever born they are elected for heaven. Those who aren't elected are predestined for hell! The people elected can't resist it, and those who fail to be selected are doomed. That sense of doom is "fatalism".
With fatalism people cannot change their destiny. It's preordained and final. No act, behavior, belief, emotion nor condition can change the destiny of the person. The major problem with fatalism is that there is no hope and those without hope are doomed; not only to die once, but to be dead forever!
That brings me back to my dreadful thoughts! Last night I imagined an eternity without me. It's as if when I die I just "cease to exist" as if I never was. Sure, those I leave behind would think of me; some with fond memories, but some with scorn. The former are the few who love me and the latter are those who begrudge even a dead man! However, without hope, and if what hopeless people believe is true, this life is it; eternity is forever and forever exists without me! It's such a lonesome feeling even to think that it's about over for me,,,, FOREVER! It's this profound thinking, even when I was a child, which pulled me toward belief is something else!
Those who read my commentary regularly understand that I'm convinced that "the other god besides me" from the First Commandment is ME. As such, my god, the one to which I'm always true, is in jeopardy. He will cease to exist! My idol, my own flesh, if fatalists are right, are destined to die very shortly and my god will be no more. He will just wander off in darkness and be as cosmic dust in the expanse. A dust with no thoughts nor feelings, with no love and not loved, and isolation from existence. I don't truly believe this, but it crosses my mind! I don't know if those thoughts are from God because they pulled me toward him; or from Satan who tries to pull my hope away. Either way, thoughts as these are profound. I'm not "scared to death" as the expression is, but "scared of death". There is a grain of doubt which is troubling, to say the least!
Thoughts like these are how atheists think. It's a wonder they can live, if hopelessness is actually living. For them their doctrine is that in a few cosmic moments it will be all over... FOREVER! I'm not an atheist, but those rare doubts really depress me! What if my faith is in vain?
When I was young, this thinking is what drew me to my faith. Life is not worth the living if not fed by hope. While even thoughts of "nothingness" is what drew me to God, the thoughts of hell were even more fatalistic. "What if DEATH lasts FOREVER?" I thought! What if after my breath ceases, my heart stops, but my mind goes on, that I will be alone FOREVER. Not only in total isolation, but in torment all the while! What if the hottest fire with nothing to ever quench my thirst is my eternal destiny? That thought brought me to my knees seeking to save ME! It wasn't because I loved Jesus that I sought him, but because I loved my own god that I wanted ME to live forever.
Truthfully, salvation was all about ME. However, because Jesus died for my sins in my place and it was painful, both physically and spiritually, I owe him a debt! I can repay him! The only thing in return that he wants is my god. He wants me to freely sacrifice ME! Because he offered me hope is why I am to love him! How can I do that? By doing his will and obeying his commands! It's an obligation to quit sinning, not that perfection is possible, but the willingness to try is a show of love!
Let's look at what Jesus did for ME! He didn't bow to my god nor even cater to it. He demanded that I give him my god. He didn't have to offer himself as a sacrifice, but because I was made in his image, he wanted to give me a chance. He was tempted, was persecuted, cried, ate, drank and loved; just as I, but unlike me, he never hated his creation nor did he ever sin! He was the perfect sacrifice for my imperfect god. My god had no power to save, but God is the Way to salvation!
Last night I had this vision. It is a vision of hope! In my mind's eye I saw and empty cross. Blood still dripped from it's branches. The blood flowed in a narrow stream and went off into the yonder beyond what I can see. It was a straight stream and flowed abundantly. I assumed that way out there over the horizon was the end of a rainbow. It arched over a bright kingdom. Light glowed at the end of that path and life was there. I could tell by the joy of what I was thinking that it was a glorious place!
Between that rainbow and me stood that empty tree. No one hung from it because it's use was seerved. The blood had been shed there, but the Man who the mob lynched was long ago buried. Now he, as The Tree of Life stands beyond that rainbow. He is the Tree who bestows life!
That tree being empty has significance. It's not the "old rugged cross". It's what remains of a terrible day. It was a weak cross which merely stood there while a rugged man died for nothing he did, but what I did. It was my god who wronged him, but he sacrificed for my god! That tree represents an event which happened one time long ago and will never happen again! God died there one time for all my sins and everybody's. He died for the sins of all! That will never happen again! Jesus can only be crucified once no matter how many times other gods try!
The cross stood upright. It was a door to that path of blood along which is a trail of tears shed for ME and YOU! It's not us who taps on the tree, but the Ghost of Jesus stands there and knocks on that wood. We figurative answer that knock by bowing to whom we no longer see. It's not the cross we bow to; it's the emptiness there! We still see the blood and have a desire to follow that path to eternal life.
We look at the tree. It is empty, but one time God died there for ME! It stands straight. That towering piece of wood is the Way! No, the wood is just symbolic, but what happened there is real. It's what it symbolizes which is the Way!
John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."This cross represents the gate to the kingdom of the Father. It's where God IS and this is a NEVERENDING Kingdom because the king IS, has always BEEN and always will BE there. That's who he IS! Because he suffered death for us and yet lives forever means that because of his mercy (because he understands us), we too can always BE. That's why I'm not fatalistic! It's because Jesus died for me, that I have hope! Even eternity is all about ME, but it's by HIS mercy that it's more about Him!
This straightness of this upright tree represents the Way and it's being strait:
Matthew 7:14 "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.""Life" to which the way leads is eternal life. It's never having to die a second death. Just as God already does, we will live forever too, IF... IF we enter the strait gate! "Strait" is an archaic word meaning "a narrow passage". That passage is to believe in Jesus: who he is, why he is, what he did, who he did it for, why he did what he did, that he is the only one to provide hope, and that he still lives. It's not enough to believe that Jesus lived at one time; it is a profound belief that he is Truth! Jesus is the narrow passage. He is the strait gate and the straight cross is a reminder of what one must truly believe!
From there we look again at that trail of blood disappearing out of sight. That is the "way" which leads to eternal life. It's a narrow path, one of blood, but it's the only path which leads to that kingdom just over the hill and out of sight! To get to the kingdom, which is what we hope to do, we must follow that narrow path. We can fall off if we're not careful because principalities battle us on our pilgrim journey to that kingdom. There are guardrails which hold us firm. They are firmly plqntd along the path in the cement of love.
Those guardrails are obedience. We follow the path, but are ever aware of what those ten posts mean. They are the method of demonstrating our love as we walk along the path. Jesus made the path we walk, but he's still there as well. To assist us on our journey, his Ghost walks with us. His job is to keep us on that path. His method are the guard rails each having warning signs. If we heed the warnings posted thereon, we maintain the path. Sometimes we ignore the warning and swerve some, but we do get credit for trying! We hit that rail hard, but the Ghost of Jesus takes our hand and pull us back onto the narrow path. He will never push us off the precipice, but we can fall if we aren't beware of invisible obstacles.
The only thing which matters to this pilgrim, walking that narrow path, is to get there. Trivial things aren't going to knock me off. Getting there is my hope. It's what keeps me joyful! It's what sheds light on the gloom.
I'm just not going to jeopardize my hope by hating, lying stealing, jealousy, irreverence or any of those Laws put there to keep me safe. In fact because I choose to follow the path with it's sign posts, is how I let God know that I love him! God's Laws are not chains which bind me, but silver cords of love binding me to him!
As I sit here and write my thoughts in the early morning hours, it's hope that fuels my day! The fatal thinking of the night before is brightened now by the Light of hope. I can exist through the day because of Jesus. He is my hope. His Spirit still guides me along that trail of blood to eternal life where by his grace, I will never die! What I leave behind is a dead god. It's "the flesh" of me which died on the cross and my god died that day WHEN I sacrificed him to the one who was on the cross.
That god won't be with me in Paradise. He's not welcome! However, I will be glorified as I walk under that rainbow. Just as Noah got a new world promised by that symbol, I will get a new chance and new indestructible flesh. Just as the world would never die again by water, by water I will never die, because the old creation is destroyed in favor of a new creation which will never taste death!
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