Hope

     Beyond the Divine, hope is the most significant difference between psychology and Christology. Psychology is a man-made theology unfortunately with an unknown god (Acts 17:23) who they ignorantly worship. We think of psychology as wisdom, but according the apostle Paul, it is ignorance. Psychology a collection of diverse ideas on how people think and behave, and the solution to their maladies. Each theorist has their own unknown god.
     For instance, Carl Jung's was openly demonic. Many of his archetypes came from the netherworld. Much of his analytical psychology came from the invisible lips of a demon posing as a twelve-years old girl in a séance. Many are thrilled as they take the Meyers-Briggs Personality Tool which is based on his encounters with eastern religions and "dead" people. Those from whom he learned were without hope, but he made his religion "scientific" by describing it analytically. That is the method of all psychology theorists.
     What is hope and where can it be obtained? "Hope" is the expectation that something desirable will come true. Of course, people have different hopes. Most are temporal (e.g., I hope that my children are successful, and I hope that I live a long and prosperous life.) Profound hope is more eternal. (I hope that I never die.)
     When I was young, I often pondered on life and death. My hope was that I would never cease to exist. In my mind's eye, I tumbled in the darkness of the space with a mind but not existing. No longer did anyone acknowledge my presence, and no longer could I interact with mankind. The thought of no longer existing is devastating. Meditate on that right now. _________ (your name here) no longer exists, and you are alone in the void of nothingness. Think on that. Is there any hope there? That's what atheists believe. Atheism is the willingness to face eternity without hope! (The exclamation point is not for excitement but merely for emphasis.)
     The notion that people die and cease to exist is "fatalism" because atheists, according to them, have no way of changing their eternal destiny. Christians do! Even if we are wrong, which we're not, we still have the hope of salvation: "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lam 3:26). Atheists have no eternal hope. In the best case scenario, their hope is that God doesn't exist because if He does, they will be judged harshly. However, that hope exists only for a short time compared to eternity.
     I sought God because of fatalism. I always wanted to continue to exist. It wasn't that I was afraid of Hell, but because I could not visualize a world without me. In other words, I became my own god. I did not focus on the real God but my own. I wanted to be saved from a fatalistic non-existence, but failed to understand that God saves Christians from much more than that!
     The afterlife is more than ceasing to exist. There is no hope in that. Christians have the hope of salvation. It's not hope that we shall always exist somehow, but that we shall be saved from Hell. Oftentimes people do not fear death because they do not believe in Hell. Well-meaning people endlessly chant (trying to make it true): a good God would never send anyone to Hell. There is much wrong with that statement: God is a just God (Deut 32:4). By questioning Divine justice, those people are foolish - claiming to be more knowledgeable than God. That is mankind's big problem; we know better than God!
     Furthermore, God never sends anyone to Hell. That is a personal decision because there is an alternative. Jesus said, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). He was indicating, do not be surprised!  There is one thing that must happen to eternally exist and at the same time be saved from Hell. He meant that everyone who seeks hope must diminish themselves and lift up God. We have problem doing either because it is our weak "god" that we want Almighty God to save. God wants that we quit being "gods", and credit Him with Almightiness. "The Son of man (Jesus) must be lifted up" (John 12:34). Proud people don't want to do that; they want to lift-up themselves with self-esteem:  "Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind" (Col 2:16)
     Christians would rather have hope than be vainly puffed-up; that puffiness is prideful. We must submit that we are weak but He is strong! That acknowledgement is the source of hope. Hope is not wishing it was true but trusting that eternal life is our destiny. It's not, I hope so, but I know it is! 
     Doubt is the nemesis of hope. Satan's M.O. is putting doubt in the minds of everyone: those who are not and those who are born again. It's easier for him to put doubt in the minds of those who have not turned to Jesus, but he is persistent; he continues inflicting doubt on even those with the hope of salvation.
     That's because hope is alive but has not climaxed. The climax of hope is when the thing hoped for comes true. Hope commences when one is born-again which is the answer to the second question. Hope ceases when the thing comes true. When is that? When the dead and the living are caught up in the sky with Jesus and are glorified - made like him in mind, body, and spirit! At that time we will reach the apex of our existence - being truly like God.
     I spoke of the despair of fatalism, but it is much worse than that. Hell must be for real in that we must be born again to be saved from it. People must have something from which to be saved! How can that be? How can anyone have hope?

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Heb 11:6).

     Jesus did the dying. That must be: "The Son of man (Jesus) must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again" Luke 24:7. Because Jesus must be delivered from sinful men, we must be born again for him to deliver us from sin. Christ's death is our hope of salvation. We must be born again because Jesus must be delivered to death. For our must to be efficacious Jesus' death must not be in vain (The Fifth Commandment in my opinion.) Our hope must be in Jesus death, and those with hope must believe that He is God who died on the cross. His resurrection from the dead is our hope that we can do the same.
     God rewards those who diligently seek him. The first reward is the hope of salvation, and the second is that those born again shall be saved by resurrection. In the interim their hope is assured by retention of the faith they had when they first believed (Rom 13:11). That hope is an outcome of faith.
     Doubt disrupts hope. How many when they sin think, I don't deserve eternal life. No one does! Satan wants you to have thoughts that you deserve reward. We know in our hearts that we don't. That type of doublethink makes Christians doubt and diminishes hope. We know in whom we trust by whom we serve. It is rational to question if you are serving Satan are you serving God (Mat 6:24).
     If we hope that we are born again, then we must change and diligently seek God. That's why we are to study the Word; it's our sword against the Devil (Ephes 6:17). Christians protect their hope by brandishing the Word against Satan: "Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up" (Jas 4:9-10).
     We must be empathetic to God's death in our place! When we look to Jesus on the tree dying in our place, their should be some grief. Grief for God is the source of hope. Looking up at the dead Serpent on his pole elevates Jesus. His death on the cross effectually killed the Serpent (Gen 3:14) which is the theme of the entire Bible! (See my book The Skull of Adam).  Let's look at one other "must be" which was done for us:

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (Luke 24:44)

     Jesus was born to die. In order for mankind to live, God must die on the cross. My book, Killing God, is about God's death; what it really means.  God's Flesh had to die to provide hope for mankind. If God had not died and resurrected, we would have no hope for the same. Christians truly become as God because we have the hope of eternal life. Atheism does not offer that, and neither does the humanism of philosophy nor psychology. They offer no hope beyond the grave.
     I am inclined to believe that everyone is somewhat depressed because they have little of no hope. They realize in their hearts that merely existing in this life offers only temporal hope. That is not emotionally satisfying. It is true that those with any degree of psychosis are sick, and they need treatment. There is no cure and people can never be "fixed" unless they are regenerated (born again). To have hope means that sinners are returned to Paradise - a re-genesis.