The last two of the basic doctrines of Hebrews 6:1-2 are the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgment. Since both deal with the other side of this life, I am going to deal with them together. Leonard Ravenhill suggested we would all live our lives differently if we had eternity stamped onto our eyeballs. He is saying if we had eternity constantly on our minds and if we saw everything through the lens of eternity, we’d been handling our lives very differently than we do now.
I have to confess that I don’t think about eternity nearly as often as I should. While I do not worry about the affairs of this life because I know God is in control, I do not think about these issues in terms of eternity very often. Paul could think of nothing else other than eternity. In all his troubles, and he faced a LOT of them, he considered them as mere trifles compared to the entire eternity perspective. But he also saw the state of souls from an eternal context. That is why he pleaded with and pursued people that they might be saved.
Atheists know our own Gospel better than most of us do (though I am amazed at how many other basics they get wrong). They know the Bible teaches an eternal Hell. This is one of their primary arguments against God. How can God be a good God if He sends people to suffer and be tortured in Hell forever? Instead of recognizing that they are in danger of that very real Hell, they blame God for being unfair. And to not have to deal with the issues of the judgment, they concoct this crazy idea that once you die, that’s it. You are gone and there is nothing afterwards. Yet that is so far from the truth. It is appointed once for every man to die and after that the judgment.
Every person will have a resurrected body, a body which will not die. It is not just the believers who will be resurrected but every person. The grave will give up the dead. The sea will give up the dead. And all will face God on judgment day. On judgment day, every person will give an account for what they did and why they did it. Every person’s works will be judged with fire and only that which was made with eternal material is going to last. The rest will burn to ashes. This applies to both Christians and non-Christians alike. There are many Christians whose works and “ministries” were nothing but works of the flesh and while they escape the fire of Hell, it will only be by escape and with total loss. In reality, there will be many tears as all the works that were not God-initiated, God-directed, and God-approved will be for naught. No person will be able to boast about their works on judgment day because they will all burn to ashes in that fire.
Those who do not have Christ as their Lord will not have Him as their Savior. Jesus has no obligation to save anyone from the judgment seat except for those He claims as His own. Many people can claim to be Christians, but only Christ’s call on whether any of us are His counts. I could go up to the White House and claim that I know President Trump, but I won’t get in unless President Trump says he knows me and gives the okay for me to come in. The same is true with eternity. Jesus warned that many will claim His name and show all kinds of good deeds they did for Him, but His reply will be “I never knew you.” That should frighten us, and I know I’m not scared enough of this dire warning.
Now, part of these teachings includes “assurance of the believer.” Never does the Bible state that we can never know who gets in until the time it happens. We can know because God will make clear that we are His in part because He disciplines us. God doesn’t discipline children who aren’t His. That is by no means a license to sin, if we are saved, we no longer will want that sinful life; we will want the new life. If we are born again, we do not have to worry about if one sin is going to cast us out of Heaven, but if we sin, we can expect God to come around and discipline us.
Jesus commanded us to store up treasures in heaven that will never rot, fade, nor get stolen. Yet how much do we take and spend our money and lives on things that only last for a few minutes or years before fading? I have published two books, and I have at least 8-10 others started or on the back burner. Yet, how much time have I spent on them? While my teaching job most certainly is a priority, have I honestly used my spare time appropriately? Not entirely. Part of the issue is that I have difficulty getting started on a topic and need to get some momentum going before I commit to a project. That is why I tend to write my Worldview Warriors series in one big swoop (such as this one which was done in just a few days) because I get onto a roll and don’t want to stop until it’s done. Writing is something I have to get going on and once I get going, stay out of my way. But getting started on these other projects again has been a challenge. It might not be as much of a challenge if I had eternity in the front of my mind more frequently.
Do we have eternity stamped onto our eyeballs? The easiest way to answer that question is by how seriously we take witnessing. When I said the atheists know the Gospel better than we do, they understand the weight of Hell, but they see the Christians who claim to believe in this stuff not take it seriously. Do we take Hell seriously enough that we’d crawl on our knees upon broken glass if that is what it took to get someone to receive the message? If someone was standing on train tracks with a train barreling down upon them, do we gently caution them to get off the tracks, or do we tackle them if they won’t hear? One thing I admire about Ray Comfort is his true, genuine love for the lost, even those who constantly mock and ridicule him. While he’s got a very infamous reputation as the “Banana Man,” even most atheists recognize how genuine he is and how much he truly cares for them, despite thinking he is a fool and uneducated. He has eternity stamped on his eyeballs. If we did, we’d be living different lives than we are now.
All this series has been to lay down the foundation and get the basics underway. But Hebrews tells us to move on from these basic teachings – not to ignore them or forget them, but to build upon them and actually build a house upon that foundation. Let us truly learn these foundational doctrines and then build upon them the never ending and ever deeper teachings that are found in the person Jesus Christ. He is infinite and cannot be exhausted. Those who have sought to exhaust the knowledge of God lived such glorious lives, albeit with much pain and suffering, that I can only imagine it. Let us stop being spiritual babies who still need our diapers changes and let us grow into maturity, into men and women of God whom will be of use to His Kingdom.
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