WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE 

The other day Ouida asked me a question that she never asked me before. Out of the clear blue came, "Do you ever think about the fact that life in this world is about over and that you will soon be going to another world?" I don't think the question was asked simply because I will this year turn 70, for neither of us is all that much preoccupied with ageing. We take the days as they come, one at a time, with no undue concern of the tomorrows, whether they be few or many. Ouida wanted to know if I gave much thought to the brevity and uncertainty of life and to what extent I contemplate the unknown future.

My answer might have surprised her. I told her that I thought about it every day, that I am continually conscious that this world is not my home, and that when I leave this world I am not leaving home but going home. If life as a whole is like a great theatre, life in this world is but the vestibule, preparatory to the main event that goes on beyond the doors leading into the vast inner hall where life is life in its fullness. This world is not what it is all about, but "the glory that is afterward to be revealed."

I told Ouida that I am very conscious of how easy it is to be deceived by the world and thus live as if there is no eternity. Christians are not displaced persons in this world, which would suggest that they should not be where they are, but they are pilgrims with a mission and a destiny that reach beyond this world. It both amazes me and disturbs me that professed believers, even those in their sunset years, live as though there is no God's tomorrow. We are in this world, and we are to be a blessing to it, leaving it better than we found it; but we are not of the world, and we do not march to its drumbeat. If we appear to be out of step, it is because we listen to a different drummer.

Hardly a day passes but what I think of the great truths in Ps. 90, where the author seems to be dealing with the kind of question Ouida asked me. He tells us that "time" doesn't matter much, not even a thousand years, which is but a day to God. Moreover, the years we do have pass like a sigh. In the reality of the brevity of life, which the psalm limits to "if by reason of strength, fourscore," the writer prays a prayer that we should all often pray, "So teach us to number our days, that we might apply our hearts unto wisdom."

That psalm emphasizes what a life of wisdom is all about, praising God in such terms as: "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever you formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."

Ouida's question led me to ponder on what I believe more generally about the future: the destiny of this world, our bodies, the heavens about us, the seemingly insoluble problems faced by our troubled world. What will God's tomorrow be like?

I have long been impressed with the very last paragraph Alexander Campbell ever wrote, after 43 years as an editor. I pass it along to you because it addresses some of the questions I have raised, even if all too briefly: 

The present material universe, yet unrevealed in all its area, in all its tenantries, in all its riches, beauty and grandeur, will he wholly regenerated. Of this fact we have full assurance: since he that now sits upon the Throne of the Universe, has pledged his word for is' saying, "Behold, I will create all things new:"- consequently "new heavens, new earth," - consequently, new tenantries, new employments, new pleasures, new joys, new ecstasies. There is a fullness of joy, a fullness of glory, and a fullness of blessedness, of which no living man, however enlightened, however enlarged, however gifted, ever formed or entertained one adequate conception. -Mill. Harb., 1865, p. 517. 

Anyone who believes what is in that one paragraph, so pregnant with meaning and hope, believes a great deal. It should change one's entire outlook if he really believes that this material universe, including this terrestrial ball upon which we live, has a destiny. There will be a new earth, the old being regenerated by the power of God. While Campbell found his confidence for this from Him who sits upon the throne (Rev. 21:5), he could also have drawn upon the assurance of the apostle Paul, who says in Rom. 8:21 that "the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." And there is at least a hint from Jesus Christ when he promises, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

I like Campbell's word tenantries, a term he often used in pointing to the destiny of the believer, which would be akin to what Jesus meant by "In my Father's house are many mansions." When Campbell's bright little son died, he saw him drafted by God to serve in some special way in the vast reaches of the universe, perhaps on some distant planet.

I share with brother Campbell the conviction that we will not only have new bodies, but new employment, new joys, new ecstasies. He liked to say as he anticipated heaven, "No employment, no enjoyment," and I would add "No growth, no life." We continue working, growing, serving, learning. That is why I am convinced that our little ones whose preparatory years are cut short in this world will continue to grow in the next world, and when Ouida asks me if this includes the millions of aborted babies, I have to answer in the affirmative, for God's plan for a single soul cannot fail.

If I believe that there will be a new earth and that one day the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea and that nations will no longer make war but beat their swords into plowshares, as the prophets assure us, then I believe in a coming millennium, whether a literal thousand years in duration or much longer. And I cannot make sense of Rom. 9-Il except to conclude that the Jews will someday accept Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. And yet I am not wise enough to know how it all falls together. As to what kind of a millennialist I am, I find myself sympathetic with the fellow that avowed he was a pan-millennialist, for he was confident that it would all pan out all right!

I suppose I do not believe in the imminent coming of Christ, for it seems to me that other things have to happen first, such as the gospel being preached in all the world, but I may be wrong. He will of course come "soon" as the Scriptures say, but since time with God is not the same as time with us, I would not be surprised if the world as we know it is but in the infancy of its history. There could be an 11,988 A.D. Nations not yet born may rise and fall before the curtain finally falls. And the curtain may fall in ways far beyond anything we can imagine. One thing is evident, God's overwhelming longsuffering. He is giving us lots of time to see what we can do with his world (and his universe in outer space?).

I can't see that it matters all that much when the Lord comes, for if he does not come to us, we will soon be going to him - all of us in a matter of a few short years! At this point I can inject the one great truth that continually thrills my soul: "And so we shall always be with the Lord," as Paul puts it in 1 Thess. 4:17.1 share Paul's conviction that when we are "absent from the body" we are "at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8), and that when we "depart" from this world we are "with Christ" (Philip. 1:24). I don't believe in any soul-sleeping doctrine.

So what matters about our Lord's coming is that we always be ready. His parables indicate that our service to him is not to be crisis centered or emergency ridden. We don't have to work ourselves into a frenzy or try to stay on "a High" about Jesus coming soon. He him self puts it this way, and rather calmly: "Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes" (Lk. 12:43). Those who ask us to live in immediate expectation, as if Jesus is coming today or this year, are to be advised that Jesus himself made it clear that he will come "at an hour you do not expect" (Lk. 12:40). The point is not to know the time but to be ready!

So that is what I believe: stay busy "so doing" until he comes or we go to him. The faithful servant is the one who "stays with it," and it doesn't matter all that much when the Lord comes. I would doubt that the likes of Mother Teresa gives much thought to when Jesus might come, but it is likely that he will find her "so doing" whenever it is.

The teaching of Jesus makes it clear that much of the "so doing" is to be for the dispossessed of the world. If we follow Jesus, we will show compassion for the poor, the maligned, the maltreated, the lonely, the divorced, the diseased, the young, the aged. In deeds more than in creeds!

What future is there for the dispossessed? I believe we can see their future in the ministry of Jesus. Indeed, God's tomorrow is anticipated in the ministry of Jesus. We see Jesus blessing little children, lifting up the fallen, and showing mercy to the rejected and afflicted. That is God's future: no more starving or abused children, no more despair, no more crippling diseases.

What do I see in the future, God's future? No more injustice, no more wars, no more heartache, no more malice, no more hunger. The future is Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This world will one day know the kind of world Jesus was making when he was in this world. We don't know when or even how, except that we are all involved, and things may get much worse before that future comes, but it will come.

Since I agree with brother Campbell that no man, however enlightened or gifted, can form one adequate conception of God's glorious future, I will defer to Him who dwells in unapproachable light and who sits upon the throne and promises that there will be new heavens and a new earth. Thank God, I believe it! — the Editor