The Devotional – 028 – A Future and a Latter End Too!

The Devotional – 028 – A Future and a Latter End Too!

Proverbs 23:18 – For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.

 

 Comments and challenges

All of us tend to take tomorrow for a fact waiting to happen. Yes there are things to do today but these chores of today seem to be activity prepared for tomorrow while seeking to work through today. In our human and finite mind we only have hope for tomorrow and yet we prepare for it as if it were a fact. Ought we not to be about preparing for eternity? Most of us cringe and say; “no not me, I will put that off until the day after tomorrow.”

Matthew 6:30 – “Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Matthew 6:34 – “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

There are some folks who read devotionals, whether from my hand or another’s who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Yet don’t get this wrong… pay attention! All people of all people groups, languages and nations believe in some sort of hereafter and YOU are not unique or somehow displaced from these groups, languages and nations and this means that someday your tomorrows will end, yet there is a “Hereafter”.

Some of us are willing to believe that we will be re-incarnated, maybe another human a century or two from the day of their death, or maybe a cow, or donkey or some other animal that you may like or dislike (who controls that?) Some believe that if they can control the way they die that their god will provide them with seventy-two virgins. I am sure that the god of this belief does not KNOW seventy two virgins. I say almost in tears, the world of religion does not know how to face tomorrow, nor does it know how to face the “hereafter” therefore the utterances of religion is a LIE of Satan. Actually, these are lies that deny the resurrection of the dead so then, let’s take a look at the TRUTH.

James 4:13-17 – Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Our belief about tomorrow is evil and full of sin if we seek to guide our future without the knowledge of God. This God I speak of is not the God of any RELIGION, but He is the God of Creation of whom we are a part of. Proverbs 8:1-36 is a good read for this, or Psalm 19:1-14. None of the gods of religion can make these claims of truth.

1 Corinthians 15:29-34 – Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our LORD, I die daily. If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is ti to me, if the dead do not rise? ”Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak to your shame.

Note that the apostle Paul is not agreeing with religions who allow baptisms for those already dead. Like those relatives that will allow themselves to be baptized for a parent, child or friend who dies without being baptized. He is refuting this practice by agreeing that those religions who practice such nonsense understand that there is a “resurrection of the dead” yet and because they are asleep to the truth, they believe and commit sinful and shameful practices.

Yet, God because of His love for the world, has provided the Perfect Resurrection: John 11:25-26 – Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" If we refuse we to believe this resurrection will be found in the final resurrection.

 

Revelation 20:11-15 – Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

“Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering.”
― Jonathan Edwards, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God