For Which World?
Feature 4 – January 2017 – Grace & Truth Magazine
For Which World?
This question tends to come up when a young person senses that he is losing the game of life and calls a brief time-out to consider why. Consider Bob, a young and brilliant university grad who was offered a chance to make a fortune in a hurry. His quiet reply, “For which world?”
Obviously, Bob believes in a life beyond the one we presently experience upon planet Earth. He has good reason for doing so. Even if you don’t agree with him on that point, you probably will agree with his idea that life often seems precarious and disappointing. More and more, the old idea of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” until a ripe old age takes on the appearance of a sick joke.
So what’s so great about the brave new world that has Bob all excited? Just look at some of the contrasts below!
Your Present World The World To Come
For a brief time – and the longer it lasts the worse it gets. For eternity – and always with “pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11 KJV).
Filled with violence, sadness and pollution – even if you don’t live in the worst part of town. Filled with love and an atmosphere that is clean in every way – “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ... no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither any more ... pain (Rev. 21:4).
The good things, too, are short-lived and blighted by sin – “We had a great time except for ...” A God of infinite love is planning the events – and “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth [makes unclean]” (21:27).
Does the world to come sound too good to be true? It probably does if you don’t know the One who programmed the sum total of all reality, including yourself. The real crux of understanding this matter is to know God.
How Can You Know God?
That is a tremendous story in itself; it is what the Bible is all about. Let me put the answer in a nutshell by quoting John 20:31: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life through His name” (nkjv).
There is another side to this matter of knowing God. He is angry with every person who ignores Him and considers His program unimportant or trivial. According to Jesus Christ such persons will go away into everlasting punishment rather than into everlasting life (see Mt. 25:41).
You still have some unanswered question? So do the rest of us. Forget them for a moment and ask yourself the ones that really count:
- Do I want to know God?
- Do I want to receive His love and live eternally with Him in the world to come which He is planning?
- Am I willing to be cleansed from sin, including my egotistical lifestyle, and be made fit for that place by asking Jesus Christ to become my Savior and Lord?
If your answers are yes, speak to God about it in prayer. He will hear and understand your words and the desire behind them. Then start reading the gospel of John in the Bible.
For all we close with this challenging question: How will your present plans affect you 1,000 years from now?
By Grant Steidl
“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.” —James 4:13-14 NKJV