I am aware that this is a bold and audacious statement that I claim. But I point to the facts as my proof.
Our best technologies have yet to protect us from earthquakes: a natural phenomenon as old as our planet itself.
Our advances in the sciences and the arts have yet to cure humankind from death and disease, or prevent wars and famine.
And our proliferation as a species on our planet has generally brought imbalances to our world’s ecologies, rather than augment or improve them.
For all our vaunted strengths, there remains one fatal weakness: we do not fully know ourselves to know how much of an impact we have on our planet and each other.
I have not seen enough or experienced enough of the world to claim to know and understand all viewpoints. But I have been given enough to know and distinguish truth as it relates to humanity.
I know that deep inside, humankind in general aspires to be something bigger than itself: that there is a deep understanding that “what is” is not “what it should be”.
There is something within us that longs for a greater satisfaction because we have not found it yet.
The nihilists among us would say that we can only be “satisfied” upon death.
I refuse to believe this.
Because if death were the ultimate satisfaction, then why does life struggle against it so?
Why does every human try with all of his or her might to leave an indelible impression on creation?
To make sure that creation knows that we exist.
We do not long for death. We fear it. We fear the implications of oblivion.
We fear that all that we are and will be: everything that we ever do in life, is destined only to fade away.
With the inevitability of death, we fear that ultimately, we are worth nothing.
And so we rebel against death. We struggle to find ways with which to cheat it, to prevent it from laying to waste our growth and our accomplishments.
You do not believe me? Just look at the images that our media produce around you. Do you not see beauty and youth displayed? Is this not a flagrant attempt to capture humanity in its “prime”?
Why do we struggle to build monuments to our power? Why do we laud our own accomplishments and development?
Because we know we cannot be satisfied with death.
As the Preacher of Scripture observes:
“What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.” - (Ecclesiastes 3:9-12 NLT)
Our rebellion against death is actually a rebellion against the Creator: the One who laid the foundations of the Earth. For who else decreed that death be the fate of man?
"Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return." - (Genesis 3:17-19 NKJV)
And so the Preacher continues:
“I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here! No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life after we die.” - (Ecclesiastes 3:18-22 NLT)
Even the Psalmist concludes:
No one can live forever; all will die. No one can escape the power of the grave. - (Psalms 89:48 NLT)
Is there no hope for humanity then? Do we all bow our heads and accept the fate that God has laid on us?
We look and observe at the death happening all around us, and we conclude that God does not exist.
It is our one last desperate act of rebellion at our fate.
If we cannot convince God that we are worth saving, then we shall deny Him the pleasure of seeing us grovel and beg for our lives.
So we use every bit of our power to pick Him apart: To dissect Him and to prove that He does not exist.
After all, what is one more God to be thrown in the trash bin of history?
But God has thrown a monkey wrench into our machinations against Him.
He proved once and for all that He is a God who saves.
He came down among us and became Immanuel – “God is with us.”
The very name He chose for Himself means “God saves”.
And He demonstrated that death has no power against Him. By this, He proved that His ways are just and true, and that He is willing to save those who wish to be saved.
His only requirement is this: that we turn from our sins and come back to Him.
This is the heart and essence of the Gospel of life: there is life after death for those who truly seek God.
Our greatest sin, the sin that has plagued us since the beginning, has always been this:
That we don’t need God in order to live.
We do need Him. Now more than ever.
For those who have come to realize this, it is imperative that we continue to argue for the case of God with our very own lives on this earth.
For death is right at our doorsteps.
And only the One True Living God can redeem us from it.
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? " - (1 Corinthians 15:55 NLT)
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