Where will you Spend Eternity?
Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his ETERNAL HOME, And the mourners go about the streets. (Ecclesiastes 12:5 NKJV)
Our Eternal Home
The preacher in this book encourages people to remember their creator in the days of their youth. He then describes in a poetic way the condition of most people in old age. And he reminds us that at the end of life man goes to his eternal home. Eternity is a Biblical and logical concept yet most of our preaching of the Gospel deals with the here and now. We all want a better life “now” when we should be worried about where we will exist forever and ever. Those who say that we die dead and that there is no afterlife must concede that time goes on even for a person who, as they think, no longer exists. For those of us who believe the Bible, we know that death is a beginning and not the end. But some exist in a place of punishment when they go to their eternal home and some exist in a place of bliss called heaven when they go to their eternal home.
Eternal Life
Eternal matters are certainly the subject of much of the Lord’s preaching, particularly in the Gospel of John. Translators have used evertasting to translate a word that in most cases should be translated eternal. Everlasting life is a blessing but only looks forward forever and ever. Eternal life comes from eternity and fits us for eternity even though it is obtained upon believing. Christ is eternal and we read that He who has the Son has life (that would be eternal life. See 1 John 5:12). The translations are different in our English Bibles but the word being translated is the same for most instances of eternal and everlasting.
Using only the Gospel of John, I have found seventeen instances of the word that has been translated both eternal and everlasting. Since man goes to an eternal home and needs to pass from death unto life (John 5:24) by faith in Christ during this life, shouldn’t we be concerned about people’s destiny for eternity when we preach the Gospel? We seem to be more concerned about freeing people from drugs, from poverty, from emptiness, from sexual immorality, from alcohol, and from every other form of captivating sin that kills the joy and productivity of this life. While I believe that God does set people free from the bondage of sin through the Gospel, yet the real blessing of the Gospel is knowing that one has eternal life. The Christian life is not always downhill with the wind at our backs, but the Christian life is filled with joy and hope because of our future. The future of one who rejects the Gospel, is eternal conscious punishment. It is separation from the God who breathed life into them. It is to be in a place called hell and ultimately to be thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever. Rejecting God’s salvation involves rejecting eternal life and ending up being eternally damned.
Saved through a Long Eternity
I personally am saved today because I was concerned about being ready for eternity. I could not fathom the concept of eternity and how long eternity was, but I knew I didn’t want to exist eternally in the Lake of Fire. So, I plead with those of you who claim to be Christians but who have never found yourselves lost and in need of salvation, to carefully consider whether you are ready to go to your eternal home. This is not one of those areas where you want to get it wrong. The hymn writer has said:
Where will you spend Eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Where will you spend Eternity?
Tell me, what shall your answer be—
Where will you spend Eternity?
Eternity! Eternity!
Where will you spend Eternity?
Turn, and believe this very hour,
Trust in the Savior’s grace and power:
Then shall your joyous answer be,
Saved through a long Eternity!
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the weeks of July 14 and 21, 2019