Gambling With Eternity

The witted wordsmith C.S Lewis, in his masterful book The Screwtape Letters, voiced through senior demon Screwtape, "The humans live in time, but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things. To eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the present. For the present is the point at which time touches eternity." Screwtape then argues that the most effective way to distract people from eternity and the present is to concern them with the future. For the futures unknown's, possible pleasures and pitfalls dim any true assessment of eternity. But I warn you, the future is your gamble without odds.

You know as well as I do, there is no manner of subject anymore uncomfortable than death. Death is simple to ignore, yet difficult to deny. Or do you not remember our masked supermarket fights over toilet paper and flour? Our collective conscience of mortality remains rather obvious in our newfound religion of safeism. And yet how off-putting some find we daft Christians, preaching death as a mere gateway to eternity. Go figure, it's a thought prefered unexplored. Still, death and taxes are the only certainties afforded in this life, and I hope you put more thought into the former.

If we visualise life as an hourglass, the sands begin to pass between at conception. You cannot restart the flow, delay or add to it. Furthermore, the remaining time is known only by God. Some so foolishly act flippantly about death. It seems to have no bearing on their life in the present. They presume upon additional time, death is only a concern of the future. And this is just the problem. For the future is certainly not promised. Those occupied with the future are those who parade as the man in Jesus parable, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry." (Luke 12:19). But what if your soul is asked of you tonight?

Still, to some, death simply does not affect their present because they have no concept of eternity. So death means nothing, for truly it is meaningless if eternity and the soul do not categorically exist. The one prone to this type of scepticism may even claim the reason Christianity survives is due to the inconvenience of death. Because it's an easy message to preach. Tell a person they can escape what awaits beyond death, and with a little convincing, behold! A new believer is born! However, such a suggestion does nothing to assess the Christian truth claims concerning the person of Jesus.

For other varieties of the sceptic, they are more apt to silencing death's gentle whispers upon their conscience. What's a faulty noise in your car when you can overpower it with stereo volume? But as the philosopher, Jeff Mason put it, "Ignoring death leaves us with a false sense of life's permanence and perhaps encourages us to lose ourselves in the minutiae of daily life. Obsessive rumination on death, on the other hand, can lead us away from life." Of the former, those who lose themselves in the present moment, are I argue not really in the present at all. Their breathless shifting from task to task reflects they are living solely in the future, which may never arrive. On the other hand, there are those sensing death's shadow in every alley. Gloom is thereby a close friend and joy a mortal enemy. Yet, these are the most honest amongst us in many ways. For what is ones purpose in stepping out from the covers each morning if the day's productivity be swallowed in death at any moment? Solomon's wisdom is pertinent then, "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 1:1).

So face eternity, and do it in the present. Here are the two pathways God offers you, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36).