Believe It or Not
5 min read
14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
Revelation 14:14-16
When Jesus comes back, there will be no mistaking it. He will come in the clouds with “great power and glory” and gather to Himself all those who put their faith in Him (Mark 13:26-27). The rest will be left to be gathered for God’s wrath. And that will be the end of history as we know it. But then a new history will begin in eternal life and in eternal death.
God has placed in the human heart a sense of eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). People who have no sense of eternity live hopeless and pointless lives. The most optimistic of them may find meaning in the “circle of life” or in the legacy they leave for their children. But even the ideas of the “circle of life” and legacy include a sense of eternity.
The most pessimistic atheists see no point to living. They see no point to the human race—or life in itself, for that matter. The smartest atheist philosophers know this and admit it.
But what does it mean when an atheist feels hope? Hope for anything. A person who has no hope whatsoever is not really possible. At the very least, they would hope for death.
Even then, hope in itself is evidence of a desire for the life that God offers—a life of peace, a life without pain, a life of meaning and purpose—that is, a life filled with hope. And not just life for the individual self, but life for the entire human race—and not just life right now, but life in perpetuity—that is, into eternity.
The atheist worldview is filled with contradictions, and all human civilizations have known this from the beginning of time. The contradictions of the atheist worldview is part of the reason there are religions. And yet, atheists insist that religion is mere superstition.
Really? Who says?
God has set eternity in the human heart. And anyone who has a healthy, normal desire to understand why we exist must decide which explanation of eternity objectively makes most sense (apart from our cultural upbringing). Because out of all the religions and philosophies out there (including atheism), only one can be true.
Father, You know all things. There is nothing You do not know. But all of our lives (every one of us) is defined by “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Thank You for the revelation You have given to us in Your Son. Give us minds to understand and hearts to obey and bear witness to You. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
