This post is aimed at a group of people who believe in 4 things:
Life after death.
Heaven
Hell
Eternity
If you do not believe in these things, this post will mean little to you…………but……..you had better be right…….because if you are wrong…….you are headed for disaster.
If you believe in an afterlife that you have dreamed up yourself……..that you have created…….to suit your appetites……….then you have nothing to worry about. You are God. Again, if you are wrong……if, in fact, you are not God……..then you too are headed for disaster.
The final stanza of Invictus, a poem by William Henley
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Henley was a committed atheist. He suffered from tuberculosis of the bone for his entire life and died from it at age 53.
I have always viewed this masterful poem as an exercise in hubris……….the work of a fool whistling past the graveyard.
I was wrong.
Invictus is the definitive description of the human condition……whether you are a Christian……..or not. It dovetails beautifully with the Bible and the teaching of Jesus.
The old Testament teaches:
Eternity
Life after death
Free will
The New Testament teaches:
Paradise
Hell
Redemption
To summarize the Bible:
The natural fate of man after the fall………is hell.
Man’s default destination……….unfortunately….is hell.
Man has absolute free will.
God invites us to paradise…….on two and only two conditions……..that you recognize the Trinity as divine and that you accept Jesus’s gift of redemption.
The key to Christianity and the Bible……from the human side…….is free will.
And that also is the crux of Invictus.
The lesson of Invictus is that you are in absolute control. You, and only you, determine your destiny.
You will experience a brief period of triumph and tragedy during your time in this world. But…….you will spend eternity…….the vast majority of your existence……in paradise……..or in hell.
Which of these eternal destinies you will experience…….is entirely up to you…….courtesy of God’s gift of free will. By active choice…….or by default……..you will choose……you are choosing……. your destiny.
The great irony here…….is that one of the greatest truths of Christianity was beautifully taught……..by a committed atheist.
You truly are……..”the master of your fate”.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob…..”
Moses, ESV
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Paul, ESV