Is God Real?

The post is for those who don’t accept God……for those who don’t care about God…….for those who have serious doubts.

God…..as described in the Bible…….either is real or is not real. This is absolutely binary. There simply is no middle ground. If God is not real, then we will die and that will be the end of it……at least for us. There really isn’t much to say about it. Death is the end. This means that our life is a brief series of chemical reactions in a complex network of nerves. They began with nothing and they will lead to nothing. These chemical reactions are our reality……..our only reality. This means that our life, while it is hopefully fun…..is ultimately meaningless……..a biochemical accident. This is the mindset that allows some of the people around us to commit unspeakable crimes. If your life is meaningless then killing you or raping you is a small inconsequential thing.

In the absence of God……your life……and mine…..has no real significance……….our lives and everything that we do whether great or small are futile. Most of us will not even be remembered 100 years from now.

But…..what if God is real?

This means that death has an entirely new dimension.

God completely redefines death.

Death is no longer the end.

Death becomes merely a transition.

Our life in this temporal world is still extremely brief …..literally the blink of an eye. But, when we die, we will transition into a timeless world that is eternal. This means that this timeless world after death…….is the real world. In comparison, our temporal life is a brief interruption in our real….eternal life.

So……what happens when you die?

Most would say that you are drawn to a source of light……that you will see people whom you have known.

Then, you will meet your creator. You will sense his love for you. You will come to understand many things that were hidden from you during your temporal life. You will get a brief glimpse of paradise.

And then you will be sorted.

This sorting will not be based on how good or bad you were. This is a very common misconception. The sorting will be based on whether or not you have accepted the reality of God and his gift of forgiveness. This is not fair!……..you say. And you are correct. The thing is that fairness is a construct of our temporal world. We use it to try to make this broken temporal world function……and sometimes it works. But, fairness doesn’t have much meaning in paradise. If it did, we would be punished for every single misdeed……..and paradise would not be a pleasant place. In fact, it is more liklely that fairness is a central feature of hell rather than paradise.

When I die……..the last thing that I want…….is to be treated fairly. If you believe that you can withstand a comprehensive and absolutely fair judgement……..you are kidding yourself.

This sorting is binary:

Forgiveness or Justice

Mercy or Fairness

Paradise or Hell

Given the eternal consequences……..this meeting with your creator…….this sorting…….will be either the best or the worst thing that will ever happen to you. Nothing else comes close.

This sorting is the crux of your life…and mine. It is what every single thing that we do……or say……or think is leading up to. We both need to spend a little effort preparing for it.

Your creator…….God…….Abba……will say:

Either

“Well done, good and faithful servant”

Or

“I don’t know you”

If you are not a believer……..if you are in the second category………then your only hope is that God does not exist.

The terrifying truth is that your “best case scenario” is that you will die and the lights will just go out and there will be nothing……dead black nothing.

And that is a good working definition…….of dispair.

So………as it turns out…..this impending “sort” also divides us into the communities of hope and dispair.

It seems to me that hoping for paradise trumps hoping for dead, black……..nothing.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,”

Jesus, describing the “sorting of souls”, ESV

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

John, in Revelation describing the “sort”, ESV