I was recently challenged by a quotation from atheist, Penn Jillette:
I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?
I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.
We need to take the gospel seriously. Do I really believe Romans 6:23: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’? I rejoice and I am also comfortable in knowing ‘eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’, but do I appreciate the eternal consequence of the wages of sin for my neighbour or colleague? J A Bengel said that ‘The thought of eternity particularly delights those assured of grace, while it terrifies others.’
Possibly, people do not realise how good the good news is because they do not realise how bad the bad news is. Salvation is a life-enhancing experience, but eternal wrath awaits those without Christ.
It is many years since I heard the rather weary but challenging old hymn:
Eternity! Eternity!
How will you spend Eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
How will you spend Eternity?
I find it difficult to relate to the concept of eternity. The hymn ‘Amazing grace’ comes short of explaining eternity, but I can almost grasp 10,000 years:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
