What Then…

The day of the Lord will come like a thief

Peter wrote: “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:8-10).

Charles Henry Parkhurst (1842-1933), commenting on the words of Peter, observed: “With God one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day, which is to say that there is no calendar and no timepiece in the divine experience, no aging, no getting away from the beginning, nor approaching toward the end.” We, however, are time bound creatures. We are born. We age. We die. It is unavoidable, inescapable, absolutely certain. The time of our death is unknown, but the reality of it is undeniable (Hebrews 9:27).

Yes, God is eternal, but we are not

He has always been, and He will always be. We, on the other hand, are different. We had a beginning. We were born into this world, and we will someday be taken out of it. Yet, we are destined for an eternity of our choice. God’s desire is our salvation. He longs for us to be with Him, but He will not force Himself upon us. He yearns for all men to come to a knowledge of the truth that they might be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). The depth of His desire is demonstrated in the sacrifice of His Son (John 3:16).

Life is all about choosing

No clear thinking man would choose to be lost eternally, but we operate under the false premise that we will always have tomorrow to prepare. If the Bible teaches one thing with absolute certainty about life, it is the uncertainty of it all. Yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow may never come, today is all we have. If we fail to use it, we may never get another chance.

When it’s over, what then?

When it’s over, and that day is coming for all of us, what awaits on the other side. For Christians there is nothing frightening, foreboding, or final about the grave. “For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). Do you have that hope, and if not, would you like to have it? Remember, the clock is ticking, time is running out, eternity is just around the corner. What then?