Nuggets from Countdown to the Second Coming—Infinite Mystery, Perpetual Joy

In a few more pages we will bring this book to a close by considering the majestic hope that true followers of Christ can have in the face of all the troubling attitudes, apostasies, and events we’ve described in the previous chapters. Hope is the antidote to all that, yet hope without a reason is no more powerful than a random belief. Nonetheless, through the grace of God, when we become familiar with the foundations of the faith that God invites us to anchor in Him, the hope we have in Christ takes wings—eventually of a literal kind! But before we talk about Hope it might be well to speak of Cause.

Of Jesus, John said, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John:1:4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
See All...). Christ declared, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John:8:12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
See All...). The reference is not to physical light but to the spiritual light of truth—another abstract concept without any relationship to the physical universe.

“Truth” takes us beyond animal life; it has no meaning for animals. Their “intelligence” knows nothing of love, morals, compassion, mercy, or understanding but is confined to instinct and conditioned responses to stimuli. B. F. Skinner, commonly considered the founder of the Behaviorist school of modern psychology, tried to fit man into the same mold. But our ability to form conceptual ideas and express them in speech cannot be explained in terms of stimulus/response reactions. There is an impassable chasm between man and animals.

Intelligence is nonphysical because it conceives of and uses nonphysical constructs, which clearly do not originate with the material of the brain or body. This takes us beyond the physical universe into the realm of spirit. We do not know what a soul or a spirit is, or what it means that God “is a Spirit” (John:4:24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
See All...) who “created man in his image” (Genesis:1:27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
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God has given us sufficient proof in what we can verify to cause us to trust completely whatever His Word declares concerning things we cannot fully comprehend. That is where faith enters. There is much that, although we cannot understand it, we know is true. This is the case, for example, with the fact that God is without beginning or end. It boggles our minds, but we know it must be. Unfortunately, while seeking to unravel the secrets of the universe, science neglects its Creator. The universe can lead man only to a dead end, since ultimate knowledge is hidden in the God who brought all into existence.

Though not idol worshipers in the primitive sense, scientists, university professors, business executives, and political leaders—no matter how brilliant—who do not know Christ fit the description in Romans 1 of those who reject the witness of the universe and worship the creation instead of the Creator. It is possible for Christians also to be caught up in this same materialistic emphasis and to miss what God offers us in Himself.

Paul’s earnest desire was that all believers might attain unto “the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians:2:2That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
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Our knowledge of both the physical and spiritual is limited at best. But one day we will fully know when we are with Christ in our glorified bodies: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians:13:12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
See All...). When in His presence we wholly know Christ as He truly is, all limitations will have vanished, even our lack of power to fully overcome sin: when we see Him, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John:3:2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
See All...). Knowing Christ is everything!