Gospel
There is one day coming that shall never end. It is ever-today and forever-tomorrow! On that day, ‘time’ as we know it today shall cease and all created beings (all mortals) shall become immortals and continue in an unceasing existence. Yes, all shall: and it does not matter whether they are men, fallen angels, or God’s faithful angels. That is a day when all created beings would begin to share, as it were, in God’s ‘foreverness’.
WHAT IS ETERNITY?
Derived from the Hebrew word olam, eternity means “time out of the mind”. It is very obvious, of course, that the mind cannot comprehend it. If, indeed, all the minds, intelligentsias, wise-hearts and what have you that have ever existed on earth since Adam were to form one huge mind, he would not still be able to grasp what eternity is as a matter of exactness of extent of duration for, it really has no duration. All durations start and end within it and yet what remains is (still) eternity: So that, if that huge mind even suddenly finds himself in eternity, he cannot still comprehend it, not even after spending sextillion (not years, decades, centuries but) millenniums or any figure of years the best computer ingenuity can possibly devise tomorrow. ETERNITY IS TIME OUT OF THE MIND. Eternity may well have just started counting wherever that huge mind and computer stop counting.
Not to be confused with the Hebrew word aion, which is ‘fleeting portion of time; transient world; age; or period of time whether long or short’, eternity (olam) is without defined limits. Once in, you are in! And we shall all be in it: You and I.
This is the time to be reasonable, avoid foolish arguments and misplaced wisecracks and settle how we would like to go to such a place. ‘Time’ (that is, now), is the time given to us by the all-wise God to settle the matter of eternity and what should be our station there because; really, the choice is ours. We can make the choice only while there is time, and there will not always be time!
Once you enter eternity (with God) or you drop into it (with Satan) you lose every sense of time as we know it today, and you are face to face with a vast future that is ever-today and forever-tomorrow; a future with phases of time in an unbroken and endless chain. So that it is actually proper to say, that day is not necessarily one block or lump day without ordered periods or timing, rather it is one endless day that reveals itself in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, AGES UPON AGES in unceasing manner and pattern (Genesis 9: 14-18; 8: 22; Psalm 72: 5, 17; 89: 34-37; Ephesians 2: 7; Revelation 22: 2).
AGES DON’T DIMINISH ETERNITY
Nobody can do justice to the subject matter of eternity but we dare to ‘peep’ into it: Assuming it will take a man sextillion years to pick a single grain of sand from the earth and to deposit same in an imaginary place; by the time he had finished picking every grain of sand from the earth and depositing each in that imaginary place in this way and at that rate (that is, sextillion years per each grain), eternity, like an endless volume, would have just been ‘prefaced’. We mean sextillion years multiplied by the total number of grains of sand in the world!
And assume further that after that endeavor our man goes ahead to a similar job; now, let’s say lifting and depositing the all the world’s waters with say a teaspoon! If it takes him another sextillion years to lift each teaspoon of water and deposit same in another imaginary place; by the time he is done with emptying all of the world’s waters in that way and at that rate, eternity would have just flipped another page in a book of endless pages.
Or, assume it will take an ant centillion (centillion is: 1 followed by 600 zeros) years to go or cover each inch of land, sea and air and starry space of our planet earth, and then to cover each inch of all the planets in our galaxy. By the time it (ant) covers every inch of earth’s two hemispheres and other planets in our galaxy in that same way and at that rate (that is, centillion years per an inch), we would just be about reading the introduction pages of this book with sections of and on ages upon ages without end. Remember, centillion is 1 followed by 600 zeros; and you may wish to write it all down if you can. Yet, even now we are talking about centillion years; and centillion years per each inch of the universe at that. Put it this way: centillion years times the total number of inches of our galaxy. You’re just about entering the introductory pages of the book called eternity!
To live a hundred years is great. From Adam till now is estimated at 6,000 years. It is either you have had one serious pain in your life or you knew somebody who had. At such moments an hour becomes a week. THINK OF YOURSELF HAVING ONE OF SUCH EXCRUCIATING PAINS SINCE ADAM. Now we are not just talking of one pain, but innumerable; and not pain with soothing air and others that God’s nature has provided to refresh somehow on this side of eternity, but this in fire, nay, supernatural fire; and not for 6000 years, not even a million, or a billion years; not even a trillion, quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion … years; and not even centillion years (all of which are millions raised to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh … hundredth power respectively!
I imagine there is no mind that can possibly comprehend a trillion years (trillion being million into the third power). Yet, centillion years, nay, centillion millenniums even raised to ‘centillionth’ power are diminutive years in the face of eternity! Ages upon ages do not diminish eternity! I can’t afford to go into eternity without God. NEVER!
It is therefore only the extremely foolish and deluded who would want to stick to the way of his skewed mind, perverted hearted, and eschew God’s escape route in Jesus Christ: The only plan of God for humanity’s escape from the wrong side of eternity. Only the most foolish can afford to go to such a place and unarmed with God’s will, purpose and provision in Jesus.
It is the height of foolishness to play joke with and abuse this probationary period called TIME, and end up in such a place without God ‘Who inhabits eternity’ only with those who will find His purpose in Jesus Christ. The rest (and Satan with his fallen angels and demon host) inhabits eternity together in horror beyond description. Really, in the matter of the eternal abode of our priceless souls, only people to be feared can continue to allow the devil to pull the wool over their eyes. Where will you spend eternity! Elisha Albright Hoffman (1839-1929) once put that question into a hymn that has become a Christian classic, and it will be very instructive to go through it.
1. Where will you spend eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Tell me, what shall your answer be?
Where will you spend eternity?
Eternity! eternity!
Where will you spend eternity?
2. Many are choosing Christ today,
Turning from all their sins away;
Heav’n shall their happy portion be;
Where will you spend eternity?
Eternity! eternity!
Where will you spend eternity?
3. Leaving the straight and narrow way,
Going the downward road today,
Sad will their final ending be,
Lost thro’ a long eternity!
Eternity! eternity!
Lost thro’ a long eternity!
4. Repent, believe, this very hour,
Trust in the Savior’s grace and power,
Then will your joyous answer be,
Saved thro’ a long eternity!
Eternity! eternity!
Saved thro’ a long eternity!
BETWEEN TIME AND ETERNITY
Where will you spend eternity? The choice is squarely yours. And, indeed, that is the great question each and every one of us is already answering anyway! It is ‘time’ and the life we live now that answers this question. Time is the preparatory ground we need to gaze into eternity: that which only is truly infinity and the great God Who inhabits it. Time is a journey, eternity is the destination. Time is pilgrimage, eternity citizenship. Time is probationary, eternity the scoreboard. In time we sow, in eternity we reap.
Somewhere in-between time and eternity is, therefore, the judgment. So, that, while time takes all of us, and that in this common examination hall called earth, eternity divides us (in what has been described as the great separation) after the score sheet. In time, the forces and camp of good and the forces and camp of evil dwell together; in eternity, they separate to live so in the world without end because whilst in time the soul, which is inherently immortal was given a mortal body, probationary if you will, in eternity it has an immortal body to keep both ‘house and content’ forever (compare 1Corinthians 15: 33-57 and Isaiah 66: 23, 24). How you spend the time that today is, is most vital in determining your place in those unceasing ages upon ages. Good or bad today, eternity waits, and not too many days hence.
Yes, we all need ‘time’ to determine where we would be in eternity. That is the purpose of ‘time’. How you prepare now, and how you are able to perceive and address the issue of the great beyond, now, and that from the perspective of God and His Christ, even Jesus of Nazareth, is all there is about life as we know it today and is all there is about any hope in that great beyond. As we breathe our last, ’infinity’ of ages upon ages in that world without end and limit is instantly the ready host. No split second is spared. Its simultaneity is not in doubt: You breathe your last, the journey in eternity, in its first phase, begins. It starts and continues endlessly with two broad alternatives to reap: Bliss or damnation.
Death terminates time, and opens up eternity. But firstly hell, if sins have not been forgiven or the soul has not been purged of sins! Then secondly, the judgment! The judgment assesses life in ‘time’, rewards life in eternity. The Word of God says, after death is the judgment (Hebrews 9; 27). So that, death and judgment are necessary components in the journey from ‘time’ (when we sow) to eternity (when we reap); for whatsoever a man sows that will he reap (Galatians 6: 7).
Which way eternity? Where will you spend eternity? Wisdom rates this as the most pertinent question we can still ask and answer while breath we still have. Where will you spend eternity?
JESUS IS THE ANSWER
You really cannot anymore stick to the way of destruction. You really cannot hold on to the way that seems right to you. But you really need the Way of God to have the Life of God to be able to belong to Him and live to worship Him eternally. That is what the Sacrifice of Jesus is about. The Cross of Christ is the difference between the two extreme of bliss and damnation in eternity. Not to chose this gracious Cross will now be the reason for men’s doom and not necessarily because of their sin since Christ on the Cross atoned for them and did ALL and EVERYTHING to save priceless soul. But a finished work offered, even as freely as this (SWEET GRACE), could be rejected and that only by people to be truly feared. You cannot be such a one.
The Eternal God Who inhabits eternity said there is eternity ahead of humanity and He is waiting all His creatures there to allocate stations and give rewards according to what and how they sown, how they took or appropriated (or otherwise) Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary and how they related with His Son, Jesus Christ.
What do you do now! Of course, the choice is yours, but we can only plead that you be reconciled to God for that is what Calvary is about. Eternity has no end; we shall all be there; so, CHOOSE RIGHT: AND THAT WOULD TURN OUT TO BE THE WISEST AND SAFEST DECISION YOU EVER MADE WHILE YOU WERE ON THIS SIDE OF ETERNITY. Therefore bring your soul to the mercy seat; approach the seat of mercy today. In APPROACH, MY SOUL, THE MERCY SEAT John Newton (1725-1807) directs himself this way – and we can each take that as an example:
1. Approach, my soul, the mercy seat Where Jesus answers prayer; There humbly fall before His feet, For none can perish there. 2. Thy promise is my only plea; With this I venture nigh: Thou callest burdened souls to Thee, And such, O Lord, am I. 3. Bowed down beneath a load of sin, By Satan sorely pressed By war without, and fears within, I come to Thee for rest. 4. Be Thou my shield and hiding place That, sheltered near Thy side, I may my fierce accuser face And tell him Thou hast died.
5. O wondrous love! to bleed and die, To bear the cross and shame, That guilty sinners, such as I, Might plead Thy gracious Name!
Igho writes from Warri.
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