Second in a Series o f Messages
By Louis T. Talbot, D.D.
T HE Apostle Paul, in discussing the believer and his relation to death and eternity, makes three statements that ring with confidence. He declares: “ For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). Emphasizing this assurance, he con tinues : “We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:6). “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Paul’s threefold affirmation — “we know,” “we are always confident,” “we are confident”—is the answer of the Holy Spirit to those who hold that whatever may be said about the be liever’s heavenly home is all idle specu lation and the product of imagination. There are certain facts that we, as humble believers in the written and' the living Word, may know beyond the shadow of a doubt. Science and philosophy, being un mixed with faith in the declarations of the Word of God, can return no com plete answer to Nature’s two mysteries, life and death. That is the reason the ancient heathen often would build great tombs over their dead and carve upon them inverted torches. They could not represent the torch as being extin guished, because they still loved the departed one, and how could they love —nothing? They dared not put the torch erect in a strong hand, because they did not know for a certainty that it still burned, that the life continued after death. It seemed to them to have gone out. Again, the ancient Greeks symbolized by means of a broken column a life terminated in death. The firm-set foun dation, the sculptured base, the fluted shaft—these were there. But when the eye, craving completeness, looked for the crown at the top of the structure, there was none to be seen—only a sharp fracture. The memorial stood there, a beautiful fragment, supporting nothing and ending nowhere. No doubt many have seen the broken column even in this day, but perhaps did not know that this concept originated with the ancient Greeks who attempted to express that, in spite of their advanced philosophy, Page Twelve
they did not know whether life con tinued after death. Within more recent years, two of the most eloquent of unbelievers have spo- en upon this mystery of life and death, and they, too, have echoed uncertainty. It is significant that they hav£ ex pressed in words what the Greeks carved in marble. The atheistic orator, Robert G. Ingersoll, declared at the funeral of his brother: “ Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only George Ma+neson, author of ^ $ the lovely hymn, "O Love That W ilt Not Let Me Go ," once stat- ^ ed: "If you want to teach a child $ that heaven is his home, that •£ 1 8 8 8 8 j God is his Father, that Christ is <£ his Brother, that the ties which § 8 bind the world are family ties, J $ you must begin by purifying his j! $ original idea. You must make $ the thought of home endearing, 8 the name of father sacred, the $ sense of brotherhood protective, j! ^ the relationship of the family di- 8 vine." § «V; 8 answer is the echo of our wailing cry.” On the same occasion, an agnostic and a Senator, whose name is not recorded, said of his friend: “He has gone to an undiscovered country. Whether his journey thither was but one step across the imper ceptible frontier, or whether an inter minable ocean, black, unfluctuating and voiceless, stretches between these earth ly coasts and those invisible shores, we do not know.” Over against the horror of the heath en’s despair and of the unbeliever’s dreadful uncertainty, we place these words of divine assurance: “We know.” “ We are confident.” “We are always confident.” And why may we be so sure? Heaven is not an unexplored country as skep tics would have us believe. The apostle who wrote the words which have just been quoted had himself been “ caught up to the third heaven . . . into para dise, and [had] heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). I § 8 8 8 8 8
Again, John, called the beloved dis ciple, had been given on the Isle of Patmos such a clear vision of the land of glory that it doubtless became as familiar to him as the scenes of your home town are familiar to you. But most convincing of all is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is “at home” in Heaven. He has lived there through past ages, and (reverently we say it) He ought to know something about this glorious place! He does know, and He does tell us—all that it is need ful for us to know now. He explored every avenue of death; He arose with the cry of the conqueror: “ I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev. 1:18). Thank God! He has the keys of death and of the unseen world. He is Himself the way to the Father’s house. What greater assurance could one ask for than that which He already has pro vided? Is the Heavenly Home a Literal Place or Just a State of Mind? Twice the Lord Jesus called the eter nal dwelling of redeemed ones “ a place” : “ I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 14:2, 3). These were the words with which the Lord comforted His troubled disciples on the eve of His returning to Heaven. He told them that He was leaving them, and despair gripped their hearts. However, He sought to wipe their fears away with the assurance that one day He and they would be in a place which He was going to prepare, a city of “many mansions.” That Heaven must be an actual abode, and not a mental state, is further proved by the fact that Enoch, Elijah, and Christ Himself ascended from the earth in bodily form. If Heaven is not a place, where can their bodies be? And where will the bodies of the saints exist after the resurrection? Heaven is not a ghostly unreality. It is just as really a place as is New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles—only more so, because these earthly cities have the marks of decay upon -them, and they will one day crumble and mingle with the dust of earth. But the heavenly city is eternal. It is true, of course, that in the ages to come we believers will be in “ a heavenly state of mind.” This realiza- T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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