Earlier this year, Martin
Mosse challenged me to describe my views on “What’s it all about?” So far I
have made two attempts to start it. At the second attempt, I made more headway,
but it is still definitely “Work-in-Progress”, but let me have a third attempt.
I guess that the
starting point has to be that I believe that something happens when we die. It
is not all over. To expand this statement, we continue in some form, although
what that form is, is a matter of considerable debate, even in the inner
workings of Grumpy’s brother’s mind.
If there were no
after-life, then almost every prophet and writer in both the Old and New
Testaments would be wrong on this point, in which case we can throw the Bible
away and start looking for inspiration on the back of Cornflakes packets. The
prophets and writers all indicate some form of after-life.
Secondly, this after-life
involves seeing God in some way. I do not know what this means exactly, and I
cannot imagine what form or shape God takes. But I’ll leave this statement as
it is, with all its ambiguities and unknowns.
Thirdly, this
after-life involves some form of comprehension of “What it has all been about”
(to misquote Martin Mosse), a moment when it all seems so obvious and when we
recognise that that much or most of what we believed beforehand will seem to be
ridiculous.
Fourthly, I believe
that the Earth as we know it will not play any part in our after-life. Whether the
earth and universe etc. will carry on or not or the whole universe closed down
as having served its purpose, I don’t know. But it was only context in the
first place. (It does seem such a profligate waste, doesn’t it.)
On this point though,
the evidence from the Bible leaves me reeling in terms of possibilities. I will
not try to justify this particular belief from the Bible, as there are other views,
probably all equally supportable from the Bible. So I will stick with my
personal preconceptions and prejudices.
Of course, the
question that preoccupies us is what happens to us. We only rarely ask the
question of what does God get out of all this? Why did He do all this, because
the answer to what happens in the here-after is bound up in God’s objectives in
all this. This is really a puzzle.
Does God’s work really
finish what this world is over? 13 billion years (or whatever the latest figure
is) to get to this point, 50,000 years of man and that’s it? ….and then
eternity, which seems to me like a very long time, even compared with 13
billion years.
Perhaps, we are not really
meant to know just yet what it is all about.
