LESSON LI
THE CHRISTIAN HOPE AND THE PRESENT POSSESSION
A type of religious effort has become prevalent to-day which is directed chiefly to the present life; the improvement of worldly conditions is often regarded as the chief end of man. All such tendencies are strikingly at variance with apostolic Christianity. The apostolic Church was intensely other-worldly. The chief gift that the apostles offered was not a better and more comfortable life in this world, but an entrance into heaven.
1. THE END OF THE WORLD
Only the great outlines of the events connected with the end of the world are revealed in the New Testament. Minute details cannot be discovered except by an excessively literal method of interpretation, which is not really in accord with the meaning of the apostolic writers. Some have supposed, for example, that there are to be two resurrections, first a resurrection of the Christian dead and long afterwards a resurrection of other men; expectation of a thousand-year reign of Christ upon earth has been widely prevalent. Such beliefs are not to be lightly rejected, since they are based upon an interpretation of certain New Testament passages which is not altogether devoid of plausibility; but on the whole they are at least doubtful in view of other passages, and especially in view of the true nature of prophecy. God has revealed, not details to satisfy our curiosity, but certain basal facts which should determine our lives.
Those basal facts, connected with the end of the world, are a second coming of Christ, a resurrection of the dead, a final judgment, an eternity of punishment for the wicked and of blessing for those who have trusted in Christ. It is not maintained that these facts stand absolutely alone; certainly they are fully explained, at least in their spiritual significance; but the devout Bible-reader should be cautious about his interpretation of details.
2. FEAR AND JOY
The practical effect of the apostolic teaching about the end of the world should be a combination of earnestness with joy. A man who lives under the expectation of meeting Christ as Judge will desert the worldly standard of values for a higher standard. He will rate happiness and worldly splendor lower, in order to place the supreme emphasis upon goodness. The difference between evil and good, between sin and holiness, is not a trifle, not a thing of merely relative importance, as many men regard it; it enters deep into the constitution of the universe, it is the question of really eternal moment. Again and again, in the New Testament, the thought of Christ's coming and of the judgment which he will hold is made the supreme motive to a pure and holy life. The apostolic example may well be borne in mind. When we are tempted to commit a mean or dishonest or unclean act, when unholy thoughts crowd in upon us like a noisome flood, we cannot do better than think of the day when we shall stand in the presence of the pure and holy Judge.