Afterlife

Yo. From now on I will post a link to the song on YouTube for your listening pleasure. Here you are.

Afterlife

I touched with one
Who made me run
Away from my own soul...
In this world with its
Many illusions
We are moving like mice through a maze

And now I find
What's left behind
Has served to make me whole
Full of doubt, deception, and delusion
Seeking purpose to all earthly days

I search within
Beneath a skin
That bears both pleasure and pain
In a world full of constant confusion
I will not be a par to the craze

In the Afterlife
Will dark be bright?
Will cold be warm?
Will the day have no night?
In the Afterlife?
Will the blind have sight?
In the Afterlife.

Behind closed eyes
Some comfort lies
In knowing the truth never spoken
Through this world with its
Hidden conclusion
We'll keep moving like mice through a maze

In the Afterlife.

Will dark be bright?
Will cold be warm?
Will the day have no night?
In the Afterlife?
Will the blind have sight?
In the Afterlife.

Hey you, out there on the road, doing what you’re told, can you help me? So today we reach a song with a bone crushing opening and lyrics concerning a topic I never think about. You know, the Afterlife is just not relevant. Just joking, as a Christian I think about the Afterlife much. It consumes my thoughts. We will get to my view of the Afterlife a little later. First, what is this song about? It appears to be the words of one pondering the futility of this present life and the “hidden conclusion” of this life. The meaninglessness and pain of this life leaves one thinking there must be more than this world of pain. There must be an Afterlife.

So today, I had my first Jewish Thought and Culture class. It was awesome. The professor rocks my socks and the class seems interesting beyond imagination. I am so stoked to grow in my understanding of Judaism in order to understand them and minister to them better. Also, this class will help me understand the New Testament better since I will be reading the Mishnah, which my prof said is the most important rabbinical work for understanding the New Testament. I am very excited, but it will be a challenging and growing study also. The Orthodox Jews have zeal and faith in God that most Christians do not have. They know the Hebrew Bible much better than we do; they have more reverence than we do; and they probably have a stronger belief and surrender to who God is than we do. So earlier I said I thought about the afterlife a lot. These Jews who are more faithful than me, how do they fit in this whole Afterlife thing? Well, the Bible is crystal clear on the Afterlife. There are two places that people go to—Heaven and Hell. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Apostle Peter said (as recorded in Acts), “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name [besides the name of Jesus] under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Any one who does not believe in Jesus Christ will go to hell.

It is very easy to affirm that in a vacuum, knowing you believe in Jesus Christ. But when faced with real people, it becomes harder to believe. It is hard to believe that these super devout Jews will be spending their Afterlife, not in Heaven, but in Hell. But if I am going to be faithful to the Word of God, I must. These Jews devote their life to seeking after God. They seek to live a life that is pleasing to Him and to love others. They believe much truth. But they reject the Truth. They reject the Way. They reject the life. They reject the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. They reject Jesus Christ. Paul puts it beautifully in Romans 10, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them [the Jews] is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” O, their zeal without knowledge! It is a damning zeal! The only way to Heaven is through the righteousness that comes from believing in Jesus Christ. This seems so harsh and unfair, but it only appears this way because we look at it from a humanistic existential point of view. It is all about God. It is not all about us. God is a holy God. We have sinned against him. He does not owe salvation to us. He would be completely just in damning us to hell. He doesn’t have to pardon anyone because of a certain zeal they have. It is hard to say, but those Jews that don’t believe in Jesus Christ are in rebellion against God. They are unrighteous people who are not seeking after the one true God. They are relying on a righteousness found in someone other than Jesus Christ. They are relying on unrighteous righteousness. They are in the same state I was in before Christ saved me. I find this hard to believe. I believe, help my unbelief!