O Lord, how long?

Christians look forward to the return of the Lord Jesus. We long to be able to see our Lord face to face---
He who gave His life as a ransom for our sins,
He whose righteousness covers us and makes it possible for us to be at peace with a holy God who cannot tolerate sin,
He who will bear the marks of that sacrifice into eternity,
He who stooped down down down to raise us up
---we long to see Him.

Yet another reason for this yearning is the fact that until He comes or until we ourselves die, whichever is sooner, we have to persevere and live holy lives. We hold on thus, despite having a sinful nature that is ever ready to compromise holiness in thought, word, and action.

What is our motivation? Is it the fear of losing the benefits of the grace of God? Are we afraid that God, like an angry warden, will throw us out if we sin? Nay, the Bible promises us that as long as we have truly repented and believe, He will never let us go. The Bible also tells us that once we have come into His fold, every time we sin, we can go to Him in penitence, confess our sin, and be forgiven.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 Jn 1:9)

Why do we not then use this as a license for sinning? Why do we strive to be holy? We do so because God has changed us and given us a new heart and, having become new creatures spiritually, we are now programmed differently, to hate sin.

Yet, we are still in the body of sin with its sinful tendencies. So although holiness is what we want, it still is an effort to keep sin in check.

. . . we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope . . . if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. (Romans 8:23-25)

We need to endure and hold on. We yearn to endure and hold on. We will endure and hold on. We cannot but endure and hold on. And what a relief it will be when He comes, when the redeeming work in our lives is completed and we get new sinless bodies to match the change that has begun in our hearts.

Here is a poem I wrote in 1996 that reflects this yearning.

I wish I had no free will now;
For am I not Your slave?
Me chaining of my body,
Me making me behave,
O Lord, how long?

In Yours to lose my thinking,
Enslaved and totally free.
How much more of struggle
Before Your face I see?
O Lord, how long?

I almost hear the trumpet;
I almost feel me fly.
Redemption of my body
In the twinkling of an eye
O Lord, how long?

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Cor 15: 51-54)

Agnosticism, a call to intellectual honesty

Agnosticism is a call to intellectual honesty. I was of the impression that agnostics were atheists. I now appreciate the difference between these two words. An agnostic believes that it is wrong to claim something as truth if you cannot prove it by providing evidence that logically justifies it. While an atheist does not believe in God, an agnostic believes that it is not possible to prove or disprove the existence of God. I like agnostics. I believe that to be an agnostic is more honest than being what the majority of people who call themselves Christians are.

I am a Christian because I believe that a strong case exists for the fact that the Bible is the word of God as also for the fact that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. I have looked into that matter enough to be satisfied. Having done that, I would stake everything, even my life and my family and everything that I own, if need be, for this fact. When the stakes are that high for a person, it would be foolish to be dishonest; it would be foolish to be careless; it would be foolish to be foolish.

Most so-called Christians are what they are because of their upbringing, for the same reason that Muslims are Muslims or Hindus are Hindus. Usually they are what they are because they have not bothered to look at religion objectively.

Moreover, religion, whichever one it is, by its collections of wise sayings, demands, practices, rules, and traditions, offers some structure and comfort in an unpredictable and chaotic world. Tradition gives you a path to walk by in the labyrinth of life, and having no one returned to us from the grave, people have no inkling about the soundness of the path that has been marked out and handed down to them.

In India, people generally like to justify their beliefs by the fact that they have followed after their elders. Elders are in some inexplicable way supposed to be infallible. When people become elders themselves, their children look up to them, while they themselves may either be too senile to realise that they are not that wise after all, or having no better path to offer, keep silent. Thus it is that this package of religion and tradition becomes a crutch for weak people, unthinking people, and dishonest people.

Zeroing in on Christendom, it is like logs in a fireplace that has been largely untended for hours. There is a semblance of warmth but the fire does not rage. Perhaps, it can if it is stoked and the millions using it as a crutch are dislodged from their positions of comfort. This stoking has happened in the past by way of wide-spread movements of reformation, restoration, and revival where people have applied their mind and heart to what they believed and have bravely corrected their positions. But these movements have been rare and far between. We have a promise that the gates of Hades will not prevail against the true church of God, and so we know that the fire is alive although its warmth can hardly be felt.

What is happening is something more subtle and largely invisible, the revival in the hearts of individuals and little groups and churches across the world. Little groups are stoked into life when honesty and right thinking play a role. I believe that this is man’s role in the matter and that God provides the impetus.

But most of Christendom is dead and cold. The appearance of warmth is more likely orange, yellow, and red streamers of fanciful ideas and theories introduced by people in greed for gain, wolves, who are promoted and aided by gullible people, sheep, who have not been grounded in the scriptures enough to recognise spiritual hogwash. Undiscerning men and women who are, in the words of Lord Tennyson, no better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain.

The soul that comes close to this ‘fire’ in search of warmth is either disappointed and disgusted by hard cold hopelessness or deluded into comfortable and stupid blindness.

To become an agnostic may be the first step out of this hopelessness. A friend of mine and an agnostic described his path to agnosticism as exhilarating. Mind you, the agnostic has no concrete hope, and they know of nothing beyond the grave. But this is their honest position, and there is always joy and freedom in honesty and knowledge. As far as their knowledge is concerned, as the very word 'agnostic' suggests, they know that they do not know. This is rock-bottom honesty. However, if agnostics could genuinely be convinced about God and the Bible and eternal hope in Jesus, they would jump to it. This hope would then no more be the illusionary crutch that Christianity is for millions in Christendom.

2 Tim 1:12 . . . nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."