Beginnings 6

 

All Things New

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at the theme of New Beginnings, appropriately enough at this time of year. I’d like to continue on that theme by considering something that we find the Lord saying in Revelation 21 v. 5: "I am making everything new!"

As we look around at the present state of the world, with wars, famines, poverty, oppression and exploitation as rife as ever they were, we might be tempted to mutter, “Same old, same old,” and agree with the Preacher in Ecclesiastes when he says, “There is nothing new under the sun!” The same old cycle of negativity is obviously alive and well and dominating the lives of millions of people around the world. And now we’ve got global warming and environmental catastrophe to worry about on top of it all!

It's ironic that this should be the case following on from the extreme optimism of the mid to late 20^th Century, when humanistic thinking built on evolutionary theory to encourage us to expect ever-improving conditions and ever-expanding horizons. “You’ve never had it so good,” was the basis of the hope that it was going to get better and keep getting better. And up until very recently, at least in the Western world, it all continued to look pretty good, until the wheels began to come off the wagon more recently; not too noticeably at first, but with the coming of covid, Brexit, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the fragility of our prosperity and welfare have been exposed and our complacency shattered.

Yet there is nothing new in all of this. Every civilisation that came before ours has gone through the same process of rising to power, gaining prosperity, using and abusing those weaker than themselves and then falling away from the peak of that under a combination of external pressures and internal weaknesses, often expressed in moral degeneration.

Another philosophy that influences many peoples’ thinking on these issues springs from eastern religion, where the idea of reincarnation seems to tie in quite well with this business of the same things coming round again and again in human experience. If that’s true in the realm of ordinary life and experience, might it not have its roots in spiritual reality? Could our experience of, “same old, same old,” not be founded in the basic re-incarnational nature of how things are, and therefore always will be?

While there might be a basis of argument for this viewpoint from philosophical theory, there’s not much in the way of practical or historical evidence to support it, and as a hope and motivation for life it’s a pretty bleak outlook. Condemned to an endless cycle of deaths and re-incarnations with very little expectation of betterment and the ultimate aim as being total loss of identity and awareness, doesn’t sound too appealing or exciting to me!

However, it’s one thing to pull down other peoples’ arguments and beliefs, but why should I think that the Christian hope is any better? Isn’t this talk of going to Heaven and living forever not just pie in the sky when you die? A nice carrot to dangle in front of believers to keep them on the right track and giving their offerings faithfully week by week! After all, no-one has come back from Heaven to confirm what it’s like, and that the Biblical promises are true, have they?

Well, actually, they have. There are hundreds if not thousands of well-documented accounts from people across the centuries, nationalities, age-groups and classes, giving their account of an experience of being in the presence of God in Heaven and returning to normal human life afterwards. But, for me, the clinching testimony to the reality of life after death, a new and perfect life in the presence of God, where every tear is wiped away and all injustice gone for ever, comes from the pages of the New Testament and the words and work of Jesus Christ. He demonstrated the world to come by His healing work and amazing miracles; He dealt with the root of all the injustice, oppression, pain, sorrow and death itself by His death on the Cross and His resurrection on the third day. The historical evidence for all this is stronger than for any other event from antiquity and can only be discounted on the basis of prejudice rather than intellectual honesty.

Jesus is alive, and He tells us that He is making all things new. That excites me, because it’s not just about pie in the sky when you die, some future hope that enables us to hold on until we get there. Jesus is already making all things new, just like He did when He walked this earth. I realise it when I see the former drug addict living a productive and happy family life; when I see a young man with no school qualifications and no prospect of employment go on to become a headmaster; when a man whose life is ruined by back pain is healed and able to work again.

Not just pie in the sky when you die, but cake on the plate while you wait. Have a good week.

Derek Chittick