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Posted At: 11:21pm by Anna Joy
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I was reading The Screwtape Letters - one of my most favorite books - tonight and came upon something I hadn't realized before. Throughout C.S. Lewis book, Screwtape is writing his nephew who is going through "temptation bootcamp" and is giving him advice on how to further the Devil's kingdom.
While reading, I came across this passage:
So inveterate is their appetite for Heaven that our best method, at this stage, of attaching them to earth is to make them believe that earth can be turned into Heaven at some future date by politics or eugenics or 'science' or psychology, or what not.
How true is this? How often do we try to create a 'heaven on earth' by creating new political or social policies? How often do we try to extend the lives of patients through artificial means?* More often than what it should be, isn't it?
The truth is that the world is sinful, fallen, corrupt. We can't even begin to imagine what a perfect world would be like. Think about it. List all of the things that would be different if this world was "perfect" and then go back through your list. How many of those supposedly perfect things that you listed are tainted by your fallen nature? Probably quite a few.
This is why Communism, while it seems like the ideal society, will never work. We're sinful human beings. We're selfish. Living in a setting where we must share everything with everyone goes against our sinful nature. Socialist governments eventually fall into corruption. Medical treatments, while they may extend our lives, ultimately fail. Earth is not perfect. We are not perfect.
But in the midst of all of this, Christ came down from the real Heaven to earth to save us from our sin. He died so that we wouldn't spend eternity in Hell. And then, He rose again three days later. Why? Why die one of the most inhumane deaths imaginable? It's simple: God loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.
So, while there may never be Heaven on earth, we are given glimpses of what Heaven will be like through God's Word and through the Lord's Supper.
Revelation 21:4 - He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
*not that I don't believe in medical breakthroughs or medical treatment. I'm thinking more along the lines of keeping braindead patients artificially "alive" via machine.
Edited on: March 20th, 2007 11:24 pm
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