You would think the hope of heaven is as unsure as a back alley crapshoot, the way many talk. “Nobody really knows. Just do your best. I hope it all works out in the end.”
Some actually say, “How do we even know if there is a heaven? Nobody’s been there and come back to tell us.” It’s as if they never heard of Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah or Paul, who all told about their visits to the Celestial City. And John wrote a whole book about it.
My wife and I visited the Mississippi coast last week. Folks may belittle our shore, but I kinda’ like it. We ate a delicious seafood dinner overlooking Biloxi marina.
As you ride along Highway 90, you can’t help but notice the commanding presence of the casinos. It used to be that the tallest structure in a town was the church steeple. Now it’s dwarfed by the massive edifices built to Mammon and its worshippers.
As I thought about this, it seemed that there was a relationship between the demise of Christian hope and the rise of the U.S. gambling industry.
I used to think people who bought lottery tickets were crazy. What are the odds of winning? Here’s a line from, of all papers, The Las Vegas Review-Journal:
“The comparison most often made when talking about the mammoth improbability of winning the lottery is a lightning strike. It’s true: You’re far more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime (1 in 12,000) than win the lottery (roughly 1 in 258.9 million).”
Here’s the appropriate proverb, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow” (Prov 13:11).
Then I realized, if you haven’t personally received Christ as Savior, Ephesians 2:12 says that all those “without Christ” are also “without hope.” But people can’t live without hope. What to do? Gamble! A lottery ticket is hope on the installment plan. Buy a piece of hope until the next drawing. Win or lose, that isn’t the point. It just gives you some hope.
The next proverb to the one previously quoted says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov 13:12). If every hope-so in your world isn’t working out, a game of so-called chance (really?) won’t replace hope. The certainty of the Christian’s hope is based on God’s promises in the Bible, authenticated by prophetic fulfillments. It is also attested by the resurrection of Christ, witnessed by hundreds.
But it’s also based on personal experience. As we strolled around the marina, I greeted a man, Tommy by name, looking across the channel. He told us how his life had been saved there at age 17 when he was almost swept away by the undertow. “That pole saved me,” he said, pointing to a marker in the channel.
“God has been good to you.”
“Yes,” he replied, “and He saved my soul, too!” He went on to tell about his drunken past, a desperate wife, a visit to a little church where, he said, “the preacher spent the whole message talking about me.”
Afterwards, he knelt in repentance and received Christ. It was then he discovered that “a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
And that’s a sure thing.
Religion Page article by Jabe Nicholson first published in the Commercial Dispatch on Sunday, Jul 18, 2021.