Rescued! Hiding No Longer (Heaven, Education, and Eternal Learning)

Rescued! Hiding No Longer

(Heaven, Education, and Eternal Learning)

 

December 26, 2020

Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

Adam, where are you?”  God called out in the garden. It was Adam, not God, who hid. God takes the initiative to come searching; we are the ones who hide. And Jesus, the Great Physician, sees our sins not as disqualifiers but as the reason for his journey from another world to ours. Rescue is God business. —Philip Yancey in, Rumors of Another World, p.156.

If there is one phrase that I’ve heard many times, phrased in different ways, it is, “What a year this has been!”  The hope is that there is some way of leaving 2020 behind. Surely 2021 will be better. If the world were ever in need of being “rescued,” however, it would seem it is now. The question is, “Rescued by whom and from what?”  Will a vaccine rescue us? Will a new president or a new social order bring the kind of rescue we really need? 

 

Perhaps the question that God asked of Adam is the more appropriate question. Perhaps we need to ask ourselves, “Where am I?” The need for such a question says a lot. It suggests that Adam had been “hiding.” Have we also been hiding and for the same reason? If we keep hiding, can we expect to be rescued? Our study today is about those who come out of hiding and are willing to be found. Learning now is preparation for the learning in heaven. Indeed, there is much to learn. The following quiz will provide an outline for class study and reflection.

 

 

 

 

Reflective Quiz

 

1.    True or False? In light of God’s pending “rescue” of us, the Bible minimizes the hardships of this life. 

2.    True or False? God is responsible for the restlessness in the world.

3.    True or False? Heaven is the absence of pain, sorrow, and death.

4.   True or False? Questions arise while living on this earth. It’s good to know that there will be answers but no more questions in heaven.

5.    True or false? Knowledge in heaven will be progressive?

Readiness for Heaven

But I trust in you, LORD;

I say, “You are my God.”

My times are in your hands;

deliver me from the hands of my enemies,

from those who pursue me. (Ps. 31:14,15)

 

In saying, “My future is in your hands,” David was expressing his belief that all of life’s circumstances are under God’s control. Knowing that God loves and cares for us enables us to keep steady in our faith regardless of our circumstances. This seems to be an appropriate preamble for our study today.

 

1.    True or False? In light of God’s pending “rescue” of us, the Bible minimizes the hardships of this life. 

 

False! Not at all.  The Bible does not look the other way. Whether it be Noah, Moses, Job, David, Stephen, the apostles, Jesus. The hardships of life are not ignored. In fact, they provide the context for the coming “Rescue.”

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Heb. 11:36-40)

2.    True or False? God is responsible for the restlessness in the world.

 

In light of the question, do you think the following statement by Solomon sheds any light on our understanding of “restlessness”? In what way? Why?

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecc. 3:9-11)

There is indeed a restlessness but whose source or solution is not found outside God’s plan for us. The French philosopher and activist, Simone Weil, expressed it this way,

We see either the dust on the window or the view beyond the window, but never the window.

What is it that we do not see behind the events taking place in our world today? What don’t we see in our own lives? Should it be an encouragement or a discouragement? 

 

3.    True or False? Heaven is the absence of pain, sorrow, and death.

 

One person, when asked if he cherished the hope of eternal life, responded by saying, “Eternal life! What a horrible thought! Our seventy to eighty years here are bad enough. Who’d want to stretch this out forever? That would be hell.”  So, the question is relevant, “Is the promise of eternal life a mere continuation of this life here?

 

Peter speaks of a radical change – anything but a “mere continuation of this life.”

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 2 Peter 3:10

But there is more,

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘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.”  Rev. 21:3,4

 

But we come back to the question, “Is heaven the absence of pain, sorrow, and death? Is that what heaven is? Is health simply the absence of disease? In each case there is much more than the absence of something we don’t like!

 

Some of Ellen White’s earliest visions contained bright glimpses of heaven and the earth made new. When she came out of vision, this world seemed dark and lonely compared with the brilliant beauty of the world to come which she had seen so vividly. And she often struggled to find the words to describe what she had been shown in vision. Here is one description of many.

When Adam Sees Eden Again—When the faithful dead shall be resurrected, and the king of glory shall open before them the gates of the city of God, and the nations who have kept the truth enter in, what beauty and glory will meet the astonished sight of those who have seen no greater beauties in the earth than that which they beheld in decaying nature after the threefold curse was upon the earth. Hvn 79.2

It is impossible to describe Adam's transports of joy as he again beholds Paradise, the Garden of Eden, his once happy home, from which, because of his transgression, he had been so long separated. He beholds the lovely flowers and trees, of every description for fruit and beauty, every one of which to designate them he had named while in his innocence. He sees the luxuriant vines, which had once been his delight to train upon bowers and trees. –In Heavenly Place, p. 7/ Spiritual Gifts 3:88,89

The Apostle Paul says it well,

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. – 1 Cor. 13:12

John’s vision highlights the greatest joy of all.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. – Rev. 21:3

 

4.    True or False? Questions arise while living on this earth. It’s good to know that there will be answers but no more questions in heaven.

I was once told by a seatmate on a flight, “Who wants to go to heaven and float around on cloud.”  I then added, “Exactly, a fluffy pink cloud, playing a golden harp as we float along for eternity!” It was an amazing conversation which ended with her telling me that she wanted to start going to church again. Far too often we have allowed folk lore to diminish what God has in store for us!

 

Ellen described our experience in heaven this way,

“Heaven is a school; its field of study, the universe; its teacher the Infinite One. A branch of school was established in Eden and the plan of redemption accomplished, education will again be taken up in the Eden school.” Education, p. 301. 

If there is a teacher, and that teacher is Jesus, I’m sure He will be asking many questions and so will we!

If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’—Zech. 13:6

5.    True or false? Knowledge in heaven will be progressive?

And the years of eternity, as they roll, will bring richer and still more glorious revelations of God and of Christ. As knowledge is progressive, so will love, reverence, and happiness increase. The more men learn of God, the greater will be their admiration of His character. As Jesus opens before them the riches of redemption and the amazing achievements in the great controversy with Satan, the hearts of the ransomed thrill with more fervent devotion, and with more rapturous joy they sweep the harps of gold; and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of voices unite to swell the mighty chorus of praise. GC 678.1

Concluding Challenge

 

Over the years, during good times and challenging times, I have learned that choosing to follow Jesus has always been the best choice I could have made. At the time, when it made no sense from a human point of view, it may not have been easy, but it later it became clear that my life then and in the future was being weighed in the balances. The Gospels repeat one statement by Jesus more than any other:

Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Jesus’ sake will find it.

No better decision could be made to close out 2020 as a preparation for entering 2021. Don’t delay. As we opened our study, our rescue is at hand. Hide no longer!