![\"Alexander_Roinashvili_opt\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/169\/2016\/04\/Alexander_Roinashvili_opt.jpg\")
There is no escape from this life, what we have done, and the person we become. Those are facts and the sooner we start to deal with them, the happier we shall be. This will come as bad news to many, I am sure I don\u2019t like it (at first.)<\/p>\nThere is no escape from this life, what we have done, and the person we become. Those are facts and the sooner we start to deal with them, the happier we shall be. This will come as bad news to many, I am sure I don\u2019t like it (at first.)<\/p>\n
Atheists sometimes claim that theists adopt belief in God out of fear of death. Somebody may have done this, but as CS Lewis pointed out in\u00a0Surprised by Joy,\u00a0<\/em>many fewer than one might think. Why?<\/p>\n Belief in God is only comforting if God is good. Forget the polytheistic \u201cgods\u201d of ancient times . . .they have nothing in common with the God of the philosophers other than the English name \u201cgod.\u201d They are super heroes \u00a0. . . blown up men and they could exist or not exist without saying anything about the existence of God. Unicorns and rhinoceroses are animals with a single prominent horn, but unicorns do not exist and rhinos do.<\/p>\n If we assume God is good and just, then we have a second problem: we are not good and just. Why would God \u201clove\u201d us and tolerate our errors? Forget the ones we cannot help (assume most of our \u201csins\u201d are like this kind) and look at what we do choose to do that we know is cold, curt, or cruel. It isn\u2019t as if our good deeds can simply outweigh the bad ones and so get us into God\u2019s good graces. Instead, if God exists, then He is a perfect being with no stain of evil. He simply cannot tolerate a blemish in Paradise because such a mark would be horrific.<\/p>\n If we close a giant pool for a bit of poo, imagine what our stench would do to the high courts of Heaven. There is something rotten in our character and Heaven is scent sensitive to the least whiff of injustice or corruption.<\/p>\n Life can grow, as one grandparent put it, tedious. We long to escape our troubles and who could blame us? Many of the burdens we \u00a0bear are not of our making. Why not quit? Shakespeare, a Christian wise man, understood the temptation to quit and his tragic hero Hamlet wonders about finding the exit \u00a0stage life.<\/p>\n Hamlet says:<\/p>\n To be, or not to be- that is the question: This is a passage so well known that even starting the soliloquy can be a nightmare for an actor . . . as a recent experiment with an actual Prince showed.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Hamlet is unsure what to do, tormented by his family, and overloaded with guilt. He would gladly kill himself, but two considerations stand in his way. What is on the other side of death? What if the dreams that come are worse than the real life Hamlet is fleeing? Second, Hamlet has a conscience that makes him cowardly. Christians believe suicide is a serious sin because there is no chance to repent. A dead man can be sorry, but is out of time to make amends. As a result, Hamlet is stuck with life.<\/p>\n If God cares about our suicide, then we should not kill ourselves. If God does not care, then God is uncaring and the potential afterlife is too potentially frightening. The belief that it cannot \u201cget worse\u201d is foolish. \u00a0Achilles is a gibbering shade in Hades who manages to communicate this message to a visitor to Hades: any life on Earth is better than what he experiences. Remember: the Greek Hades is not nearly so loathsome as Hell. If you believe in the\u00a0probability\u00a0<\/em>of an afterlife, then the day of death is a day of doom.<\/p>\n This is also true for a Christian. We think we are right and that God is love. We affirm, reasonably, that He will accept us into Paradise. Yet only a saint or a fool has\u00a0total confidence<\/em> when facing the final challenge. Biblical faith is a rational and experiential belief in the truth of something uncertain. \u00a0When a man faces the undiscovered country, he wishes for certainty, but no certainty is available.<\/p>\n Is there a God?<\/p>\n If so, is God good?<\/p>\n If there is a God, is there an afterlife?<\/p>\n If so, is it good?<\/p>\n Will it be good for me?<\/p>\n God revealed His existence and the answer to these questions in Jesus. We believe, but someday our belief will face the ultimate test. This should concentrate our minds wonderfully.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n William Shakespeare went to God four hundred years ago. To recollect his death, I am writing a personal reflection on a few of his plays.\u00a0The Winter\u2019s Tale\u00a0<\/a><\/em>started things off, followed by\u00a0As You Like It<\/a>. Romeo and Juliet<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>still matter,\u00a0Lady Macbeth<\/a> rebukes the lust for power, and Henry V<\/a> is a hero. Richard II <\/a>shows us not to presume on the grace of God or rebel against authority too easily.\u00a0Coriolanus<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>reminds us that our leaders need integrity and humility. Our life can be joyful if we realize that it is, at best,\u00a0A Comedy of Errors.<\/a>\u00a0 Hamlet<\/a><\/em> needs to know himself better and talks to himself less. He is stuck with himself<\/a> so he had better make his peace with God quickly.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is no escape from this life, what we have done, and the person we become. Those are facts and the sooner we start to deal with them, the happier we shall be. This will come as bad news to many, I am sure I don\u2019t like it (at first.) Atheists sometimes claim that theists […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-on-books"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhether \u2019tis nobler in the mind to suffer
\nThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
\nOr to take arms against a sea of troubles,
\nAnd by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
\nNo more; and by a sleep to say we end
\nThe heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
\nThat flesh is heir to. \u2018Tis a consummation
\nDevoutly to be wish\u2019d. To die- to sleep.
\nTo sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there\u2019s the rub!
\nFor in that sleep of death what dreams may come
\nWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 1760<\/span>
\nMust give us pause. There\u2019s the respect
\nThat makes calamity of so long life.
\nFor who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
\nTh\u2019 oppressor\u2019s wrong, the proud man\u2019s contumely,
\nThe pangs of despis\u2019d love, the law\u2019s delay,
\nThe insolence of office, and the spurns
\nThat patient merit of th\u2019 unworthy takes,
\nWhen he himself might his quietus make
\nWith a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
\nTo grunt and sweat under a weary life,
\nBut that the dread of something after death-
\nThe undiscover\u2019d country, from whose bourn
\nNo traveller returns- puzzles the will,
\nAnd makes us rather bear those ills we have
\nThan fly to others that we know not of?
\nThus conscience does make cowards of us all,
\nAnd thus the native hue of resolution
\nIs sicklied o\u2019er with the pale cast of thought,
\nAnd enterprises of great pith and moment
\nWith this regard their currents turn awry 1780<\/span>
\nAnd lose the name of action.- Soft you now!
\nThe fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons
\nBe all my sins rememb\u2019red.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n