Jesus taught us that our fate is God's will, and that there is not hair on our head that we can change without Him determining that it should be so.
Nonetheless without an element of freewill the whole concept of salvation, or for that matter damnation, is meaningless. If we have no influence over our own thoughts and deeds, then we have no responsibility for them and it is absurd to suggest that we might be judged upon them.
In short, God gives us freewill to determine the extent of our commitment to Him. He directs us but does not compel us. At some point in our lives we all receive the sign, but it is down to us to act upon it.
Let me put it a different way. Yesterday my Church held its traditional Harvest Supper & Quiz. Ordinarily I am Quizmaster. And yet for some reason I completely forgot about it and failed to turn up, leaving my Pastor to pick up the pieces at short notice.
Was it God's will that I should neglect my duty and let everybody down? Or am I just a forgetful pillock? Discuss.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Heavens Above
Ever wondered what Heaven is actually like?
Well, the bad news is I don't actually know the answer. But I have my own theory, and it has its roots in a brief experience I once had.
Many people have related what they describe as an "Out of Body Experience", in which they claim to have floated outside their own bodies and, in some case, looked down and actually seen themselves.
Please don't consider me mad, but I had one of these experiences many years back - very briefly. There was no operating table - I simply rose from my bed for literally a few seconds. Although at the time I was only in my thirties, I suffer from a condition known as sleep apnea which can in extreme circumstances be life-threatening as on occasions one is unable to catch one's breath during sleep. It is possible that, having missed a breath or two, I lost consciousness (well I was asleep anyway, but you know what I mean).
The interesting point to this story is that when I left my body and begun to float, my partner (now wife) was with me and she was floating too. Now I think the chances of her having momentarily "died" at the same time as me are pretty slim. She doesn't even suffer from the condition. So she wasn't really floating, but to me she was - if you know what I'm saying.
I've long believed that time is a concept which probably doesn't exist in the hereafter. When I died, she died with me. Even though in the mortal world I was still alive, on Earth, with her.
This got me thinking about the nature of Heaven. Nobody seems to have a precise handle on how many Clubcard points one needs to collect to be accepted into the gates, but it struck me as a pretty lousy deal if I made it in yet all those I love - my wife, my children, my parents, my sibling, my friends - fail to make it and I never see any of them ever again. Similarly I have found myself reflecting upon how unfair it must be to spend all eternity as a new-born baby, unaware of what is going on all around, as somebody with a severe disability or as a frail, elderly person with dementia.
There can only be one answer to all this, and we find it in our dreams. Our loved ones are there for us, how we want them to be. We control the moment. And in our loved ones' dreams we may simultaneously be somewhere else, doing something different.
Just think about the concepts of infinity and eternity, those qualities of the universe that we just cannot understand. And then think about dreams, and what they represent, and how we can sometimes influence them. When your loved ones are with you in a certain place in your dreams, at the same time you are with them in a different place in theirs. Is it so completely off the scale to regard those dreams as a taste of Heaven (or indeed Hell)?
Sometimes in my dreams I am not married. Or I have no children. Everybody's entitled to a break. Imagine doing everything you want to do, for hours or even weeks on end, and then returning at the same point as you left ready to do something else, or to go some other place. Imagine being able to do that for ever. That, in my vision, is Heaven.
Well, the bad news is I don't actually know the answer. But I have my own theory, and it has its roots in a brief experience I once had.
Many people have related what they describe as an "Out of Body Experience", in which they claim to have floated outside their own bodies and, in some case, looked down and actually seen themselves.
Please don't consider me mad, but I had one of these experiences many years back - very briefly. There was no operating table - I simply rose from my bed for literally a few seconds. Although at the time I was only in my thirties, I suffer from a condition known as sleep apnea which can in extreme circumstances be life-threatening as on occasions one is unable to catch one's breath during sleep. It is possible that, having missed a breath or two, I lost consciousness (well I was asleep anyway, but you know what I mean).
The interesting point to this story is that when I left my body and begun to float, my partner (now wife) was with me and she was floating too. Now I think the chances of her having momentarily "died" at the same time as me are pretty slim. She doesn't even suffer from the condition. So she wasn't really floating, but to me she was - if you know what I'm saying.
I've long believed that time is a concept which probably doesn't exist in the hereafter. When I died, she died with me. Even though in the mortal world I was still alive, on Earth, with her.
This got me thinking about the nature of Heaven. Nobody seems to have a precise handle on how many Clubcard points one needs to collect to be accepted into the gates, but it struck me as a pretty lousy deal if I made it in yet all those I love - my wife, my children, my parents, my sibling, my friends - fail to make it and I never see any of them ever again. Similarly I have found myself reflecting upon how unfair it must be to spend all eternity as a new-born baby, unaware of what is going on all around, as somebody with a severe disability or as a frail, elderly person with dementia.
There can only be one answer to all this, and we find it in our dreams. Our loved ones are there for us, how we want them to be. We control the moment. And in our loved ones' dreams we may simultaneously be somewhere else, doing something different.
Just think about the concepts of infinity and eternity, those qualities of the universe that we just cannot understand. And then think about dreams, and what they represent, and how we can sometimes influence them. When your loved ones are with you in a certain place in your dreams, at the same time you are with them in a different place in theirs. Is it so completely off the scale to regard those dreams as a taste of Heaven (or indeed Hell)?
Sometimes in my dreams I am not married. Or I have no children. Everybody's entitled to a break. Imagine doing everything you want to do, for hours or even weeks on end, and then returning at the same point as you left ready to do something else, or to go some other place. Imagine being able to do that for ever. That, in my vision, is Heaven.
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