Our Eternal Reward Series

Among the Kamba people of East Africa there persists an

ancient legend. The story goes that the people of that region long

ago were very embittered by death's merciless destruction. They

sent messengers to all countries of the world to seek a place where

death did not reign so they could all move there. The messengers

traveled over the face of the earth for years wondering from country

to country. Finally they returned with the tragic report. "We must

stay here and die as our fathers died, for a kingdom where death is

not master does not exist in all the world."

All people have longed to find a kingdom where death is

excluded, and this has led to the belief in the immortality of the soul.

Men have an inherent conviction that somewhere there is a kingdom

where death is no more, and since it has not been found on earth,

they believe it is in a land beyond the grave. The fact that this

longing for such a kingdom is universal demonstrates that man

recognizes death to be an intruder into the universe. It does not

belong, and life will never be fully as God intended it to be until

death itself is dead.

The Bible clearly reveals that such a kingdom is the goal in God's

plan when the last enemy is destroyed, which is death. Before

immortality was brought to light in Jesus Christ there were many

who, by means of reason, came to the same conclusion that would be

given by revelation. Socrates over 300 years before Christ said, "If

this be a dream, let me dream on, and awake to disappointment

rather than suffer from the haunting fear that death ends all! But

this is no dream, since there is no appetite without provision made

for supplying it, how then, will you explain this thirst of mine, unless

there be water somewhere to quench it." He was right, and water

does exist in Jesus Christ, and if we drink of this water of life we

shall never thirst again.

Cicero a hundred years before Christ said, "I am well convinced

then, that my dear departed friends are so far from having ceased to

live that the state they now enjoy can alone with propriety be called

life." We cannot say if this was true for his friends, but he was right

in his conviction that such an abundant life is possible beyond the

grave. Until modern times men have made heaven a major concern,

and they have sought to understand, by means of reason and

revelation, all they can about this kingdom where death does not

reign. This is not longer a pursuit of the majority of men.

Lewis Whittemore in his study of immortality says, "Modern

man is, for the most part, concerned with neither the hope nor the

fear of immortality." People often say little is heard about the

flames of hell from the modern pulpit, but they seldom complain

that the joys and rewards of heaven are not expounded. It is not

only hell, but heaven also that is neglected in our day, and this is due

to the powerful influence of secularism and materialism that keeps

us nearsighted with our focus limited to the here and now. We are

unaware that our greatest enemies are those who rob us of the vision

of heaven.

The hell deniers are not bosom friends, but they are not the foes

to be feared. Those who attack hell and seek to eliminate it often do

so just because they believe in heaven. The universalist wants

everyone in heaven, and the annihilationist wants heaven to be the

only kingdom of eternal existence. We disagree with these hell

opposers, but we can recognize they are friends of heaven. It is the

foes of heaven that are the real danger. The attack on heaven came

in full force during the French Revolution when atheism went wild,

and was determined to destroy God, and topple the monarchy of

heaven.

Communism picked up the challenge and labored also for the

overthrow of heaven. Heaven has got to go if men are to give their

all to the state on earth. Marx wrote, "The people cannot be really

happy until it has been deprived of illusory happiness by the

abolition of religion.....Thus it is the mission of history, after the

other-worldly truth has disappeared, to establish the truth of this

world." Lenin wrote, "Religion teaches those who toil in poverty all

their lives to be resigned and patient in this world, and consoles

them with the hope of reward in heaven. As for those who live upon

the labors of others, religion teaches them to be charitable in earthly

life, thus providing a cheap justification for their whole exploiting

existence and selling them at a reasonable price tickets to heavenly