UMC20230723 - Declaration of Faith - Part 6¶
We are in the sixth and final week of a journey through the Apostles Creed, a declaration of our faith, and are looking at what it is that we believe when we say the lines:
[I believe in ...] the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Apostles Creed ends with a glorious bang. Eternity. But what is it? And who gets in?
These have been difficult questions for me to answer in my life. Do good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell? But, then who is good? Am I good? I struggle to believe in a God (who we believe is Love itself) that would cast His children into eternal torment for decisions made in such a short life on earth. A jarring thought to be pondered: Do babies that die go to heaven? If so, why do we let them grow up and risk going to hell? Though this may be an oversimplification in the extreme.
I wonder what your beliefs about eternity are?
What is clear in this passage is the following: 1. Eternity includes our bodies. This reiterates the Jewish belief that body, mind and spirit are one. Our spirit is not the only eternal part of us, our whole being is eternal. This again counters the spirit-body dichotomy of the Gnostics discussed in part 1. 2. Eternity is relationship, now. In John 17:3, Jesus says "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Life ever-lasting begins when you know Christ, not one day in the clouds.
The Apostles Creed ends by reminding us that we are eternal beings (mind, body and spirit) who are built to be in relationship with God. That is all that matters.
Love, Cliff