Homepage message: April 2010

One of the most daunting questions looming in the minds of everyone regarding life is recorded by Peggy Lee in the song, “Is That All There Is?” This song was written from the perspective of someone who was disillusioned with the events in life that were supposedly unique experiences. The song speaks of the family house burning down when she was a little girl. It speaks of when she attended a circus and when she fell in love for the first time. After each event there was disappointment. As a result she suggests that we “keep on dancing, lets break out the booze and have a ball if that’s all there is.”

In other words, instead of worrying about life and trying to find meaning and purpose through the experiences of life—which leave you empty and disappointed—live it up, throwing responsibility to the wind. In the final verse she rejects the thought of ending it all because, “I’m in no hurry for that final disappointment.”

What a sad and disappointing view of life. It can only breed depression and despair. Yet how many share this philosophy of life? It was made popular after WWII as a way of bringing back the importance of the individual and his freedom. Soren Kierkegaard is the father of existentialism and says, “the individual is solely responsible for giving his own life meaning and living that life, passionately and sincerely in spite of many existential obstacles and distractions including despair, angst, absurdity, alienation and boredom.”

From a purely human point of view, a naturalistic perspective on life, we are left by ourselves. The most we can hope for is to get a good job, marry, buy house, and raise and educate our children so they, too, can have a decent job. Hopefully we can enjoy grandchildren, eventually retire and enjoy the few remaining years and then return to the ground from which we came. Since death ends it all, hopefully our children will keep our memory alive. “If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep on dancing, let’s break out the booze and have a ball.”

There is another perspective on life which rests on a sure and certain foundation!

“What I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to ... more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time .... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead .... Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye ... the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. —I Corinthians 15:3-6, 17-20, 52

Death is not the end of life! There is indeed an afterlife that lasts for eternity. It is validated in the historical event of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son. He alone paid the penalty of death for our sin. But he did not remain in the grave; he arose with a new and glorified body of flesh and bone. His resurrection was not in secret but for all to see and experience. Because he has conquered death and lives, all who receive him, all who surrender their lives to him and lives for him will be resurrected to eternal life. Without Christ in your life you have no hope or meaning and may as well “break out the booze and have a ball,” because what pleasure you experience in this life will be the only “heaven” you will ever experience.

Christ’s tomb is an empty tomb and yours will be, too, someday. The question is where will you spend eternity?

Learn about a true Easter experience today!