5 Illuminations of Christian Hope

Hope is needed in this world of uncertainty, deception, and lies. In a post-modern and post-Christian world, there seems to be a loss of hope. At least, a loss of hope that Jesus Christ will come again and right all the wrongs and the new day will be here in its fullness. But we live in a secular world that has no need for God—if we believe in a god, we live as though there is no God. With political scandal and imperfect leaders who seem to lead astray rather than unite, we have lost hope in authority. We cry for justice, but no leader can bring it. Some think of this life as survival and rest in the next life, if there is a next life or a non-material existence or nothing. If we have lost hope in this life, shouldn’t we hope in Christ who entered history and will come again to make all perfect—right the wrongs. Christ followers do not believe in history going on forever. They know there is an end to this place of time; they await a physical, perfected place in union with God.

Body and Soul

We are bodies, we do not have bodies. We are souls, we do not have souls. What does this mean? What are the implications? Let’s propose a contrast: A Judeo-Christian view of a person and a pagan view of a person. The God who sustains all and creates all things is. He is the great I AM. He is not the earth or the sky—he made both. He is not pinned down as something we can grasp and manipulate. Jesus Christ who came to this world as a baby, though God, assumed our being. God came to us. He did not remain outside time and absent in acting upon human history. God was never and is never removed from this existence. God is not the remote or impersonal force or the Immovable Mover, or the watch-maker. The hope of this Christian life is that “He gives us a new future in the flesh, not a new… location” like Nirvana—a disembodied existence. He came in the flesh to save humanity. We too, as bodies, as souls—whole persons--ascend with Christ through baptism, death, and resurrection.

Cosmos is Good

Genesis 1 and 2 reveal this Creator who intimately and lovingly made the cosmos and called it good. The cosmos: the universe and everything in it. When Christ died for humanity, he died for us cosmically. The death and resurrection had cosmic affect. God spoke all things into being. In the Silmarillion (Tolkien’s history of Middle Earth), the Creator sang all into existence—all that which was in harmony was akin to goodness in Genesis. What was in disharmony was fallen, fell, or foul. It is like the medieval understanding of the universe—the music of the spheres. Each sphere had a purpose and driving traits. They are all in harmony acting upon those on earth. Though the medieval imagination was incorrect scientifically by what we know about the universe today, at least they had the realization of the spiritual world. They saw angels and demons in the heavens—not a cold sterile blackness. Cold and cruel. With impending doom of black holes. They saw, understood, imagined the light of God. The love of God. The love of God permeating every facet of the universe communicating through the angels of each sphere—Sole (sun), Jupiter, Mars, Venus, etc. The earth at the middle. The earth had fallen and was silent amidst the heavenly spheres. But the music was there, only it could not be heard except through those seeking to listen to the harmony of the Creator—his love and life which pierces fallenness.

The Logos

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him, was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1). In the beginning was God, in the beginning was wisdom, giving order to all things. John mentions this reflecting Genesis—that Christ Jesus has been since the beginning. The “we” in Genesis creating is not the royal we, but the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit all existing—the I AM—the same ousia or essence, three persons, but one God.

Light and Dark

Now the light is not bits of goodness trapped, fleeing from the darkness as the Manicheans would say (a Gnostic group). “Creation is not an original combat against chaos…or an impending darkness.” In pagan mythological creation stories, the light always battled the darkness. Nonetheless, the point of the pagan myths was that a god created good and evil and that they were always in opposition—striving for balance. The contrast with the Hebrew/Christian creation is that God created all Good. This is to say, truth, beauty, and material things are good. The pagan says, material things are evil and must be gotten rid of by spiritual ascent. The pagan says bodies are evil; the mind or the spirit are the only good. Material and spiritual are at war within the human person. The spiritual is the ideal, perfection; this body is dross—which can lead to Stoicism or Hedonism. This is not to say that prayer and the Christian obedience which transforms us is to be neglected. The spiritual ascent of the pagan mind is usually focused on self or manipulating the deity for some kind of gain. All of this is in vain. In contrast, Christ is the one who makes us spiritually and physically whole.

Light of Christ

Who John refers to in his Gospel as the light is Jesus Christ-- the light of the world. The darkness is the enemy (Satan) of us souls. The beginning of John is the story of the beginning of this created order and the redemption of this order that had fallen by the influence of the enemy and our choice and will to sin—to choose ourselves—to be our own keepers. So God created the heavens and the earth. Light and dark. Day and Night. The first day. God created all things as good, but humans chose sin by the influence of a fallen angel. (A little commentary on light and darkness). We have been talking about light and darkness as God has created them. Both being good in creation. It is only when sin enters the cosmos by the first man and first woman choosing the covenant of the lie (R. R. Reno) as opposed to the covenant of life—that darkness is used as a metaphor for evil. (Again, God did not create evil—darkness in the sense of creation is not void or void of goodness—it has purpose and use in creation—think of dark matter, which is the backbone of the cosmos.) The reality of evil came into the cosmos by a lie and our accepting it. Hell means without view, viewless…deprived of view or appearance. Hell is darkness without light. Darkness is nonexistence, it lacks energy; it is nonbeing, death. But suddenly light will shine in it and awaken children of light who bear fruit. Light is searching and the will of God and enacting light (Florensky). Christ is the light of the world. Christ dispels darkness, that without appearance-- death.