A real vacation spot in Maui.

Hope is expectation; it is the expectation of something wonderful. 

The Christian’s hope is that God will do all that he said he will do, and when one has Christian hope he/she expects that God has ordained all things to bring about his own glory and the good of the believer (Romans 8:28). Christian hope is the expectation that God will resurrect the dead just as he said he would, and that faith in Christ purifies the soul so that you can be with God forever. Even though people die every day, every minute just as they have for countless years, Jesus defeated death on the cross two thousand years ago. If you just hope that the promise is true, you’ve got an all-expenses paid trip to your dream vacation after death. 

A few weeks ago I saw an interesting news report. A woman found a great vacation deal online. Normally a trip to this spot would cost several thousand dollars, but this week it was on sale for just $1500. How wonderful! She was skeptical and did a little research. Sure enough the location was real, the resort was real, the company making the sale was the same one that owned the resort. Everything was legit. She and her family looked forward to their dream vacation. I imagine each night at the dinner table they would talk about work and school and all the troubles that came with it. Some meetings don’t go well. Some business deals sour and fail. Upcoming tests and reports at school haunt the kids. But the wife and the mom of the family reminds them that they have an incredible vacation ahead of them. Everyone smiles as they think of getting away from it all for a week. 

The first day of vacation, they hopped a plane, got on a shuttle and arrived at their dream destination. When they came to the counter wearing great big smiles, they presented their printed paperwork to the concierge. He looked puzzled and got his manager. Both of them returned to the desk laughing. The manager said that this room had already been booked, and even if it were available that week the cost would be much higher than a mere $1500. 

This poor family was conned. They had an expectation of something wonderful, certain that it would be real and relaxing and terrific. Once they reached the place where their hope could be realized and experienced, they found that it was empty and false. In same way, Christian hope is the expectation–many would say “certainty”–that we will all be resurrected after death to the ultimate eternal vacation spot where we will enjoy everlasting life in God’s presence. It’s an expensive and wonderful trip that Christ paid for on the cross about 2000 years ago. All you have to do is accept his offer and it’s yours. 

Is there any way to validate that expectation? Well, just like the vacation website showed, there are lots of testimonials from prophets and sages throughout history. They never went there, but they assure us that it’s legit. That’s not convincing. Maybe they were passionate but misinformed. Hasn’t anyone been there who can tell us about it? Someone who has died, been to heaven and returned to talk about it?

Well, sure! Jesus was dead for three days and came back. I mean, how can you expect better proof than that? Well, we need to. When Jesus returned, he didn’t talk about heaven, he just did more signs and gave more instructions (cf. Jn. 20:30). Yes, he talked about heaven some before he died and resurrected, but you’d think he’d have a ton to say about it after he came back from there and experienced it for the first time as a disembodied human. He didn’t. Was it a lackluster experience? Was his beaming white tunic branded with an Aramaic phrase loosely translated “I went to paradise for a few days and all I got was this stupid stigmata”? What’s the deal? Where’s the excitement? Where’s the sell? 

Well Paul will help us. According to 2 Corinthians 12, he had a vision or revelation or something that either happened while he was in his own body or not in his own body. In fact, he’s so fuzzy on what happened, he talked about the whole event in third person, and he gave us an awesome description! Well no, not really. He says that heaven is awesome. It’s really, really awesome. In fact, it’s so awesome, he can’t describe it. And he confesses that it might be hard for us to believe him, so he promises really, really hard that he’s telling the truth. Trust him.

So far, these are your testimonials of how great your heavenly vacation will be: some prophets who have never been there but are enthusiastic about it (and honestly, most biblical scholars admit that the Old Testament doesn’t even address resurrection from the dead!). Jesus himself who didn’t talk about it at all after he visited it two thousand years ago, and arguably the most important apostle of the church who penned most of the New Testament but couldn’t write more than a few sentences about the most amazing experience he maybe, kinda, sorta had, he really promises. Really. 

Actually the book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible that mentions heaven the most. Great. The single most disturbing and misunderstood book of the Bible, the one that has more cryptic symbolism than any other book in the canon is the one that gives us the most details about our dream vacation. Who wrote it? He calls himself John. Did he die and go to heaven and come back with firsthand reports? Nope. The whole book is a series of visions. After all, we call the book “Revelation(s)”. 

Are you convinced yet? So far, these sales pitches for your heavenly vacation sound sketchy. 

“It’s great. I’ve never been there, but I’m sure it’s awesome.” 

“Yes, I’ve been there myself…sort of. I did a virtual tour on the Internet. It was as good as being there! Heck, I might as well say I went there! It was great! How great? Really great! Really really great! Why are you looking at me like that? I’m not lying. I’m really telling you the truth! I promise!”

 “Yeah, I’ve been there, but more important is your decision to go there today. Come on, let’s get your dream vacation planned. Don’t worry about your ride who brought you here, they will wait. This is the most important decision in your life.”

“Here’s the brochure of your dream vacation. No, the writer has never been there, he just reports what he sees. Yes, I know it’s hard to understand the writing, but doesn’t this imagery of streets of gold and a gigantic feast and people in pure white robes sound great? Can’t you see yourself there? It won’t cost you a thing to go, just focus your whole worldview on going there and you’re in!” 

I doubt you’d plan your vacation on such arguments, but maybe you’ve planned your religious life around them hoping–wishing–that heaven is exactly as you envision it. …better even. Humanity needs and deserves a better hope than this. It needs to be tangible and realistic. The day I became a secularist was one of the most exhilarating and frightening days of my life. I thought all of my hope was vested in this vacation of eternal bliss that the Bible promoted. But I quickly came to realize that I already had hope in other things that were real and tangible. I had personal and private hopes, and hopes that I shared with other communities.

Remember, hope is the expectation of something wonderful. 

I hoped my marriage would endure hardships and would grow in wonder and beauty, and it has. 

I hoped to find a solid job that I enjoy, and I have.

I hoped to purchase my own home, and I have.

I hoped to earn a doctorate degree in Biblical Studies and Theology, and I have. 

I hoped to publish some of my written works, and I have.

On the other hand, I have experienced the disillusion of unfulfilled hopes. 

I hoped to become a tenured theology professor, teaching classes and helping people grow in their faith. That won’t happen.

I hoped to have the chiseled physique of an athletic god within 6 months. Nope. What about another 6 months? No. Six more months? Shut up and eat another donut. 

I hoped for other things too. 

I hoped for a lot of things that didn’t come to pass, investing in some more than in others. The greater my investment, the greater the pain of loss when those hopes were never realized. Imagine the pain I felt when I realized that heaven might not be real, that the church might be completely wrong, and that God himself might be a figment of my imagination.

What happens when hopes are dashed? Some of them you shrug off, others you mourn. But ultimately, you find new hopes or else you just give up on everything. I choose to have hope in humanity. I choose to have hope in myself. I choose to have hope in my family and friends. If some of these let me down, I may choose to have hope in them still (hope is stubborn like that, you see). If not, I’ll choose new hopes, just like I chose to stop hoping in heaven and in many of the Bible’s promises. 

The Bible promotes a hope that you will never see until after death. That’s the trick. Have you ever met someone who has died, gone to heaven, and physically rose from the dead and told you about heaven? How many people have physically died, and stood before you in the flesh, shook your hand and said “Do you feel this hand? This hand was cold in a grave about a week ago. It was dead for a few days. It was buried. But I rose up from the dead. This body standing before you was dead, but I rose up!” How often does that happen? Of course, the answer is never. If it did, it would weird you out, not inspire you. You’d call the police, not the media. 

How many people have you met who have collected on their lifelong faith investment? All the Bible does is invite you to invest in a hope that you’ve never actually seen. Invest in it. Invest some more. And some more. It’s the conman selling you the deed to a bridge. It’s the website advertising the dream vacation you’ll never experience. Jesus said that death is defeated. That was two thousand years ago. Think long and hard about that when godly people pass away. Can you find a single news broadcast without mentioning death? Visit a grave yard and you’ll find a headstone bearing your first name. I’ll bet that poor fem or fellow bought a dream vacation too. Take another look at the roadkill you just passed on the freeway. Is death really defeated? No it isn’t. Anyone who tells you otherwise is promising more than than they can prove. 

Listen to me. A hope with no demonstrable goal is an empty hope. Don’t believe the idea that only Christ can give you an abundant life. You can find your own abundant life. People do every day. A human-made frail hope that might fail is a thousand times better than a divine hope that turns out to be empty. 

Paul once said, “If Christ is not raised, then your faith is worthless.” 

Indeed. You deserve a better faith. You deserve a better hope. 

“So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?”

–Ecclesiastes 3:22 ESV