by Bill Nugent
Article #55
You may not live long enough to retire but you will live long enough to die. Even if you do live long enough to enjoy a comfortable retirement, what comes after retirement? Was it Shakespeare or Tennyson who said “Each of us owes God a death” ?
John Lennon’s song “Imagine” comes to mind. The song goes like this: “Imagine there’s no heaven; ….only grass beneath our feet and only sky above…..Imagine all the people sharing ’round the world…..you may call me a dreamer…..” It was basically a song promoting Marxism or some kind of utopia on earth without God.
Secular dreamers try to imagine that there’s no heaven yet in reality there is a heaven and there is a God who dwells there. They can’t imagine God out of existence. They try to imagine there’s no hell (“only grass beneath our feet”) yet deep down even their consciences know that there is accountability to God and punishment for sin in the afterlife.
The “people sharing ’round the world” a. k. a. utopian communism was a gross failure because human beings are basically selfish and disinclined to share. This fact is in accordance with the Christian concept of original sin which is taught in the Bible. Under Soviet communism, Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) waged war on Christianity in the 1930s. Stalin’s purges killed far more professing Christians than all ten ancient Roman persecutions put together!
Secularism has failed to produce utopia because the building blocks of society – human beings – are in need of repentance, regeneration and redemption.
In my e-mail signature I used to include the phrase “post-retirement specialist.” Many people make careers as financial planners to help people set up IRAs, etc., and prepare for retirement. I help people prepare for what comes after retirement. I proclaim the good news of redemption through Christ so that people will be reconciled to God and will enter into heaven to be with God forever in the afterlife.
John Lennon (1940-1980) has gone into the afterlife and I tremble for him. All of us will someday enter the afterlife. Christ died for our sins so that we could call upon his name and receive forgiveness. Being at peace with God through Christ not only ensures a joyous existence in the hereafter but also gives us great peace and joy in our lives here and now!