Reality in this life is obviously what we can perceive by our five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Anything else, in this view, is not reality. Our thoughts, although they may be based on something "real," are ephemeral and wispy: we tend to assume that whatever cannot be discerned by at least one of our five senses is less than real. Based on that assumption, of what does even our natural life consist? It is evident we are existing and we are obviously alive, but can we touch life or taste it or see it or smell it or hear it?
Are any of these insignificant items the true reality? Such thinking would make heaven and angels and even the pillars of our existence – our God and Savior Jesus Christ – insubstantial figments of our overactive imagination. And by the same reasoning the spirit /soul of man is unreal. We know however the spirit of life and the Spirit of God within us are real. We are here and thinking as confirmation of our existence and we feel the Spirit of God moving and “talking” to us as an even stronger evidence of the existence of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. It is evident we have to approach this matter of reality from an angle other than bodily perception; we need a more REAL platform than our five senses from which to launch our search for true reality.
Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest
Was not spoken of the soul.
All the items we see, hear and feel in this world will be shaken in a figure by the mighty hand of God. The material things of life, whether houses and real estate or cars and clothes and the like cannot be termed real when they will one day go up in smoke.
“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (2Pe 3:7)
Peter repeats his awful warning in verse 12 of chapter 3:
“[We are] looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat…”
The earth and the whole universe will be consumed in a terrible cosmic conflagration. It will be a gigantic cosmic inferno never before experienced by the whole creation. God also refers to the cataclysm as a violent shaking of the entire world and He has said He will once more “shake the earth” with a devastating worldwide earthquake that the things which are real may remain. (Heb.12.26-27) As an animal coming out of the water shakes itself vigorously to rid itself of the water that remains on its body, one day God will shake off from this universe the things that are not real, things that are material, leaving behind the things that cannot be disposed of, the things that are incontrovertibly REAL.
“And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” (Rev 16:18)
But as terrifying as a worldwide earthquake will be, the more dreadful event will be the unimaginably enormous fire in a dreadful microsecond roaring through the whole material universe, an insatiable fiery maw consuming all things that can be perceived by our five natural senses. We shall then perceive reality in its most wholesome state, never again to know negatives of any kind.
A closing word of advice is in order here: We have to remember we are still living in a world in which physical perception is very important albeit not all-important. Our “feelings” strongly affect our lives while at the same time we know that feelings will one day dissipate and be replaced by an eternal solid state of reality.
Some things are true in this life that will be true throughout eternity. For instance, the strength of the “feelings” stemming from the supreme event of deity suffering and dying at the hands of sinners, an event we never saw, is to those who believe the indisputable evidence of its reality. However, before we could “feel” the proof, we had to accept Christ’s death solely by faith because God has already given men and women sufficient proof of His existence and power. Then, after we became part of the body of Christ, we could feel the suffering of our Lord, and it told us there was indeed a hammer striking nails through sinless hands and at that moment we had all the proof we thought we needed – after we believed.
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