Where no man has gone before, Part 2

My Dec. 4 column in the Quay County Sun was about how the original “Star Trek” star, William Shatner, had actually gone into “the final frontier” and wrote a Variety magazine article about it.

The original idea for my article was the concept of going where no man had gone before, but it didn’t go where I thought it would and became largely based on Shatner’s article. Today’s column will continue my thoughts from the Variety article and conclude with my original concept about Christmas.

Space disappointed Shatner because it wasn’t as glorious as he’d imagined. We also won’t know what heaven will be like until we get there, but we have God’s promise and encouragement through his Holy Spirit that it’ll be glorious beyond our imagination and that we’ll even be like Jesus when we see him (1 Corinthians 2:6-12; 1 John 3:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:35-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Heaven will be so great, in fact, that we’ll forget all about the present earth and heavens, or outer space (Isaiah 65:17-19; 2 Peter 3:9-14).

Hell also will be worse than anyone’s imagination. Since everyone will receive a new body upon Jesus’ return, I. suspect those who haven’t obeyed God will suffer the greatest magnitude of punishment because their new body will be designed for that purpose (Acts 2:38-39; 22:16; Galatians 3:26-29; 4:6-7; Ephesians 5:1-18; Revelation 20:11-15; 22:12-15; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10; John 5:28-29; Isaiah 66:15-16, 22-24).

Because Christians are in God’s presence upon physical death, they experience a taste of heaven, while those who don’t belong to God begin experiencing some level of punishment (Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Peter 2:4-10). The latter will become very evangelistically minded, not wanting anyone else to join in their torment because that misery does not want company. Christians should already be that evangelistically minded wanting everyone to go to heaven (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 1:15-16; Luke 16:9; Acts 26:28-29; 1 Corinthians 9:19-27).

Shatner regained hope by recognizing a part of humankind’s position in the grand scheme leading to our responsibility to love others. As Christians, we’re to love others as God loved us, which he showed in sending Jesus to earth to die for our sin (John 13:34-35; 3:16-17; Matthew 27:45-46; Romans 5:1-11; 14:7).

Before Jesus came to earth, God’s people were comforted by Abraham upon death, as indicated by the account of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).

During this Christmas season, we celebrate Jesus’ birth (Matthew 1:18-2:23; Luke 1:26-38; 2:1-20). He came to earth as the only one who’d ever been to heaven, where no man had gone before (John 3:13).

Jesus came to show us the way to heaven and, as mentioned, paid for our sin so we could enter the very presence of God (John 14:1-6, 15-21; 12:26; Hebrews 2:14-18; 1 John 2:1-6; Matthew 16:23-27; 20:25-28; Romans 6:3-11).

Now we have two choices of going where people have gone before. Which will you choose (Joshua 24:14-15; Deuteronomy 30:19-20)?

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected]