Hoping for the End of Hope

I want to eventually do one more post about hope: "A New Heaven and a New Earth." But first, I'd like to spend a little more time with the important passages.

People who say, "Not that" are obliged to answer the question, "Then what?" If, for the biblical picture, we reject the ancient idea of the immortality of the soul, then it falls to one to say what the biblical picture is. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, one next-to-last word about hope: Christians are people who hope for a time when their hope disappears. That's because hope always involves an expectation that has not been met. When what is expected arrives, hope vanishes. In the words of Paul, "hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?" (Romans 8:24). As an expression of hope, Carrie Breck wrote:

Only faintly now I see Him
With the darkling veil between
But a blessed day is coming
When his glory shall be seen.

Face to face shall I behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky,
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by.

Christians would much rather see the Lord than hope for him. In the Book of Revelation, the last words of Christ to his people are, "Yes, I am coming soon."

The immediate response: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." When he does, Christian faith will become sight. And as it's rewarded, patient hope will disappear.