“THE BEST IS YET TO BE”

Hugo McCord

I. SCIENTISTS KNOW MORE THAN GOD

The famous English poet Robert Browning (1812-1889), in his poem “Rabbi Ben Ezra, wrote:

Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand.

Can those growing “old along with” Robert Browning, and knowing that “Our times are in His hand” (cf. Psalm 31:15), sensibly say, with hope and joy and a smile, “The best is yet to be”?

Can a dead body live again? Unquestionably it is true that “dust [`aphar, dry earth, clay] you are and to dust [the earth, the ground, the soil, the clods, the dirt] you shall return” (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 3:20; 12:7), but can there be a resurrection? Can dead chemicals, “houses of clay” (Job 4:19; 10:9; 34:15), come to life?

“The first man, Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45) arrived in two stages: (1) God shaped some dead chemicals, dust, dry earth, or clay, into the shape of a human being, as Moses wrote: “God formed the man from the dust of the ground;” (2) then God made that dead body come to life, as Moses wrote: [God] “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

Those who are called scientists say that dead chemicals in a primeval muddy swamp, after millions of years, on their own, changed into the first living thing, a creature called an amoeba, “a microscopic, one-celled animal” (Webster). Modern and post-modern scientists now say:

that atoms of elements in a lifeless environment came alive by chance, as unicellular algae, and these plants stayed alive;

that specimen invertebrates developed backbones and became vertebrates, by chance; a whole new physical structure appeared and thrived, by chance;

that some of the vertebrate mammals became man with all his potential for creativity, appreciation of beauty, verbal communications, and worship.

Up to date scientists say that God, if there is a God, made an unnecessary mistake, for God did not think that the dead chemicals he used, dust or clay, to shape a dead human body, would, if given enough time, on its own change into a living human body. The scientists, with all their research, say that if God had waited long enough he would not have had to perform a miracle by breathing life into the dead human body. Thus the scientists admit that they know more about nature than God.

II. “THE BEST IS YET TO BE”

Though the scientists believe that dead chemicals can on their own change into living animals, they do not believe that God put life back into Jesus’ dead body. If he did not, all of life is a dead end street, and this glorious universe ends up frozen, senseless, and cruel. But Christians believe this universe makes sense, and that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), and they rejoice in reading the testimony of men of old that “the best is yet to be”:

Job: I know that my Redeemer lives, ... and after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, then without my flesh I shall see God; whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger (19:25-27).

David: While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, “Who knows whether Jehovah will be gracious to me, that the child may life?” But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me (2 Samuel 12:22-23).

As for me, I will see your face in righteousness. I will be satisfied when I awake in your likeness (Psalm 17:15).

Weeping lingers over night, but, in the morning, a shout of joy! (Psalm 30:5).

God will redeem my corpse from the grave, and he will receive me (Psalm 49:15).

Asaph: You lead me by your counsel, and afterwards you will receive me in glory. Who is for me in heaven? With you, I want nothing in this world (Psalm 73:24-25).

Malachi: ... a book of remembrance was written before him for them who reverenced the Lord, and who thought upon his name. “And they shall be mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “in that day when I make up my jewels” (3:16-17).

Jesus: I assure you that many will come from the east and west and sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in heaven’s kingdom (Matthew 8:11).

... those who have been accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more, for they are like the angels, and they are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection (Luke 20:35-36).

I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he dies, will yet live! He who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26).

Paul: I consider that the present-day sufferings are not worthy of comparison with the splendor that is going to be disclosed to us (Romans 8:18).

If only in this life we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most pitiable (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Behold! I show you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be transformed, in an instant, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it will sound, and the dead shall be raised immortal, and we will be transformed (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

This perishable must put on imperishability, and this mortal must put on immortality. When this perishable has clothed itself with imperishability, and when this mortal has clothed itself with immortality, then the written prediction shall take place, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Where, Death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

... a crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me in that day; yet not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearance (2 Timothy 4:8).

John: And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write: Blessed from now on are the dead who die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors. Their works go along with them” (Revelation 14:13).

4-3-99