Church Reforms In Ghana: My Thoughts

3: Give Equal Attention To Eternity and Jesus’ Second Coming

Have you noticed how recently insurance companies have become aggressive in selling life insurance? They call it life assurance. Some promise to help you cross over to eternity with a peace of mind knowing those you left behind will be well taken care of. Very impressive! Preparing people for eternity? I thought that is the work of the church. Someone has actually said that, “if Christians believe in eternity— heaven and hell— then we are the most wicked of people on earth for not regularly telling people about it. We are selfish! He continued, if we keep such good news about heaven to ourselves”. Will the person be justified for saying that?

One day, I was driving to Kwabenya to visit my parents. I used University of Ghana Campus to connect through Haatso (lucky me, the toll was not in place then) . At the GIMPA stretch of the road, my attention got fixated on a number of placards along the road with the inscription “Are You Prepared For Eternity”. I got excited. Wow, I thought to myself. Which church did such a wonderful work? Within a split of a second; my excitement deflated like a burst balloon. Why? I immediately noticed it was an insurance company advertising its life insurance. My excitement went flat!

Since then, I have been pondering whether insurance companies are doing a better job at speaking about eternity than the church? As a Christian, how often do you hear messages on eternity? Good question, today being a Sunday, “did you hear anything like that”? Eternity is rarely spoken about. Comparing to other messages, what will be the proportion? Probably we hear it once a while at a funeral or an evangelistic crusade. Sometimes the regular messages we hear seems to suggest we are here to stay forever. We generally call them “earthly relevant messages”.

But I personally believe the most “earthly relevant message” is the message of His second coming and eternity. His second coming, a message that will cause me to love, treat my fellow human with dignity, strive to live an honest life, stay away from sin, be a responsible man etc. is surely relevant on this earth. Maybe, a quote from C.S Lewis will better explain the earthly relevance of eternity: He said: “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither”

As relevant as we want to be on earth, it’s obvious; we are not here to stay: “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment :”(Hebrews 9:27). Our stay here is temporal! It’s normal; we all get caught up in the frenzy and cares of this world. But it is also crucial at every stage of our lives; we keep our destination in mind. Death is a reminder we are all queued up to be taken away from this life one day. Not a soul will escape! When your call comes, will you be prepared? Where will you spend eternity; heaven or hell? John accurately suggests how we should live if we believe in His second coming and eternity: “...every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself...” With faith in Christ, we can't live our lives anyhow. We can’t also remain mute about a cause as important as eternity—either eternal life or eternal damnation. “...Occupy till I come,” Jesus instructed. (Luke 19:13). Occupying till He comes is an assignment the church must administer with “fear and trembling” preaching regularly about it and preparing people for eternity.