Chapter V (vii) — Man’s Final Destination
1. Materialists, whether scientists or philosophers, are so blinded by the dust of matter that they can see neither the soul in the body, nor the spiritual world that lies beyond the material world; for they imagine that the group of physical and spiritual qualities that go to make up a human personality are ended at death. Scientists, dealing with tangible facts, are limited in their experience. They can, to some extent, tell the How, but have no answer as to the Why of things. They can say how two and two make four, but have no answer as to why they are four. There are senses in which they may be more than four, as, for example, two and two grains of wheat make four, but by sowing these four grains hundreds, or even thousands, of grains can be reproduced. Contained in the four grains there is the germ of the thousands (even though this fact is hidden from the scientist or philosopher who is obsessed by a mathematical formula), and where the germ is, the plant also lies hidden, and will appear at its fixed time in conditions suitable to its growth. Hence we may say that in the four grains thousands are present, and we may conclude that two and two are more than four. Now scientists, each with his views coloured by his experience, may tell how thousands are produced from four, but they can give no answer as to why they are produced, nor can they tell what life is, nor where it came from; and as long as they can give no satisfactory answers to these questions, then their claim that spiritual life ceases to exist with physical life is hollow and unsound.
2. Those who accept Darwinism, or Evolution, give us a theory that is harsh and merciless, and against all morality. They hold that to help the sick, the weak or the unfit, only causes them to increase; and this means injury to the community; hence it is better that they should disappear from the earth. As a scientist has said, "Our kindness often tends to multiply the sore we try to cure." If we accept this argument it is certain that we shall be committed to wholesale slaughter, because all pain and sickness, defect and weakness are caused by sin, and in the world no one is sinless, therefore no one has a right to live. There is no doubt, if such people could have applied their theory, the whole of civilisation and humanity would have been wiped out, and the world made desolate and empty.
But it is our good fortune that we dwell in the kingdom of an Almighty, Just and Merciful God, where no one can harm us, if we do not by sin destroy ourselves. If it had been the will of God that sores and diseases should have had no cures, then He would not have created drugs and herbs with curative properties. Their very existence is a proof of the special object for which they were created, and that people may be cured by these God-given means.
It is amazing that people give the name of Superman to a man so wanting in mercy, love and sympathy. Since he is wanting in love for God, and for man, he is inferior man — so much so that he is outside the pale of humanity altogether, and might be called a blood-sucking beast of prey. Such indeed is the Superman who is called World Conqueror. He is himself a poor slave to his passions, and every moment of his life he is being defeated in his own little self. Only that man has the right to be called Superman who knows his Creator, and lives for His glory and for the good of His creation. On the other hand, if a man fails in doing these things, then however highly civilised and educated he may be, he will be no more than a trained animal.
3. Man is like a water hemlock plant, which while growing in dry land is harmless, but becomes poisonous in wet and damp ground. So man in evil conditions and environment becomes himself evil and dangerous, but is made holy and pure from being in the presence of God and in fellowship with Him. Then God gives him a new name which fits perfectly his character and life, for only God, Who created them, and knows the things in themselves, can give a fitting name to things. But the name given by man cannot be appropriate because he does not know what the thing is in itself. The names man is forced to give being incomplete, because of his limited knowledge, God could not reveal His name to him at all, except in so far as He did when He said, "I am that I am" (Exodus iii. 14).
4. (a) "Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." To be perfect like our heavenly Father is our life's destination. If, in heaven, we should reach an exceedingly high degree of perfectness, and our progress should then be stopped, we should not yet have reached the final destination of our being. For at no stage short of it can our being's ultimate object be perfected, because cessation of progress would cause stagnation and destruction. Besides this, should our progress be arrested, we should remain ignorant of many things; then as the innate human desire is to know more, this would create dissatisfaction in us, and heaven could not continue to be heaven for us. But to progress, and to have the hope of making further progress, would give us a wonderful interest and joy, and when, at last, we shall become perfect like the Father, then further incentive will not be necessary, because our destination has been reached. But love, the source of our being and the life of our life, will remain for ever.
(b) When man has attempted, by research and experiment, to win bodily strength from God's created things, and has to some extent obtained the means of prolonging life, then is it not possible that he may obtain eternal life and perfection of health and strength in the Fountain of all spiritual life? And when we have gained eternal life, progress in every way will still continue in Eternity. For when, in spite of many obstructions and unsuitable conditions, progress has continued in the world, then why is it that progress should be hindered in heaven, where all necessary means for progress, unobstructed in any way, will be available to us? But there, in the presence and fellowship of our heavenly Father, in infinite time, infinite means for infinite progress will be supplied continually, until we become perfect as He is perfect.
(c) If we and our knowledge always remain limited, we shall neither have the capacity to know the Infinite God as we should know Him, nor can we be "filled with all the fulness of God" (Eph. iii. 19); nor shall we be able to be benefited fully by His infinite love. Moreover God, Who is love, and Who has made man like Himself, does not, through jealousy, prevent him from infinite progress towards a perfection like His own, nor will He for ever keep hidden from man many things of which he is now ignorant. It is also impossible that, when we shall be made perfect like God, we should rebel against Him, for our rebellious nature will have been destroyed before we reach that stage of perfection. It would be no perfection at all if we could retain even the desire to rebel. Besides this, by knowing Him, and by being filled with His infinite love, which is life of our life, our love and faithfulness towards Him will also become infinite. The very object of the incarnation of this love is to lift man to His own perfection, where all mysteries will be explained, and no kind of imperfection will remain. And here we reach our final destination. There are countless problems which arise as we progress towards perfection, which will be solved only in the world to come, but, as a chick as yet unhatched from the egg may wish to fly, so impatient man wants to solve all his difficulties and problems in this world. This is not only premature but impossible.
There is danger too that we may be involved in misconceptions from which there is fear of injury for the future (John xvi. 12). We must run with patience, and accept with thankfulness, and perform with obedience whatever has been revealed to us now.