-i-
Lucas lost his younger brother Jake to cancer when Jake was only 17. At the time, Lucas blamed God. He turned his back on the Christian faith. For 11 years he was an angry, bitter backslider. His grief was inconsolable. His rage was uncontrollable.
It took ten years just to work through his anger. For years he could barely speak about his brother’s death.
At 30, he returned to the faith. He continued to mourn the loss of his brother. But if there was no God, then his brother’s death meant nothing. If there was no God, then there was no hope of seeing his bother again.
Yet there was always a part of him which blamed God. At this point he knew it was wrong to blame God, but he couldn’t get over a feeling of resentment. The months he spent watching his brother waste away. The empty, silent years ahead. Every day he regretted the lost opportunities. That he’d never see his brother again. Not here, not now.
He knew that God had a good reason. But he didn’t know the reason.
As time passed he achieved a measure of healing with his wife and kids. But it only took some little thing, like a snatch of music from the past, to awaken all the old memories and emotions–and he was momentarily engulfed in grief. Deep down, there was a maggot of bitterness, chewing his insides.
-ii-
When Lucas died, his brother was waiting for him in heaven. The last time he saw his brother alive, Jake was just a shell–his body hollowed by cancer. Now he saw his brother the way he remembered him–before the cancer consumed him. Well, maybe a bit more mature.
They talked and talked. He told Jake how much he missed him. He always wondered why God took him so soon. Jake said it was for both their good.
“Come, let me show you,” Jake said.
“Show me what?” Lucas replied.
“Another world. The world in which I never died of cancer.”
A moment later they were standing in a world almost indistinguishable from the one they left behind.
“I don’t understand,” Jake said.
“Heaven is like a terminal between different worlds,” Lucas explained. “That’s not all it is. Heaven wonderful in its own right. Beyond description. But it’s also a place to other places.”
“You mean, like alternate worlds?” Lucas asked.
“That’s right. Like those science fiction movies we used to go see as kids. The parallel universe where you have a double with an alternate history. This is the alternate timeline where I never had cancer,” Jake answered.
“You mean this is real?” Lucas asked.
“Depends on what you mean. What is real depends on which world you’re in at the time. Whatever world you’re in is real to you. Other worlds are unreal to you in relation to the world you’re in,” Jake answered.
“You mean every possible world is real?” Lucas asked.
“No. God leaves some possible worlds unrealized,” Jake answered. “Let me take you to my home. There I am, with Alice and our little kids.”
“I always figured that you and she would get hitched,” Lucas said.
“We married right out high school. But it didn’t last,” Jake said.
“Why not?” Lucas asked.
“I had an affair. I left her for another woman,” Jake answered.
His brother was shocked.
“And one thing led to another. When I left my wife and kids, I stopped going to church. I put the faith behind me. As long as I was a Christian, I couldn’t excuse my adultery, so I chose my mistress over my God,” Jake continued.
Lucas was speechless.
“You were very disillusioned,” Jake said. “It put a tremendous strain on our relationship. We drifted apart. Rarely saw each other. Rarely spoke to one another. Led separate lives.”
Lucas nodded.
“Let’s go somewhere else,” Jake said.
The scene changed. “This is me in hell. After I died. Not when I died of cancer. Not in that world. But in the other world I showed you. When I died of old age.”
“So that’s why God took you,” Lucas said. “Like Paul says in Philemon: you lost him for a while–to have him back for good.”
Why should we assume Jake went to heaven just because he died at the tender age of 17? He could have been sent to Hell where his personality hardened against God there.
ReplyDeleteHeck, he could have died at 3 and still have been sent to Hell if he wasn't among the elect.
That's the thing about predestination. None of the sins have to be "realized" in life. You could technically go to Hell without actually having committed a single sinful act in life. God just keeps hardening you after He puts you in Hell.
This is why many accept infant damnation. Sure, they didn't really have a chance to do anything ... yet.
If you read the story more closely, it's implicit that Jake was a Christian when he died. The alternate world is where he committed apostasy.
ReplyDeleteWell, my point is that the story is a wholly Arminian one. Was that intentional?
ReplyDeleteCalvinism doesn't really allow for true apostasy given Scripture's guarantee of eternal security to the believer. It also doesn't allow for salvation being predicated on what one does, nor does it suggest that salvation is guaranteed simply because one never made it to the "age of accountability".
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2005/10/infant-salvation.html
Jake's "having been a Christian" is irrelevant. God would have seen his future apostasy and condemned him for it.
At least this is what I've gathered from your own posts.
John said...
ReplyDelete“Well, my point is that the story is a wholly Arminian one. Was that intentional?”
It’s not the least bit Arminian.
“Calvinism doesn't really allow for true apostasy given Scripture's guarantee of eternal security to the believer.”
That’s true for our world. But my story is dealing with a counterfactual scenario. Many things are counterfactually possible which are impossible in this world.
The counterfactual would simply cash out as follows: in our world, Jake is one of the elect. Therefore, he cannot fall away.
But in the parallel world, Jake is reprobate. And a nominal believer can lose his faith.
“It also doesn't allow for salvation being predicated on what one does…”
That’s a gross oversimplification of Reformed soteriology. On the one hand, election is unconditional, regeneration is monergistic, and we’re justified by faith rather than works.
On the other hand, good works are a precondition of salvation. Sanctification has a cooperative aspect.
This doesn’t mean salvation is uncertain. But God involves the mind and will of the elect in salvation.
“Nor does it suggest that salvation is guaranteed simply because one never made it to the ‘age of accountability’.”
Since my story was never predicated on the age of accountability, your objection is beside the point.
“Jake's ‘having been a Christian’ is irrelevant. God would have seen his future apostasy and condemned him for it.”
God employs both internal and external means to preserve the elect. On the one hand he regenerates and sanctifies the elect.
On the other hand, he also orchestrates the circumstances of their lives to shield them from situations which would lead to apostasy.
So... in the alternate world, Jake SEEMED to be a believer but never was, and apostatised.
ReplyDeleteIn the 'actual' world, Jake WAS a believer and went to Heaven when he died.
So the differences between the two stories start before Jake got cancer; in the non-cancer one, Jake isn't a believer.
In the world where Jake has cancer, he was a genuine believer who died young. In the world where Jake does not have cancer, he was a nominal believer who later committed apostasy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough an interesting story, I think I'm missing the point, although I see an appeal towards earthly affection which in the end, is forbidden if it gets in the way of our allegiance to God. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
ReplyDeleteOur bonds with our earthly companions, no matter how close, are irrelevant. Whether they end up in Hell or Heaven is outside of our control or our concern.
Who cares, right?
JOHN SAID:
ReplyDelete"Although an interesting story, I think I'm missing the point, although I see an appeal towards earthly affection which in the end, is forbidden if it gets in the way of our allegiance to God."
True, but if we're talking about their eternal fate, then that, by definition, involves a postmortem perspective which we can't attain in this life. We don't know until we die and they die who went where. So the unknown outcome is no bar to our deliberations here-and-now.
"Our bonds with our earthly companions, no matter how close, are irrelevant. Whether they end up in Hell or Heaven is outside of our control or our concern."
It's of concern to us in this life, and Scripture encourages that concern. Moreover, this is something we can and should pray about.