The following is some
theological speculation that I’ve been mulling over in recent months. I don’t
claim to have a corner on truth, but this just helps me to make sense of some
parts of Scripture…
I’ve come to think of this life as being a book in God’s
hand. I’m sure the metaphor breaks down at some points as all metaphors do.
Psalm 139:16 (ESV) says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book
were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet
there was none of them.” If all our days were already written, then the book is
completed and the end is sure. This should be a reason for peace and trust in
the Author. Should we still pray? Yes, because that is method God has ordained
for us to interact with Him. As many have said, prayer doesn’t change God, it
changes us. Prayer affirms our faith and shapes our understanding of God’s
greater plans.
Jesus is referred to as the “Word made flesh” (John 1:14)
and the “Author of life” (Acts 3:15). The Author chose to enter His own story
for the good of His people. He provided the necessary solution to the problem
of sin. Only the Author could resurrect His own character.
Time, from Creation to the Second Coming, is contained within
the book. God is outside of time. “Do not overlook this one fact, that with the
Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet.
3:8). We see time as a fixed construct, passing by second by second, but God
sees all of time in His hand.
The choices we will make are already known to God, but not
to us as the characters in the book. Because we are created by God with certain
characteristics, we fulfill the plot that God has already written. (Perhaps our
free will is not so free as we may think.) Some characters are written with
evil intentions. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for
good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are
today” (Genesis 50:20). “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very
purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My
name might be proclaimed in all the earth’” (Romans 9:17). But as Paul points
out in Romans 9, such people are still responsible for their actions and will
be judged accordingly.
The image of a completed book also helps clarify some of the
conflicting views on death. If a character dies in a realistic novel, you don’t
expect them to reappear in a later chapter as either a ghost or a real person.
(I won’t get into other types of fiction.) Let’s say the character dies and
comes out of the book into the hand of the Author. If the book contains time
and God is outside of time, where or when is that character from the
perspective of those still in the book? His body in the book is dead. He may or
may not be conscious of being in God’s presence, depending on how you understand
Scripture. (N.T. Wright interprets
Revelation 6:9 to say that the dead are awaiting the resurrection under the
altar of God, which presents some interesting images.) But think about this, if
the character is consciously with God, do you think he’s going to be asking to
get back into the book to see how the rest of someone’s story was written or to
try to change it? Perhaps this explains how Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus
at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:3). They were written back in for a few paragraphs.
At the conclusion of the book, all the characters will be brought
outside its pages to face the final Judgment. And my interpretation of 1
Corinthians 15 is that immortality will be granted to those who have put their
faith in Christ while the rest will cease to exist, as characters whose roles
in the book have ended and as pages burnt to ashes in the fire. I imagine the
book has enough pages to keep a fire going for quite some time. The fire may be
eternal even when the book is gone. And maybe the marriage supper of the Lamb
is a cookout, since Jesus seemed to like fires on the beach (John 21:9).
When we move into eternal life in the new heavens and new
earth (2 Peter 3:12-13), it will be as if we’re moving from a two-dimensional
world into a three-dimensional one, out of the book and into reality. What
we’ve experienced here is but a shadow of what is to come (Col. 2:17, Heb.
10:1), and just a dim reflection in the mirror compared to what we will one day
see (1 Cor. 13:12). That makes me even more anxious to see that new world. But
until that day, we might as well enjoy the story as it continues to be revealed
to us.
“I have come home at
last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been
looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now… Come further up, come
further in!” –C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
© 2018 Dawn
Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from
pixabay.com.
