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A quick review of the big question topic: according to Ravi Zacharias, RZIM apologist: “When you think of it, really there are four fundamental questions of life. You've asked them, I've asked them, every thinking person asks them. They boil down to this: origin, meaning, morality and destiny. 'How did I come into being? What brings life meaning? How do I know right from wrong? Where am I headed after I die?'”
If you have mulled over Zacharias’ questions one and two (origin and meaning) in a previous blog with me, you may have been surprised at how basic they are. Everyone does ask them, and everyone’s answer does depend on his/her God belief. I have merely scratched the surface.
Now for questions three and four (morality and destiny).
3.Morality: How Do I Know Right from Wrong?
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
In His John 17 prayer Jesus pleads with the Father to make us holy (sanctified) with the truth found in God’s Word, seeing as we live in the morass of the world’s ways. The buzzword goes like this: that may be true for you, but it’s not true for me. How so? Truth is truth. Right is right; wrong is wrong. Are there any possible exceptions?
Yet the exceptions, the qualifiers, the what-ifs, are what the one who does not know God adamantly argues. Why am I surprised? The Man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).
The Bible does not waver as to the absolutes of the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21), subsequently embraced by Jesus in the Law of Love (Matthew 22:37-40). Nor is Scripture inconsistent regarding divorce (Matthew 19:3-9), abortion (Deuteronomy 5:17), and homosexuality (Romans 1:26-27). Then too the gospels are loaded with the “I tell you the truth” statements of Jesus, such as: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3); “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life” (John 6:47). We can rest easy on the big things. It’s those other questions that pop up in our everyday lives that are not found in our Bible indices.
That’s when we search the Word: your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path (Psalm 119:105). Standing on God’s truth gives the believer solid footing, compared with the slippery slope of the flat-out untruths and half-truths of secular insight.
That’s when we kneel in prayer, eager for the Spirit’s insight: “when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13).
That’s when we consult godly others: Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).
Most certainly truth is the bedrock of morality, of knowing right from wrong, of progressive sanctification or holiness. Remember this though, it is only those of us who are in Christ who have the benefit of positional sanctification/holiness. Truth is at our fingertips.
4.Destiny: Where Am I Headed After I Die?
Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over. Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends. The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God who first breathed it (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7).
We’ve come full circle from the dust of creation to the “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” of death (Genesis 3:19). One for one we die, that much is certain. Inevitably then, the final big question will hang in the air: where am I headed after I die?
Most religions believe in an afterlife. Some say we will return to live in another form; some say we’ll all be in heaven together. And then there are the “nones”—those who claim no religion. They say life will simply end.
Ask anyone if they know for certain they will go to heaven when they die; and if their answer is “I hope so”, they haven’t got it right.You cannot be good enough, do enough, go to church enough, give to the poor enough to get through those pearly gates. That thief on the cross next to Jesus did none of those things, yet Jesus promised he’d be with Him in paradise that very day (Luke 23:43).
In fact, Jesus is very clear. There is only one way to heaven:“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Since all (one for one) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), the answer at the gate of heaven is Jesus:if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).
Sad to say, those who think there is no afterlife will experience eternal agony rather than the absence of existence.As well, those who do not know Jesus will join them. Perhaps the most compelling picture of the torment and fire of hell is found in the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31).
As I walked through a Gullah cemetery in South Carolina recently, I was intrigued to see a dinner plate pressed into the face of many of the tombstones. According to tradition it was either the last plate the person ate from, or so he would have something to eat with in the afterlife. I know this was a pagan custom, but they had some of it right. The wedding feast awaits: “‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” (Revelation 19:9). Your invitation is engraved with the name Jesus.
Scripture quotations from the NIV unless otherwise indicated.
Nancy Paul
Nancy Paul is Canadian born and bred but happily settled in Texas. She is married, mother of two, and grandmother of three busy boys. A long time Womenary student, she loves to read, is a lover of God's word and a wannabe writer. Nancy is a regular contributor to encouraging.com, a collection of blog articles regularly published by the women of Green Acres Baptist Church of Tyler. As well, she is the women's Bible study coordinator at GABC. 
