{"id":6600,"date":"2011-01-02T05:38:15","date_gmt":"2011-01-01T18:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=6600"},"modified":"2018-05-21T21:57:15","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T10:57:15","slug":"new-year-eternity-whatever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/01\/02\/new-year-eternity-whatever\/","title":{"rendered":"New year! Eternity? Whatever."},"content":{"rendered":"

As we contemplate a new year why not pause a moment to ponder all the forever and ever years of eternity?\u00a0 Punch has some suggestions for a rarely considered Aussie ‘BBQ stopper’: “What do you think happens when we die?”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If life is like driving down a straight road, most people would consider death to be a sharp right-hand turn at the end of the road. Everyone goes around the corner eventually – but what is around that corner? Is it good news or bad news?<\/p>\n

Sure, you can use your imagination and hope that there\u2019s a Krispy Kreme store selling delicious jam-filled, dentist-delighting donuts, but that store won\u2019t be there just because you want it to be. It\u2019s either there, or it\u2019s not. And so surely, before you come around the corner, you want to be sure of what will be there – so you can prepare yourself appropriately.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a donut store, you want to prepare yourself by not having lunch. If it\u2019s a flooded roadway, you want to start slowing down. If it\u2019s a cliff, you want to slam on the brakes. So the next question is – is it possible to know what is around that corner before we get there? . . .<\/p>\n

The Christian message isn\u2019t a new message, and I can anticipate many objections to what I believe and why. My point isn\u2019t to convince you to believe what I believe, nor to defend the Christian gospel in a couple of paragraphs.<\/p>\n

No, my purpose is to urge you to work out what you do believe, and to make sure you\u2019ve got some evidence and ultimately some confidence, to back up whatever that might be. Don\u2019t go round that last corner blind-folded. The consequences are simply too great to just cross your fingers and hope for the best.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Article [with thanks to Andrew Reid], What do you think happens when we die?<\/a>\u00a0 and nearly 500 very varied comments when I last looked.<\/p>\n

See, Mr Eternity – Book Review, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we contemplate a new year why not pause a moment to ponder all the forever and ever years of eternity?\u00a0 Punch has some suggestions for a rarely considered Aussie ‘BBQ stopper’: “What do you think happens when we die?” … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6600"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16062,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions\/16062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}