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What Then? - Message for 12/1/17
Death is one of the stern realities of life. Sooner or later, death comes to our own household and eventually to ourselves. What then?
A story is told of an elderly gentleman meeting a happy young man, who had just graduated from high school. The older man asked the youth about his future plans. He said he was going to select a prestigious university and law school to attend. He would graduate from the school of law. The elderly man asked, “What then?”
The young man said he would then seek and obtain employment in one of the best, most reputable law firms in the country. Again he was asked, “What then?
He answered, “When I get well established in my chosen profession I will build a home, get married, and have a family. Once more he was asked, “What then?”
He said, “I plan to earn a large sum of money, which will allow me to retire early in life. Once again he was asked the familiar question: “What then?”
He said, “I plan to enjoy my later years participating in golfing, attending sports activities and in traveling to visit the many exotic places around the world.” Once more, he was asked the same question. What then?” The young man did not answer. Many today ignore, or neglect to seek the answer to this most important question of all!
It is written, “Many shall say, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we will die: and it shall be well with us . . . and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 12:9-11). Satan and his cohorts have mastered the art of deception. He will say, “There is no hell; and he saith unto them, I am no devil” (2 Nephi 12:27). This is deception! It has been said, “If we live like hell here, that’s probably where we will be in the hereafter!”
Life for all of us—rich and poor, bond and free, good and evil—does not end at the time of our death. This life is only a brief prelude to our eternal existence. Dwight Moody once said, “I have conducted many funerals but I have never buried a dead person.
The Jews had been expecting Jesus to deliver them from the bondage of Rome. When this did not happen, many of them turned away from him. “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:67-68). Peter spoke the truth. Jesus has “the words of eternal life.” He answers the question, “What then?”
The two men who were crucified with Jesus represent every person who has lived, is living, or will live, in this world. Both were sinners, and they represent the great division; the great divide; the sheep and the goats; the wheat and the tares. One was a non-believer. The non-believer received no promise. The other was a penitent believer. To the believer Jesus said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:33-44). Simple belief is not enough, but it is certainly a good beginning. “I, Lord, am bound, when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise” (D & C 81:3b).
The path we choose to walk in life should be based upon an accurate understanding of what happens to us after death. Remember, Jesus has the words of eternal life. His word will be as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. See Psalm 119:105.
Study the Scriptures carefully under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, “and he will guide you into all truth . . . and he will show you things to come” (John 16:13).
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