A well-founded hope

I do not want you to be ignorant . . . lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. — Thessalonians 4:13

A man in the community where I live was featured in a newspaper article because he enjoys ridiculing the Christian faith. He boldly declares his conviction that life has no meaning and that we have no basis for hope of life beyond the grave. He defiantly rejects the evidence for the existence of God and the historical record of Christ’s resurrection.

The day may come when he, like the atheistic philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), will long for a glimmer of hope and not be able to find it. In 1980, the ailing Sartre wrote, “Despair returns to tempt me . . . The world seem ugly, bad, and without hope. There, that’s the cry of despair of an old man who will die in despair. But that’s exactly what I resist. I know I shall die in hope. But that hope needs a foundation.”

Within a month Sartre was dead. I wonder if he ever discovered that foundation. God’s Word teaches that the only basis for hope is the empty grave and the resurrected Christ (I Cor. 15).

God had provided in Jesus Christ a rock-solid foundation for hope. Because He did rise from the grave, no one needs to die in despair (I Thess. 4:13-14).

Is your hope founded on Christ? — Herb Vander Lugt

The Christian’s hope is in the Lord —

We rest secure in His sure Word;

Although we’re tempted to despair,

We do not doubt that God is there. — D. De Haan

READ: 1 Thess. 4:13-18

Christ, the Rock, is our sure hope.

The Bible in one year:

• Ezra 5-2