Eve bit the apple and, just as the snake had said, she didn’t die. Believing to have outsmarted her Creator, she grabbed some more fruit and handed it to Adam. Now, I doubt Adam was more intelligent than Eve, but he had one advantage. He could detect that something was wrong. The glory that had surrounded his mate was fading fast. He was sure she was dying, whatever dying was. Remembering his bachelor days and his longing for human companionship that only Eve had been able to fill, Adam opted to share in her disobedience and its consequences. The rest is history.

Why didn’t Eve die immediately? How was it that Adam died at the age of 930 years? The human race, including you and me, is alive today for one reason only: "the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world" (Rev.13:8 NIV). Before there was a sinful human, there was hope for sinful humanity because God so loved the world.

There’s hope. But what are we going to do with it? Much of what is called hope—even among Christians—is just wishful thinking. I once overheard a member of a church group bewail "God has chosen not to trust me with a Miata." He was genuinely perplexed. He had asked "in faith" but had not obtained the desired sports car. We "ask amiss."

The health-and-wealth gospel so popular in our time has led many to trivialize the Advent Christian’s hope. Instead of creating a longing for a new heaven and a new earth, we are encouraged to demand of God a heaven on earth built to our own specifications. When the sick child prayed for dies, often hope, faith, and love die also.

The other extreme—a totally futuristic hope of pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by-of getting everything there we didn’t get here—is also a trivialization of Advent hope. We shudder at those willing to destroy themselves and others for a god who will give them seventy-five virgins in Paradise. But Christians can also be guilty of misrepresenting the reason for desiring a new heaven and a new earth.

Not a few of the translators of the King James Version accepted the job in the hope that their service would lead to a promotion and greater wealth. Perhaps that is why the Greek word for residence in John 14:2 was translated "mansions." In modern translations it is often rendered "rooms." I have heard elaborate descriptions of heavenly mansions and their proper landscaping delivered in excited tones by those aspiring to a home in heaven. Must you have a mansion, or is it enough for you to envision yourself in God’s rooming house with a place at his table?

Why and for what do we hope? The apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:15 that if anyone asks us why we have hope within us we should be able to tell them. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" is a tidy little package. As a church, we have used this as a tool for prodding members into Bible study and outreach. But 1 Peter 3 is a chapter regarding holy living even in the face of persecution—holy living among people of other faiths.

Peter urges men and women alike to live in harmony and respect with one another, to be sympathetic, compassionate, and humble. Christians are to avoid speaking evil of others and are to seek peace, for as verse 13 states, "Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?" Verse 14 acknowledges that even if they do suffer for the right, Christians will be blessed. "’Do not fear…do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord" (vs. 15a). Then comes the second part of the verse, followed immediately by "But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander" (vs. 15b, 16).

In the preface to his book, The Unconscious God, Victor Frankl speaks of

the narrow concepts of God promulgated by many representatives of denominational and institutional religion. They often depict, not to say denigrate, God as a being who is primarily concerned with being believed in, by the greatest possible number of believers, and along the lines of a specific creed, at that.…If you want people to have faith and belief in God, you cannot rely on preaching along the lines of a particular church, but must, in the first place, portray your God believably—and you must act credibly yourself.

Otherwise, he notes, we are likely to behave as though the main task of our denomination is that of overriding other denominations. In whom or in what do we hope? Is it our creed, our organization, or our Lord?

In 1992, one year after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, I went to live in "godless" Russia. I was eager to learn about the culture, and accepted an invitation from one of my English students to attend a Russian Orthodox church service. We went to a church established by Father John of Kronstadt. I stood alongside people twice my age for over two hours among the incense, candles, and the liturgy of John Chrysostom set to the music of Rachmaninoff and sung a cappella in a language I could not understand. What I could understand was the palatable sense of hope among the people—not in the new world order, but in their Lord and Savior.

Father John wrote,

Let that which calms my mind and my heart be committed to writing that I may return to constant peace of heart amidst the cares of life. What is it? It is this saying full of trust and power: ’The Lord is everything to me.’ This is the priceless treasure, which if we possess we can be calm in every estate, rich in poverty, generous and kind to others in the time of wealth, and not losing hope even after having sinned.

"The Lord himself will come down from heaven . . . the dead in Christ will rise first.…We who are alive and are left will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.…Encourage each other with these words" (1 Thess. 4:16–18).

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