By David Hegg
We hear quite a bit about hope these days. Everyone wants hope, and every politician and societal leader intends to offer a strategy for creating and maintaining it for us. Presidents do it, legislatures do it, corporate leaders do it, coaches do it, and, of course, we clergy are all about doing it.
But what is hope?
Hope comes in two flavors: First, hope is expressed in statements like, “I sure hope the Dodgers win the World Series again this year.” Regardless of your opinion of the Blue Crew or baseball and sports, we all recognize this as the kind of “hope” that is nothing more than a wishful dream. We all know that we don’t run to this “hope” to find refuge when adversity presents itself.
A second understanding of hope is much more concrete and essential. This hope is a radical commitment to a particular set of convictions that provides a compelling reason to persevere courageously through adverse circumstances in pursuit of a promised future.
This kind of hope sustains an army through impossible conditions in the valley of death to finally vanquish the enemy and bring peace. It also brings meaning, balance, and unrelenting courage to the individual who knows purpose in life is not defined by daily inconveniences but by pressing on to finish the race with integrity and honor.
Two things about our society sadden me.
First, I am disheartened that so many of my fellow travelers on the human path appear to have no real hope. They live in a world of wish dreams, believing that life owes them success and happiness even though the only value they’ve developed is the conviction that they deserve happiness.
Consequently, they are tossed around by the winds of theory and trend that whistle down the mountain from social media influencers, the best-seller shelves, or the unintelligent proclamations of governmental and entertainment elites. Without any substantive ethical foundation for real hope, they have no permanence, ambition, or purpose other than to feel good one more day, and when adversity or opposition arises, they are incensed and undone.
But I am equally sad about those committed to intellectually vacuous values. When two plus two can be whatever you believe is best, your ideology – your life philosophy – becomes a projection of personal selfish desires. This sophistry (look it up!) comprises wish dreams twisted into a personal belief system with no reasonable or rational foundation. Think of building a house on shifting sand.
Specifically, I am talking to those who claim God has no place in the modern world.
In the academic area known as epistemology, the focus of study is, “How do we know what we know?”
And, as you might expect, there are different “schools of thought.”
Evidentialists build their system on proven, undeniable facts.
Others, known as presuppositionalists, argue not only from evidence but also consider the coherence of their system. They would say, “If you grant me my presuppositions, I’ll show you how my system is coherent and can explain reality. In other words, my view explains the normal and abnormal in real life.”
Those who deny God’s existence, either academically through argument or practically through a casual disregard for God in their daily life, primarily do so without an honest appraisal of the foundation of their views. They cannot offer coherent answers to basic questions: Why does evil exist? Where does virtue come from? Most importantly, is there reliable hope in this world?
Consider: If this life is all there is, and it doesn’t matter how we live (since there is no accountability to any higher power), human existence is just a random set of circumstances. It actually has no purpose, given that sometimes the good still die young, and as more chaos and tragedy are closing in, any real hope turns out to be a wish dream. Consequently, those who live selfishly for the moment may be on the right track after all. Life is horrible, and then you die, so live selfishly, dangerously, and without restraint because, in the end, nothing matters.
Tomorrow, April 20, is Easter, or as I prefer to call it, Resurrection Day. Millions of Christ-followers around the world will celebrate a significant historical fact: Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Messiah, crucified, dead and buried, rolled away the stone and walked out having conquered humanity’s greatest foe — death. In so doing, he brought hope that anchors the soul with the assurance that this life matters, walking faithfully before Almighty God matters, and finding refuge in his promises brings real hope and a settledness in this life that adversity cannot erode.
As an evidentialist, I know the facts that have kept this truth central to millions despite the perennial opposition of atheists and others for the past 2000 years. God’s truth is impossible to kill.
But even more importantly, as a presuppositionalist, I know that the worldview stemming from the empty grave can explain the most challenging aspects of our reality and sustain the heart through the circumstances of this life.
That means real hope does exist that can bring purpose and understanding in this life and the settled assurance of peace in the next. He is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Local resident David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church. “Ethically Speaking” appears Sundays.
