Spending Eternity

by: The Prophet Paul
(thanks for the promotion)

Where will you spend eternity?

My dear wife and I recently took a short trip down to Nashville Tennessee along Interstate 40. During the trip we were confronted with numerous bill-boards displaying religious messages. One that particularly caught my eye asked the question: “If you died tomorrow, where would you spend eternity?” For some, this might lead to ethical soul-searching; for others, whether they had “accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior;” for me however, only whether the question makes any sense in the first place.

“Where will I spend eternity?” Well, either I am eternal or I am not. If I am eternal, then it does not make any sense to say that I will “die” (tomorrow or any other time) — in which case the question is nonsense; if I am not eternal, then when I die (whether tomorrow or whenever) then I will simply cease to exist — and so again the question is nonsense. Where will I spend eternity? — Wherever I‘m spending it now!* “Let the dead bury the dead.” (Mt. 8:22)

Footnote:

* This is essentially a variation of the response Socrates gave to the Athenian court upon their threat to execute him in 399 BCE. (cf Plato: Apology 40c ff).