Art Replies!

Dear PapaPops,

It was good to hear from you, to receive your recent letter. It surely has been a long time, hasn’t it? Yes, I agree that those “old times” to which you refer are good to remember. I’m glad for your encouragement in this way, and I surely want to be an encouragement to you, too.

It is true that I have been successful in my chosen field of business, and have therefore been able to accomplish a lot of the things you have spelled out. It has been gratifying to help my children get a good start on their own careers in life. And the traveling that my wife and I have done has taken us to some very beautiful spots here on Planet Earth. Isn’t this an amazing place? It’s inhabitable, complex, and has tremendous variety which is available to us every day.

I can’t help but congratulate you on the work you have done in the Gospel ministry. It must be a very good feeling to help bring about positive changes at the “deep places” of people’s lives. Your work, compared to mine through the years, seems to have had the greater impact in the things that matter most. Do you think so?

Now I’ll admit that I feel a little uneasy, PapaPops, when I consider the question of “What next?” after I’ve done all that I can do. Certainly, as with everybody else, I’m on the road to that place in life where my health and natural abilities will have greatly diminished. I really don’t like to contemplate that. Do you? I wish for the best, both here and hereafter, but I’m concerned that I don’t have much solid hope, as you seem to have. Is hope of that nature and magnitude really possible for people like you and me?

How can you say that you know, yes, actually know, that you will be “at home with our Lord and Savior,” to use your words, when your earthly journey is done? It seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? How can anyone know what is ahead for us beyond the grave? Shouldn’t we be responsible for ourselves, rather than rely on a payment from somebody else, on our behalf, as your “Gospel” maintains?

PapaPops, I’m a little mystified in your writing about “our Savior” as someone who is alive today, and personal. And who can know that he or she will be somehow “saved” forever?!? How can the death of any person that occurred some two thousand years ago make a real difference in your life or mine today? Isn’t this wishful thinking, -- perhaps an expression of a religious sentiment long-ago described as the “opiate of the people?”

As for reading the Gospel of John, in pursuing your suggestion, is it really worth the time that would take, do you think? After all, the Bible is an old book (very old), and how can it anticipate today’s problems? How can it suggest workable, high-value answers to those problems? Can it really put forward a satisfying solution for people like you and me? I don’t mean to suggest that what you say is superfluous, but tell me -- what is an “honest doubter” to think?

With great appreciation for your willingness to help me find true meaning and a lasting purpose, I am –

Sincerely yours, -- Art