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DAY FOUR: 

            Warren begins this Chapter referring to Eccl. 3:11, but he fails to include the last portion of that verse “…yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (NIV).  Warren treats this life as if man is able to solve the problem of sin under God’s law by using God’s law.  Rather than telling the readers the necessity to “repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38), Warren tells the reader to prepare themselves for the next life.  What is pointed to in Ecclesiastes 3:11 is the fact that man does have an awareness that the conclusion of this life is not the end, but without saving faith in the vicarious satisfaction of Christ Jesus, man has no knowledge of how to have an eternal life with God.  There is a striking difference between man feeling that he should life forever and man having an innate knowledge that he will live beyond temporal death. 

            Warren’s answer to the knowledge that eternity awaits everyone is to put man back into his own self, his own power, and his own work.  That is a complete denial of Christ Crucified and is a placing of law back upon the Gospel free gift of salvation.  Just because man in his sinful nature can reject God’s grace does not mean the man has any power to cooperate or contribute to his own salvation.  Salvation remains by grace alone, has a free gift of God alone, through faith in Christ Jesus alone. 

            Warren also fails to address the Scriptures where believers are shown to begin their eternal lives in and with Christ through baptism.  Although the believer’s baptism is not completed until the grave, that believer still has begun eternal life with God by this sacramental work of God alone.  Eternal life begins the moment God imparts faith into a believer by Word and Sacrament.  Death, on the other hand, is not simply enduring “eternity without God”, as Warren says on page 37, but is enduring eternity separated from God with the full knowledge of the rejection of the free gift offered in the Person and work of Christ Jesus. 

            The “eternal consequences” that Warren refers to on page 38, are not based on “everything you do on earth”, which is all Law, but rather on the presence or absence of saving faith.  Our best deeds are corrupted by sin which, for the believer, is forgiven in Christ Jesus, and the part that is pleasing to God within that deed is solely the work of the Holy Spirit working with the Word within us.  Christians boast only in their Lord Jesus Christ. 

            Another problem with this Chapter is that Warren completely ignores God’s use of the vocations he gives to His people.  God intends to use every vocation of every Christian, no matter how menial and mundane those vocations may appear in the eyes of men, for His eternal purpose of calling and gathering His people to Himself through Christ.  

            In this Chapter, Warren again completely ignores Baptism as a sacramental work of God by which God places the baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.  The baptized believer has the assurance that his sinful self has already died by being put into Christ’s death, and he has been given new life in Christ resurrection.

            Perhaps that most glaring example of Warren’s disregard for the Scriptures is on page 40, where Warren states “The deeds of this life are the destiny of the next.”  Warren completely ignores the fact that it is the obedience, righteousness and purity of Christ that is imputed to the believer such that Christ’s perfect deeds are credited to the believer.  It is the imputed sinlessness, perfect obedience, and righteousness of Christ that will make us worthy of Christ’s presentation of His people, the Church, to the Father.

            Once again it is apparent that Warren’s words seek to deny justification its rightful place as the central teaching of the Scriptures upon which the Church either stands or falls.

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