Hope and faith are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Faith trusts that what God promises He can and does do. Faith is a confident hope in things that are unseen (Heb 11:1). Hope will never be disappointed, not because hope is anything in itself, but because it appropriates to itself the precious merits of Jesus Christ offered to the poor sinner. Hope frees from the fear of death, grasps the forgiveness of sins, rescues from despair, relishes the commutation of the sentence of death, and gives confidence of ultimate rescue in the midst of suffering and trials. When hope is hope in Christ, it has and looks forward to all the divine blessings. It lives as if it already resided in the heavenly home that Christ went to our Father to prepare.

Our hope is like a bride's love for her bridegroom. She comes into the marriage with nothing to offer him but love. This love receives him. That is its goal. So it is for the Christian hope. We offer it to the Bridegroom, Christ, so that in that hope we might receive the heavenly Bridegroom Himself and with Him receive all His gifts and graces. Our offering is one that receives; it gets rather than gives. This is why it cannot disappoint. This why it saves: because it grasps Christ.

Focusing people on the Christian hope was taken to be a diversion from the "real" concerns of life in this world. Leftists accused the church of being slaves to the entrenched powers by encouraging the poor and dispossessed to focus on the life of the world to come. "Hey, things are bad now. You bet. But just focus on what is yet to come in heaven and you will get through it. Just accept things as they are." On this theory, the church deflected unrest and kept people from rebelling against the authorities, while those in authority got rich on the backs of the poor. Of course, what we now know about economics alone puts this interpretation of economic life to the lie. The poor cannot make the rich rich and keeping them poor will make everyone poorer; including "the rich." As President John F. Kennedy said, "A rising tide lifts all boats." Prosperity grows for everyone, when it grows. And as it turns out, giving people an other-worldly hope is also likely to allow them to be successful in the world, as Vishal Mangalwadi showed in his wonderful book, The Book That Made Your World. So being heavenly-minded or earthly-minded is not an either/or but a both/and. The leftists are just dead wrong about "pie-in-the-sky" theology. If we have the hope of Christ, we are far more likely to build hospitals, schools, or other charitable institutions. When was the last time you visited a hospital or a university founded by Muslims or atheists? Our hope in Christ makes us different.