Deep Thought: Do our memories exist? No, they are just recollections of what happened in times past. Why? Because time moves on and so do we. We can only exist in the present. Thus, the past is a self perceived illusion. We know that the past existed but we have no way to interact with it. We can only remember it with our memories, which themselves are fading in our mind.
God, who created time, taught us in His Word that one day when Jesus comes everything we now have and are will no longer exist (it will be in the past)- including our greatest roles like being a mother, father, husband, etc. All things for the disciple of Christ will be made new- new bodies and new roles (kings and priests).
Then the believer will cleansed by God from all evil (including evil persons and their memory) that was in the old sinful order of things. Thus, you will no longer be able to remember the sinner you once were or those persons who died in their sins, Job 24:20. The Bible teaches that after the Final Judgment and all the sinners (along with Satan) have been cast into the lake of fire they will be remembered no more, Isaiah 65:17 & Ezekiel 21:32.
Therefore, all the children of God will remember is God’s redemption in the past and those persons who have been redeemed. This will include the redeemed’s good works for their reward will always be with them in the form of a crown. Afterward and for the rest of eternity (events moving forward without end) everything will be new and perfect in Christ. Christ and His Kingdom, unlike memories of temporal things, will never pass away. And time itself will be no more- that which we now know as “past/present/future” will be one state of being for ever and ever.
On the other hand, the sinner who dies without Christ will be punished for eternity in a lake of fire where the “worm dies not.” Most scholars believe that which torments the lost soul most is not the fire or the bottomless pit- but rather being away from God and only having the memories from the past to eat away at their conscience soul for all of eternity. Therefore, all the wicked will have for eternity is the memories of their short life on earth and how they traded their eternity with God for just “memories” (nothing).
Think about it!
James 4:14, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
