One of the household chores I should do more often is getting rid of expired food in the pantry and the fridge. Every once in a blue moon, I will feel motivated to tackle it and get into the nether regions of cupboards and the nooks and crannies of the refrigerator to find food from too long ago. Sometimes I find an item that doesn’t have a legible date on it, so it’s anyone’s guess when the true expiration date actually is.

The reason I am mentioning this is that this morning I had a strange thought as I was reading the tail end of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. It occurred to me that dust has an expiration date, but the problem is that no one knows when that date actually is.

Let me back up and tell you what I was reading. Daniel was having a vision with an angelic being who was telling him what would happen at the end of the world as we know it. After a few chapters relating an apocalyptic vision, the angel told Daniel: “At that time your people — everyone whose name is found written in the book — will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever.” (12:1-3)

This statement is a clear articulation of what has been called the doctrine of the general resurrection. The belief is simply this: At the end all people who have ever lived will be raised from the dead. The dust that our bodies will become after death will cease to be dust. Each person will be raised and take form with a new body. Now, I grant that this sounds a lot like a familiar plot of a zombie movie, but we will not be zombies. We will simply come to life in a new bodily form. The Bible has a way of speaking about death. It calls it “sleep.” If you are asleep, then you should wake up. On the day of the general resurrection, we will wake up all at once, and the dust will have expired as we assume our new bodies.

The angel tells Daniel that on that day humanity will be separated into two distinct groups. One group will rise to eternal life because their names are “found written in the book.” These are the faithful people of God, those who have been bought back and transformed out of the clutches of spiritual death. The second group is also raised, but while they exist, their existence can hardly be called “life.” They are raised to “shame and everlasting contempt.” Why are they consigned to such an existence? Presumably, their names are not found in the book that the angel is referring to. This sub-grouping of humanity is hopelessly bound and mired by the spiritual death that characterized their earthly lives, and that spiritual death continues on into eternity.

Jesus referred to this future separation of humanity many times as he taught and told stories. In a story about a field sown with both wheat and weeds, the owner of the farm tells his workers to wait until the harvest when the wheat will be collected and stored in the barns while the weeds will be tied together and put on the burn pile. In his story about sheep and goats, at the end they will be separated one from another, and the sheep (those who responded appropriately to people in need) will receive life while the goats (those who ignored people in need) will receive the judgment of eternal death. In his story about gates and roads, Jesus says that most people go through the wide gate and the broad road that leads to their destruction, but only a few go through the small gate and down the narrow road that leads to life.

There is an idea that is going around that everyone gets to go to the good place because God is a loving God who would never send anyone to their eternal destruction. While that may be a comforting thought, it is not a thought that is consistent with what scripture tells us repeatedly. On the expiration date for dust, it will be important to make sure your name is in the ledger of the Book of Life. If it isn’t, according to the scriptures, it will be too late.

So then, when is the expiration date of dust? That, my friends, is a great question that has puzzled humanity for centuries. Some have claimed that they knew when it was all going to come to a head, an even put a date on it, according to their calculations. Generally, those dates come and go, to the great amusement of the rest of humanity. If I say the end of the world is today, you can bet that the end of the world isn’t today. Why? Because Jesus himself said that no one knows the day or the hour, not the angels, nor even the Son of God, but only the Father.

Like an old jar of salsa with the date smeared off in the door of the fridge, no one but the Father knows the expiration date of dust, when all of the dead of the earth will rise to give an account. How then can we be prepared for what is to come? Jesus told us: Always be ready. Make sure you are right with God, forgiven through the sacrifice of the Son, and busy doing the work of God’s faithful servants. I know I want to be ready. How about you?

Derek Russell is pastor of the Hillsboro Global Methodist Church. He loves Jesus, family, dogs and football.