But I worry that the question of pets in heaven could distort our understanding
of eternal life as described in Scripture and Christian tradition.
Instead, he gives us the ultimate gift
of eternal life as His children — a gift we could never earn.
One reason, therefore, for the «absolutely new atmosphere» in the New Testament is to be found in this vivid apprehension
of eternal life as a present possession, so real that he who has it has already received Christ's second coming, passed through the judgment, and been raised from the dead.
The Christian lives in the hope and in the vista
of eternal life as the gift of God.
Repeatedly throughout the book, McKnight refers to the gift
of eternal life as «salvation» or «being saved» (e.g., pp. 34, 40).
(1 Timothy 6: 12 - 16) Again showing a difference between eternal life and immortality, and the the encouragement is to lay hold
of eternal life as opposed to laying hold of immortality.
Not exact matches
Before the «Dispensation
of Grace»
of God, by which we are saved through «Faith in Jesus Christ»
as Lord and our personal Savior, Jesus Christ fulfilled the «Law
of God» on our behalf during His ministry on earth, died on the «Holy Cross» for the «Remission
of Our Sins» once and for all, descended to hell and defeated death, then rose from the dead on the third day bringing us «
Eternal Life» and «Reconciliation» with God the Father!
It is common knowledge that it is a guarantee
of the bible that Christ will give you the proof
of the down payment or proof that He adopts you
as a child
of God and bound for heaven and
eternal life.
That would be your fault not Gods
as you have been given the gift
of life eternal.
In so doing, he has appeased His Holiness, Justice, and Wrath; He has conquered the enemy that we brought into the world by our rebellion, which is death itself, by rising from the dead and
living and reigning
as victorious King and Savior; and He has reconciled those who believe in Him to Himself that they may
live life eternal with Him at the consummation
of all perfection, for perfection will be restored
as He has promised!
That being a spiritual death or being outcasted from God whereas overcoming that spiritual death and returning to God is the gift
of «
eternal life»
as opposed to immortality.
It also seems quite hard to swallow that a person could spend his or her
life helping the poor, counseling the down and out, building homes for Habitat for Humanity, giving millions to charitable causes, assisting those with disabilities and mental health issues, and without a sincere acceptance
of Jesus Christ
as Savior, be doomed to
eternal condemnation and suffering, no getting out early for good behavior.
By seeking inwardly this will be revealed and you will be «back home»
living in harmony feeling the
eternal love
as the energy
of life.
If
eternal life is the main reason you've accepted Christ into your
life, then,
as so many others have, you have missed the point
of Christianity.
God controls all
of life and all
of evolution, he isn't worried about time
as he is
eternal and time isn't an issuefor him.
«Sure,
eternal life is transcendent
life,» they admit; «but in the meantime, we're called to love our neighbors
as ourselves, which means attending actively to the welfare
of the world.
For the King
of all the Gods created by GOD is the God Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior and Redeemer
of godly men, whose rigtheousness in Word and / or in Deeds will bring to them an abundancy
of living many
lives within the mainframes
of the
eternal 1st Domain, that is called by us
as being the Atomic Cosmos.
I am sick
of hearing bible - spouting zealots
as Nicholas would say, asking Jesus for
eternal live and forgiveness.
From a human point
of view it seems ridiculous that a human being could torture, maim, and kill others relentlessly during her lifetime or that he could sexually abuse child after child with no remorse and then upon a sincere deathbed confession
of Jesus Christ
as Savior, be granted
eternal life, no questions asked.
I was just curious about the mindset
of those who deemed non existence more desirable than
eternal life, even when viewing the Christian option
as hypothetical.
This is a simplification
of the complex Hindu understanding
of history
as determined by the past
lives of others: that we are all stuck in an
eternal cycle
of suffering perpetuated by reincarnation.
While an admonition such
as «Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return» sounds like the solemn - admonitory, the point
of the memento mori is to contemplate worldly death in order to fit oneself for otherworldly
life in communion with other
eternal souls, not somehow to find comfort in the commonality
of our mortal lot.
But since he endowed all
of his intelligent creation with free will, they were free to choose God
as their Ruler, and
live forever, or sin and reject God and lose
eternal life.
A God who could make good children
as easily
as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one
of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter
life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels
eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless
lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies
of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell - mouths mercy, and invented hell - mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead
of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!
By focusing on the inner dynamic
of God's
eternal life as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Barth is able to avoid two errors: a static understanding
of eternity, and one completely divorced from all temporality.
Jeremy it just hit me like a bolt
of lightning i am so excited about this thought that salvation has nothing to do with
eternal life but is speaking
of losing the ability to be an overcomer in Christ.Having been there
as a carnal christian i always believed in Jesus but i felt i did nt have the power to
live a christian
life so i felt like a hippocrite i was still subject to sin and sinful desires.So in that sense i had never received salvation because i had never been an overcomer in the first place.So i can see how a christian could lose there salvation having once walked by faith but that does nt effect there
eternal life in Christ.Just so others know i am now walking by faith and am an overcomer i know what it is like to experience the power
of the holy spirit and to not be overcome by my old nature that is what Jesus wants us all to experience rather than being a victim
of the enemy.Whether we are an overcomer or not does nt effect our
eternal life.brentnz
John's baptism
of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins was the Jewish baptism
of repentance which I wrote a few posts about, and which has nothing to do with receiving
eternal life, and everything to do with the repentance
of Israel
as a nation so that she can be restored to her rightful place among the nations
as God promised in Scripture.
Craig that was exactly my understanding however if we believe that in that traditional sense a person could lose there
eternal life by there actions by not walking in the Lord which i do nt think is right
as eternal life is a free gift from God not based on works.Jeremys definition is that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ to
eternal life.I believe the term salvation has the meaning to be saved not necesarily to
eternal life but saved from ourselves Christ gives us the power to be transformed into his likeness or to be Christ like.In the
eternal picture our actions determine how we are rewarded from God although its not the motivation
of the reward but because we love the Lord.regards brent
But those who take that statement
as a sufficient declaration
of the condition for appropriating
eternal life (such
as those affiliated with the GES) surely do not believe that this alone is the gospel!
And just
as there are certainties we have learned from nature, such
as the laws
of science, gravity, and thermodynamics, there are also certainties we can learn from Scripture, such
as the holiness
of God, our own sinfulness, and our need to believe in Jesus for
eternal life.
They use the love
of a Christian trying to point out sin and trying to point to Jesus and
eternal life with God
as being unlovely or judgemental.
In such circumstances the fundamental gospel promise
of forgiveness and
eternal life is heard
as genuine Good News.
So you see Keith you are special created for a purpose in this stage
of transit test
life...
as true
life is the
eternal life that which comes after death on resurrection and Judgment day... God Bless
As part
of the package, he has made
eternal life available through faith.
(Matt 5:3) The universe and all
life is evidence that someone who is surpassingly greater than us exists and we
as humans are an essential part
of his «
eternal purpose».
Lots
of people have «
lived as a Christian» for years, but never actually believed in Jesus for
eternal life.
Therefore one has
eternal life as long
as one continues to believe — not just from a past moment
of belief
as would have been otherwise indicated from the aorist or past tense.
It is possible to believe in Jesus for
eternal life (and
of course, receive
eternal life as a result), but still not be «saved» from many
of the temporal and physical consequences
of sin, or from sickness, or from enemies, or from many
of the other negative things that can happen in
life.
I do not see how people who believe that we can lose
eternal life can speak
of it
as everlasting or
eternal life.
This post examines the Greek
of Acts 13:48 and looks at the context to determine what Luke meant when he wrote that
as many
as were appointed to
eternal life believed.
My disagreements with the five points
of both Calvinism and Arminianism iare not exactly with their theology or understanding
of Biblical texts, but with something much more basic than that: their definition
of certain biblical words and theological ideas, such
as election, grace, salvation, atonement, justification,
eternal life, forgiveness
of sins, etc, etc..
Just
as believing that the earth orbits around the sun does not give me
eternal life, so also, none
of the beliefs I have just stated in the previous paragraph will give me
eternal life by believing them.
I don't exactly disagree, though I think where we differ is that I see a distinction between receiving
eternal life by faith and
living as a follower
of Jesus.
Therefore, it is only in so far
as we are,
as Paul expresses it, «in Christ», united with him by faith which responds to God's grace reaching out to us in him, that we may hope to be raised to a share in his risen
life of communion with the
eternal God.
It is this kind
of experience which perhaps best explains the meaning
of the traditional term «
eternal life» — which is now not conceived
as an extension in time
of our personal existence but
as a new dimension
of existence into which one can enter during his natural
life.
To the best
of my understanding, the deposit
of faith clearly affirms the following: that God desires the salvation
of all and offers the real possibility
of salvation to all; the offer can be accepted or rejected and, if accepted by faith, such faith is recognized
as the gift
of God; if the offer is knowingly, freely, and definitively rejected, even at the very last moment
of life, one goes to hell, which is
eternal; but the deposit
of faith does not tell us clearly that anyone is in fact eternally damned.
Others have noticed this same thing, and we receive daily e-mails and phone calls from people saying they are prayerfully supporting Bob Wilkin, myself, and the ministry
of Grace Evangelical Society
as we continue to present the offer
of eternal life to all who believe in Jesus for it.
The crux
of the matter reduces down from halls
of rationalism to be the person
of Christ by means
of his Holy Spirit speaking through the heart and mouth
of the believing saint, revealing himself
as The Gift
of eternal life.
John Calvin managed to invert the lesson
of the passage almost entirely: The young ruler, he claimed, had asked an inept question, supposing that one could secure
eternal life through works, and thus Christ's metaphor was meant
as an illustration
of the impossibility
of anyone fulfilling the requirements
of the law, and
of the need therefore for a total reliance upon faith.
This is a significant list, and they reveal that the election
of Jesus
as God's Messiah was not an election to
eternal life, but an election to service.