Individual Entry: More on eternal value
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February 25, 2009

Faith : More on eternal value

There is another alternative to consider when pondering "What will still be of value after 1000 years of being in God's presence after I die?" What if you do not end up with a relationship with God that outlasts this life?

While we live this life, we experience the benefits of God's desire to establish a relationship with us. As Jesus is recorded saying in Matthew: "He makes his sun rise on people whether they are good or evil. He lets rain fall on them whether they are just or unjust". Yet my understanding is that when this life is over, we will have chosen whether we want a relationship with God (and all that implies) or not. For those who, for whatever reason, choose not to pursue a relationship with God in this life, God will give them what they desire – an existence completely without Him and His benevolence.

In popular culture, this is known as "hell".

Now there are a whole lot of ideas that have accumulated in the culture about the fate of those who do not choose God, and it is actually quite hard to justify a lot of them by looking at the Bible. Even many of those ideas that do have some Biblical foundation, it is hard to know if the passages are meant to be read literally or as metaphorically. It is clear that it will be a life of suffering and despair; but it is less clear how much of that that suffering will be physical (the traditional flames, etc.) or emotional and spiritual.

I do however believe it will be an existence completely without God.

The question them becomes – what would life be like if God completely withdrew himself from the situation? The world we live in today is hard and painful, and there are atrocities that occur around the world on a fairly constant basis. Yet as I read scriptures I get the sense that for all the evil that does exists in the world, God is still holding back the worst of it. Neither The Enemy nor mankind's own worst impulse have free reign because God wants to give people an opportunity to turn to Him. As Paul wrote in Romans "Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?" Perhaps the despair of trying to eek out an existence completely without God's may be all the suffering that is needed to constitute "hell". I don't know; but I certainly don't want to find out first hand.

So what things in this life would still be thought of as valuable after 1000 years of existence completely without God? What in this world is possibly so valuable that it is worth doing without God's love for the rest of eternity?

Posted by Steven at February 25, 2009 05:00 AM