Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
This may seem “illogical” to you, but some very knowledgeable Bible teachers do not feel the same way as you. Having eternal life and living forever are not the same. Having eternal life is having the Son, because John said, “he who has the Son, has the life.” Here eternal life is not a quantitative length of time, but a qualitative description of that life.
We who believe in the resurrection of the long promised Christ of God receive Him as eternal life. Even if our body dies, the life within guarantees our resurrection from the dead just as the Firstborn rose from the dead. The incredible blessings of the children of God as His own heirs, sharing these birthrights with the Firstborn, are priceless treasures. Together these are called our hope of glory.
The “sheep,” however, in question here, who are blessed merely by giving a drink of water to a thirsty child of God during the horrible tribulation which will soon descend upon all of mankind, do not have the eternal life of God. They appear to be restored to the original state of creation in the Eden garden, having a body which does not age or die. They are the nations outside the city New Jerusalem, healed by the leaves of the tree of life. They are mere humans without the resurrected body of the believers, like the one Jesus had after He rose from the dead. John said, “we will be like Him.”
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Suppose I asked about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead - on what basis, I asked? You might reply, on these:
~1 Peter 1:21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
~Acts 2:32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
~Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
~Ephesians 1:20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
~Romans 4:24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness-for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our LORD from the dead.
~Acts 2:24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Whether or not we agree on the resurrection, and believe what is written at least we have basis of agreement or disagreement. It is written in scripture. Instead, above I read that "certain reputable scholars feel" and no scripture given. I looked at one of the supposedly reputable scholars (Govett) who said that there would be mortals - who were not immortal mind you - who lived on in perpetual good health. Yet they are not mortal.... perpetual yet not mortal. Again, no scripture given. This glaring contradiction in terms is supposed to be taken on face value, because a knowledgeable person says its so.
Does this make any sense to me? No. Should it? I don't see how. No scripture given, rather it is an interpretation. Someone's theology requires it. Then the theology probably isn't very good.
Then, in the quote above you say that unbelievers, non-Christians, who help the suffering people of God during the Great Tribulation will get unending bliss. Not eternal life, mind you, but everlasting bliss. Again, no sense at all.
And then I wonder - why if you help a suffering Christian or Jew in a 3.5-year window you get bliss for eternity, but otherwise no, because we all know God doesn't care about works? Only in a 3.5-year span do works count? Again, it makes no sense at all. Certain reputable scholars feeling something doesn't cut it with me. Maybe it did, once, but I look where that naivete got me, into a world where I shouted nonsense over and over. Saying something loudly and repeatedly doesn't make it true. Scripture make it true. Interpretations are logical overlays. When they become illogical they no longer have any merit. And a system in which we can't question the obviously illogical is a sick system.