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The Goal of the Religious Quest Is Often Described As Immortality Or Eternal Life

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The Goal of the Religious Quest Is Often Described As Immortality Or Eternal Life The goal of the religious quest is often described as immortality or eternal life. Humanity has always chafed under the limitations of mortality, and people have found in religion the means to transcend the death which seems to proscribe the possibilities of human existence. Yet we have already gathered under Immortal Soul, pp. 326-34, passages from scripture which recognize that every person has an eternal spirit as his or her birthright. Everyone will continue eternally in some form of existence after the end of this physical life. The question of eternal life, therefore, does not mean eternal existence per se, but rather what form it will take, and whether death will remain a barrier to human fulfillment. We find that the scriptures of many religions give two meanings to the terms "life" and "death." There is the physical meaning of life: existence in this physical realm, and there is the spiritual meaning of life: the state of blessedness which is enduring from life to life and hence transcends death. There is the physical death: the dropping of the body which is an event in the voyage of every soul, and the spiritual death: the condition of distance from God, ignorance, and a hellish existence in the hereafter. Hence when the question of salvation is at issue, the outcomes called "eternal life" and "immortality" are often ciphers to describe the condition of blessedness. This condition is present already in the physical life of the person who realizes Truth or lives in God's grace, and it will continue, unabated, in the hereafter. The person who gains "eternal life" has accomplished the goal of life, and hence death is not to be feared as a limitation, as it is for a worldly person who has tied all hopes to his possessions and pleasures in the world. Some Taoist scriptures, on the other hand, promote the ideal of physical immorality. The eternal youth of the Taoist Immortals is a consequence of their life being totally at one with the Tao of nature. Likewise, the doctrine of the resurrection is interpreted by some Christians, Jews, and Muslims as requiring the reconstitution of the dead in their physical bodies, to dwell forever on this earth. Yet these physical interpretations are also based on a spiritual concept of 1 life and death: only the spiritually alive are qualified to enjoy immortality or the fruits of the resurrection. We note that Buddhist scriptures generally avoid speaking of the state of blessedness as eternal life. Buddhist teaching views the desire for life as a kind of grasping, and hence a fetter to liberation. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6.23). Let us see some beliefs of various religions about the afterlife. Christianity Christian beliefs about the afterlife vary between denominations and individual Christians, but the vast majority of Christians believe in some kind of heaven, in which believers enjoy the presence of God and other believers and freedom from suffering and sin. Views differ as to whether those of other faiths or none at all will be in heaven, and conceptions of what heaven will be like differ as well. A slightly lesser majority of Christians believe in the existence of hell, where unbelievers or sinners are punished. Views differ as to whether hell is eternal and whether its punishment is spiritual or physical. Some Christians reject the notion altogether. Catholic Christians also believe in purgatory, a temporary place of punishment for Christians who have died with unconfessed sins. Assemblies of God: The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the church. The second coming of Christ includes the rapture of the saints, which is our blessed hope, followed by the visible return of Christ with His saints to reign on earth for one thousand years. This 2 millennial reign will bring the salvation of national Israel, and the establishment of universal peace. There will be a final judgment in which the wicked dead will be raised and judged according to their works. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life, together with the devil and his angels, the beast and the false prophet, will be consigned to the everlasting punishment in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. Evangelical Free Church of America: We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead; of the believer to everlasting blessedness and joy with the Lord; of the unbeliever to judgment and everlasting conscious punishment. Friends United Meeting (Quaker): We believe, according to the Scriptures, that there shall be a resurrection from the dead, both of the just and of the unjust, (Acts 24:15) and that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ whom He has ordained. (Acts 17:31) For, as says the apostle, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad." (2 Cor 5:10). We sincerely believe, not only a resurrection in Christ from the fallen and sinful state here, but a rising and ascending into glory with Him hereafter; that when He at last appears we may appear with Him in glory. But that all the wicked, who live in rebellion against the light of grace, and die finally impenitent, shall come forth to the resurrection of condemnation. And that the soul of every man and woman shall be reserved, in its own distinct and proper being, and shall have its proper body as God is pleased to give it. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; (1 Cor 15:44) that being first which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual. 3 We believe that the punishment of the wicked and the blessedness of the righteousness shall be everlasting, according to the declaration of our compassionate Redeemer, to whom the judgment is committed, "These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (RV, Matt 25:46) Lutheran Church (Augsburg Confession, 1530): Also they [Lutheran churches] teach that at the Consummation of the World Christ will appear for judgment, and will raise up all the dead; He will give to the godly and elect eternal life and everlasting joys, but ungodly men and the devils He will condemn to be tormented without end. They condemn the Anabaptists, who think that there will be an end to the punishments of condemned men and devils. They condemn also others who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the ungodly being everywhere suppressed. Mennonite Church in the USA: We believe that, just as God raised Jesus from the dead, we also will be raised from the dead. At Christ's glorious coming again for judgment, the dead will come out of their graves"--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation." The righteous will rise to eternal life with God, and the unrighteous to hell and separation from God. Thus, God will bring justice to the persecuted and will confirm the victory over sin, evil, and death itself. We look forward to the coming of a new heaven and a new earth, and a new Jerusalem, where the people of God will no longer hunger, thirst, or cry, but will sing praises: "To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! Amen!" Presbyterian Church in the USA: If there is a Presbyterian narrative about life after death, this is it: When you die, your soul goes to be with God, where it enjoys God's glory and waits for the final judgment. At the final judgment bodies are reunited with 4 souls, and eternal rewards and punishments are handed out. As the Scots Confession notes, final judgment is also “the time of refreshing and restitution of all things.” And it is clearly the case that both the Scots Confession and the Westminster Confession of Faith want to orient the present- day life of believers around this future. But the Bible spends more time focusing on new life here than on life after death. So do all our more recent confessions. Although the Confession of 1967 mentions life after death, it does so only briefly. Its focus is on new life now and on the church's ministry of reconciliation. Southern Baptist Convention: God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. United Church of Christ: God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in that kingdom which has no end.
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