ONLY CHRISTIANS HAVE AN ETERNITY

Tuesday 12 November

And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. John 10:28 (NKJV)

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17 (NIV)

There has been a widespread teaching in the Body of Christ that the spirit of man is eternal and will live forever in either heaven or hell. Let’s touch on these two thoughts and see what the Bible has to say about it. Throughout the gospels and the epistles it is strongly implied that only those who have eternal life, live forever. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 10:28 ‘And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be afraid of Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell’ (Gehenna).

So according to Jesus, the soul and the body can both be destroyed. It is important to note that in 1 Corinthians 15:45 it says that ‘the first Adam was made a living soul, the second Adam a life giving spirit.’ What does this tell us? Adam or man without eternal life is in essence an animated soul devoid of an eternal spirit. This seems to negate the view that everybody is capable of living forever doesn’t it?

One of the aspects of eternal life is that it is imperishable. Jesus said ‘whosoever believes in me shall not perish.’ Therefore the guarantee is only for those who believe in Him. Those who choose to reject His offer for salvation fall outside the parameters of this imperishable, life.

So what about eternal bliss or eternal damnation in heaven or hell? Let’s think this through for a moment. There is no life outside eternal life in Christ, only existence. Adam had no eternal component to his constitution. He was ‘made a living soul’ who could choose to accept or reject eternal life like any one in the world today. Without the ‘eternal Spirit’ amalgamating with his living soul, how could an eternal component be introduced?

When God said ‘the day you eat of it, you shall surely die’ is originally rendered as ‘in dying you shall die.’ Death here was not immediate extinction, it was separation. This explains why Adam and Eve didn’t drop dead immediately after sinning. The spiritual death or separation of man however, made it impossible for God’s eternal Spirit to amalgamate with man’s living soul.

Here is the point. Mankind was unable to become one with God’s Spirit because sin brought spiritual death or separation from God. Until Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection it never happened in the course of human history. Only those who receive salvation have had the opportunity to receive it. Christians are the only ‘eternal’ human beings in the earth today.

Therefore based on this reality, how could those who don’t have eternal, life live on into eternity in hell? I put to you, only those that have received Jesus ‘who is the true God and eternal life’ have the ability and capacity to live on forever. Moreover, It is foreign to God’s character and nature to make people suffer. Period.

Jesus said ‘death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death’. ‘In Adam all die but in Christ all shall be made alive’. Eternal Life or imminent destruction. The choice is yours. Selah.