Eternal life.
Re-incarnation.
Heaven / paradise.
Life after death in any of its forms is a common theme throughout humankind’s global heritage. It seems to be a universal notion that these 80 or so-odd years are not the end of our existence; that there is something else afterward. Why? Well, maybe it’s true. Can we prove it? ...Can we disprove it? It’s pretty hard to devise a conclusive experiment which could test these divergent outcomes, and if it were even possible, our current understandings of life and of spirit are far too meagre even to begin seriously devising such processes.
How does one secure another life? Many religions believe that nothing needs to be done in order for one to pass from this existence to the next. In fact, the majority of belief systems that come to mind seem to stress that the purpose of activity in this life is directed not toward ensuring continuance, but toward improving the quality of our next phase in existence. The better a Buddhist you are in this life affords a stronger foundation to build upon in the next life, which progress one towards reaching nirvana. The better a Hindu in this life, the higher up the castes you will return as in the next one. The better a Mormon, the better chances you’ll get to be in Heaven instead of just living for eternity on the New Earth. Same with JW’s. Similar with Muslims and Jews. It’s all about merit. Then there’s Christianity. It also is about merit, but with a twist: Christianity teaches that a person can borrow someone else’s meritous deeds to replace one’s own for the purpose of determining one’s quality of existence in the next life. And herein lies the dilemma.
Every major religion in the world that I can think of tells me that my next life will depend largely on what I do in this one. How good I act or how righteous I live in this life is essential. Christianity teaches very much the same thing, except that the Bible tells us that no level of good deeds will ever be enough to counterbalance the amount of evil that we undertake in our lives, according to God’s standard (Rom 3:10,23). Even if we were to only ever to “good” things in every waking second of our lives, the level of “goodness” that we accomplish, the Bible tells us, is about as valuable as filthy rags in comparison to God’s requirements for humankind (Isaiah 64:6). If this is the case, where is the hope of salvation in Christianity? Every person should be (and is) doomed to hell, based on this unattainable goal God places against each and every person.
God, however, provides a loop-hole for us to squeeze out of this predicament. He allows anyone who chooses to substitute their own efforts toward attaining righteousness for the actions & deeds of Jesus Christ, who essentially (and literally) is God Himself (Rom 6:23, Phil 2:6-11). Since God sets the standard which determines who is good enough, it follows naturally that when God declares Himself as “good,” He must necessarily make the merit “grade” which would allows access to heaven. Simply put: A.) Jesus is God; B.) God is good; C.) Only people whom God declares to be good get to go to heaven; therefore D.) Jesus is good enough to go to heaven. Flawless logic.
So, because God offers humankind the option to substitute their own deeds for Jesus’, that pretty much means a free pass to heaven—provided that this option is chosen by the individual. There’s a condition, however, that God places on those who wish to swap their efforts of attaining righteousness for Jesus’ credentials. The condition and its implications are intense. You ready for it? Jesus tells us that we can only use His deeds in place of our own if we consciously decide to give up trying to earn our way to heaven by any other means (John 14:6): we must choose to risk our place in the next life based upon the promise that His deeds will actually take the place of our own. That’s right. We are given no guarantee that what Jesus says is actually even true, besides His claims of being Truth & of being God & from the reports of his coming back from the dead. But what if Christianity is wrong? What if it’s a big fictitious “feel good” story? Then all those people who chose to hang their eternal futures on this promise Jesus gave us have wasted their entire lives (1 Cor 15:16-19) & destroyed their chances for improving the next one. Choosing Jesus, if He is wrong, means damnation for His followers.
I’m a Christian. That means I’ve chosen to believe all of Jesus’ claims and promises. I recognise that this life isn’t the end and that there will be a continuance for me after I die. I have placed my eternal future entirely in the hope of a promise from a man whom I’ve never physically met, who lived 2000 years before I did and who was reported to have come back to life after three days in a grave... only to float away to heaven one afternoon & disappear from the world thereafter. Is there any concrete, objectively verifiable evidence that what Jesus said back then was true? Nope. The best we have are the written claims from eyewitness reports.
If I’m wrong and if Jesus was a fraud, then at best I’ve wasted all those opportunities for self-centred pleasure & self-gratification in this life and my existence ends on my death-bed. At worst, I’ve offended the real god who will punish & torment me for not serving him/it. Somewhere in between is the karmic reincarnation, where I’ll have to suffer through a harder life-cycle with more obstacles and greater challenges toward reaching nirvana. Essentially, I’m either shooting myself in the foot or shooting myself in the head. My hopes for a better future would be lost.
If I’m right, and Jesus in fact is the Son of the one true God, then I’m saved from eternal destruction and I will live in eternal glory with Him. It’s an all or nothing deal. Black or white. Right or wrong. A glorious eternity or a wasted existence....
No wonder Paul refers to belief in the Christian God as “hope against hope” (Rom 4:18).
I’ve made my decision; what’s your choice?
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