July 26, 2012
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quick thought on "goodbye"
When saying goodbye to friends, I am finding that the emotional load is not directly tied to the goodbye itself, at least for me. As follows:
Each of my friends either believes in Jesus Christ (as described in the Bible), or does not believe in Him. Those who believe, I will absolutely see again, in much better circumstances, in heaven, whether or not I ever see them again here on this broken Earth... and we will spend eternity together with each other and with God in extreme joy. So there is not much sorrow now... it's only a temporary goodbye... a 'see you again soon.'
For those of my friends who do not believe in Jesus, in many cases (if they persist in their unbelief for the rest of their lives), this is GOODBYE, forever. Of course, in some cases I will see them again here on Earth a few more times, in visits, etc. But those fellowship times are also temporary. Those who refuse to believe in Jesus, God's perfect way of salvation, are choosing for themselves an eternity in despair, darkness, pain, and sorrow. Ultimately, if they would really prefer that to humbling themselves before God and asking for salvation, it's their choice... But oh, how I wish that they would turn before it is too late.
Revelation 20 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21 Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.'
Comments (6)
Very well said and I pray His blessings for your life without end!
For me I just got back and plan to explore Xanga more God willing.
Barry
I don't know how you can be so sure of things like this with no more evidence than there is for vishnu, zeus, thor or the easter bunny.
Where is heaven exactly?
Imagine if I claimed I was going to visit a country and didn't know what it was called, where it was, how to get there or even if it existed.
@agnophilo - To me, it comes down to trust in Jesus. It is true that I've never been to heaven, but Jesus has. The reason I know this is not just that he claimed it (lots of people claim lots of things, all the time... it doesn't mean their claims are true), but that he backed up his claims by rising from the dead.
If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, his claims and teachings about heaven are worthless. But because the historical evidence strongly indicates that he did rise from the dead, his teachings about heaven are very believable to me.
@tim223 - You just told me historical claims cannot be tested on your other blog. And why believe jesus resurrected but not believe similarly miraculous claims made of other religious leaders? Also it's worth mentioning that you're not trusting jesus, but trusting the people who made the claims about him, many of whom are anonymous or whose identity is lost to history or a matter of speculation.
Should I base my entire life around the claims of people I've never met, who died thousands of years ago? And if so, why the authors of the bible and not other ancient texts?
@agnophilo - Mark, thanks for your thoughts. You wrote:"And why believe jesus resurrected but not believe similarly miraculous claims made of other religious leaders?" and "And if so, why the authors of the bible and not other ancient texts?"
Those are excellent questions. I hope to write more about these in my next few fictional dialog posts.
The short answer is that I have seen convincing (to me) evidence supporting the reliability of the Bible's account, but I have not seen any such evidence for the other texts. If you think there is another particular text which has equal support, feel free to let me know. I've looked at some of the commonly proposed candidates... Apollonius, Mithras, Osirus, Muhammad/theQuran, JosephSmith/BOM, Krishna, etc. But perhaps you think that one of these (or some other) has equally-strong support to the Bible's claims about Jesus of Nazareth? I am open to being shown new information. By the way, here's an article discussing some of these things if you have time/interest - http://christianthinktank.com/copycat.html
@tim223 - You keep claiming there is evidence that supports the bible above all other texts, but when directly asked for that evidence more than once you ignore the question and just repeat the claim that it exists. Now you're asking me, an atheist, to give an example of a religious text other than the bible that has adequate proof to make me believe in it, when you know I do not believe in the claims of any religious text.
If you're going to not answer my questions I'd rather you just didn't respond at all.
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