What if...eternal life is just symbolic?

[srvfan]

I am talking about the resurrection in Revelations, the actual Judgment of the Great White Throne, the New Jerusalem...New Heavens and New Earth...what if they're all just symbolic? That there's no heaven and no hell?



*What a letdown, huh?*

[RBerman]

What if the whole Bible is false? What if you're a brain in a jar, thinking you're a person reading on the internet? Questions can go on all day. At some point, you have to choose what you believe. "Did God really say that?" is literally the oldest trick in The Book.

Of course, Revelation is hardly the only place in the Bible that talks about resurrection and eternal life. Hopefully you knew that.

[Hamster]

Worst twist ending ever

[KingsGambit]

Yeah, Revelation is a symbolic book (though "no more death" is very explicit), but when Jesus talks about eternal life in John 3:16 and John 6:40, there's absolutely no way to take it metaphorically.

[mrsticky005]

I am talking about the resurrection in Revelations, the actual Judgment of the Great White Throne, the New Jerusalem...New Heavens and New Earth...what if they're all just symbolic? That there's no heaven and no hell?



*What a letdown, huh?*

Then Christianity would be completely pointless.

[STAT23MJ]

Paul wrote, "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith in vain" (1 Corinthians 15.13-14). As mrsticky said, Christianity will be pointless. Of course I shouldn't have to remind anyone that heaven is not our final destination, but that heaven and earth will join together and our bodies will be raised in glory. When the Bible speaks of "eternal life", keep in mind that it always means the age to come. Jews saw the distinction between the present age and the age to come so having eternal life was to participate in the life of the age to come. The age to come broke through the present when Jesus rose from the dead and we work until the day the earth will be transformed and all of us will share in that age to come, i.e. eternal life. Our disembodied existence in heaven will not be forever; only temporary. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we can be assured of our own resurrection at the last day.

[seanD]

I am talking about the resurrection in Revelations, the actual Judgment of the Great White Throne, the New Jerusalem...New Heavens and New Earth...what if they're all just symbolic? That there's no heaven and no hell?



*What a letdown, huh?*

Well, if none of these things exist, then when we die, all this would be meaningless and forgotten anyway, so it wouldn't matter.

[mrsticky005]

Then Christianity would be completely pointless.

Allow me to correct this

If eternal life is symbolic then EVERYTHING is pointless.

[MegaHertz]

1Co:15:32:
If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus,
what advantageth it me,
if the dead rise not?
let us eat and drink;
for to morrow we die.

I assume that means booze.