How Suffering in This World Can Prepare Us for Eternity

It is sometimes easy to think that, unless we are winning people to Jesus and playing a direct, active role in world evangelism, we are not bearing fruit for eternity. After all, what is more important than snatching people from the jaws of hell and turning them into citizens of heaven? In the words of missionary C. T. Studd, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

To be sure, the Great Commission is always near and dear to the heart of God. And one way or another, through our praying or our giving or our witnessing or our teaching or our training or our worship or something else, we should be involved in the process of winning the lost and making disciples, even if tangentially.

But we make a grave error if we think that it is only through sharing the gospel with the lost or making disciples that we can bear fruit for eternity. God is looking at far more than that.

To be Like Jesus
Consider first that God’s great goal for each of us as His children is to “be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29). God wants to make you and me like Jesus!

This is only fitting, since He has called us to be members of His eternal, heavenly family. This means that we need to behave like His sons and daughters and look like His sons and daughters. Jesus, our elder Brother, sets the pattern.

You are being tried in the fire for a short time today so that you will shine brightly forever…










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This is indeed good news. Good advice too. We can all be a part of the great commission to spread the gospel to all the world by reflecting Christ in our lives where we are.

 

We are saved by Grace through faith. Because we love Jesus and want to please him as our savior, we will reflect his character in our lives despite being still of this world facing the temptation to sin

 

I am a Methodist. We are a tad more free range about such matters.

 

Interesting. I’m curious about the differences you allude to compared to general evangelical Protestant denominations?

 

I'm an atheist. We don't like suffering for any reason if it's avoidable.

 

Is your avatar suggesting that California should be split up so that the part in yellow is a state and the part in green is a different state?

 

Suffering isn't about preparing anybody for anything. It is about people making bad choices.

 

Suffering often has a lot to do with wanting things, especially things you can’t have or shouldn’t have.

 

Suffering is a major way God teaches people to take the right path. Suffering is also punishment for disobeying God.

Westerners talk about God's love, but God is more than love. God is also righteous, just, lawful, holy, and that means the unrighteous, unjust, unlawful, and unholy will be punished.

 

I think snatching people up to a mystical heaven is plan B. Plan A is humans advancing sociologically, technologically and morally to a level where we create heaven.

...admittedly there isn't a lot of Biblical support for this idea, but it makes sense. If we're imbued with God's creativity (made in the image of The Creator), and we keep creating in a direction roughly aligned with the teachings of Jesus, heaven will be the result.

Suffering is the primary driver behind innovation and therefore creation. Without suffering we stagnate and stop trying. If it aint broke, dont fix it. Everything we learn is because we need to fix what we broke in the hopes of suffering less.

 

Maybe in a spiritual sense, rather than a religious one, this existence on Earth is the learning epicentre. All the crap we go through allows for consciousness & soul evolution.

 

This message brought to by the same people who used to whip themselves with chains to be "closer to God ...".

Whatever, dude.

 

So all the Christian martyrs made bad choices?

 

Sorry but I’m not dark ages Catholic or Shia muslim so that doesn’t apply

 

Yep. If they were Christians they would have gotten to heaven anyways so why die for it.

 

So those who were given the choice of recanting their faith or die should have recanted because they were going to heaven anyway? We will have to agree to disagree on that.

 

Your "Suffering for Christ" thread says you are - you just paint it with a little glitter, but it's the same Christian Guilt as always.

 

Faith is about your relationship with God, not your interpersonal relationship with other people, so yes we will have to disagree about keeping up appearances.

 

All of humanity is guilty of being sinners and falling short of the glory of God. People can’t just avoid guilt by claims that God doesn’t exist or if He does, he has no standards for us to attain eternal life.

 

So you think that recantation of our faith and belief is going to have no negative impact on witnesses? That we aren’t supposed to be willing to give up life on this earth to have it in the next? There would never have been a Protestant reformation with what I understand of what you are saying. How would Romans have converted to Christianity if we all recanted every time Nero persecuted us.

 

I suppose they could have read Romans 13 that says those that resist power/authorities, resist God and shall be damned. I mean if you believe the Bible to be the inerrant and infallible word of God there are plenty of verses that direct people to submit to government authority as all governments are instituted by God. Your martyrs seem to have sealed their fate when they refused to do as directed, and not in the pearly gates sort of way.

 

Problem solved ... 400 years before Christ.

 

So all the Protestant reformers burned at the stake or otherwise killed by the authorities of the time for not recanting the faith God showed them all got what they justly deserved and won’t be in heaven?

 

I would replace the word "suffering" with "deprivation". Some forms of deprivation can certainly result in suffering, but suffering itself is not a requirement for innovation & creativity. One can experience curiosity & creative/innovative challenges, all without any suffering whatsoever.

What is being deprived, ultimately, is a fundamental sense of Oneness with All. This is made possible by way of the illusion of separation, which naturally imposes virtually infinite forms of self-deprivation, pushing us to seek meaning and creative/meaningful ways to re-claim a sense of Oneness with All. Eg, The deprivation of knowledge pushes us to learn & explore in order to "connect" (actually, re-connect) with the greater reality.

One could say those who feel the most extreme deprivation crave the most attention. How many celebrities fit that bill? How many celebrities & politicians/leaders are actually very insecure, and motivated by separation anxiety? They need to connect with something bigger than them, such as the crowd (or mob in some cases). They need the constant attention & adoration of others, particularly large groups to feel needed, bigger, important, loved, to belong, and to have a sense of self & purpose. In fact such excessive attention can become intoxicating & addictive.

Unfortunately, the methods such people seek to satisfy their feelings of deprivation may result in great destruction & suffering, but only if they are enabled by the people.

 

Sola fide?

Now you sound more like Erasmus than Luther...