Christians and Fictional Afterlife

The devil is an imposter.

Tuur said:

Had an idea for a humorous fantasy story, but there's a problem: It occurs with souls that have left this world. It's not the first time such an idea's come to mind. I have what is frankly a very nasty, dark humored, afterlife story. but haven't written it because I don't want people to get the wrong idea about what comes after. First, what's been revealed to us is kind of sketchy and I don't want people to get the idea of "Hmm...could be." Second, I've read so many afterlife stories that essentially deny the Gospel. Third, I fear it trivializes what is really a serious issue.

Does my idea deny the gospel? No. But I doubt that the afterlife is like this, even though we're informed we're surrounded by a crowd of witnesses. I'm still kind of uncomfortable with it.

Comments?

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I've thought about those stories.

Someone dies here and is reincarnated into a world with magic.

The element of magic in the equation results in the deterioration of the world over time and the world becomes as hell. Usually the story arc told through these stories is a moment of triumph .. but does this last?

What if reincarnation is hell? Just a thought.

RileyG said:

Considering there is 15 dead people for every 1 living person, reincarnation makes no sense.

A majority of human beings who ever lived are long dead.

An estimate about 100 billion human beings ever walked the earth, only 8.2 billion are living.

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Of course it makes no sense, I was just musing along the lines of fiction.

Reincarnation just sounds a lot like hell. People put in a lot of self effort to become like gods but die like dogs in the end, thinking someday they'll attain some degree of purity through bloodshed.

Tuur said:

uncomfortable

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This could be all you need to know.

I have times when I get giddy about some thing to write for the whole world to see. But it can be me praising what I can write, hoping for the attention and a name for myself.

RileyG said:

I wouldn’t know what the afterlife is like, because I’m not dead, yet.

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Well, we can be sampling it . . . as much as we are living in God's love now.

"Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:5)

The Holy Spirit is Heaven's Spirit, and the love of God is Heaven's love. So, as much as we share this with God now and live in this love, we already are experiencing some sample of ***h~o~w*** Heaven is.

Right now, then, already we each can be getting a sample of how we will be after we die . . . because of how we have been becoming here on earth >

"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life." (Galatians 6:7-8)

Here on earth we have been sowing, inside ourselves, and already we are now reaping emotionally according to what we have been investing in. The seed gets sown, then the young plant grows for a while, and then there is the harvest. So, we are sampling what we have planted, though the resurrection of the dead has not harvested us in the full state that we then will be in.

So, yes, we have things we need to get rid of . . . not at all to keep living in it and growing it!!!!

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." (Ephesians 4:31)

God is the One almighty to get rid of that anti-love, anti-Heaven stuff, and to grow us in Jesus instead >

"And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:32)

And reap this.

If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading CS Lewis "The Great Divorce" which uses exactly the same theme as Tuur's conjecture.

It's religious allegory and not meant to be a definitive description of the afterlife but he manages to handle the subject very well, and without making it dark or sinister.

Having said that I think Hell is absolutely hideous. I"ve long claimed the night my father died he appeared in my room. I think he went to Hell, as the very last thing he did was to scream his head off. It was also obvious something was coming for him.

He even said to me as part of the proceedings "It's too late for me! All I was expected to do was to look after my own family, and I didn't even do that!"

I think the vision of Hell granted to the three children at Fatima in 1917 was bona fide, and it's horrifying.

On the other hand some saints have had visions of Hell (and Purgatory), so it's not all negative.