Would you be a Christian if there was no afterlife?

[marc b]

Wow.
Are you saying, "No hell = no Christianity"?
Fore insurance is the only TRUE value of Christianity?

We have eternal life because we are part of the spiritual world. Remove the spiritual reality and nothing makes sense.

When the bible tells us God is Spirit and we worship him in spirit and in truth, the first definition of worship is "in spirit". If we weren't spirits, we wouldn't even get to the "truth" part of worship.

Everything is related to the spiritual life within us... truth, love, joy, peace, hope, etc... all that results in eternal life flowing in us producing good works and a moral life... the so called fruits of the spirit. How to have the fruit of the Spirit? We need to be spiritually born again, have the eternal Spirit in us.

Is doing good works without being spiritually born again possible? Sure, but it's painful... it just does not flow from a deep well of life from within and definitely will not benefit you at all. Don't try it, unless you enjoy pain and wanna look pious and label that as "Christianity".

 

[marc b]

arrghh.. I just posted the above before I realized the OP was changed and all the debate are now off.

@MMXX. I'm not an expert, but I sorta disagree in your reworded OP the old testament jews did not know about the afterlife. Sheol is an old testament term after all.

 

[ozso]

The question is self-nullifying. It's like asking, "Would you still be a citizen of the USA if the British colonials had never rebelled?"

The apostle Paul has already answered the question.

It's more like would you still love your dad, even if he wasn't going to leave you his billion dollars in his will? Some people become Christians just to get a ticket to heaven.

 

[ozso]

arrghh.. I just posted the above before I realized the OP was changed and all the debate are now off.

@MMXX. I'm not an expert, but I sorta disagree in your reworded OP the old testament jews did not know about the afterlife. Sheol is an old testament term after all.

But sheol wasn't any kind of reward or punishment. It didn't play a part in "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength". Deuteronomy 6:5

 

[RDKirk]

It's more like would you still love your dad, even if he wasn't going to leave you his billion dollars in his will? Some people become Christians just to get a ticket to heaven.

No, it's more like "would you still love your dad if you didn't know you had a dad?"

Again, if there were no afterlife to be saved to, there would never have been Jesus. It wasn't Jesus' purpose to give the world more rules to live by--the Mosaic Law already did that. It was Jesus' purpose to die on the cross to provide salvation to an afterlife.

No afterlife, no Jesus. No Jesus, no Christianity.

 

[ozso]

No, it's more like "would you still love your dad if you didn't know you had a dad?"

Again, if there were no afterlife to be saved to, there would never have been Jesus. It wasn't Jesus' purpose to give the world more rules to live by--the Mosaic Law already did that. It was Jesus' purpose to die on the cross to provide salvation to an afterlife.

No afterlife, no Jesus. No Jesus, no Christianity.

Perhaps I should have just asked why are you a Christian, because that's the point of this.

 

[pescador]

There is no "afterlife" for Christians. Those of us who are in Christ have already died.

"The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:10-11 Notice that this is in the present tense.

This mortal life is just transitory. We are, by faith, alive in Christ for all eternity.

 

[ozso]

whoops

 

[pescador]

whoops

Did you mean to post this...

The present tense is the focus of the question. For insurance many Christians believe in once saved always saved. So why do they continue as Christians and all that being one entails, when the afterlife has already been taken care of?

... as it showed up in my e-mail.

I'll respond regardless...

My belief is that once we have been born again into Christ, a.k.a., saved we have a new "eternal" life -- unless we willingly throw it away. How? Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will be our guide until we leave this earthly body to be with Him forever. If one has the attitude that "once I am saved I can do whatever I want" then they're not being led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not guide anyone into sin. If one regards salvation as a "get out of jail free card", guess where they're going!

 

[Saint Steven]

What of the child born into poverty, abandoned by her family, living in filthy, disease-ridden circumstances, starving and dying before she reaches eight years of age? If there is no heaven to gain and hell to shun, what does one say about her life? It was a complete misery, unrelieved by future heavenly prospects. What sort of God would create such a life? What of the infant who dies of cancer before it is 6 months old? What purpose did its life serve? What do we make of a God who would create such a person who could not know Him in life and will not know Him in death?

Two things:
1) The topic question is about no afterlife.
2) Your doctrine of the afterlife would statistically more likely put the child who died prematurely in an eternal state of torture with no hope of escape. If you were that child, wouldn't you prefer no afterlife? And what does it say about the God that would do that?

 

[Saint Steven]

The spiritual world is intrinsic to eternal life. Remove the spiritual reality and nothing makes sense.

When the bible tells us God is Spirit and we worship him in spirit and in truth, the first definition of worship is "in spirit". If we weren't spirits, we wouldn't even get to the "truth" part of worship.

Everything is related to the spiritual life within us... truth, love, joy, peace, hope, etc... all that results in eternal life flowing in us producing good works and a moral life... the so called fruits of the spirit. How to have the fruit of the Spirit? We need to be spiritually born again, have the eternal Spirit in us.

Is doing good works without being spiritually born again possible? Sure, but it's painful... it just does not flow from a deep well of life from within and definitely will not benefit you at all. Don't try it, unless you enjoy pain and wanna look pious and label that as "Christianity".

The spirit world could get along just fine without us. It was there before we were here.

 

[Saint Steven]

Perhaps I should have just asked why are you a Christian, because that's the point of this.

I think the title of this topic is a great question.
Would you be a Christian if there was no afterlife?

The majority seems to say, "No." they would NOT be a Christian if there was no afterlife. Or that there is no Christianity without an afterlife. Another way of saying, "No."

This is a sad report. It means most do not follow Christ based on what it means in the here and now, but rather on the basis of what it will mean for them alone in the afterlife.

Does Christianity really have no practical value in this lifetime?

 

[Saint Steven]

No. I am not into Christianity for the sake of the world.

What are you "into Christianity" for then?

 

[hedrick]

Part of it is the usual issue with hypothetical questions. What do you assume changes? If there's no afterlife and Jesus believed there is, that causes obvious problems to his authority. But I would assume the hypothesis has to be that Jesus understands the situation correctly.

Can there be a Christianity without an afterlife? The NT teaches that new life starts now, and the Holy Spirit it with us. That should make a new quality of life now. I agree that there are questions not addressed, but still, I maintain that life in the Holy Spirit should be better than without, even if it's just now.

What the question does is ask us to focus on what Christianity means in this life. Is it really just more rules? Is Christianity OT Judaism with heaven for a reward? I think this misses a lot.

 

[Saint Steven]

I have a question related to the OP:

I'm aware the OT does mention little of the afterlife, but did the Hebrews pass anything orally or anything not in the OT on about the afterlife?

There are 27 occurrences of the search term "realm of the dead" in the NIV translation in the OT.

 

[marc b]

The spirit world could get along just fine without us. It was there before we were here.

Yup, my bad. That was a brain fart... I meant the other way around.

 

[Saint Steven]

What the question does is ask us to focus on what Christianity means in this life.

BINGO

 

[Dkh587]

I have a question related to the OP:

I'm aware the OT does mention little of the afterlife, but did the Hebrews pass anything orally or anything not in the OT on about the afterlife?

There is no “afterlife” in the OT - God & the Prophets did not teach Israel about some sort of “afterlife” where your body dies but your spirit/soul lives under the earth - that is why you can’t find much about an “afterlife” - it’s because there isn’t one.

hellenized Jews, who were influenced by Greek thought, believed in an afterlife. Greeks were big believers in an afterlife based on their mythology and worship of gods other than Yahweh.

God & the Prophets foretold of life and death - the righteous would live, the wicked would die.

I believe in a resurrection of all humans, where the righteous are rewarded with eternal life, and the wicked are rewarded with death.

 

[Saint Steven]

There is no “afterlife” in the OT - God & the Prophets did not teach Israel about some sort of “afterlife” where your body dies but your spirit/soul lives under the earth - that is why you can’t find much about an “afterlife” - it’s because there isn’t one.

What do you make of this?

Isaiah 14:9
The realm of the dead below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you— all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones— all those who were kings over the nations.

 

[Saint Steven]

Part of it is the usual issue with hypothetical questions. What do you assume changes? If there's no afterlife and Jesus believed there is, that causes obvious problems to his authority. But I would assume the hypothesis has to be that Jesus understands the situation correctly.

Can there be a Christianity without an afterlife? The NT teaches that new life starts now, and the Holy Spirit it with us. That should make a new quality of life now. I agree that there are questions not addressed, but still, I maintain that life in the Holy Spirit should be better than without, even if it's just now.

What the question does is ask us to focus on what Christianity means in this life. Is it really just more rules? Is Christianity OT Judaism with heaven for a reward? I think this misses a lot.

We are so geared to thinking in terms of an afterlife. But what if there were no afterlife? Obviously the scriptures would be written differently, but it could have been set up that way.

Imagine if humankind fell and the main point was to be reconciled to God in this lifetime. That you could have a full life with a reconciled relationship with your creator. And at the end of your life you could pass from this life knowing that your life meant something.

Would it be worthwhile to be a Christian in that arrangement?