Would you be a Christian if there was no afterlife?

[The Liturgist]

Yes. Jesus' mission was to establish the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

I disagree entirely, and so did St. Paul, who wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:12-21 the following:

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

Jesus believed this was just the beginning of eternal life, but even if it's not I think it makes sense.

What do you mean “Jesus believed?” Was our Lord not God incarnate, endowed by virtue of His divine nature perfect omniscience?

On the basis of communicatio idiomatum, we can also say that our Lord was the one Man in history who had omniscience, and who, because of this, and because God does not lie, was the one Man in history who only spoke the truth, for Christ alone was entirely without sin, even ancestral sin. Therefore, when Christ promises us resurrection, we can accept that promise as, well, Gospel truth, because there is nothing more true. In fact, our Lord is literally the Truth. For him to believe something inaccurate would be quite literally impossible.

And what is more, we don’t even need to consider the possibility that our Lord was in error on the subject of eternal life, because His claims were proven by His own glorious Resurrection and ascent into Heaven.

If you just endure being a Christian because of what you hope is coming, you should reexamine your idea of the Christian life.

Did our Lord not command us to love not the world and the things in it? Did our Lord not say that it would be better to lose an eye or a hand than to lose our salvation? What we hope is coming, the hope of the Resurrection, is the basis of the Christian faith, without which we are nothing and nobody, as St. Paul teaches.

You might also consider the example of Athonite monks, who spend their lives in the remembrance of death, living in unceasing prayer so that as many as possible might be saved at the dread day of judgment.

 

[d taylor]

Probably yes, God demonstrated that He was there and that was good enough for me! Would I believe some of the sillier dogmas , no but I don’t accept a lot of the more abusive ones anyway!

You will eventually, some are just a little slower getting to the truth.

 

[Brightmoon]

I’ll never accept the misogyny, ignorant superstitious behavior, scientific illiteracy or the homophobia that some people think is Christianity The first 3 have blighted my life enough and i can see how that last damages those people’s lives for very little reason.

 

[aiki]

If there was no afterlife in any form whatsoever, would you still be a Christian? And if so why?

If there was no afterlife, what would be the point of living in any particular way? Mother Theresa's end would be just the same as Hitler's. Without an afterlife and the ultimate justice, punishment or reward that is a vital part of it, a deeply selfish, wicked life has the exact same conclusion as a self-sacrificing, moral life. Why, then, not live however you please, maximizing your own pleasure as much as you possibly can?

 

[aiki]

Well what I'm looking for is people's motivation for being a Christian. Is it just to stay out of hell and get into heaven?

My motivation is at bottom one of love. Love of God. He is the great reward of heaven, not golden streets and lost relatives, or eternal life and a heavenly mansion, but the company of the Greatest Possible Being in all of Creation. It is the incredible prospect of enjoying Him, undiluted by temporal constraints and unhindered by sin, for all of eternity, that is what makes the afterlife such a desirable prospect.

 

[RDKirk]

If there was no afterlife in any form whatsoever, would you still be a Christian? And if so why?

Paul appeared to believe there was no point to Christianity apart from the promise of resurrection.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
....
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” -- 1 Corinthians 15

This is only a question if we fail to understand that Christianity is not just a philosophy, it's not just a way to behave in public, it is also a call to mission: To preach that resurrection to people of all nations and bring them into the faith that it is real. Christianity is not "Christianity" absent that call to mission, and if there is no resurrection, then the mission to which we are called is a lie.

People lived "moral lives" in the terms of the world before Christianity. One can be a "good person" in the eyes of the world without Christianity.

But that isn't the main point of being Christian.

 

[Mark Quayle]

If there was no afterlife, what would be the point of living in any particular way? Mother Theresa's end would be just the same as Hitler's. Without an afterlife and the ultimate justice, punishment or reward that is a vital part of it, a deeply selfish, wicked life has the exact same conclusion as a self-sacrificing, moral life. Why, then, not live however you please, maximizing your own pleasure as much as you possibly can?

Because there is actually more joy, satisfaction and confidence to be found in obedience and communion with Christ than in dispersion and self-pursuits.
Read the huge contrast between Ecclesiastes ("all is vanity and vexation", and "a chasing after the wind") and this from Psalms:

"6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

 

[Guojing]

What about what Christianity offers in this life? The Old Testiment doesn't have much to say about an afterlife, yet many throughout it worshiped God and obeyed Him. Even when being sentenced to death for it like in the Book of Daniel.

Israel was promised many physical blessings on Earth if they keep the covenant of Law.

So it made sense for them to believe for those.

But for us in the Body of Christ, our blessings are spiritual, in the heavens, which mainly come after we get our glorified bodies.

So if there is no afterlife, all these would not make sense.

 

[Gary O']

If there was no afterlife in any form whatsoever, would you still be a Christian? And if so why?

Well now
Would that mean Jesus' blood was for naught?
That He couldn't work in us?

Man, that'd be tough

I know I couldn't, even if I wanted to
It's not in me

I know the old me
...without Him

Snide, facetious niceness
Debating over material things
Heh, I got paid to do just that
For 30 years
Won many an argument
Not many could verbally spar with me and come out unscathed
Maybe Satan......maybe
For what?
Financial benefit?
Ego?

No
I don't wanna go back there

I
Need
God

Without Him
.....I'm nothing

 

[RDKirk]

Because there is actually more joy, satisfaction and confidence to be found in obedience and communion with Christ than in dispersion and self-pursuits.

How would there be communion in Christ if Christ is dead? What obedience can there be to a dead man?

 

[aiki]

Because there is actually more joy, satisfaction and confidence to be found in obedience and communion with Christ than in dispersion and self-pursuits.

You misunderstood my point. If the end of life is the same regardless of how one lives, why is following Christ better than following one's own desires? One may miss out on Christ in the pursuit of radical selfishness and sin, but the end is the same regardless. One may commit genocide, murdering millions, and meet the same final end as the missionary who sacrifices his life in service to Jesus. And if it pleases the genocidal maniac to kill millions of people rather than to live for Jesus, how do you persuade him that the way of Jesus is better? If there is no afterlife, he has nothing to fear, nothing to answer for, no ultimate justice to face. If he is like, say, Stalin, no one can stay his hand, no one can tell him "No"; he can live a totally evil life and yet come to the very same end as Mother Theresa. "Jesus is great" would ring very hollow to such a person. If there is no hereafter, "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!"

Put another way: Is the man who is going to hang in the morning living better if he eats a healthy, nourishing meal rather than cake and ice cream for his final supper? No matter what he eats, his end is the same.

 

[mukk_in]

Probably not. Fear of hell is what brought me to Christ. I only started growing in His love later. Nice thread.

 

[Jamdoc]

If there was no afterlife in any form whatsoever, would you still be a Christian? And if so why?

What would be the point?
God doesn't promise an easy life for following Him. If this life was all we had, and God commands people to do very difficult, painful things, sometimes having lives so miserable they asked for God to kill them like Elijah.
That'd mean there was no judgement for doing wrong either.

 

[Jamdoc]

if there was no afterlife there'd be no need for Jesus to die on the cross.

Absent Him dying on the cross, there is no Christianity. If I just want to be nice and obey some rules, I'd join the Boy Scouts.

Not only that, but would Jesus have even died on the cross for us? Would Jesus have been Christ? In His flesh our Lord and Savior prayed for the cup to be passed from Him. He was under such stress that He was sweating blood.
Could even Jesus, obey the will of the Father which was to take up His cross and die an agonizing death, if there was no resurrection? If there was no glory to come?
... and since there was no afterlife, there'd be no judgement of the Son for disobeying the will of His Father.
There might not be any Christians, because there might not be any Christ.
So you might have to phrase the question as "would you be a Jew if there was no afterlife?"

 

[ozso]

My apologies everyone, I worded the original post poorly.

I decided to reword this:

The Old Testament has very little to say about what happens in the afterlife. Yet throughout the OT many worshipped and served God, even to the point of execution. So hypothetically speaking if heaven and hell were put aside, would you still follow Jesus?

Answers could be something like "no way, I'm just in this because I don't want to fry" to "yes I would continue to follow Jesus no matter what" to "as long as the church serves coffee and doughnuts, I'm in"

 

[Jamdoc]

To be perfectly honest, if this life was all that there was, I'd have committed suicide. I have no hope on this earth or for this earth. Jesus and the hope of a new heaven and new earth, and a new body in the resurrection is the only reason I go on.

 

[Strong in Him]

I decided to reword this.

The Old Testament has very little to say about what happens in the afterlife. Yet throughout the OT many worshipped and served God, even to the point of execution. So hypothetically speaking if heaven and hell were put aside, would you still follow Jesus?

No.
If there was no resurrection, Christ was not raised from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:12-13. And if Christ was not raised, we have no faith, Jesus remains dead, and furthermore, he was a liar for teaching that he would be raised from the dead.

So, no resurrection = no faith.

 

[ozso]

No.
If there was no resurrection, Christ was not raised from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:12-13. And if Christ was not raised, we have no faith, Jesus remains dead, and furthermore, he was a liar for teaching that he would be raised from the dead.

So, no resurrection = no faith.

The resurrection was a manifestation that was witnessed in this world. He wasn't seen standing in up in Heaven right after He came back, he was seen walking down the road, and other places, and he was seen in a room by the apostles. In that room Thomas was only convinced of the resurrection by touching the physical body of Jesus, to which Thomas said to him "my Lord and my God".

The question I'm driving at is why does one choose to follow Jesus? Why does one choose to become a Christian? Was it just to get a ticket to heaven? Or was it out belief, faith and love for Jesus and the Father who sent him?

Millions followed Moses and built the tabernacle to serve and worship God, even though there's nothing in Moses' writings about an afterlife.

 

[mama2one]

can't recall exactly why I asked God into my life as it was way back in college
my memory isn't that great anymore due to fibromyalgia
however, don't believe it was because of Heaven

being an introvert, when I think of Heaven & all those there to meet including Jesus, Angels, other people, it scares me

living forever & ever scares me, also

 

[ozso]

can't recall exactly why I asked God into my life as it was way back in college
my memory isn't that great anymore due to fibromyalgia
however, don't believe it was because of Heaven

being an introvert, when I think of Heaven & all those there to meet including Jesus, Angels, other people, it scares me

living forever & ever scares me, also

I smiled when I read that, because I get freaked out by it too.