What is Eternal Life?

Humanity has always had an interest in the afterlife. We all know that we are alive on this earth, and we also know that everyone eventually dies. What we don't know for certain is what happens after our life on earth is done. The Bible gives us a pretty good understanding of what the afterlife looks like, but as with many subjects, there is an element of interpretation involved in understanding it. This is why there are several ideas about what one will experience once we leave this mortal coil.

But what the Bible is very clear about is that there is a life after this one. There are a lot of verses in the New Testament that talk either directly or indirectly about the afterlife, but this understanding of life after death did not come about only in the New Testament time. The Jews have a very intricate teaching and understanding about what things look like when one dies. I do not claim to have a full knowledge or understanding of these views, but we know from Scripture that Sheol is a significant part of that theology.

Sheol is mentioned 65 times in the Old Testament and is considered a place for the dead to be gathered. Hades is the Greek word for Sheol and is mentioned ten times in the New Testament. It appears that there are different levels of Sheol that are set apart for those who live good or evil lives, and there may even be different levels of Sheol within this two-part division. We get a glimpse of this when Jesus talks about the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man is being tormented in death, while he can look across a chasm and see that Lazarus is resting in peace in "Abraham's bosom". So we see that the Jews take the notion of the afterlife very seriously, but what else does the Bible say about it outside of Jewish theology?

The book of Ecclesiastes, which is purported to have been written by Solomon, tells us in 3:11 that, "He [God] has also set eternity in their [man's] heart,". This means that there is an internal understanding in the heart of every man that this life is not all that there is. There are many men who, if asked, would state that there is only this life, but that is simply what they have decided against the inclinations of their own heart. They do this because to admit that there is another life after this one is to admit that there is a life giver, to whom glory and honour are owed. They refuse to bend the knee to God, so they must also refuse to acknowledge an afterlife.

We learn in the New Testament that there is actually disagreement between the different sects of Jewish religious leaders about what the afterlife looks like. In the book of Acts, chapter 23, we read that the Sadducees deny a resurrection of the dead while the Pharisees acknowledge a resurrection. So, while these two sects of religious leaders both acknowledge that there is life after death, they cannot agree on what that afterlife looks like. Just like Believers today.

Jesus Himself also teaches about eternal life. We hear of it in what is probably the most well known Bible verse around the world, John 3:16; "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

This still doesn't tell us what that eternal life looks like. There is abundant Biblical proof that there is life after our time on this earth is done, but we still don't know what that life is like.

The Apostle Paul sheds some light on this in his letters. Remember that Paul never met Jesus in the flesh, but they were introduced on the road to Damascus when Jesus revealed Himself to Paul. And later we read that Paul got to know Jesus "not according to man" (Gal. 1:11-12), but that he received a revelation of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, and that he spent three years learning before he returned to Jerusalem (Galatians 1:16b-18a) to meet with the brethren. Paul was taught directly by the Holy Spirit, this is what it means to receive a revelation. This is the same thing that John experiences when he writes his Revelation of John, otherwise called the book of Revelation. Most of us receive our spiritual education by the hands of men, including these articles that I am writing for you to read; but Paul was taught Truths by God Himself.

So what does Paul tell us about the afterlife? He says that it is better than this life, and that we should look forward to arriving in it. In Philippians 1:21,23-24, in talking about his willingness to die in his pursuit to spread the Gospel, he says, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.23 But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; 24 yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake." Paul recognizes that his work on earth is not done, yet he is eager to move on to the next life and be in the presence of Christ, whom he has come to love earnestly. As much as he thrived in his ministry, he knew that to die and be with Jesus "is gain".

In the first 10 verses of 2 Corinthians 5, Paul goes more in depth into the desires of those who love Jesus to be in His presence, even as it means that we have to leave this life to attain to it. This life has it's burdens and it's cares, and we groan for the eternal house that God designed us for (v.5). Even as we work in this world and in this life, "we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." (v.8). These words are an encouragement to those who love Jesus that there is a better place and a better life than this one.

This is the eternal life that Jesus references in John 3:16. This is what is promised to all those who place their trust in Jesus to cover their sin debt.

There is a different future for those who choose to deny Jesus' gift. Jesus Himself teaches about this, as we read in Matthew 25:41,46 "Then He [The King] will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels'; 46These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." The whole passage of Jesus' teaching is Matthew 25:31-46, wherein He differentiates between the righteous and the evil of the earth. Notice how He says that the accursed ones, those who reject Him, "will go away into eternal punishment"? This is their future. They will not die a second time; their existence is not referred to as life, but rather as punishment. The contrast is made with the righteous who will enter "into eternal life." Only one future is life, but both are eternal.

We see this same type of teaching in John 5:28-29, where Jesus is talking about two different resurrections. "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." Again we see that there is a separation of those who did good; that is, those who obeyed God and received Jesus as their Saviour, and those committed evil through disobedience to God and rejection of Jesus. 

And this is where things get a little weird among people. There has been a strange debate going on in the last few years regarding what the afterlife looks like, for those who reject God in particular. I wonder if Satan introduced this to mankind in order to blunt the threat that those who reject Jesus face. 

I was first exposed to this doctrine when there arose a kerfuffle around the pastor of a church that I used to attend. I was attending that church at the time of the kerfuffle, and I had some direct communication with the pastor, so when it came out that he was promoting one particular stance, which I believe is contrary to Scripture, I reached out to him to give him an opportunity to explain his position. He tried to pass me off to someone else, whom I guess introduced this pastor to this belief, but I rejected the pass-off; I wanted my pastor to defend his views to me himself. Which he tried to do.

His view, then as now, is that those who do not receive eternal life do not suffer in Hell for eternity, but rather that their souls are destroyed in Hell. Part of his argument is the discrepancies in peoples' own personal understanding of sections of Scripture; how they take certain parts of certain passages to be literal while taking other parts as being figurative. Somehow, he equates this general lack of public discernment as a proof of a theological position. This is no basis upon which to stake one's theology, especially when the one staking the claim is supposed to be the teacher, not the follower. This pastor also enters into debate about which passages as a whole are literal and which passages are figurative, but delving into that here would make this article far too long.

Other claims for this position are made on the basis of God's mercy, making the claim that He would not cause people to suffer forever. I can understand the desire for someone to want to superimpose human compassion on God when one does not care to consider the possibility of human suffering, but is this what the Bible tells us? Not at all.

I want to look again at Matthew 25:41, where Jesus states that Hell is "the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels". Hell was not made for mankind; it was made for the spiritual beings that rebelled against God. It is made to eternally hold existing beings in judgment for their actions. Angels are eternal beings, and since Satan and his minions were formerly angels, they are eternal as well.

Humans are also endowed with eternal souls with and through which we were designed to spend eternity with God. Just because mankind has fallen away from God in our sin, this does not mean that the eternal nature of our soul has changed. If our soul was not eternal, then why is there an afterlife at all? What purpose would be served by creating a paradise for us to walk with God in if we were not intended to be there? God created, and everything was good. He did not change or recreate what was originally created because plans changed.

And just like paradise was designed for eternity and for eternal souls, there is absolutely no Scriptural basis upon which to believe that those who are sent to Hell are destroyed. On the contrary, Scripture is petty clear that the torment of those who end up in Hell is eternal. Why would the fires of Hell be eternal if the punishment is not? There is not logic to this position. Human souls are eternal, as are the two places that were designed to hold them.

Looking again at Matthew 25, in verse 46, Jesus is very clear about the destiny of those whom are judged to be unrighteous; "These will go away into eternal punishment". We also read in Revelation 20:12,15 that, "I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Here, the combined testimonies of John and Jesus is stating plainly that humans who are judged unrighteous because their names are not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire, Hell, to be subjected to "eternal punishment."

There is no reason to believe that any of them will be rescued from their torment through the destruction of their eternal souls. There is no indication in the Bible that the soul is not eternal, regardless of where that soul ends up. If this is true, then whether the end is life or punishment, it will be eternal, just as the Bible tells us. Again we can look at the story that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man is in agony, asking for even a drop of water to be placed on his lips to ease his suffering. This is not a picture of a soul being destroyed; this is a picture of exactly what Scripture tells us is going to happen.

So what we see in the Scriptures is that, while those who receive Christ are promised eternal life, this does not mean that those who reject Him are going to experience a destruction of their souls in Hell. The options are not life or destruction; the options are eternal life in paradise or eternal torment in Hell. The soul is made eternal. The Bible tells us this repeatedly. One only has to believe what one reads.

Eternal life is life abundant. We get a picture of what that looks like when we read Revelation 21 and 22. God will be with us on a recreated and renewed earth. He will be the source of light and warmth and renewal. Jesus will walk with us on this earth as God incarnate. There will be a new Jerusalem with a river of life flowing through it, and there will be trees with fruit for food and for healing. There will be peace and we will live under the reign of Jesus the King forever. That is eternal life. That is our hope, and the alternative is designed to be the polar opposite.

Strive for life!