Eternal Life

[nam]

There is this question that always keep on coming to my mind and am left to wonder. If the only way we can see eternal life is through dying, then why do we always give testimonies that the Lord saved us from that tragedy that I didnt die or am happy I have seen a new day or so many other things that leaves as a bad thing. Anyone with a view on this please

[Cajekiy]

Well Naum, in my understanding and on my little knowledge about the bible, dying refers to surrendering and repenting of our sins in order for God to forgive us and for us to have eternal life. Its actually not the physical death its the spiritual death whereby we confess of our sins and aks of God's forgiveness for us to be saved at to have eternal/everlasting life. When a person dies physically its God alone who knows whether he will live eternally or not. Have I helped a little bit?

[rac]

Too many people want to go to heaven but none of them want to die.
_________________
Please don't sue me if I'm wrong

[Edwin]

Thanx Naum for the message you posted. With the little theological knowldge that I have, I want to inform you that Death is not a way to eternal life. Death instead was one of the penalties that man was given after sinning to God (Gen 2,3). if someone dies this does not qualify him or her to eternity. Man is designed to die and this is amust. CHRIST is the only way to eternal life (John 14:6) and whoever believes in Him is already assured of living to the eternity. God has a purpose to accomplish in our lives and when accidents occur, we should thank God for everything happens for the Good of those who trust in Him. At times we go through accidents and bad moments in order to see How Great our God is and so when people are saved from such temptations we need to give glory to God. Many have gotten Saved after surviving certing things in their lives and these we give all glory to God. AMEN.

[altoo]

that's one of the contradictions I see at church on one too many occassions where believers testify that the hand of the almighty God saved them from instant death, yet they also claim that they are looking forward to joining God, his angels and other believers in heaven once their time comes. That gets me wondering if these people actually believe they gonna slide the slippery bonds of earth, go straight to heaven to touch the hand of God, wouldn't anyone think they would be mad at god for not taking them sooner?.......let's face it folks, everyone is afraid to die coz no one really knows what happens when we do. Show mer a guy who had died, went to heaven and came back in human flesh & i will believe all they say about eternal life. With all due respect to the christian faith we are told to believe in so much, anything other than tangible physical evidence won't convince many folks, not unlike myself who seriously question all these crap theories we have been forcefed for so long.

[kibugam]

altoo you've hit the nail on the head. My experience on preachers and their testimonies have shown me that religion is living in an unreal world i.e world of imagination.if you listen to different preachers you will wonder if they are reading from the same scrip(bible) sample this from one " you will burn while falling for 87 years in hell " amen!
so the idea of eternal life should be left for the days hereafter since there is no certainity on the diferent interpretations of the bible.

Forgive me if iam wrong

[altoo]

Couldn't agree with Kibugam more..with all due repect to hardcore christians, i think it's debateable what the real purpose of religion is.....the more one reads the bible, the more one gets confused, I mean it's just a theory based on nothing like FACTS but something to do with FAITH which NEEDLESS TO SAY, defies common sense in my opinion. In lieu of all the research i have done, i am tempted to belief that religion is something that the white folk made up as a way to control people of color everywhere around the planet while stealing their natural resources and if one needs some evidence to back my suggestion up, all they need to do is look at what happened when Europeans went to Africa "in the name of JESUS, & by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT" only to partition our beloved continent to themselves as they urged our locals to pray hard and not question what was being done to them, coz like my grandpa used to say, 'africans were dumb people who needed somebody to tell them what to do"....wtf????. Anyway, that's why anywhere look around the world you can easily conclude that most of the wars that have been fought is coz religion..............like old Jomo used to say, "wazungu came to africa with a bible and asked us to pray, once we opened our eyes all we had was the bible and they had our land"....can't argue with that

[kibugam]

altoo, now that the whitemen have gone, i think religion is meant to supplement the laws of the land coz i can't imagine of a world without religion. life on earth is short hence religion shapes people for the fear of long term suffering hereafter if they do evil

[Edwin]

I have been following up what you've been writing and it seems that you need a lot of help. I wish that you first put aside all the preconceived ideas that you all have about religion and answer me these queries: Who are you? What are you made up of? Why do you exist after all? What is it that you possess in order to live? Why bad/ corrupt or good thoughts? Who is behind your thinking? What is your meaning or purpose in life? Can you Boast that you know and you cannot do without the SuperHuman Being (God)? Apart from your mind, anything else that you can think that it is important and you cannot do without? I have many question, but I urge you all to take a quiet moment and ask yourselves these queries. God Loves you all and Truly He exists. THINK OF YOUR LIVES SERIOUSLY!!!! God is there for us all.

[kibugam]

Edwin, iam sorry if my writings are wanting,for ua information iam a true christian who follows the teachings of the bible to the letter. my reference to religion as a supplement to the laws of the land does not imply that i despise our supreme father. i only wanted to bring forward the untold or related benefits of religion. remember the whitemen used religion to expand their teritories and most of our current preachers use religion to achieve their ends,Religion in my opinion is not all that is in the bible but we also allow some of our values and traditions, this fact is worth discussing in this forum.

[Chemosi]

Psalm 118:14-21 I will not die, but live!

I will not die but live,
And will proclaim what the Lord has done.
The Lord has chastened me severely,
But he has not given me over to death.


The Loard doesn't want him to go and be with him or what?
_________________
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds.' Einstein. biikabkutit.com

[Edwin]

Thank you Kibugam for raising your concern and Thanx alot because you are a Christian. God Bless You and may He grant you His understanding that you may continue to seek His knowledge. I do not know what you mean by saying that "Religion is not all that is in the bible but we also allow some of our values and traditions." The Bible is the Word of God and everything in it is of God. Eventhough the Bible was written by the authors in different cultures like Jews, Hebrew, etc it is still the Word of God. What we need to understand is that we are to contextualize the Word of God into our cultures but with caution that the Bible is Above our cultures and hence we should not use our cultures to interpret it. The problem rises when people think that the Bible should be interpreted literally without knowing that our present cultures are different from the cultures of the Bible authors. The Bible should therefore guide us in establishing our morals and values.
With the issue of Chemosi, we need to take this passage in the context of the scripture. Remember that David was in the state where His enemies wanted to Kill Him but God saved Him because God wanted Him to lead His people (read Psalm 118:1-16). Otherwise it wasn't God's will for David to be killed but he was to proclaim His deeds to the People and lead them. Thanx and God Bless you.

[kibugam]

Edwin,thanks for your response but let me ask, where was the bible before the whitemen came? we the Kales worshiped God (asis) and we did not have the bible, don't u think we became westernised after the whitemen? to the extent that we've forgotten some of our core values like facing the East(where the sun rises) while praying.
What i meant in the statement u did not understand is that there are some of our traditions which were not enshrined in the bible but count alot in our daily christian lives.The bible in my opinion should not be taken conclusive to exclude important cultural practices. I belief God inspired our old men then and still inspires.

[kibugam]

Edwin,thanks for your response but let me ask, where was the bible before the whitemen came? we the Kales worshiped God (asis) and we did not have the bible, don't u think we became westernised after the whitemen? to the extent that we've forgotten some of our core values like facing the East(where the sun rises) while praying.
What i meant in the statement u did not understand is that there are some of our traditions which were not enshrined in the bible but count alot in our daily christian lives.The bible in my opinion should not be taken conclusive to exclude important cultural practices. I belief God inspired our old men then and still inspires.

[Edwin]

There are two ideas that have come up concerning christianity and our traditional worship of God. One is Continuity where ATR is believed to have opened a way to christianity because many things are similar; second is Discontinuity where some issues in ATR are believed to have no association with Christianity. I agree with both. The History of the Bible is too long. With your question, the Bible is the Word of God and it existed from long time ago. The first people to encounter it was the Whites who translated the Original Manuscripts they founded into their own language, English and they later brought it to us. I do not deny all things about our ATR because actually they worshipped God. Since we have then understood whom we really worship, then we are not suppose to do our worship while facing the sun since the sun is God's creature. What are those traditions that count? I have no problem with certain issues as long as they are in accord with what the Bible says for THE BIBLE SHOULD BE OUR BASIS TO EVALUATE ALL THAT WE DO IN OUR CULTURES; NOT CULTURE above the BIBLE but vice versa. Anything about inspiration of God I do not Know. The little that I know is that God inspired the men and women who wrote His Word! God Bless You and May he guide us in all that we say and do. Thanx.

[Cheptilda]

A theology student once told me that Genesis is a myth! is this true?This story of Adam and Eve .....Is it a Myth?
_________________

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my way.

[Edwin]

Thanx Cheptilda. Theology varies and the schools we are in are different. What I know and strongly believe is that the Bible is the Word of God. Calling some parts of it as myths is wrong because, what is a myth? The book of Genesis is a Purposeful story that lays a firm foundation for the whole Bible. God is a God of History. The story of Adam and Eve is a true story and not at all a myth. I do not know what your stand is! May God help us. Thank you.

[bahrmasa]

There are other books that predate it, right or wrong?

What i have come to learn, is that most of it was compiled into what is similar to its present form in about the 4th Century AD. It was the Roman empire (The America of those days) that decreed it's adoption within/during the same period courtesy of the christian emperor who was then on the throne. After the fall of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation, nothing could have been better (for the Romans) than to obliterate the legacy of the latter.The O.T. (authored btw 6th-2nd Centyry B.C.) is more less a documentation of the Jewish ancient traditions while the N.T. is basically about Jesus.
The book of Genesis could be a true story and so are the other books, but, has many whys and hows particularly with obvious omission of dates yet there is abundant mentions of so many years of this and that....

[Edwin]

All we are learning is History but one thing I am proud is that God Himself is present with us and He never left us without his Laws and commands. He has given us the BIBLE. We may find troubles in interpreting it and finding out several issues about it, but we should still build our Hope in Him. When I was learning theology, we went into deep discussion about the BIBLE and the air was full of questions that most of them went unanswered. One thing that I still remember that we said is "Lets wait until we get to Heaven and we will ask God these many Questions". The secrets and unanswered queries we leave them unto God (Deut 29:29) than creating our own answers. It is always my prayer that God may Guard our ways until we get to Him so that we may get to know Him MORE AND MORE.

[Memo]

death:
-it comes,mostly when its drunk
-what happens when u eat at McDonald's too often
-The first class ticket to reality
-When everthing goes dark,When everyone is gone,
When you finally see what that bright light really is!
& finally...........
- The one thing that, being completely relentless and inevitable, you need not worry about.