So You Don't Want to Live Forever?

We assume that you believe that living forever IS an option. Some don't. For them, the question is meaningless. But why would anyone not want to live forever?

If it hadn't been for our parents, we would never have existed. We didn't have a choice about coming into existence. God made that choice for us. Now that we are here, the other good news is that we have a choice about living life as an eternal being or not.

We realize that some experience a physical life so miserable, so full of mental pain, physical suffering, or internal or external psychological torment that physical death seems an attractive alternative. For some, this may have been the only life they ever knew. Many have felt this way at certain times in their lives.
Most of us have probably shared this thought, if only for a moment.

There once was a very rich man who had a very easy life and all the good things that wealth can provide. This is not a fairy tale. The man's name was Job and he apparently lived in southwestern Palestine sometime before 1491 BC. He considered himself to be "righteous" before God, but he worried about his grown children. He was so worried that they were unrighteous that he continually offered sacrifices to God on their behalf (a practice that only works for small children at home or to a limited extent in special cases allowed by God). God considered Job to be a "good" man "in all his ways" (everything he said and did).

But Job did not understand that total and continual repentance cannot exist in the presence of self-righteousness. They are mutually exclusive. God (passively) provoked Satan into tempting Job to sin by making Job's life a living hell. Job lost his children, his wealth, and all his means of income, but not his wife [whose cheerful wisdom (sic) consisted of, "Go ahead, curse God and die."]. Job also lost his health. He had painful, pus-filled, inflamed infections, called boils, covering his body from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. All he could do was continually scrape the scabs off of the sores to promote drainage of the pus and to use ashes to try to draw out the putrid fluids. Job was an ugly sight and probably smelled even worse. But in all of this, he "never sinned".

He had a few "friends" who tried to help him figure out the cause of his problems. But in spite of their wisdom, they couldn't really help him. This was partially because of his self-righteousness and partially because he considered himself to be more righteous than they were.

Ultimately, it was only when God spoke directly to Job, that he came to a true "understanding" of life. [Middlemen, those who put themselves between God and man, often only confuse the issues.]
God reminded Job of the vastness, the majesty and the complexity of the awe-inspiring Creation in contrast to Job's physically insignificant place in it.
Job had been feeling sorry for himself, comparing himself to his own concept of righteousness and comparing himself favorably to other physical humans. After God "opened Job's eyes" (gave him understanding), Job realized true humility and the depth of true repentance. True humility is not a pretension of modesty. True humility is an ever-present realization of God's greatness and perfection in contrast to our lack of those qualities, coupled with a grateful willingness to accept the opportunity to change from our (self-) righteousness to true righteousness.

Christ explained the right attitude with a parable in which a popular and publicly accepted religious leader (a Pharisee then; a priest, rabbi, minister now) compared others unfavorably with himself, while a publicly-hated tax collector (a publican then; an IRS agent now) was concerned only with a direct God-me relationship, "God be merciful to me a sinner." (Lk. 18:13, See also verses 9-14).

After Job's successful "test" resulted in repentance, God blessed him with more than he had before. We should be careful not to misunderstand the point here.
The purpose of life is not to acquire wealth. The purpose of religion (as in 'worship', not 'club membership') is not to earn wealth through righteousness. Life is not given by God for the purpose of how much "stuff" you have, how much you lost or how much you want. God doesn't give us life or blessings so that he can torture us by taking them away. Life is not given just so that you can enjoy a 'warm fuzzy feeling' while awaiting eternity.

Life is given to us by God for the purpose of our choosing whether we want eternal life or death.

God wants us to make the right choice. Sometimes he may even "poke us with a stick" to help us make the right choice.

Most of the pain and suffering in the world is the result of man's selfish or cruel actions upon himself or upon others. But it's more popular to blame God rather than to blame one another or to accept the blame for our own actions. Some pain and suffering is the result of built-in penalties for breaking God's law, sort of like jumping off a tall building and then hoping you don't die when you hit the pavement.

Life is about choice.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your children may live:" (Deu. 30:19).

Suffering is not always a choice but God will make it worth enduring.

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom. 8:18).

Physical life is just a brief test run to see if you want the real thing, eternal life.

"For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time and then vanishes away." (Jas. 4:14).

We could attempt to describe just how wonderful eternal life will be in the kingdom of God, but the prophet Zechariah explains it eloquently and simply.

"Thus says the Lord:(when) I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth;. . ."
"Thus says the Lord of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women [safely go about their lives] in the streets of Jerusalem,. . . "
"And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls [safely] playing in the streets thereof." (Zech. 8:3-5).

The elderly walking in safety and small children safely playing in the streets of "a city of truth". That implies peace, joy, happiness, rejoicing and so much more, all of which brings us back to the question:

Do you want to live forever?

YES NO

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