Comment Re:Of course Coyne won (Score 1) 943
Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.
“Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.
“The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’
“But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’
“Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’
“The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’
“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.’”
A few quick notes:
- As mentioned in this story, a common theme in the Bible is that seeing miraculous signs and wonders does not produce real, lasting faith. As much as people want to think seeing a giant hand wave from the sky and say "Hey, it's God!" would make them believers, biblically when God does that, it never results in lasting faith. (That said, I believe there is a lot of very solid historical evidence and proof about the trustworthiness of the Bible and Jesus Christ's resurrection, which is the crucial tie between "Is there a God?" and "Why the Christian God?". There are several books that document these, eg Case For Resurrection, etc.
- What's described in this passage is not the lasting eternal Heaven and Hell popular culture thinks about. What's described is just a temporary place. Christians believe when Jesus returns again, both Heaven and Earth will pass away and be recreated (without evil). It isn't a heaven of clouds and harps and people with wings. Jesus promises an eternal life on a new Earth with real physical bodies. It's described as a real physical city and presumably we do things we would normally do in a city- go to work, to the park, build spaceships, etc. (just kidding, I don't really know what we do in the city)
- Heaven (well, the recreated world) is going to be a "great place" because we're in perfect relationship with God. Faith passes away (1 Cor 13) and we're in God's presence.
- Christians do not believe they're going to Heaven because they're better people than those going to Hell. They believe everyone has earned their way into Hell. A single sin is a huge offense to God's perfection. However God has given humanity a way out of Hell by punishing his son, Jesus, in our place. We can accept this gift of forgiveness or not. We do not earn or work for this gift. We simply accept God's offer of forgiveness and place our trust in his son, Jesus Christ.
To answer your question directly: One enjoys themselves in eternity by thanking God that he sacrificed so much to save you despite the fact you deserved Hell.
