Is eternal life given only to believers?

[Wayne Smith]

No, it is given only to those He has chosen. We know not how or why He chooses but His choice is perfect.

[Electric88]

No, it is given only to those He has chosen. We know not how or why He chooses but His choice is perfect.

This statement would imply there are individuals He has not chosen. I would not agree with that. Salvation is freely given to all, but it is on us to accept that gift and nurture the relationship with Jesus.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
God says the creation reveals Him and all His handy work. But most are not interested. To accept the fact that God exists makes us responsible to our Creature. OPPs there goes "doing my own thing". Being responsible for my evil, self centered, my way first self is no fun. Be different from all my friends ! Goes against the easy flow "don't make waves" be like the masses is so easy. Party time !!! Sorry God this is my life !

The Gospel of John clearly states the Lord Jesus is the Creature of all things. So does Colossians chapter one. So our Creator / God comes to His Creation in a perfect human body (not sinful / rebellion orientated) to suffer the price of our sins / willful rebellions.
John 5:39 Study with all your being the scriptures and you will find they point to Him as the only Savior / God. He said come to me and be saved. He said Follow me (live like Me doing the will of the Father). He said enter in (Walk in my Truth.. not what you like). He said You call me Lord, then Obey Me and come My way. You cannot love the way the world is living in sin and think you please God.
He said All or nothing. Hot or cold. Lukewarm is not acceptable. The real deal or on your own. "But It's my life". Well accept the consequences. God does not condemn anyone to the place of torments. People choose to refuse His way and off you go. Every flood year the road gets blocked and some try anyway. The choice is yours and mine.

But I am not as bad as my neighbor ! Neither are you perfect. Evil thoughts, desires, What can you do to get those filthy spots washed off yourself. You need a Blood Sacrifice from a perfect Human Person. Dirty blood will not work either. It must be perfect, unspotted, no contamination. Ever wonder why the Lord Jesus had to die a bloody, horrible painful death ? For Us. His blood Sacrifice washes us from all sin. His Blood Sacrifice makes us clean and acceptable in the presence of Holy Pure God. Not your good works or getting dunked in a river.

So why all the suffering in the world... Why do most people forget God and think He will protect from a world that has been infected with all our historical rebellious ways of life. Earth is suffering all the results of man kinds history of refusing God's way of living. God said Listen to Me and I will Bless the land.... Well historically people refused and we have the results. You can trust the doctor and take the meds. Or you can say "I know better and you get what you choose. Plant weeds and do not expect corn. Do your own thing.. but how much damage are you causing to yourself and everything you touch.

Sure stay in a burning house... but when there is a way to escape why wait. You may not get the opportunity to change your mind. There is no promise that you get tomorrow. When I am old and near death some think... But a heart attack is far more common and car crashes are near instant.

"Come unto Him... Today is the acceptable day of Salvation. You may not get a tomorrow. But don't blame God. You choose your path and continue to do so daily. It is the same for me. Everyday I choose who I will walk with. I choose to go with my Creature / God Who loves us all beyond my words. Still with opens arms and love He says Come to Me and I will give you the Life you do not have and will never find going your own way. Little children Trust in the Lord Jesus with simple Faith that He is Truth and real Love. I was 21 and near missed it all. But it is all True. I have no regrets deciding I had enough of rebellion, doing my own thing, being empty, being alone and knowing I was on my own heading the way of the world into even more darkness. Your choice. I continue to make my personal choice daily with no remorse but full of joy and peace in His Truth and Promises. He does not lie or change. Only men and religion do that.
Mike in Peru

[Thundarstick]

Act 17:26-31

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
‘For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

You can read the whole chapter, but I've always taken this to mean that God does indeed have a way to judge those, who through ignorance, ie not heard, in a righteous manor. It appears the reason ALL mankind worships someone higher, is that God himself put this desire in our spirit so that, no matter what race or culture a human belongs to. So, can one be judged outside the book of life? It appears to me one can, but will be required one to stand on their own righteousness, and that would be a very tall order to fill.

[Dieselhorses]

This thread is a good example of the poor job that religious leaders have been doing for their flock.
Some of you have a handle on salvation and punishment, others only believe what they "know".
"Study to show yourself approved," remember, the soul is eternal. Where it will exist after physical death is decided by your actions while you are here on earth. Sorry, no second chances after death.

Everybody has an opinion, and you are correct "IMO" about "Study to show yourself approved" and I'll add that this "approval" is in the eyes of God-not people? If we had to rely on an approval rating from "people" we'd be up the creek! The objective, which you pretty much summarized cleverly is that YES, the soul IS eternal, it goes on forever either one place or another. Not going to make any judgements or say "yeah, this is the correct way to go to Heaven, or do all this and you can stay out of hell", but me personally, as with many others would rather have a stake in the promises God made to us than to decide "Oh, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it"! (could be devastating).

DISCLAIMER: I mean no judgement, criticism, stereotyping, biasness, singling out, insults, offensiveness etc.

[sniper]

For the answer to this, I regress to my earliest years in Sunday School, when we sang "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world; Red and Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world." True statement.
And, I believe, He loves all the Peoples of the world.

My favorite Bible scripture that I memorized more than 70 years ago in the first grade, is John 3:16, and the mostly overlooked companion, verse 17, which reads;"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." To me, not an exclusionary statement.

I accept that Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden for disobeying one of God's commandments. As a result, two things happened. First, they suffered a spiritual death...they could no longer enjoy the actual presence of the LORD, and as promised, they would suffer physical death. This is the future of all people on the earth at this time.

But, the LORD in his love and mercy, provided our Savior, His literal Son, Jesus Christ to overcome both of these conditions. Now, this is not to debate how it was possible. I just know that God will not break one of his own laws, and in some to me, not yet understood way, the Savior's birth occurred properly, as had been foretold for thousands of years. Not only did the Children of Israel know, but scholars throughout the world knew.

The Savior came to overcome physical death, and provide a way for all who have ever or will ever live on the Earth to return to our Heavenly Father. This He did most magnificently in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He, knowing the answer, asked "Is there no other way?", then said "Not my will, but thine." And later, on the cross, he fulfilled his destiny. As a dual being...both human and divine, his remark that no man taketh my life, I give up my life had special meaning. What he did for us was entirely His choice!

Job (19:26) and Isaiah (26:19) knew what Jesus would do for us. As Paul ( 1 Cor. 5:22)taught; "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

"HE is risen." Matt. 28:6 Wonderful message! Mark 16:5-6 "...and he (an Angel) saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: He is risen; He is not here..." But then, as now some are hard of understanding, and can/do/will not believe it! Nevertheless, because by Adam came death upon the entire human family, through Christ's Atoning Sacrifice all mankind will be resurrected, and live eternally. Now, the state to which the resurrected beings will be assigned is the Lord's to judge, but as promised, there are "many mansions" in the Kingdom of God.

I agree with this statement:
"I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a Heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him."
-Dieter F. Uchtdorf-

I apologize for the length, but, as in another song from my youth; "I love to tell the story!"

[mozeppa]

i would think many souls will make it to heaven even though they were never exposed to god in any fashion.

Jesus's mother mary was found to be acceptable to the lord to carry Jesus...so what was her faith up til that?

[rl69]

Or paul

But look at their faith after they were chosen

[popper]

So, how do you reconcile the fate of people from cultures that could not know of God or Jesus until missionaries visited them?

If you assume Adam was created by God, all of his descendants would be able to know about God. Obviously they didn't as the flood came.
And all that claim Jesus will not enter.
If Abraham was with God, then his 'bosom' would be with God also. There is no real evidence of a Purgatory, it was shunned by Luther as a money making idea of the leaders of the Catholic church.

[Ickisrulz]

i would think many souls will make it to heaven even though they were never exposed to god in any fashion.

Jesus's mother mary was found to be acceptable to the lord to carry Jesus...so what was her faith up til that?

Her response to the angel suggests her faith was immense, as was Joseph's.

[Tom W.]

Without looking it up, chapter and verse, one of the verses in the OT states that "it was accounted unto him for righteousness." I believe the reference was to Abraham.
And remember in the OT Elijah walked with God, and was no more.
People have always been able to accept Christ, I know I'm babbling a bit, but it was foretold long years ago. I'm not going to pretend I remember every book of the bible but There are references to Christ in Genesis.

[Ickisrulz]

Without looking it up, chapter and verse, one of the verses in the OT states that "it was accounted unto him for righteousness." I believe the reference was to Abraham.
And remember in the OT Elijah walked with God, and was no more.
People have always been able to accept Christ, I know I'm babbling a bit, but it was foretold long years ago. I'm not going to pretend I remember every book of the bible but There are references to Christ in Genesis.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. What did he believe? That God would fulfill his promise of land and descendants. It had nothing to do with the promised Savior. It is doubtful Abraham knew of this (Gen 3:15).

[Tom W.]

But we can only speculate. What we think ain't necessarily so.

[Dieselhorses]

In Genesis 3 vs 22-24 Adam & Eve are driven from the Garden to prevent them from eating from the tree of life. In Revelation 2 v 7 our Lord says "to the one who is victorious I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Are men mortal both physically (obviously) and spiritually? When John writes in Rev 20 v 14 that the lake of fire is the second death, it sounds as if he is saying that men are mortal and are destroyed. How do you see this ?

I can't believe I missed this but Adam and Eve was not driven from the garden to "prevent" them from eating the fruit. They were cast from the garden when their "eyes were opened" because they did eat the fruit.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage...+3&version=KJV

[Ickisrulz]

I can't believe I missed this but Adam and Eve was not driven from the garden to "prevent" them from eating the fruit. They were cast from the garden when their "eyes were opened" because they did eat the fruit.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage...+3&version=KJV

Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden to deny them access to the Tree of Life. God did not want man living forever in his fallen state. A fallen state brought hardships and misery.

"He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” Gen 3:22

[Dieselhorses]

Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden to deny them access to the Tree of Life. God did not want man living forever in his fallen state. A fallen state brought hardships and misery.

"He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” Gen 3:22

So they were expelled to keep them from eating more...

Genesis 3:11-14
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

[Ickisrulz]

So they were expelled to keep them from eating more...

Genesis 3:11-14
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

There were two trees with names. The Tree of Knowledge (hich was forbidden) and the Tree of Life, which we can assume they ate from freely and it gave them eternal life.

Having eaten from the forbidden tree, they were no longer allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. They now had to die.

[Dieselhorses]

There were two trees with names. The Tree of Knowledge (hich was forbidden) and the Tree of Life, which we can assume they ate from freely and it gave them eternal life.

Having eaten from the forbidden tree, they were no longer allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. They now had to die.

My bad, gotcha.

[Rizzo]

"Is eternal life given only to believers?"

Our true nature is Spirit, an image of God.
We, as Spirit, already are "eternal" beings, like God.
No one is sent to hell for eternity.

[Ickisrulz]

"Is eternal life given only to believers?"

Our true nature is Spirit, an image of God.
We, as Spirit, already are "eternal" beings, like God.
No one is sent to hell for eternity.

Do you have any biblical references to support your statements?