1 Jan 2003

Isn't evangelism important because of eternal suffering?

Submitted by theshovel
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I just fear there is a suffering for those who don't receive christ,otherwise why would evangelism be so important? Marcus

Hello Marcus,

My former understanding of evangelism had been built upon the same system of doctrine that allowed me to see myself as NOT being in Christ except in a technical way. Since evangelism is a word that comes from the word for "good news" is it possible that it also needs to be seen within the reality of Christ in a new and living way? Religion has established the concept that "good news" refers to destination, while it really has to do with the true life of Christ. Declaring the good news (evangelism) is not about a "place" at all, but is about Christ, who IS the "eternal life" (John 17:3; 1 John 1:2). Yep, Jesus is the eternal life.

Also, why do we think suffering can only be indicating a place of torment? Now, we all know there is no doubt that burning in fire is a torment, but I think we overlook the obvious: the inability to find the very purpose of your being. It's called being "lost". Humanity was created for magnificence, and it suffers without the sense of its own purpose and calling because it lacks the very thing that fulfills it. Check out the "condemnation" passages and you might see this sense far more than any physical punishment. To live and to never discover oneself is a horror hidden away in the human consciousness. If you will listen, you will hear this behind most fears. To be "cut off" and unfulfilled more accurately describes the "eternal" condemnation or suffering of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 7

Let's face it, we've all had our "Christian concepts" totally rearranged before. I just wonder why it took me so long to even consider that the same religious machine that has destroyed the "good news" of Christ might not have also painted an inaccurate view of both heaven and hell. :)

Love, Jim

Comments

luvin - August 9, 2010 - 3:51pm
Jim I REALLY liked this. I hadn’t noticed what you were actually saying in this in reading it before. Not that you purposely cloaked it or anything, it is just that it has taken me some years to get used to some of your writing style, communication and common emphasis. Not to mention the inner understanding as well.[don’t know which one came first? lol] Also, why do we think suffering can only be indicating a place of torment? Now, we all know there is no doubt that burning in fire is a torment, but I think we overlook the obvious: the inability to find the very purpose of your being. It’s called being “lost”. Humanity was created for magnificence, and it suffers without the sense of its own purpose and calling because it lacks the very thing that fulfills it. Check out the “condemnation” passages and you might see this sense far more than any physical punishment. To live and to never discover oneself is a horror hidden away in the human consciousness. If you will listen, you will hear this behind most fears. To be “cut off” and unfulfilled more accurately describes the “eternal” condemnation or suffering of Sodom and Gomorrah.-Jim Yes this is SO good! I too have seen that and yet kept writing it off? I guess mostly because as you say, I simply trusted whatever was coming down the pike and of course my own simplistic understanding according to the natural mind. I have had little glimpses of what you get at here I think over the years but, I mostly dismissed them in favor of what the religious structure was teaching me and all of us. That old voice really shouts at us doesn’t it? Then again I have always been compelled to buck that which would bind me.[quite hard I might add] I can hardly wait to go back and look at those condemnation passages again with this new found reference of confidence. Thanks you,

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Random Shovelquote: Justification (view all shovelquotes)

The justification we have in Christ has no similarity to the justification being sought in the world. It is rather the insanity of the futile mind that has corrupted the simplicity of the good news. source