Would you love God if there was no eternal life?

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If God gave us the 10 Commandments and the commandments of spoken by Jesus, but did not say there was to be any continuance of life at the end of our earthly life, would you still follow and love Him?

What if He explicitly said our lives would end when our time on earth is up?

Now the big question, is our love for God contingent on the fact that He has offered us eternal life?
 
My acceptance and belief in God would not be contingent on an eternal life. I beleive that the evidence points to a creator. There are religious other than Christians who believe in God the Creator and do not believe in the eternal.
Also, surely I would follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ even if there were no eternal life. I think the teachings of life and morals as he left us,to sample text from Ben Franklin “… the best the World ever saw or is likely to see…” .
 
canne said:
My acceptance and belief in God would not be contingent on an eternal life. I beleive that the evidence points to a creator. There are religious other than Christians who believe in God the Creator and do not believe in the eternal.
Also, surely I would follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ even if there were no eternal life. I think the teachings of life and morals as he left us,to sample text from Ben Franklin “… the best the World ever saw or is likely to see…” .
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Do you thinkyou would love God? It is one thing to acknowledge His existence, it is another to love Him, even though our love may be imperfect.
 
I would still love God!

We could still experience happiness in this life by following His Commandments. I also would be concerned for the future of the earth for future generations. If we do not live according to God’s Will and His Commandments then the earth would be in ruin and we would ruin future chances for our children enjoy life because we would have left them with a dismal planet.

God’s Commandments are for our own good not because he wants to have restrictions on us like a prison warden.

A loving God is ALWAYS worth loving!
 
“We love Him because He first loved us”. (Epistle of I John) “If there is no resurrection from the dead, we are of all men, most miserable.” (Epistle of I Corinthians)

Sad to say, I doubt that I could love God without the promise of eternal life. This is a really good and tough question. I know I am at heart a selfish and uncaring person without Christ. Christ gives new life and our old dead fleshly spirit is crucified with Him. The soul knows intuitively that it is meant for eternity. Why follow someone who doesn’t take care of that eternal destiny?
 
I could and would.

We sort of have this conversation during our multi-denominational Bible study among friends.

My premise is…that even if there was no “God” or eternal life, our faith, and others’ belief makes the world a better place, so it’s a good thing.
 
😃
MH84 said:
If God gave us the 10 Commandments and the commandments of spoken by Jesus, but did not say there was to be any continuance of life at the end of our earthly life, would you still follow and love Him?

What if He explicitly said our lives would end when our time on earth is up?

Now the big question, is our love for God contingent on the fact that He has offered us eternal life?
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yes of course i would life eternally is just an extra gift
 
I would, certainly! God is the author of a beautiful and endlessly interesting universe. He is also the perfect, holy One who sets the standard for and creates all that is good. He also has performed breathtaking miracles for millions beyond what the harmony of His laws of nature can make, and has performed miracles for me just when I needed them most too many tiems to count. He comforts me and guides me in all I do and go through and inspires me to improve, as He does for many many others in His world, and I love Him for all that and for being the Eternal One and the only One who is bigger and more amazing than the universe itself.
 
MH84 said:
Do you thinkyou would love God? It is one thing to acknowledge His existence, it is another to love Him, even though our love may be imperfect.
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I am sorry I never followed up to answer your question. Yes of course I would love him:)
 
well there are at least two aspects to eternal life, one in heaven the other in hell. without eternal life there weould be quite a few implications for how we follow God now, in the flesh. the entire Gospel would be turned upside down, as it currently is based on the hope of eternal life in heaven as opposed to eternal life in hell.
 
MH84 said:
If God gave us the 10 Commandments and the commandments of spoken by Jesus, but did not say there was to be any continuance of life at the end of our earthly life, would you still follow and love Him?

What if He explicitly said our lives would end when our time on earth is up?

Now the big question, is our love for God contingent on the fact that He has offered us eternal life?
Click to expand...

God is to be loved even so 🙂 Moses had no hope of eternal life - but that did not prevent this exchange:​

  • Exd 32:31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
  • **Exd 32:32 **Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.
  • Exd 32:33 And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
    **Nothing can exceed the love of Moses for his people - yet he lived before Christ; not since, as the Apostles did. **
**Besides, Deuteronomy 6 commands love of God. Yet belief in a resurrection of any sort was a very late development. **
**To some degree the question is a pseudo-problem: our ability to love God is from a Person is both God, & our Life even here & now; & because we are His, we are already sharing in eternal life. The life of Heaven is not the beginning of eternal life - it’s the completion of something we have in part now; & the pledge of that completion is the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us. **
 
Yes, I would love God even if He wasn’t offering me eternal life. Just the fact that He created me is enough for me to love Him, even if my existence is but for a short time. I would love and thank Him for the short time He has given me to live a life where I can experience laughter, love, joy, peace, friendship, music, art, nature, etc. And I would still follow His commandments because, as my creator, I know that He knows what is best for me and what will make me the happiest during my short existence. And, as someone else also mentioned, I’d want to leave the world in good shape for future generations.
 
This is a flawed question.

God who is all loving and good, wants to share his love forever by those who he calls to love. Even though he doesn’t NEED to, he doesn’t need us, but his love is so powerful that it supercedes death and such that he invariably makes eternal life so and a natural part of salvation.
It doesn’t make sense by the very definition of a Christian God to make such a conditional statement.

Though however…if you really wanted this conditional, I’d have to say that as of now if I just discovered it, I would continue to be like this.

But if I wasn’t, and I always knew from birth there was a God, but no afterlife, I’m 100% sure, I would be doing any darn thing I wanted to. That I’m sure of, and I wouldn’t even be able seize the notion of ‘love’. I would say, yea sure I love him, it’s all cool. But not truly understand it.
 
I doubt animals have an afterlife, but I’m sure if they recognized their creator, they would love Him, whatever an animal’s recognition of love is.
 
Interesting question… I believe if this hypothetical were to have been true our world of today would be very different from what we now have. As a matter of fact I would have to say that christianity would have not made the 2000 year mark and if it did would be so different from what it is now that you wouldn’t even recognize it.

All the replies in the affirmative of love I am betting are answering this question in the light of what christianity is now and not what it would be under 2000+ years of this alternate reality.

If answeresd truthfully by all christians throughout christianites history my quess would be that75% of all believers would say no and of the 25% of the yes’ almost all would go back on the word because of human defieciecies caused by original sin.

I answer, I’m not sure… because I don’t know if we would have this forum to talk about this question if what you were asking was a reality.

Peace!
 
If there was no hope of the afterlife this society would not exist. The more intelligent and cognizant we become, the more we want to continue living. Frustrate this with full knowledge that at death we are exterminated for all time and we have a hopeless situation. There would not be anything worth fighting or living for, nothing would mean anything. We would not have six billion people we might have six hundred thousand living as scattered tribes of nomads. Love for God would have turned to hate long ago and he would be seen as something worse than satan since no prayer would stay our execution.

Some say they would still love God, but to what end? Could you say that as you watched a child die and cease to exist before your eyes? You would end up thinking that this was some evil persons terrible terrible joke, and indeed it would be. So why ask hypothetical questions like this? The only true result would be hypothetical hatred for God, this serves what?
 
Excelency said:
If there was no hope of the afterlife this society would not exist. The more intelligent and cognizant we become, the more we want to continue living. Frustrate this with full knowledge that at death we are exterminated for all time and we have a hopeless situation. There would not be anything worth fighting or living for, nothing would mean anything. We would not have six billion people we might have six hundred thousand living as scattered tribes of nomads. Love for God would have turned to hate long ago and he would be seen as something worse than satan since no prayer would stay our execution.

Some say they would still love God, but to what end? Could you say that as you watched a child die and cease to exist before your eyes? You would end up thinking that this was some evil persons terrible terrible joke, and indeed it would be. So why ask hypothetical questions like this? The only true result would be hypothetical hatred for God, this serves what?
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Sure I would go along with this, It is similar to what I was getting at but I think Execlency said it with a little more veracity…👍
 
Your post made it a little easier to get my point in ProdigalSun. I can be pretty abrasive if I just let my gums bump.:cool:
 
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