SEO Optimised article
Beware the article below is seo (search engine optimised) and was written for this specific purpose by a guest writer.
Out of curiosity
Out of curiosity, to find out what the prevailing perception on the internet is with regards to eternal life, life everlasting and living forever, I asked an experienced seo writer to write me a 500 word article on the subject. Below is what came up. From this we can see that Christians like to hear and believe that God’s promises are true. Christians believe that everlasting life is assured to them who will accept Jesus as their savior. Christians believe that following Christ requires sacrifice, patience, and grace. And to have everlasting life you must be born again.
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God’s promises are true
Christians believe that God’s promises are true, and they come to pass. The scripture says; those people who have faith in Jesus Christ will attain an eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV) says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It is wonderful to know that them who believe in Jesus Christ will live forever, long after leaving the earth.
Everlasting life is assured
Everlasting life is assured to them who will accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. Christians should note that accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior has many challenges, and they ought to make hard choices and difficult decisions. Matthew 16:24, 25 (NIV) say; Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” Based on this scripture, you have to deny yourself the pleasures the world and follow Jesus Christ with all your heart. You have to emulate His way of life for you to live everlasting life.
Following Christ requires sacrifice, patience, and grace
Leaving our worldly life to follow Christ requires sacrifice, patience, and grace. But the reward for getting an eternal life outdoes the sacrifices. All the same, we need God’s grace in order to follow him wholeheartedly. It is clear in the scriptures that for man to live forever, it is by grace not by works. The Pharisees struggled to please God by bringing offerings yet they were ignoring the most important facets of great human existence like love and kindness. Matthew 23:23 (NIV) warns those who are after pleasing God with sacrifices like money and charitable works in order to live everlasting life. It clearly states; “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices- mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the most important matters of the law- justice, mercy, and faith. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
To obtain everlasting life you must be born again
Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that if you have to live everlasting life you must be born again. Nicodemus wondered how it was possible for an old man to go back to his mother’s womb to get eternal life. In John 3:4-6 (NIV) Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 5Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth; no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit.6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit.” This scripture outlays to us that to enter the Kingdom of God we should accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Being born again in this context refers to deserting our old sinful ways and accepting to follow righteousness for us to live forever.
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God’s promises are true and come to pass
God’s Word tells us that God’s promises are true and come to pass.
And yes we’re told that For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
However to think that this scripture verse stands on its own and that believe by itself will do is simplifying things a little. The seo article writer indeed goes on to clarify that more is expected of followers. James also puts it quite eloquently,
Thou believest that there is one God;
thou doest well:
the devils also believe, and tremble.
Obviously, as mentioned in the seo article, our behaviour will have to emulate Jesus’ walk in life or we’ll just be found out to be fakes.
Let us not love in word,
neither in tongue;
but in deed and in truth.
Jesus said that to obtain everlasting life one must be born again and he himself was baptised in his late twenties by his cousin John the Baptist. We’re supposed to walk as he walked.
Eternal life is not for sale
The seo article makes it very clear that eternal life is not for sale and cannot be bought with any amount of work or money when it states that, ‘It is clear in the scriptures that for man to live forever, it is by grace not by works.’
To be entitled to this grace Jesus tells us that we are to “practice the most important matters of the law- justice, mercy, and faith without neglecting the former.” With this Jesus tells us about the kind of behaviour expected from those who will be drawn by the Father.
For man to live forever
When Jesus was asked, ‘What to do to obtain eternal life,’ He told the story about the Samaritan. Jesus told the story about the Samaritan as an example of what is expected from people who may live forever. The Samaritan really went out of his way and worked hard to save a complete stranger.
According to research on the internet the Samaritans are also known as “Guardians /Keepers/ Watchers of the Law /Torah (from the Samaritan Hebrew: שוֹמְרִים Samerim), Jewish Hebrew: שומרונים Shomronim, Arabic: السامريونSāmeriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant, descended from ancient Semitic inhabitants of the region.
When Jesus answered the lawyer’s question on what needs to be done to obtain eternal life, Jesus did not say that to obtain eternal life we need to have grace and faith and not works, quite the contrary.
Jesus said something to the extent of, ‘To obtain eternal life we must love God with our whole being, love our fellow human beings and keep God’s commandments. In addition we must act like the Samaritan.’
So work does come into it. Work just cannot be used as a bribe.
Wow, how clear are those guidelines?
Also in the bible the whole of chapter two of James explains in minute detail how faith without works is dead.
Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone
O vain man, faith without works is dead …
by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
For as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also.
Sure it is GOD who determines our destiny and we certainly rely on his grace for anything in this life and possible afterlife but if any of us were to think that everlasting life can be bought or is assured for some and that just grace is sufficient to swing those pearly gates in our favour, we may be in for a surprise. Jesus promises to reward everyone according to their works.
There is only one Judge
My curiosity is now satisfied and the above quoted seo article confirms to me that there are gaps in the knowledge on the public domain with regards to living forever and everlasting life.
Yes, we need faith and yes we need grace and yes we also need to work hard to remain in that grace and keep holding on to that faith.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
There is only one Judge and when we meet at the pearly gates I pray that they’ll swing wide open for both of us.
It continues to be my prayer for my readers that you all may live forever!
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ABOUT THIS BLOG – We’re researching the truth of living forever according to GOD’s Holy Word; Sola Scripture. Popular opinion tells us that everyone who ‘believes’ and has ‘faith’ will go to heaven. Is this true? I decided to ask the prophets about the truth of it all.
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