No good deed done in this life, in
the name of Christ, can fail of large reward in the life to come
(Matthew 19:28,29; 25:34-40). By this emphasis, which was laid upon
the future life, the horizon of thought and action was marvellously
widened. Men were taught no longer that they were to exist for a few
years and then go out forever into the darkness of annihilation, good
and bad alike, but that they were to live forever.
Conscious Personal Existence of the soul after death. This fact is
conspicuously taught in the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles and
Revelation. In the world to come people are not shades or ghosts, but
they have certain bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44), they know themselves
to be and are known as the same persons who once lived on the earth
(Matthew 17:2-4; Luke 24:36-48; John 20:24-28; 11:25,26; Luke
16:19-31; 23:42,43). Christ said, "But as touching the resurrection of
the dead have ye not read, that which was spoken unto you by God
saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but the living" (Matthew 22:
31,32).
Eternal Citizenship in heaven. The aim of Christianity is to make men
righteous. The abode of the blessed hereafter is one wherein dwells
holiness, purity and truth.
There are conditions and hindrances to the entering of the abode of
the blessed.
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