I can’t stop thinking about something that bothers me and scares me to death. I have always wondered about eternity, and if sometime after death, once we’re in heaven, God will destroy us.
It feels like He created us for a finite time period and, after that time is over, He will discard us. It may be a rather dumb thought, but it seriously affects me to keep thinking about this.
Dear Friend,
You are afraid that it may be dumb to have the thoughts that you have, but you are courageous enough to ask the question. The truth is that your mind can conceive of many things that are not rational. Your active imagination may cause you to often think about things that are not possible or rational, but that doesn’t make you dumb. What you need to remember is that a thought is not true or rational just because it keeps coming into your mind or your dreams, and that you should not accept it or believe it just because it gets stuck in your head.
We invite you to read the advice that we gave in Case 205 to a person who was afraid to die. It sounds like you are not necessarily afraid to die, but rather that you are interested in your eternal destiny, that is, in what happens after death, and in God’s plan for the future of His creation.
The only reliable way to know about God’s plan is to read His Word, which we call the Bible. Those who choose not to believe in the truths found in the Bible have absolutely no foundation to base their beliefs upon. They usually believe that dying is simply a complete termination of existence. For them, ceasing to exist means that there is no life after death, no God, and every reason to live without any objective standards. We, on the other hand, believe that the Bible is God’s message to us, so we have a way to find Truth in the pages of Scripture.(1)
Your thought is that we were created for a finite time. But the Bible does not teach that. In fact, it teaches just the opposite. The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans makes it clear that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.”(2) Eternal life means exactly what it says: God plans for us to live forever when we have accepted His Son Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
Certainly, God could have decided to destroy us all for our sin. He made us, so He has the right to discard us, as you fear. But if that were His plan, why would He send His only Son to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins? By letting His own Son die in agony, God demonstrated how much He loves us even though we have sinned against Him.(3) He provided a way for us to have eternal life.(4)
We wish you the best,
Linda
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1 Jn 14:6
2 Ro 6:23
3 Ro 5:8
4 2S 14:14