Thursday, December 9, 2021

The Future Joy

As almost anyone knows on some level, human life, at least as it is, is one of trials and pains.  This does not mean that there is nothing objectively worth celebrating or that there is no such thing as subjective joy that genuinely makes people grateful to be alive.  It does mean that ignoring suffering is the equivalent of ignoring an enormous part of people's lives, even if the exact trials different individuals struggle with can be so diverse that they are unpredictable.  Any thorough philosophical analysis of human life is incomplete to some extent if the individual struggles of humans are not addressed.

Also worth noting is the fact that many people are not interested in ever thinking deeply or directly about the philosophical truths or concepts present in everyday life until a time of personal suffering shifts their priorities, at least for a short while.  Whether or not Christianity is true, pains and difficulties can have the power to motivate genuine reflection and lasting change.  This much can be known by any person who has experienced trials or who is willing to think sincerely and rationally about the issue.  What someone thinks is probable or true about the future, though, can have a very thorough impact on the extent of those changes.

Of course, one of the many central parts of Christianity (but far from the most important) is the idea of an afterlife of restoration to God and eternal life where one is free to do any nonsinful thing.  There is actual evidence in favor of this worldview, and this worldview entails future bliss.  It would be foolish to believe a worldview because of this promise of eternal life coupled with existential fulfillment in joy, as enticing as it might be to some people, yet it is not mere subjective longing for happiness that props Christianity up.  All the same, the doctrine of eternal life, contrasted with the doctrine of annihilation for the unsaved [1], entails a reason to press on amidst the trials of life.

The Christian God is not a cosmic utilitarian who makes sin disrupt the world in order for some people to eventually experience eternal life on the other side (anyone who describes the Biblical God otherwise has committed the imbecilic error of equating foreknowledge with theological determinism).  Bliss was the intended state of human life and it is the one promised to those who accept salvation.  Ultimately, the pleasure of truth, relational intimacy, and self-exploration are intricately tied to the Biblical conception of eternal life.  The future joy the Bible speaks of is not something that is to be taken lightly within the context of the Christian worldview.

The Bible does go into far more detail about how people should live than it does about what eternal life will be like because the former is inherently more important than the latter.  After all, there is not even a reason to be interested in the subject of eternal life for its own sake apart from self-oriented gain, so the future joy of eternal life can only matter in light of other things like morality.  It is still true that this promise of restoration and permanent existence is a core part of Christianity.  Worldviews will influence actions and attitudes, and attitudes and worldviews influence how someone will react to trials.  What someone expects or hopes for will impact their life just as trials do.


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