The “Hereafter”

12/9/2022

The following quote is from Paul Tillich’s sermon “Salvation,” found in his book, The Eternal Now:

What should salvation mean to us? It is certainly not, what popular imagination has made of it, escaping from hell and being received in heaven, in what is badly called “the life hereafter.” The New Testament speaks of eternal life, and eternal life is not continuation of life after death. Eternal life is beyond past, present, and future: we come from it, we live in its presence, we return to it. It is never absent—it is the divine life in which we are rooted and in which we are destined to participate in freedom—for God alone has eternity. Man should not boast of having an immortal soul as his possession for, as the letter to Timothy says: God “alone has immortality.” We are mortal like every creature, mortal with our whole being—body and soul—but we are also kept in the eternal life before we lived on earth, while we are living in time, and after our time has come to an end.

~ submitted by Richard Russell

4 Comments

elizabeth mitchell link

12/14/2022 11:34:32 am

We are held in the light by other Quakers when we are sick, and once we die we become one with the light.
it is in us and we are in it. It is in us, we are not It - as my thumb is part of my body and so can be said to be me, tho it is not "Me"; as drop is (of) ocean but alone is not Ocean. I continue to exist without my thumb, or ocean without one particular drop.
The whole is not only One but also Many - perspective or point of view makes the difference; "not only .... but also.... " is a vital phrase to assist comprehension.

Richard S Russell

1/12/2023 05:02:40 am

Hi, Elizabeth.

Sorry for the belated reply to your comment. How true that "perspective...makes the difference" when considering Reality as "the One" or "the Many."

Thanks!

elizabeth link

1/12/2023 07:53:48 am

It is a so far unsuccesful effort for me to constantly remain in awareness of Being( unity, gratefully aware of the beingness of the moment, joy, acceptance etcetc) even when the one that i am is dealing with everything being a human in these times demands of us. i believe it is possible and that meditation would no doubt be the way.

i love to feel devotion to nature and humankind's kind creativity . My mind -intellectual , doubting, well trained in materialism and scientific rationalism kicks all devotion in the teeth.

Richard Stephen Russell

1/14/2023 06:07:52 am

Hi, again, Elizabeth.

Possibly we have a similar character divide. Anyway, the dominant part of my personality is religious/Christian, but there's a large part that's secular, rationalist, and doubtful about faith.

Richard R.

The “Hereafter”

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