Does God ensure the sinless live forever, leaving ultimate human death just for sinners?
-
Introduction
Do persons who are perfectly righteous ultimately live forever, by default? Is it the case that there is a good human design plan, and that in this plan where we are sinless we are eternal beings unless something frustrates that plan? Death seems so inevitable to us now, but could it in fact be that death is a makeshift solution to the problem of free agents (us) choosing evil over good, choices which are ultimately not permitted in God’s creation and which God will ultimately destroy? Would God forever preserve his sinless image-bearers, giving them eternal life, while simultaneously not eternally preserving sinners? In fact, in doing this, might God even afford a kind of protection to the sinless which involves, among other things, their being disposed to rise from death if ever killed?
-
Bible says: “God gives all/only the sinless eternal life”
Biblically, God communicated to humanity that ultimate death is just for sinners (the sinless won’t stay dead).
See full article to analyze 5 arguments:
This is relevant because the Bible is reliable on this point.
- We don't deny here that, theologically, "eternal life" is a rich multi-faceted concept; it does not just mean "living eternally."
-
God aims to maximize God-resemblance in the world
Philosophically, God’s big aim in creation is (plausibly) to promote His own self-image and increase God-resemblance in the world.
- This follows from the conjunction of two things: First, God’s being what Plato calls "the Good" (see Robert Adams’s "Infinite and Finite Goods”), i.e. that which others things are good in virtue of resembling.[Forthcoming] And second, God’ wanting to promote the good throughout the world.
- Deadlock resolver theory is true. [Forthcoming].
This is relevant because a world in which only those who choose to sin die helps maximize God-resemblance in the world. (sinning decreases the world’s God-resemblance). This limits their influence by limiting their life-span and power. Simultaneously, something that would help to maximize God-resemblance in a world is God’s making things such that the world yields and then eternally preserves free empowered heavenly agents who eternally choose to do good and be sinless (i.e. choosing in ways that God would choose). [Note: directly creating an agent who is freely sinless for eternity without help is a square-circle; see “Why didn't God just create us perfect in heaven?” for a fuller explanation of how God acquires such agents.]