Happy Pastel Eggs and Bunnies Day!

Today, Christians celebrate Easter, the biggest day on their holy calendar. It’s the day that Jesus is supposed to have risen from the dead, having completed his victory over death and offering absolution from sin to all who accepted his sacrifice and followed him.

The reason for the sacrifice was to stand in the stead of all mankind to pay for their sins, which they had inherited by virtue of the sinful nature of mankind caused by the fall in Eden. On a side note, it’s debatable whether or not being dead for three days and then becoming God could really be called a sacrifice, but let’s leave that alone for now.

The Horror of Eternity

One of my Facebook friends just asked her ‘followers’ if the idea of the afterlife ever brought comfort to us. It was interesting to see some of the responses:

“The stress of wondering where I would go in the afterlife did not bring me any comfort. I don’t remember when I first learned about Hell, but when I was a child, I was so afraid of it that I repeated the thought “I love God” over and over and over again in my mind.”

“I never, even as a Christian, completely accepted the concept of Heaven and Hell because my dad was an atheist and I knew it. I tried my best to rationalize, though. I just couldn’t understand the point of us being created only to be tortured. So no, it never brought me comfort.”

“Absolutely not. I remember thinking who would want to live FOREVER? And I was maybe 7 or 8 years old.”

“I was always terrified of the afterlife, particularly heaven. At a very young age, I was terrified of the thought of NEVER dying. I did not want to live forever, and worse with god. I was terrified about constantly being criticized by him. I did not truly understand what acts were sins and did not want to upset god.”

Until a few years ago, the idea of the afterlife was nothing BUT comfort to me. I was raised in a liberal Christian family, and was taught that everyone was saved by grace at birth, meaning that nobody went to hell. The idea of people suffering forever wasn’t even an issue for me. Everyone would go to heaven, where they could do whatever they wanted, be whoever or whatever they wanted, etc. It would just be a magical world where anything was possible. Definitely not the Biblical image of heaven, with the constant singing of praises to God.