re if there were no hell larry l overacker writes q if you knew beyond all doubt that hell did not exist and that unbelievers simply remained dead would you remain a christian my contention is that if you answer this question with no i would not then remain a christian then you really are not one now i follow christ because it s a great way to live life and i could care less what really happens after i die i believe that there will be a resurrection but that won t have any effect on how i live this life ouch this is a good question to me not existing is worse than existing no matter what so i will modify this question to be would i be a christian if it made no eternal difference in my reward or punishment i hope this is in the same spirit you want i personally am very goal oriented it is hard for me to do things that do not achieve some goal however to relate this to sports only after i learned to not care about the score did i become a good basketball player i had to learn to go all out no matter the situation perhaps this lesson is relevent after all only if i can give up my life can i keep it only if i am humble can i achieve glory only if i concentrate on living my life now the best i can will i be afforded life eternal i think you have illuminated the true meaning of saved by faith but what is my answer right now i would remain a christian however was that always my answer that s the problem heaven and hell are good motivators at certain stages of maturity and i admit there are certain times when perhaps i bite my tongue and put up with something in the hope of a better day i e i mentally trade present happiness for future happiness i hope the cynics and skeptics do not read more into that than appropriate but i am trying to be honest scott a mayo writes of course but it is a pointless question because you cannot know beyond all doubt that hell does not exist anymore than you can know it does short of taking jesus s word for it what if questions are fun and entertaining but probably fruitless i think these kinds of questions are extremely fruitful i guess it depends on how one views knowledge and learning by stripping ideas to simple straightforward opposing concepts we can determine levels of importance by analyzing the theoretically absurd we can gain a better understanding of the actually absurd chris mussack
