The Community Of Eternal Life

The Community of Eternal Life is a work which employs a peculiar exegetical methodology of a four-level reading of the text to demonstrate the fact that the vision of eternal life played a key role in holding together the disparate groups that lie behind the Fourth Gospel and the three Johannine epistles. To demonstrate this claim, David A. Ihenacho embarks on an in depth consideration of the thematic nature of the Johannine idea of eternal life, an examination of the integrative power of the Johannine concept of eternal life and the implication of its exegetical and theological contents. Ihenacho then advances from a historical consideration of the eternal life texts, to sociological and literary considerations, and finally to a theological consideration.

ETERNAL LIFE provides spiritual and inspirational insights on why God provided humans, the fi nal destiny with Him. From the present world situation, man does not seem to know who he really is, where he came from and where he is going after his time here on earth ends. Man is called to be part of the People of God, but he has to say, “Yes!” to this call. “In the end, forever, you and I will go to heaven or hell, period!”, says a preacher. The decision is yours. Heaven! Or Hell!. To go to heaven, however, one has to listen and obey our LORD Jesus Christ, the ETERNAL WORD.

The Newtonian concept of time has been changed by Einsteinian insight. Yet the Einsteinian world view might make it difficult to appreciate traditional concepts of eschatology, like heaven and hell, death and immortality, life after death and resurrection, last day and final judgments, because these expressions presuppose a pre-Einsteinian view of the universe. Since theology cannot remain unaffected by the new research in concepts of time, Eternity and Eternal Life tries to express the eschatological faith of the Church by using the time language of our age. To achieve this it provides an overview on the research in the nature of time done in geology, cosmology, physics, biology, psychology, sociology, history and philosophy and proposes a notion of time for “timely” Christology and for “timely” eschatology. By using the singularity event as literary form, Horvath scrutinizes how Christ’s time can lead to the times of all existing realities, through death to “eternity.” This is a pioneering work, one that needs to be tested in the community of interested readers. It is a communal search for an understanding of life, death and eternal life, not only in the light of abstract ideas and cultural linguistic doctrines in the world of religions, but also in the light of science and especially of a person as the horizon of understanding for both time and eternity. Christ as the eschatological union of time and eternity becomes the work’s unifying focus and its paradigm, which solves recognized problems and opens our minds to new ones.

Something in us is waiting—for what, we don’t know. Something different? Something better? For Christians, perhaps the deepest expression of what we’re waiting for is found in the phrase “eternal life.” But what is eternal life? Why do we want it? And how do we know if we have it? In Eternity Is Now in Session, bestselling author John Ortberg dispels the myth that eternal life is something way out in outer space that we can only hope to experience after we die—and that being saved is merely about meeting the minimal entrance requirements for getting into heaven. Instead, John unpacks the reality that the moment we trust Christ, we are initiated into “eternal living” with God as a here and now reality, one that will continue beyond our life on this earth. Jesus defined eternal life just once, in John 17:3: “. . . that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The kind of “knowing God” that is eternal life is an interactive relationship, not just an affirmation of certain facts about God. Once we begin the transformative journey of truly knowing God, we can start to experience His presence, favor, and resurrection power right here on this earth—in the details, tasks, and challenges of daily, ordinary life. And as we begin to know God this way, we’ll realize each moment of our lives is a vehicle to the eternity we’ve been longing for all along.

In the Prologue of his Rule, St. Benedict maps out the road that leads to heaven; he lays the foundation for life in a community that seeks God. The themes that are present throughout the Rule - obedience, humility, prayer, fear of the Lord, eternal life - are grounded in the Prologue. By reflecting on the Prologue one verse at a time, Michael Casey, OCSO, delves into the richness of meaning that can be found in Benedict's words. These reflections, first given as talks and made available on his community's web site, build a bridge between the sixth-century text and twenty-first-century Christians. In The Road to Eternal Life, Casey invites readers to reflect on the Prologue in light of their own experiences, to seek the road that leads to salvation.

Are you in a community? Not a sub-division or an apartment complex; a sorority or fraternal society, but a gsopel community. Eternal Life Together is a brief treatise on the nature of a gospel community and how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people and impacts the community of believers we call the church. When God saves us we are adopted into his family, a family both now and for eternity. We are together forever! To some it sounds crazy. But to those who have been changed by the gospel and understand its implications for how we relate to one another, it is sweet. Read their stories, and by God's grace may you find yourself longing for a community that pursues Eternal Life Together.

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all feature ideas about heaven, hell, and afterlife, and these concepts have evolved over time within these religions. This work supplies a detailed and coherent understanding of the broad scope of spiritual thinking in the last 3,000 years within the Abrahamic traditions. Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife: Eternity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provides an all-encompassing examination of historic and contemporary perspectives on afterlife in Western religions. In these three volumes, Judaic, Christian, and Muslim scholars join forces, providing an unprecedented review of their individual faith's traditions. Every significant issue and major theme is discussed; no controversial topic is avoided. From ancient doctrines to modern-day outlooks of conservatives, progressives, and liberals in all three religions, all are analyzed and presented here. The framework of the volumes underscores how the ethics and concepts of eternity in the Western "action" religions contrast with Eastern religions that tend to be characterized as "passive" or "withdrawal" religions in their ethics and their notions of afterlife as absorption within universal spirit, Nirvana, or nonexistence. This work is well-suited for undergraduate and graduate students, general readers interested in religion, and professional scholars, particularly those in fields corollary to religious study.

Important Information and Presentation: Our book is free. The whole book can be read in “Free Sample” section. It is not necessary to give your credit card information. You can download our book in word or pdf format from the following web addresses: goo.gl/hNIUou or yadi.sk/d/09r41tL9ecYUA You can download the text of our book and its visual/interactive versions from the folder of “New Perspectives from the Treatise of Resurrection” in “English Books” section in this address. Besides, you can view or download the files of all of our books, and videos, texts and PowerPoint presentations of our seminars altogether or one by one, from these storage spaces where all of our work on Risale-i Nur (Treatise of Light) are uploaded. BOOK PRESENTATION: In order to feel the existence of eternal life in a different way, that has never been possible before… In order to understand, enjoy and read with spiritual pleasure the Tenth Word of Risale-i Nur, which proves the existence of Hereafter with certainty, at such a high level that you have never reached before… What would you do, if you know, of a certainty, that eternal life exists? How would your perspective on life change if you know that you will live forever? Then what would change in your life if you know that your happiness in this eternal life will depend on your behaviors in this temporary life at such a certainty as you are sure of the coming of night after day and of spring after winter or as you know two plus two equals four? Would not you get excited if we told you that you can get such invaluable information just by reading this book that you are holding in your hand? Tenth World that you are about to read is such an excellent book of a lifetime, promising you this and much more. In other words, it is such a lively book that it can be read repeatedly without getting bored and the passion to read it never subsides. Even Avicenna (Ibn-i Sina) who is considered as one of the greatest geniuses admitted his helplessness/incompetence in understanding the resurrection by once stating that “The Intellect cannot find a way to it”. And now, we are curiously stepping into the Treatise of Resurrection, which explains/declares the truths of the issue of resurrection, which even this noted scholar, cannot catch up with his genius, to everybody, even to the kids, and which gives us the key opening the gate of the second one of the two biggest amulets of the cosmos. In this book, which is an explanatory work based on 10th Word of Risale-i Nur Collection, the resurrection after the Doomsday is proved so certainly that the Author of Risale-i Nur tells the following on this subject: “If you want to be as certain about the occurrence of the resurrection of the dead as you are about the arrival of next spring, study the Tenth and Twenty-Ninth Words carefully, which are about this, and you will see! If you do not then believe that it will occur as you believe the coming of spring, come and stick your finger in my eye!” Once you finish reading this book, you will witness that it is proved with logical evidence and in a brilliant way that the coming of the eternal life is as certain as the existence of this world and there is no possibility of not the realization of the resurrection after death. This work is a part of our basic/source book called “A Journey of Discovery for an Extraordinary Treasure: Risale-i Nur (The Treatise of Light) Explanatory Notes” upon which our “Journeys of Discovery, Risale-i Nur Training Program” is constructed and it is the proof of the Existence of Resurrection and the Eternal Life, which is the Fifth Truth of the Six Truths, dealt with in the second main part of that book, which is called “Proving the Existence of the Treasure of Faith with Evidence”. We have to state and admit about this Book, that is, Explanatory Text for Tenth Word, the following sincerely: although we did not have any idea about what to write before explanatory notes came into the being, (every time without any exception), we were astonished by the resultant texts and realized that we had never understood these issues that clear before. While controlling the texts, we had great joy and pleasure and we were reading them as if they were written by someone else. The writings were helping us, in an unexpected way, in overcoming our greatest distresses, giving us a strong state of faith. Because what we were writing was talking about eternal truths of faith and Quran and they were having such qualities which were having much more different than a work presented with the individual proficiency and capability of a person. Therefore, the beauty and the excellence of these truths must have been reflected in our word as well. For sure, we were pursuing an immensely difficult and tedious effort; sometimes it was taking 3-5 hours to complete 1-2 pages of explanatory notes. We were spending an equal amount of time for footnotes and the glossary of concepts. But, the feeling of joy, happiness and spiritual satisfaction were exceedingly worth this effort. At this stage, we realized and felt the reason behind Bediüzzaman’s saying: “I am also a student of Risale-i Nur. I am your classmate in learning the Teachings of Quran; I am also in need of Risale-i Nur.” And we understood that he was not trying to be humble while saying this. As a requirement of being human, we wanted to share what we had found and felt, with those who had the same needs and who were in the same search. This is what we mean when we say that we are not like a teacher who makes you sit before her and starts teaching you. Maybe rather we are like a guest who himself is entreated a dining table as he is as hungry and needy as everybody, and he is sincerely inviting you to this dining table. Or maybe we are like a curious kid, who has found the key to a magnificent and inexhaustible treasure, and who wants to inform others of its existence and share it with them. We have made a great effort in order to prepare this work which we share with great enthusiasm. But we admit that this work has been the result of Allah’s special treatment, which is way beyond our personal capabilities and power. We believe wholeheartedly that every believer and everyone who has set his heart on Risale-i Nur, and in fact everybody will read this book enthusiastically and with a compassion which is stronger than the need for water of a person who has been dehydrated for a while. The epilogue of our book which is entitled “Your Journey Just Begins Now!” is also included in this work as it contains emotional, striking and impressive points coming sincerely from the deepest parts of our hearts about the reading of Risale-i Nur and attendance to the Risale-i Nur Lectures. BOOK INDEX Rehearsal Scene (Evidence for Eternal Life) - New Perspectives from the Treatise of Resurrection - 1- Presentation * Let’s Get Acquainted with the Books Discovering The Secret of The Universe! * The purpose and the Target Audience of This Book * The Book in Your Hand Is An Invitation Letter for You 2- BOOK CONTENT * An Invaluable Truth: Eternal Life (Introductory Text) Sub Headings: - Rehearsal Scene - Banquet Table for Tasting - Magnificent Cinema House - Divine Information Repository - Dominoes - Great Show Centre, the Universe and the Cosmic Calendar - Union of Opposites - Missing Part of the Puzzle - Babies in Their Mother’s Womb - Drawing Conclusions Coherent with Most Basic Truths - Learning the Truth from Its Source - The Gate to Eternity Opened for the Human Being - Divine Causes Connected to the Human Being - Unknown Breakfast - Film without A Final - Privileged Planet - The Prayer Opening the Gate of Eternal Life - The Way to Salvation from A Paradoxical Situation - An Illogical Fiction - He will Do it if He Promised - Reviving Earth - Would the One Doing the Difficult, Be Unable To Do the Thing Which Is Easier? - The Truest News in the World - Secret Plan - Desolate Festival - A Truth As Unshakable As the Existence of the Earth - An Eternal Life Where Death Is Killed 3- APPENDICES *No Production Is Possible without Moulds * Journey to the Land of Miracles *Fantastic Data Stores: Brain and DNA * Cosmic Calendar * Looking at Allah from the Right Side * Looking at Our Lifestyles with Suspicion * Interwoven Spiral Order * For Those Who Wonder the Secret of the Universe * Discovering the Subtle Secret of Prayer * Our World, A Spaceship in the Sea of Universe * What Happens When There Are Multiple Universes? *How is Everything Taking Place with Divine Power? THE COMPANIES OF ROAD FOR YOUR PERSONAL VOYAGE *Seminar Texts, Presentations and Videos * Our Website for The Journeys of Discovery *Our Books on Explanatory Notes for Risale-i Nur (Texts and Visuals/Interactive) *Our Video Channel for The Journeys of Discovery * Suggested Websites *The Opportunity to Read and Listen Risale-i Nur Round The Clock Wherever You Are *Locations Where You Can Participate in Risale-i Nur Conversations and Classes *Other Academic Training Activities * Author’s Contact Address