When does eternal life start ?

[24thchance]

When does our eternal life start ?? After reading the post about Rob Bell that question came up in my mind-After 38 years of serving God I realized I do not know the answer to this simple yet complex question.Please give me your imput and scripture if possible to back it up.

[Tall Timbers]

In terms of time as I know it, my eternal life began with conception in the womb, when God began to knit me together. Though God knew me from the beginning, I was, or became, at conception. At that point I was created and given eternal life. Ultimately it will be eternity with God or separated from Him... In my case, fortunately, I'm assured by my cleansing in the Blood of Jesus that I will spend eternity with God. Thank you Jesus, from the bottom of my heart.

[HugsFromJesus]

I also voted at conception in the womb..:-)

God knows who will be His even before we are born and He is the one that orchestrates, and puts everything in place and keeps us alive until the time comes when He opens our eyes and hearts to accept His only Son as our Savior. He knew all along the entire course of events because it was His plan for us so He made it all happen. He is in total control of our lives.

[Nightelf]

Off the top of my head, John 3:16 comes to mind:

"....... that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life".

This suggests that those who do not believe, don't have eternal life.

So unless there are other verses to say otherwise, my vote is for the moment of belief in Christ as Savior.

[LightOfMyLife]

I also voted for when I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior.

[Nightelf]

We do posess an eternal soul however. It will "live on" eternally, either in heaven or in hell.

But the "eternal life" with Christ begins when we believe on Him by faith.

[RaptureReady_7]

I believe it was Charles Stanley (I am pretty sure it was Charles Stanley) that had a great explanation of this exact subject. It has been several years since I have heard it. But the gist of his explanation was at the moment of Belief.

We do not have to wait until we "die" or are raptured to receive eternal life. It happens at the moment of faith.

It reminds me of when God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate of the fruit of the Tree they would surely die. But they did not die in that second. But they started dying that day.

So it makes sense to me, that at the moment of faith, we are not living in our eternal life, but we started that journey of eternal life at the moment of faith,

I hope that makes sense.

[fl2007rn]

The first verse that popped in to my head was John 3:16.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[Mitsy]

Technically everbody lives forever. Some unfortunately end up spending their eternity in the Lake of Fire.

[old_andy]

Technically everbody lives forever. Some unfortunately end up spending their eternity in the Lake of Fire.

Agreed. Our eternal existence begins at conception but our eternal life begins at our salvation.

Another way to look at it, existence begins at conception but our "true life" begins when we are born again.

Good discussion.

[Pensfan]

I don't know if God created our souls before we were created in the womb, so either "created in heaven" or "created in the womb" would be my answer. I went with Heaven for the sake of the poll.

I am very confident though that we are born with eternal life... now whether that is eternal salvation or eternal damnation that is up to whether or not we accept Christ as our lone Savior.

We are definitely born into an eternal life. Our "eternal life with Christ" however is at the moment we accept Him by Faith.