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The Promised Life

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 31, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 24.

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The Promised Life.

By R. F. Cottrell

Is it literal, or figurative? Is eternal life continued conscious existence? or, are all sure of that, and hence the life promised is happiness in contradistinction from misery?
We quote one text: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; but he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” John 12:25.
It is difficult to give the word life in this short passage a variety of significations. That which is hated, or lightly esteemed, in this world, is that which shall be enjoyed in the future world. Is it happiness? Are not Christians required to lay their literal lives upon the altar, and, if need be, literally sacrifice them, as the martyrs have done? And does not the text promise the same thing to them that they sacrificed in this world?
Life in a world that is free from sorrow and pain, embraces all the happiness that such a world affords. Hence, life is the best term to express the whole. But if all are sure of life, happiness and misery are terms preferable to life and death, to express the reward and punishment that await us in the world to come. Why were they not chosen by inspiration?
R. F. COTTRELL.