Updates: March 12, 2018

Truths That Transform – Is There Really Life After Death?
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C.S. Lewis on Longing (in The Weight of Glory)

C.S. Lewis words this argument more succinctly in Mere Christianity:
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” (Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, “Hope”)

I love that! We were made for a whole, complete relationship with God, lacking nothing! So of course our heart aches for more than this fallen world can offer. And we know that God has set eternity in our hearts; he put the desire there so we would long for him and not be satisfied by lesser things. Praise be to God!

Source: jenniferneyhart.com/2014/10/cs-lewis-on-longing-in-weight-of-glory.html

How the Early Church Viewed Martyrs

The early church’s theology of martyrdom was born not in synods or councils, but in sunlit, blood—drenched coliseums [Roman circus’] and catacombs, dark and still as death. The word martyr means “witness” and is used as such throughout the New Testament. … To answer this question one need look no further than to Jesus himself. The church understood martyrdom as an imitation of Christ. The Lord was the exemplar of nonviolence at his own trial and execution, declaring that his servants would not fight because his kingdom was not of this world. Jesus’ words burned themselves deeply into the collective psyche of the Ante-Nicene church: “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also (Luke 6:29); do not resist an evil person (Matt. 5:39); blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness (Matt. 5:10); if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also (John 15:20).”

Source: christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/how-early-church-viewed-martyrs/

Note: what is strictly forbidden in the Christian Bible is the use by Christians of any type of Oath, Curse, Witchcraft, or Retaliation against another person.