Why is The Teaching of Eternal Life Important in Regard to The Existence of Evil in This Life?

Ankerberg: You say the third biblical doctrine is the knowledge of God spills over into eternal life, which is very important. Craig: This is incredibly important. This life is not all there is. On the biblical view, this life is but the cramped and narrow foyer that leads into the great banquet hall of God’s eternity. And for those who have borne their suffering and pain in this life in courage and dependency upon God, they will look back on this life and say it was worth going through this a million, million, million times over, in order to know this joy and this happiness that they have in heaven. The apostle Paul lived a life of incredible suffering when you think about it. And yet he was able to write, “We do not lose heart; for this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Paul imagines, as it were, a scale on which the rottenness and the suffering of this life is weighed against the weight of glory that God will bestow on His children in heaven. And he says that weight of glory is so heavy that the sufferings of this life are not even worth being compared to it. And think about this; the longer we spend in eternity with God, the more the sufferings of this life shrink by comparison to literally an infinitesimal moment. And that’s why Paul could call them a slight momentary affliction. He wasn’t being insensitive to those who suffer terribly; on the contrary, he was one of them. But he understood that in light of eternity, the sufferings of this life cannot be compared to the joy and the blessing that God will bestow on His children in heaven.