Why, for example, die in a concentration camp if the full extent of your hope is to be resurrected right alongside your captors???? What possible incentive is that to be faithful????? TD
You got it all wrong. When are people going to realize that Jehovah is a vengeful God, He pays back. Anyone that dares to touch the least of his friends pays and plenty. They may repent later on but that involves surrendering and how painful it is to realize what they have done (ask Judas Iscariot) Imagine your resurrected captors having to face you in the Universal Court of JUSTICE.... What in the world will KIng David tell Uriah when he must face him some day... and too David paid an expensive price, so did Amalek, Pharaoh, Herod, those that murdered Jesus, and any entity who dares to touch any of God's friends.
Christians don't serve god specifically for a reward, but by the same token, without salvation, the whole proposition is entirely futile.
You don't know what you are talking about. Christians serve God because as they see it, that is what they want to do. Think of a man in jail who is being forced to submit to rape. They are going to have to kill him but he will not submit and neither will a Christian submit -reward or no reward. He serves God because it is the only right thing to do, sure he may commit a lot of sins and fail many times while trying but not because someone is trying to force him or there are better options. But because It is the only way. Christians trust God with VENGEANCE (justice) -something that you fail to understand, a man of your intellect and education.
Ahh, but the blessings of God's Holy Spirit, what people would give for it??????? Everything.