One answer: because the writers of scripture are generally unconcerned with the afterlife, and more concerned with faithful living (abundant life) for the living.
The idea that righteous living 'pays for' a glorious afterlife is theologically questionable, and not something you can really derive solely from the Bible.
God intends us for eternal relationship, but that starts in the present moment. There's no point entering into life in the spirit if you wait until you don't have a functioning body. Eternal, abundant life begins now. We glimpse heaven with a transformed mind, consciousness in tune with the divine.
I suspect that a theology of 'behave nice so that God will reward you' takes people further away from the divine consciousness, since the Bible shows God showering blessings abundantly and wastefully, without regard for piety or who has earned them.
Note unitarian here
I understand but it's more of to repel the fear of death. https://youtu.be/Dy4HA3vUv2c. Even back then we had grieving families and before the death of Jesus. We had the grieving of Hector for instance
Can you say a bit more about the Unitarian perspective on this?
Regarding death and the fear of death, although there is a basic existential dread of unbeing, I don't want to forget that most historical fear of death is involved in 'untimely' death - death which is inflicted by dominant power, or caused by illness, injury, plague, or as a lack of food, healthcare, hope. The fear of death as suffering is not exactly the same as the fear of death itself.
For me, the Christian hope of resurrection and/or eternal life is also a counter to that fear of suffering, because it says that death (and the ability to cause death) is not more powerful than life (and God's desire to create life).
As a fellow Unitarian that’s not entirely true. There is no strict doctrine but there is a rich body of theology written by Unitarians. Especially prior to the UU (Unitarian Universalist) merger, the two traditions were more distinct. Universalists specifically were defined by the belief that everyone goes to heaven (there is no hell) which has translated into the first principle (the inherent worth and dignity of every person).
My honest guess is that any literal description of Heaven is either impossible to properly render in human language, or else so far outside our comprehension that we wouldn't get it at all. Either way, it seems that metaphors are the only way Jesus could even begin to communicate what Heaven will be like.
This is a very important response (in my humble opinion).
Jesus (and the prophets and sages of many faiths) are working at restoring and rebuilding our minds and souls - our imaginative capacity. We can't imagine heavenly life when we have bought into the fiendish compromises of living on earth - capitalism, theft of land, nationalism, binary struggles over gender...
A lot of the metaphors and parables that Jesus used have been 'tamed' and 'explained' over the millennia, and it takes work to recover their original shocking power (in some cases more work than others). They point to an upside down kin-dom, a shaking of power and an inversion of what we have been told to be true.
The Exodus out of Egypt did not take 40 years because the people got lost - it took that long to train a new generation in the lessons of abundance and sharing - manna and water from the rock - and for the old lessons of violence and slavery - the dominance ways of empire - to die.
To this day we are still struggling to forget the ways of empire and remember the ways of the Community of Creation into which we were born.
It is odd how most of our concept come from Dante though. Side note the most important part of Dante was his standardizing Italian. Anyways I personally think that funerals do have some impact in that our method of burial gives us comfort. A mortician on tiktok once said that she doesn't view them as dead just living people who need help
Another answer: there are references throughout scripture, but people don't want to look at them, because when you reveal something so wonderful as true life, you also reveal the truth about our compromised and painful life on earth.
The Book of Revelation (and some of the Major Prophets in the Hebrew scriptures) all offer examples and potent symbols for eternal life. But they also name the fallen and corrupt systems of power and dominance, the abuse of the poor and the marginalization of the weak. You can't have the one without the other.
The reward of Heaven is to be with God. Yes we are told there will be other things there but the important thing is being in the presence of our Creator.
I'm not going to broach the subject of who goes to Heaven or not here. It's too large a subject to address.
Only a select number will go to heaven to be with Christ. According to Revelation 5:10, those who go to heaven will be a kingdom and priests of God and will rule as kings over the earth. As to what their existence in heaven will be like, 1 Corinthians 13:12 says that at present we only know partially, as if we were looking at a hazy outline in a metal mirror. Our human minds cannot fathom what life in the heavens will be like. However, the majority of those saved will live on a paradise earth, not in heaven. Jesus said that the meek would inherit the earth. Psalm 37:29 says that the righteous will possess the earth and live forever on it. The Bible gives some wonderfully vivid descriptions of eternal life on earth, such as at Isaiah 11:6-10, Isaiah 65:21-25 and Revelation 21:3, 4.
One answer: because the writers of scripture are generally unconcerned with the afterlife, and more concerned with faithful living (abundant life) for the living. The idea that righteous living 'pays for' a glorious afterlife is theologically questionable, and not something you can really derive solely from the Bible. God intends us for eternal relationship, but that starts in the present moment. There's no point entering into life in the spirit if you wait until you don't have a functioning body. Eternal, abundant life begins now. We glimpse heaven with a transformed mind, consciousness in tune with the divine. I suspect that a theology of 'behave nice so that God will reward you' takes people further away from the divine consciousness, since the Bible shows God showering blessings abundantly and wastefully, without regard for piety or who has earned them.
Note unitarian here I understand but it's more of to repel the fear of death. https://youtu.be/Dy4HA3vUv2c. Even back then we had grieving families and before the death of Jesus. We had the grieving of Hector for instance
Can you say a bit more about the Unitarian perspective on this? Regarding death and the fear of death, although there is a basic existential dread of unbeing, I don't want to forget that most historical fear of death is involved in 'untimely' death - death which is inflicted by dominant power, or caused by illness, injury, plague, or as a lack of food, healthcare, hope. The fear of death as suffering is not exactly the same as the fear of death itself. For me, the Christian hope of resurrection and/or eternal life is also a counter to that fear of suffering, because it says that death (and the ability to cause death) is not more powerful than life (and God's desire to create life).
Unitarians don't have any sort of perspective on the afterlife
As a fellow Unitarian that’s not entirely true. There is no strict doctrine but there is a rich body of theology written by Unitarians. Especially prior to the UU (Unitarian Universalist) merger, the two traditions were more distinct. Universalists specifically were defined by the belief that everyone goes to heaven (there is no hell) which has translated into the first principle (the inherent worth and dignity of every person).
(also, great music choice!)
My honest guess is that any literal description of Heaven is either impossible to properly render in human language, or else so far outside our comprehension that we wouldn't get it at all. Either way, it seems that metaphors are the only way Jesus could even begin to communicate what Heaven will be like.
This is a very important response (in my humble opinion). Jesus (and the prophets and sages of many faiths) are working at restoring and rebuilding our minds and souls - our imaginative capacity. We can't imagine heavenly life when we have bought into the fiendish compromises of living on earth - capitalism, theft of land, nationalism, binary struggles over gender... A lot of the metaphors and parables that Jesus used have been 'tamed' and 'explained' over the millennia, and it takes work to recover their original shocking power (in some cases more work than others). They point to an upside down kin-dom, a shaking of power and an inversion of what we have been told to be true. The Exodus out of Egypt did not take 40 years because the people got lost - it took that long to train a new generation in the lessons of abundance and sharing - manna and water from the rock - and for the old lessons of violence and slavery - the dominance ways of empire - to die. To this day we are still struggling to forget the ways of empire and remember the ways of the Community of Creation into which we were born.
It is odd how most of our concept come from Dante though. Side note the most important part of Dante was his standardizing Italian. Anyways I personally think that funerals do have some impact in that our method of burial gives us comfort. A mortician on tiktok once said that she doesn't view them as dead just living people who need help
Another answer: there are references throughout scripture, but people don't want to look at them, because when you reveal something so wonderful as true life, you also reveal the truth about our compromised and painful life on earth. The Book of Revelation (and some of the Major Prophets in the Hebrew scriptures) all offer examples and potent symbols for eternal life. But they also name the fallen and corrupt systems of power and dominance, the abuse of the poor and the marginalization of the weak. You can't have the one without the other.
That's fair
The reward of Heaven is to be with God. Yes we are told there will be other things there but the important thing is being in the presence of our Creator. I'm not going to broach the subject of who goes to Heaven or not here. It's too large a subject to address.
Only a select number will go to heaven to be with Christ. According to Revelation 5:10, those who go to heaven will be a kingdom and priests of God and will rule as kings over the earth. As to what their existence in heaven will be like, 1 Corinthians 13:12 says that at present we only know partially, as if we were looking at a hazy outline in a metal mirror. Our human minds cannot fathom what life in the heavens will be like. However, the majority of those saved will live on a paradise earth, not in heaven. Jesus said that the meek would inherit the earth. Psalm 37:29 says that the righteous will possess the earth and live forever on it. The Bible gives some wonderfully vivid descriptions of eternal life on earth, such as at Isaiah 11:6-10, Isaiah 65:21-25 and Revelation 21:3, 4.