I am wondering if it is fair to say that "eternal life"can also be used as a gimmick to get people in church.Without the guarantee of eternal life would you worship God?
That is the point that Paul made to the Sadducees in I Corinthians 15:13-19:
13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not been raised; 14 and if the Messiah has not been raised, then what we have proclaimed is in vain; also your trust is in vain; 15 furthermore, we are shown up as false witnesses for God in having testified that God raised up the Messiah, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either; 17 and if the Messiah has not been raised, your trust is useless, and you are still in your sins. 18 Also, if this is the case, those who died in union with the Messiah are lost. 19 If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone.
We would more pitiable then the atheist, we are crucified to this world, and to the lust of our flesh while awaiting and longing for the spiritual and heavenly pleasures. How sad it is indeed, if we must be dead to worldly “pleasures” and yet never hope for any better! It wouldn’t matter if we worshipped G-d or not if there wasn’t eternal life; if we just died and didn’t have to answer to Him what would it matter if we served Him or not.
In the congregation I attend we hold strictly to
Jewish context[FONT="] ([/FONT]Prayers, Worship, and Jewish Culture) so we don’t really think “outside the box” (lol). But personally I think it’s great that churches do. It’s fulfilling out the Great Commission. We (individually or one congregation) may not be able to the whole world but we go into our world (the trip to the gas station, the store, holding a "Soul Central").