Eternal Life

I'm listening to Chuck Swindoll today. Good message on Death. (It has an English accent when spoken aloud.)
Always excellent teaching but today I couldn't get past this one thing. In his message he repeated this oft-repeated Evangelicalism:

There is a sense in which everybody has eternal life because everybody is going to spend eternity somewhere. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ will spend eternity in Heaven and those who have not accepted Him are going to spend eternity in Hell.

But John 3:16 (also an oft-repeated Evangelicalism) indicates that eternal life, zoe aionios, is something in God through the Son that we have. We don't have eternal life and then we gain eternal life through believing in the Son. In fact John goes on to day that those who don't believe live in death.

I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. -Jesus the Christ, John 5:24-26

Where do we go with this?

• In what sense is it "eternal life" for those in Hell?
• Is it the fact that it is LIFE or that it is ETERNAL matter more?
• Does the "crossing over from death to life" have a present sense? How?

Maybe we should stop quickly repeating things we hear on the radio.

The Russians

Was 9/11 the last uniting event in America or just the latest?
I don't watch The Daily Show with John Stewart, meaning I don't make it a point to watch it, but I was flipping channels yesterday and came across this quote...

I gotta tell you, over the last few months as we've seen Russia commit political assassinations, suppress its media, and rig elections, I can't help but think, "They're back baby." Do you think they'd want to get in the cold war with us , because that war was awesome, so much better than this one. You know, I remember when we were at war with Russia for like 50 years, and what was the worst thing that happened? We ended up missing an Olympics... I tell you, having Russia as our enemy again, I would totally trade [Osama Bin Laden] for [Yakov Smirnov]. What a country indeed.

Full clip here.
Does America need an "enemy" to bring us together? The Cold War, the "War on Terror", the "War on Poverty", Vietnam... If Americans believe that Governments are instituted among Men to secure rights then it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off oppressive Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Maybe because we are a nation that was formed by "throwing off," we are constantly on the look out for new Oppressors. The great Russian authors seem to see it differently. War does not hinder death and oppression, only love can do that.

Love? What is love? . . . Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source. —Leo Tolstoy

God is love. Love may be all a man might need to know.