Question 8 – Is there life after death?
"Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident
Are you afraid of death? I'm convinced that most of you are. Some are so afraid that when the subject comes up, you immediately run from it. This is nothing to be surprised at; it is natural. That uncertainty! What is going to happen to me?
When I looked through the results of polls I had done among the general public in the Czech Republic, the question of life after death was often represented. Furthermore, it was one of the questions people would most often want to ask God if they met Him.
I will begin with a simple answer – yes, according to the Bible, there is life after death. Furthermore, resurrection and eternal life with the God who created us is the main theme and the core of Christian hope.
In the question about the meaning of life we said that it is a relationship with the living God according to Christians. We also said that God placed, figuratively speaking, an empty space in human beings. It is possible to express it with these words from the Bible:
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Maybe this is why so many people are interested in what is after death. This desire is deeply encrypted in our inner beings. Our mind naturally protests against the idea that one day everything comes to an end and that nothing has meaning. It rebels at the idea that no good deed/act, no effort, no glory, simply that absolutely nothing has meaning and that everything will one day end in oblivion and nothingness. Many atheists and sceptics are well aware of this inner 'setting'. Nevertheless, they often account for it as an evolutionary motivating 'motor' which is always propelling us forward so that we will not lose our minds and die out. Well, it is up to you how you will interpret and what you will call this inner voice and which explanation you will endorse. I do not believe that this awareness is the result of a lower instinct, backwardness or lack of education. I believe that we have this awareness simply because human life does not end at death. For this reason it is logical and actually necessary that we perceive this reality in a specific way. God desires to have a relationship with people. What would the logic be if this relationship only lasted the few years of our earthly life and then God 'erased/terminated' us? How would this be love? Therefore, I believe that this relationship goes beyond the borders of this earthly life, to eternity. Naturally, there are other questions that go along with this one and in which we are interested and draw us in. I will introduce some of them here:
What form will we exist in?
Some people in the context of eastern philosophy believe (and there are more and more of them) that life is only a cycle of millions of lives in various forms. You die and are born again and again, possibly as a different being, maybe in a different place in the galaxy. This theory is called reincarnation and will be dealt with in more detail in question 45. The Christian message, however, points to a different dimension. After God brings the course of human history to an end, all bodies will be resurrected. Jesus said it this way:
"Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement." (John 6:28-29)
People will receive new bodies that will have different characteristics. They will be imperishable and will have different qualities/attributes that are unknown to us at this time, without flaws, deformities, sicknesses, they won't age. We do not have much more information than this however. Therefore, I do not want to speculate about further details. You see, it is not that important as to how everything will look. The more important thing to consider is where I will end up if I were to die today.
What about those who have died or are dying now? In the case of death before the final judgement and the end of human history as we know it, some Christians (a minority) believe that after death people go into a so-called 'sleep' when they are unconscious and wait for the resurrection. I, however, hold to the majority opinion – immediately after death a person leaves his physical tent (body) and continues to live in the form of a spiritual being. Various places in the Bible support this viewpoint and the experience of millions of people who have gone through so-called clinical death (NDE – a near-death experience) would support this view. Nevertheless, we should be very careful when examining NDE. I will deal with this phenomenon more extensively in question 97 and tell you why I believe we must be careful.
What will life after death look like? What will heaven be like?
The answer will depend partly on what you yourself choose. There are two possibilities: life in God's presence or life without God's presence (so often deemed 'hell'). God created us to live with Him. Things of course are such that mankind decided to go his own way – without God. For this reason, a person's decision affects his eternity. You do not want God? OK. God will take your decision seriously and you can live without Him in your afterlife. It will probably be the most lamentable/ grievous thing a person could meet. We will deal with hell at another point, however. Now, I would like to say a few words about everlasting life in God's presence.
Those who have known God personally and have experienced even a fraction of His presence, love and filling, these know very well that uninterrupted and undisturbed nearness to the holy God must be the most wonderful experience possible. Nevertheless, we know very few details about it. All pictures or attempts to describe heaven of hell spring more from human fantasy rather than that which God himself has left us. He has decided not to give us exhaustive information about what everything will be like after our deaths. It is very likely that we would not even be able to understand it. Even Jesus had many problems to get people to understand the simple spiritual realities He was trying to explain using languages that are known to us today. We do not know the details then, however, I believe that we have something to look forward to. The Apostle Paul wrote the following concerning this topic:
But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him' (1. Corinthians 2:9)
Aren't we going to get bored if we live forever?
I am surprised at how many people this question bothers. I assume that those who ask are asking out of personal experience. We all know the feeling – it is enough to set us down in a beautiful, peaceful place for a week. Within a few days we begin to complain that there is nothing fun to do! After a certain amount of time we get bored and desire a change. I believe, however, that we cannot apply this to living in the presence of an all-embracing God who is able not only to fulfil all our needs but is also absolute and unending Love. People will experience things that are considered to be the most wonderful, the most fantastic and the most amazing. I think then that no, those who will be with God will definitely not get bored.
Is it possible to contact our dead loved-ones?
This question really interests uncountable people who have lost a loved-one. One proof of this is the millions of people who have sought out mediums, fortune-tellers and card-readers in the hope of receiving even a short message from a dead loved-one. However, the Bible strongly warns against contacting the spirit world and forbids this practice. The reasons for this will be found in question 91.
How can I be sure that life after death even exists?
This is a good question. Several possibilities (about what to do) occur to me. The simplest and easiest is to wait. Wait till you die and then follows what happens. In the best case, nothing happens because you will simply not exist. In the worst case you will find out that your consciousness did not cease but you are standing before almighty God whom you refused to look for and with whom you refused to reconcile. Dear reader, a question offers itself here – Do you have anything to lose if you stop and begin to look for God now?
Here is another path you can take. Look for indications and arguments for the existence of God. From His existence, it is then quite simple to deduce the reality that our life will continue after death (especially if He, himself has promised it). The question of the eternal nature of mankind's existence is then, one of the most important questions that we should concern ourselves with. Do not put off looking for answers! You never know when the gates of eternity will open just for you… I'd like to finish my argument with a statement of Jesus Christ's, the central figure of the Christian faith.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." (John 5:24)
Summation
The popular saying, 'We only live once!' is from the viewpoint of eternity misguided, faulty. Yes, we only live once in this body. After our death, however, we will be resurrected and our existence will continue. Some will be raised to life in God's presence, others to eternal damnation and separated from God.
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:4)