Genesis 2:17
Job 14:14
Ecclesiastes 3:11
2 Corinthians 5:1-2
John 11:25
There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to what lies beyond the grave. After
thousands of years of years of existence on earth, mankind is still not certain
what happens at death. Emily Dickenson’s view of death: When life’s greatest
certainty and uncertainty meet.
If
you ask the scientist, “Do you believe that man will live forever”,
he will answer: “I deal in physical facts. I cannot say with certain that
there is or there is not life beyond death. I can only conclude that there may
be life after death but I can not say for sure.”
Ask
the philosopher: “I deal in the realm of reason and thought. I cannot
say for certain that there is life beyond the grave. All I can say is that man
hopes to life eternally.”
Ask
the historian: “I deal in the past and I can not say for certain. All I
can say is that a study of history reveals that man expects to life forever but
whether he will or will not is beyond my field.”
Ask
the student of ethics: “I do not know the answer to that question. I
deal with what is right and wrong. All I can say is man ought to live forever
but I am not certain that he will.”
Ask
the Apostle Paul: Now we know
that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God,
an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan,
longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling…” (2 Corinthians 5:1-2)
Ask
Jesus: “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me will live, even though he dies; Jesus said to her, "I am
the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he
dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe
this?" (John 11:25-26)
The
vast majority of Americans, including the reflective view of Hollywood, believe
that there’s life after death. We see it in popular movies like Ghost,
Heaven
Can Wait, even in Disney
cartoons like All Dogs Go to Heaven.
Robin Williams stared in a movie entitled What Dreams May Come, which is a dramatic portrayal of heaven and
hell. Entertainment Weekly called What
Dreams May Come a lost verse from the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky
With Diamonds" as it presents the afterlife as a kind of metaphysical candy
land.
Two years ago Time magazine devoted its cover story to the question of the
afterlife. In that article, they published the results of a Time/CNN poll,
where they found that 81% of Americans believe in the existence of heaven. 63%
of Americans believe that hell exists, although only 1% believes that they’ll
end up there. So belief in life after death is certainly not on the way out in
our culture but don’t assume that everyone believes in a Biblical view of
eternity. They don’t!
Many people wonder if life after death is just wishful thinking claiming that
beliefs about an afterlife merely our way of dealing with our anxiety about the
mystery and uncertainty of death. Philosophers Paul and Linda Badham point out,
"To many contemporary philosophers, life after death is not merely
unlikely, it is inconceivable."
Atheist philosopher Anthony Flew agrees, when he claims that the
idea of life after death is a nonsensical statement that has no meaning, much
like a square circle.
This idea too has crept into our popular culture, as the band Collective Soul
tells us "Heaven’s Already Here" (Hints,
Allegations, And Things Left Unsaid), and Gloria Estefan reduces heaven to
"how I feel when I’m with the person I love (Heaven’s How I Feel).
Today I begin a new series of messages that I have entitled Hope
Beyond The Grave. In this series I want to push away the curtain and
catch a glimpse at what lies beyond this life. The former Swedish secretary
generation of the United Nations and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dag
Hammarskjold once said, "It is our conception of death which decides our
answers to all the questions that life puts to us."
He’s exactly right and the Christian faith presents a very distinct concept of
death and the afterlife that will directly affect the way you live your life.
It
is no longer a safe assumption that everyone in America and in Florence, Alabama
views what happens after death from the Christian perspective.
Remember,
we are now living in the post-Christian era and in the post-modern world.
Therefore,
in this series I will not make assumptions about what you know or don’t know,
but I want to approach this topic with freshness and openness as I present
(almost from an apologetics point of view) what the Bible itself says about what
lies beyond death’s door.
Today,
on Resurrection Sunday, I will begin by mentioning some of the theories that
others offer for what lies beyond death, then explain the Biblical view of death
and conclude with the Christian message of hope in light of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
TIMELESS
THEORIES CONCERNING DEATH
Q#1:
“What are some theories as to what happens after death?”
In
many ways death is still very much of a mystery. This explains why people are
attracted to movies about the afterlife. In his book The
View from a Hearse, Christian author Joseph Bayly describes the mystery of
death this way: "We may postpone it, we may tame its violence, but death is
still there waiting for us. Death always waits. The door of the hearse is never
closed."
Solomon, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, searched for the meaning of
life and was defeated at every turn. He was about to give up and conclude that
“life is totally meaningless”. There was one major hurdle. He could not
abandon his search because of “the fly in the ointment” (Ecclesiastes
10:1)…the pesky matter of facing death.
This
brings us to the first idea we’re going to explore together. Ever since the
first person died, mankind has offered a variety of explanations of what happens
when we die.
It is human nature and inclination to try to figure out mysteries, solve riddles
and to explain away things that we can’t understand. Let’s explore a few of
the oldest and most influential explanations concerning the mystery of death.
(1)
Probably the oldest explanation is known as DISEMBODIMENT; which is the
idea that when we die our soul is liberated from the prison of our body. This is
one of the oldest Western explanation, tracing its roots back to the ancient
Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. According to this view the real
"me" is not my
body
but my soul, or my mind, that non-physical, spiritual reality that makes me who
I really am.
The
physical body is a prison for my soul, limiting it, preventing it from being
free, so death is a kind of liberation. Thus this approach views the afterlife
is a disembodied or bodiless existence. This view has been extremely popular
throughout history, and it wields incredible influence today. The Time magazine
poll I cited earlier found that 66% of Americans believe that only a person’s
soul goes to heaven. This view, the disembodiment view, is the belief system
behind those who believe in ghosts, it’s the view of most tribal religions in
primitive parts of the world.
Yet,
disembodiment is not the explanation offered by the Bible.
(2) Another popular explanation is REINCARNATION, which is the idea that
after we die we are reborn as another living being based on our karma. This view
goes back to 1000 years before Christ, and it lies at the heart of the eastern
religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Reincarnation
is tied to the idea of karma, which is believed by some to be the universe’s
justice system. Karma claims that everything painful that happens in our lives
is a direct result of bad things we’ve done in previous lives, thus our
suffering is the universe’s way of balancing the scales of justice. This means
that all pain and suffering in this life is deserved, whether it’s displaced
refugees we see on TV or hurricane victims from New Orleans or a ten year old
who’s been abused by her uncle; all suffering is a direct result of bad things
we’ve done in previous lives, and present day evil is the universe’s way of
settling the score.
The
beliefs of reincarnation and karma have emigrated from the East to the west, and
been popularized by people like Shirley MacClane and Peter Sellars and by groups
like the Unity School of Christianity and Astara. According to a 1996 poll in
George magazine, currently 30% of Americans believe in reincarnation.
Today
the belief in reincarnation is gaining a lot of traction so I ask, “How does
this measure against the teaching of the Bible?” The Bible nowhere affirms
that reincarnation is true, and in fact the whole idea of karma goes against the
entire message of the New Testament.
(3) Finally, some people believe in EXTINCTION; which is the idea that
when we die we cease to exist. Period. Although this was a popular view in the
past, for
the
last 100 years the extinction theory has become a very dominant, popular view
thanks to many atheistic based philosophies, including modern humanism.
For
instance, the Humanist Manifesto II states, "There is no credible evidence
that an individual life survives the death of the body."
Extinction
assumes that God does not exist, that matter is the only thing that’s real,
and that scientific knowledge is the only kind of knowledge that’s true. This
is why the atheist philosopher Anthony Flew suggests that the entire idea of
life after death is meaningless, since he assumes that life is biological life,
which ceases at the moment of death. Atheist Keith Augustine admits, "When
confronted by the death of someone close to me, or contemplating my own
inevitable death, I am not comforted by such words of wisdom. Nevertheless, we
cannot base our beliefs on what we want to be true."
Although
only 13% of Americans hold to this view, it is the dominant view of the major
cultural power structures in our world today.
CONCLUSION: Question One
None
of man’s theories offers hope.
These
three views: disembodiment, reincarnation, and extinction are the major
explanations we find in our culture today, as we seek to probe the mystery of
death and answer the age-old question, “If a man die, will he live again?”
(Job 14:14) However, the first valuable TRUTH LESSON that we must learn is this:
none of these three views represent the Biblical view of the afterlife
and none offer hope.
THE
BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
Q#2:
“What is the Biblical perspective concerning life after death?”
What
does the Bible say? What perspective does the Bible offer? The very first
mention of death in the Bible is found in the very first book in the Bible.
"But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for
in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die". (Genesis 2:17 NASB)
These are the words of God to the first man Adam (his name is Hebrew for
"man").
The New American Standard Bible translation it’s more literal and in this case
more accurate. It brings out the fact that God told the first man that the very
day he ate of the tree he would die. The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil was simply a source of wisdom and truth apart from God, so to eat of
the tree was the same as a declaration of independence from God.
In English when we want to really emphasize a word, we underline it, place it in
script, put it bold letters, or maybe we make the font bigger. In Hebrew, the
writer would use a grammatical form called an infinitive absolute to really emphasize the verb, to underline it
and call our attention to it.
This is the case of the Hebrew word "die" used in Genesis 2:17.
The emphasis in this verse is on the verb die,
namely, that the very day they eat of this tree, they would die…underlined,
bold, in a special font.
We know that the first man and woman ate of the tree and thus declared their
independence from God, but they didn’t physically die that very day. So, how
do we explain what happened? We need to understand that death is used in the
Bible in several ways.
(1)
The word death in the Bible can refer to our declining mortality,
which puts emphasis on the process of physically dying. This is what the Bible
means when it says "outwardly we are wasting away" (2 Corinthians 4:16
NIV). Our bodies are slowly breaking down as our hair starts to fall our,
our energy wanes, and sickness becomes the rule, not the exception. This kind of
death is the process of decay that
eventually ends in physical death. This process began the very day the first man
and first woman declared their independence from God.
(2) Death can also describe the actual event of the end of life, which is
the result of our declining mortality. Although physical death didn’t happen
the very day the first man and woman disobeyed God, physical death became
inevitable for them at that moment. Physical death does not mean non-existence,
but it means a separation of our physical body from our non-physical soul (mind,
will and emotions) or spirit, or whatever you want to call that part of us
that’s not composed of substance and atoms.
(3) In the Bible death is also referred to in a spiritual sense, which is
a state of being alienated or separated from God. This is what the Bible means
when it describes us as "dead in our sins" (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians
2:13). We can have biological life, which means that we’re breathing and our
hearts are beating, while at the same time be dead to the things of God,
separated from God, unable to respond to God, deaf to God’s voice. This
separation or spiritual death
from
God occurred immediately the moment the first man and first woman declared their
independence from God.
(4) Finally, in the Bible there’s a thing called eternal death, which
is a person’s final separation from God. This is where spiritual death
inevitably leads to without intervention from God, the final destination of
those who are spiritually dead. This became inevitable for the first man and
woman when they ate of the tree, what the book of Revelation calls "the
second death" (Revelation 20:6, 14).
Therefore, when God said that in the day they ate of the tree they’d surely
die, there was a lot to that statement because in the Bible death is not a
single event but a complex thing.
The question arises, “What does a statement made to Adam and Eve have to do
with me?" More than you realize. However, to understand where you fit in
this statement we need to trace this theme into the New Testament.
Listen to Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through
one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because
all sinned" (NIV).
Paul makes it clear that what happened in Genesis is our story too. In other
words, Genesis 2:17 was not a word just to Adam and Eve. It involves us because
in some mysterious way we were present in the first man and first woman’s
declaration of independence from God. Sin entered into the realm of everyday
life through an act of disobedience and following right behind sin was the enemy
called death; which involves mortality, physical death, spiritual death, and
ultimately eternal death. Somehow our sins, our own rebellion against God, is
linked to what happened back in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis.
Romans
5:12 does not tell us exactly how this happened and thus it’s not giving us a
theological theory of original sin, but it’s merely establishing a link
between what happened in Genesis and what’s repeated in every human being’s
life since then.
Adam
sinned, and we’ve sinned; Adam died, and we too will die both physically and
spiritually. That is unless we place our trust in the Second Adam.
1 Corinthians 15 explains this process with a little more detail. Listen to
verses 21-22: "For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the
dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be
made alive" (NIV).
Just as the first Adam’s action had cosmic consequences for the entire race,
so the action of the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, also has similar consequences.
Adam’s failure marked the start of death, with all the different complicated
aspects of death, so Christ’s resurrection from the grave marks the defeat of
death, with a reversal of death’s consequences.
Again, we’re not told exactly how this works but we are told that
whatever happened when Adam sinned is answered when Jesus Christ rose from the
grave.
This leads us to Hebrews 9:27, which states: "It is destined that each
person dies only once and after that comes judgment”. (New Living Translation)
CONCLUSION: Question Two
“…death
will not have the final word!”
Now
we are ready to comprehend the second essential truth about life after death and
begin to embrace the message of hope. Since death was not a part of God’s
original intention, we can be certain
that death will not have the final word.
There
are a lot of non-Biblical truths propagated about death. Here is one: death is
natural and a part of being human. Yet
something within us rages, even fights, against death. Why? This is because
death was not part of God’s original intention and therefore it is not
natural. The Bible calls death "the last enemy to be destroyed" (1
Corinthians 15:26). So although death is the fate for every person, it’s not
natural, it’s not the way it was supposed to be, it’s not part of God’s
original intention.
So how do we know that death does not have the final word? Because God is in the
business of restoring things that are broken, of taking things that have gotten
all mixed up and setting them right. If Adam made a mess of things, and we’re
all co-conspirators with Adam because of our own sins, then Jesus Christ is the
only One who is able to set things right and to clean up the mess made by sin.
THE RESURRECTION FACTOR
Q#3:
“What does Easter have to do with the issue of death?”
That final word about death is connected to the celebration of Easter, the
resurrection of Jesus Christ over death. When Jesus himself faced the death of
his friend Lazarus, and when Lazarus’ sisters Mary and Martha suggested that
somehow Jesus had failed them because their brother died, Jesus said these
words:
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even
though he dies". (John 11:25 NIV)
The teaching of the Bible about the afterlife is in direct contrast to the
teaching of Plato about disembodiment and Hinduism’s reincarnation and
atheism’s extinction. The Bible’s teaching is summed up in that word
RESURRECTION and in that word there is hope!
It
is God’s desire not only to preserve our souls after death, but also our
physical bodies. We’ll talk more about how that works in a future
message, but for now I must say that the claim of Christianity, based on the
Bible, is this: humans are composed of both body, soul and spirit, we’re not
spirits imprisoned inside bodies and we’re not bodies without souls, so our
essential identity is both physical bodies and non physical souls, our afterlife
existence will be both body and soul.
In John 11 Jesus revealed that a special key to our eternal existence is the
resurrection of the body and the reuniting of body and soul. Jesus stated that
even though a person does die, fullness of life awaits on the other side. Even
to the thief dying on the cross Jesus promised, "I tell you the truth,
today you will be with me in paradise". (Luke 23:42-43 NIV)
Conclusion: Question Three
The Resurrection of Jesus IS
our Hope!
I
want to state this third and final reality about life after death based on what
the Bible says about death and because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus Christ conquered death on resurrection Sunday, we
can face tomorrow with certainty and hope.
There
are many books in which hundreds, even thousands, of people claim to have had a
near death experience. However, only Jesus Christ died a complete physical
death, and three days later rose from the grave to never die again. This is why
the literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the central claim of
the Christian faith, because without a literal resurrection the entire Christian
message crumbles.
In
his book Safe Passage, Richard Simmons, III says, “One’s hope in what is
to come shapes one’s present condition, helping us to live with the full
intensity of life. Hope is the firing pin that allows us to live and love with
courage and conviction…and with dignity.”
CONCLUDING ILLUSTRATION
Phillip
Yancey shares the story of Allied soldiers in a German prison camp in World War
II. They lived in total despair, wondering if they would survive until something
happened that changed everything.
[U]nbeknownst
to the guards, the Americans built a makeshift radio. One day news came that the
German high command had surrendered, ending the war—a fact that, because of a
communications breakdown, the German guards did not yet know. As word spread, a
loud celebration broke out.
For
three days, the prisoners were hardly recognizable. They sang, waved at the
guards, laughed at the German shepherd dogs, and shared jokes over meals. On the
fourth day, they awoke to find that all the Germans had fled, leaving the gates
unlocked. The time of waiting had come to an end.
We
know the Good News! Because of the
resurrection we have hope for tomorrow and meaning for today because we no
longer have to live with fear of death or the uncertainty of life hanging over
our head. Since you know the Good News, wave at the guards, laugh at the dogs and enjoy life
because it is your for an eternity!
