What comes after death?

Father Tim answers the question:

We go through life, we work hard to achieve something, we find someone to love and if we’re fortunate we build a family and experience good and positive and lasting relationships. But what does it all mean if it all ends in death? What’s the point of learning, if my brain’s just going to go demented and then die out? What’s the point of love, if sooner or later you’re going to lose the one you love? Is it really possible that all these years of laughing and working, eating and sleeping, learning and loving are going to end up in nothing more than the decay of my body in the grave?

Human beings have always pondered that question, and throughout our history we’ve continuously speculated about what happens to us after we die. Some, believing that the person continues to live in some sense after death, have left tools and articles of clothing in the grave to help the dead person in the next life. Some people have tried to contact the dead, and others believe that the dead have contacted them. Some people have been afraid of what comes after death and have paid money for masses to be said for the safety of their souls. Some have believed that when we die we go to a better place. Others have been skeptical: we just die, and that’s the end of that.

The Christian faith is firmly on record as teaching that there is life after death. In the Nicene Creed, which goes back in its earliest form to the fourth century A.D., we say, ‘We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come’. What does this mean? What do we actually believe about life after death?

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Our Christian hope isn’t a selfish one: it’s not just about ‘what will happen to me after I die’. It’s about the future of God’s entire creation. And that future will not just be what we call a ‘spiritual’ thing – it will involve bodies and matter as well. All the material things we know with our senses – the taste of food, the feel of the sun on your skin on a warm day, the caress of a lover – these are good things made by a good and loving God. When the last day comes God isn’t going to abandon matter as a bad idea and opt for a purely ‘spiritual’ world, as Plato taught. No: the Bible tells us that what God is going to do is ‘make all things new’; God is going to heal the wounds of creation and restore it to his original dream. And he’s going to raise his people from the dead so that they can enjoy life as he originally conceived it, before evil entered his world.

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What we do know is that the Christian hope is about the renewal of this world. It tells us that the future of this world is in the hands of God and not of the forces of evil and destruction; that the last word will be God’s word and not the words of tyrants or mass murderers. The symbolic language of the book of Revelation tells us that the day will come when the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven to earth, when God will make his home among us and live with us forever, when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, when death and mourning and crying and pain will be no more; the time when God will say, “See, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:2-5).

That’s our hope, and so we can face death with a different attitude. Christian teaching doesn’t pretend that death isn’t a huge blow; Paul doesn’t tell his friends in Thessalonica not to grieve for those who have died. What he says is that they do not need to grieve ‘as others do who have no hope’ (4:13). We will grieve, yes, but only as I might grieve if I was going to be separated from my loved ones for a very long trip in which I would be unable to contact them at all. People who don’t have this hope grieve because they see death as the final separation. But we Christians are encouraged to trust that beyond that separation there will be a great reunion, on that bright morning when God renews his whole creation, when Jesus is acknowledged by all as Lord of heaven and earth, and when the human family finally finds the peace and justice we’ve been longing for, for as long as we can remember.

Friends... that's hope... and change... to believe in.

I suggest you read the whole thing... and be refreshed.

Comments

[Leslie]

I like that.
Right now I'm reading Randy Alcorn's book , Heaven which talks about the physical nature of the afterlife and it is a wonderful thing to think about. :)

[Mommynator]

"God must have liked matter - He made so much of it." Don't remember who said that, but I believe it.

Such wonder and beauty in this world.

[Tim Chesterton]

Thanks for the link, Rick. Indeed, hope and change we can believe in.

will he really take away my pain and wipe my tears away? he won't call me a liar when I tell him the truth? he won't put me down and tell me I'm stupid? how can he take this pain and hurt away? why would he take it from me I have nothing to offer him. there is nothing about me he would like

[Colin]

I believe that after death we no longer experience the passage of time so that even an infinite ammount of time seems like no time at all. So from your perspective you instantly begin your next life even if by the time you begin this next life an infinite ammount of time has passed.

I also created a blog that explains this in more detail

http://reincarnation-yono.blogspot.com/

[Anonymous]

The reason why Christianity is so popular, is because it is so positive and it fits Christians. Christians choose to believe that there's a beautiful Heaven after death that goes on for ever. Also, they think there's a hell, but they're not gonna visit it because Jesus died for them. Those Christian beliefs are positive and comfortable. But, just because a theory is positive and you like it, does not mean it is true and valid. I believe that there is a possibly that religion was an idea that has been used through out history for control and power. I also believe that, maybe the story of Jesus, Moses, Muhammad...etc. was manipulated by other people who came after the "Prophets" for different reasons. But, there is also a possibility of Christian beliefs to be true, and that possibility is somewhere between or less than 0.1 to 0.2 percent.

[BroKen]

"I believe that there is a possibly that religion was an idea that has been used through out history for control and power."

That's not a possibility, Anon. It is a certainty that the idea has been used for control and power. But the real question, as you say, is whether it is true. People will use the Truth for their own purposes.

And again, "..maybe the story of Jesus, Moses, Muhammad...etc. was manipulated by other people..." No maybe about it. We see the story of Jesus manipulated every year from around November to December 25 in order to make a buck. But again, as you say, that doesn't make it false.

Your percentages make me think you haven't investigated the case for Christ very deeply, but let's take them as you give them. You say that there is a one in a thousand chance that we Christians are right and you can lead a "positive and comfortable" life and get heaven thrown in. Or, you can lead a meaningless existence and disappear when you die (999 times out of a thousand.) Even with your mistaken odds, you must see why I'm "putting my money" on the Christian idea. Wouldn't you pay a dollar for a million dollar lottery ticket if you knew there were only a thousand tickets? Shoot, I might buy a hundred tickets! I mean, our Christian "winnings" are several thousand times better than the alternative, don't you think? (This is sometimes called, Pascal's Wager)

[ZK]

BroKen, you think God will let you into heaven because you have better chances that way (I.G. only belive so you can get into heaven)? It really says something when you are able to compare religion to the lottery. Both scam you out of money, then again, I suppose.

[theRipper]

Religion is just a bunch of lies made up by people to scared to face the truth.

[BroKen]

No, ZK, I believe God will bring me into His heaven because He loves me enough to send a lifeline. He sends the lifeline to you, too. All you have to do is deny yourself, that is, acknowledge that your efforts are futile, and grab the lifeline He sends.

Ripper, your statement can run both ways. Atheism is a lie made up by a bunch of people who are afraid to face the truth that there are ultimate consequences for the actions and attitudes of all humans collectively and individually.

[.]

there's nothing before you're born, there's nothing after you die, it's quite easy to understand.

[Sariel]

Your all lost. You shall only find out when you get there. Who cares what's out there why worry now and enjoy later. Allow this to be vise versa enjoy now worry about death later. When you actually get there.

[chuck aka xtnyoda]

I love 1John 3:2, "Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is."

I like to explain it like this, "What we will be like in our glorified state is something that God could not have simply created, it is something that Jesus had to die for."