Life AFTER Death?
Death. A subject we just can't avoid.
Why were we made like this, born ... only to die? Why was the marvelous human organism put together so wondrously only to face decline and final deterioration? To some it all seems monstrously unfair.
These questions haunt us all, intrude into our consciousness at unguarded moments.
So we hurry along, hoping to sedate ourselves with plunges into career pursuits or pleasure. But the nagging questions come back ... especially when tragedy strikes.
Are the cynics right? Is death a cosmic joke, a mocking reminder of our fragile, perishable existence?
Life After Death?
To think about death is really to ask about life! Is there any purpose? Why
does the human mind atrophy? Why does such an engineering marvel as the human
body fade and dissolve? Were these things planned that way for a reason?
The Bible has a lot to say about life and death. It is the only verifiable document from one who was dead and is now alive (Rev. 1:18; Acts 1:3) - that is, if you believe the document.
The Bible reveals that all humans - the good, the bad and the horrific - are going to live again, no matter how long or how brief. Our conduct won't alter that fact. Surprised? Jesus Christ himself proclaimed this truth:"Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice" (John 5:28).
Before we can understand the meaning of the resurrection spoken of here by Jesus, we need to know what happens at death. This brings us face to face. with another universal misconception: the ancient Egyptian and Greek doctrine of the immortailty of the soul.
The Jewish Encyclopedia (vol. vi, pp. 564-566) emphatically declares that the idea of an immortal soul is not taught in the Old Testament but rather entered Jewish thought from contact with the Greek philosophers.
Man was created a "living soul" (Gen. 2:7), nephesh in the Hebrew. Nephesh is also used of the lower animals 29 times in the Hebrew Bible, commonly called the Old Testament. Usually nephesh means "a breathing creature, life, vitality," but not always. In Leviticus 21:11, nephesh actually refers to a dead body. Nephesh refers to a physical creature, a material organism, not a non-physical spirit essence. The Hebrews had another word for breath, air, spirit or wind. It was ruach.
Man is a living, breathing soul with his life in the blood, a life fed by food and water and oxygen. Genesis 9:4 says, "Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Here the life of man is in his blood. The word for life is, again, nephesh.
The Anchor Bible in its commentary on Job says: "The term nephesh has a wide range of meaning including breath, life, appetite, emotion and the whole person. The idea of the soul as a separate entity from the body is unbiblical"
At death the physical brain ceases functioning. That is why the Bible says "the dead know nothing" (Eccl. 9:5). The day we die, our "thoughts perish" (Ps. 146:4). The physical brain turns slowly to dust, but the spirit - and this is crucial - "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Eccl.12:7). This spirit is not a soul.
The Bible reveals "there is a spirit in man" (Job 32:8). 1 Corinthians 2:11 makes that plain. And the uses and properties of this spirit in man are intimately tied in with the resurrection.
But this spirit in man has no consciousness apart from the physical brain. What it does is impart understanding, attitude and imagination to the human mind. It is the distinguishing attribute between man and animal, and makes man capable of relating to God (I Cor. 2:11).
Proverbs 20:27 reveals that the spirit in man records the essential attributes of mind, personality and character. That is why Hebrews 12:23 speaks of the "spirits of just men made perfect" on file in heaven.
At death the heart stops, the blood ceases flowing, the brain begins to decay. But the record of our human character, attitude and personality is stored in the human spirit. And while this spirit has no consciousness of itself, it is the vital record of attitude and character that will be united with a new body in the resurrection (Phil. 3:20-21). The record of our experiences is kept on spiritual file! What a great mystery this is to many people today!
Not only is the resurrection a certainty, but the Bible mentions more than one resurrection!
Let's understand why. There are three classes of people to be raised: those who died in the faith looking forward to the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6), at Christ's return; those who die without hearing the name of Christ or in various ways not knowing these truths; and those very few who willfully reject the truth of God.
Why haven't you heard this before?
The apostle Paul clearly taught: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each one in his own order" (I Cor. 15:22-23).
Few people understand these marvelous truths today.
A Finished mesterpiece
And why the resurrection?
Man the thinker, man the key figure in the created order, was given a mind that can relate to God. But as amazing as Homo sapiens is, man's creation is not yet finished! We are not yet perfect.
This is the crux of the whole issue: God is working toward a far more glorious masterpiece than Adam. God is interested in the second, perfected Adam, born of God from the grave through the resurrection, just as Jesus was (Rom. 1:3-4).
In God's grand design both old age and death serve a great purpose. Consider Ecclesiastes 12:1-6. Here is a poetic and yet realistic word-portrait of the human aging process.
Verse 3 mentions in symbol the fading eyesight and memory powers, the trembling legs and arms and missing teeth accompanying old age. The pitcher shattered at the fountain, the wheel broken at the well, are both poignant symbols of breakdown, of usefulness spent.
But there is hope. Shining hope. Marvelous, glorious, triumphant hope.
The patriarch Job knew. He understood that God was fashioning something out of our lives, something even more majestic than a perfect physical specimen.
Job knew that God's highest purpose for his life could only be accomplished after death. That is what he said! "If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days ...I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire thework of Your hands" (Job 14:14:15).
Remember how Jesus said that all who are in the graves would hear his voice? Job is saying the same thing. Job knew he would not be forgotten. He was one of God's elect, one of those whose death was precious in God's sight (Ps. 116:15). Precious because at the resurrection when Christ returns, Job will be given a new spirit-energized body that will never die! At that time, God will reunite Job's spirit with a new glorified body, a body shining like the very stars in brightness (Dan. 12:3).
Perhaps now we understand Solomon's enigmatic statement that the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth (Eccl. 7:1). God's servants have always known that the highest purpose in their lives could only be accomplished after death. The first resurrection of the comparative few who are now being called of God to understand his truth completes the process of their salvation, a process whereby God transforms fallible, decaying human flesh - our temporary homes (II Cor. 5: l) - into the glorious spirit bodies we need in order to live, rule and work with him for all eternity (Rev. 21:2-7).
Part of that work will involve training and teaching the uncounted billions who have lived and died unaware of the great purpose God was working out in their lives. They, too, will be raised to mortal life (see Ezekiel 37:1-28) and taught these great truths in a second or general resurrection a thousand years later. So says your Bible (Rev. 20:12).
Victory at Last!
Perhaps now we can better understand the wisdom in human existence.
The pains and setbacks of life have a purpose: they are milestones on the road of life, attention-getters, reminders of the rendezvous with our Creator beyond the grave.
We were made physical to become spirit! And there, where we are buried, where our loved ones shed tears of grief and anguish, the faithful covenant-keeping God, the One who keeps every promise, the One who says he stores all our tears in a bottle (Ps. 56:8), will resurrect us! Death will be swallowed up in victory (I Cor. 15:54), the victory we should hope for at every funeral.
God's design and fairness is truly masterful. So the answer to the original question is, Yes, after death we will live again.