When we are facing an extremely important decision, we have a phrase to describe it:
Life and Death
This is, in terms of real world application, the very essence of the idea of “important”.
Life is pretty straightforward, we do it all day, every day. Whether we do it well……or poorly……..we all have a clear understanding of what it means to be alive.
Death, on the other hand, is a much more slippery idea.
I’m 71 years old. Death is close. I spend a lot of time thinking about death. Every day I sense something in my body. And I wonder……is this the beginning……..of death?
So…..today, I want to explore death.
It turns out that there are two critical questions that we must each sort out regarding death:
Is death real…..does it even exist?
What is death……or non-death…..like?
I’ll tackle the easy possibilities first.
Death is real and when it occurs, the lights just go out. Death is nothing…….dead…..black…..nothing. No part of what is “you” goes on. The implication of these two possible facts is that this life is all that you have…….all that you will ever have. So…..live it up.
“Eat, drink and be merry……for tomorrow you will die.”
Ecclesiastes 8:15, and Isaiah 22:13
This is pretty much how most Americans, Christians and non-believers alike, practice the art of life. It is a life that is, at once, both exhilarating……..and grim.
And then come the hard possibilities:
Death is not real.
and
What is this “non-death” like?
Question One:
Death is not real. I know……I know. You are asking, “what is this guy smoking?” Bear with me. What I mean is that physical death is not the end of our existence. Rather, it is a transition from one type of life to another type of life. The details of this second phase of life……this Act II……are not entirely clear. But, it will last forever. And that means that what goes on after our non-death is infinitely more important than what we do before our non-death.
Question Two:
If death is not real, then what is our non-death like? Now we get to the heavy lifting. There are several dominant philosophies that deal with the subject of non-death. I am a Christian so what follows is pulled from the teachings of Jesus……and others…….in the Bible. Much of the language used in the Bible is symbolic; but, the central theme is crystal clear. After your non-death, you will transition to a life that is endless. That life will either be very nice…..or unspeakably bad.
But which?
This brings us to the greatest misconception in Christianity.
Good people go to paradise….bad people go to hell.
NOT TRUE…… this is what most Christians believe; but, this is not what Christianity teaches……it never was.
Christianity teaches that the people in paradise will be fallen people…..sinners……who have been forgiven. The people in hell will be fallen people…..sinners…….who have rejected God’s forgiveness. These two groups of people will score about the same on the scale of goodness. Being good is a positive side effect of forgiveness. But, being a good person is not your ticket to paradise.
The great irony is that we get to choose what follows our non-death. You get to choose your fate.
Accept Jesus’s free gift of forgiveness. The rest will follow.
That’s it……you’re done.
As it turns out Henley, in spite of himself, was right in the poem “Invictus”
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
Jesus, explaining death from God’s perspective,
Luke 20: 38, ESV
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”
Jesus explaining life, non-death, paradise, and hell,
Luke 16: 19-31,ESV