Then what?

Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with saying: ‘In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes’. While it might be just about possible to avoid paying taxes it is absolutely certain that sooner or later every one of us will die.

So then what?

Well whether our bodies are cremated, interred or buried at sea it is beyond doubt that our physical bodies do end up as ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes’ as the words used in most funeral service declare. But is that it, is that the end of us?

Well the vast majority of faiths would affirm that that is not the case, that there are two elements to all human life. These are usually referred to as the body, the physical element, and the soul, the spiritual and invisible element. During life these two elements are inextricably bound together but when we die they separate. We know what happens to the body but what about the soul?

The most reliable source of information regarding this is The Bible, although the Qur’an (the Muslim scriptures) does refer to life after death and has some similarities.

The Old Testament has very few references to life after death. The prevailing concept is of eternal rest (in a place called Sheol) but there is little expansion on this. So we need to turn to the New Testament.

In the time of Jesus there were varying traditions and beliefs within Judaism. One group, called Sadducees, did not believe in any form of life beyond death but that one’s situation in life was dependent on how well the individual followed the laws set down by Moses. So the good prospered and the bad suffered.

Jesus did not subscribe to this view, so some Sadducees challenged him with a hypothetical situation; A man married a woman but he died without his wife having any children so his brother married her (in the Jewish tradition of the time, if a married man died without children his brother was obligated to marry his widow and have children to preserve the family name). In this story the brother also died without children and so the next brother married the widow and so on several times. Finally the woman died. The question they posed Jesus was:’ So whose wife was the woman when they all got the heaven? ‘

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

So here we have an unambiguous statement from Jesus that there is most certainly life after death.

When Jesus was crucified he was not on his own, there were two criminals crucified with him. One of them asked Jesus to remember him when he entered his Kingdom. To this Jesus replied: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  It seems inconceivable that Jesus, so close the death himself. would have promised something that he couldn’t deliver.

At the Last Supper Jesus told his disciples that he was going to ‘prepare a place for them’. In the context of his imminent crucifixion, this could only mean a spiritual place.

So if there is indeed life after death what is it like and does everyone end up in the same place?

What heaven is like is a difficult one. We live in a finite world where time passes, so it is virtually impossible to comprehend any environment where time doesn’t exist – eternity.  What would we do in eternity? These are unanswerable questions. There are lots of analogies in the Bible but these can only give an inkling. What we are assured is that in Heaven we are close to God and all the pains, cares and concern of this life will no longer exist, we will be in a place of perfection and harmony.

Does everyone end up in Heaven? – The short answer is, no.

Probably the most famous verse in the Bible makes this clear: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

So what happens to all the rest?

Before we get to that let’s look at ‘whoever believes in him’

This doesn’t mean an abstract belief in Jesus as an historical figure, a good man, or even that he was someone sent by God. It means a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, an acceptance of his teachings and a commitment to do our best to follow them.

As James says in his letter; ‘faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead’.

As to what happens to everyone else.

Much as this is probably the answer that we don’t want to hear, the inescapable truth is that after our physical death each of us will be judged. The good news is that God alone is our judge – we do not get to judge one another. As a graphic example of how this works Jesus told this parable.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The first thing to note from this parable is that it is about how we treat our fellow human beings. The second thing is that how we treat one another is the equivalent to treating God himself that way.

But what about this ‘eternal fire’? Are those that don’t make the grade literally going to spend eternity in a fiery pit?

It is difficult to square this picture with the one of a loving God who allowed himself to be murdered to give us a way back to Him. There are any number of views on this but most likely  these glimpses of hell are intended to be taken figuratively to describe an environment in which God is absent, which is the opposite of eternal life in heaven. Somewhere where no one could possibly choose to go.

But what about those who know nothing of Jesus or Christianity? 

The apostle Paul covered this in his letter to the church in Rome

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)

What Paul was saying is that those who have not had any opportunity to hear or respond to Gospel message will still be judged but based on a different criteria to those who have.

So in a nutshell;

There is most certainly life after death

After death each one of us will be judged by God

No one makes the grade on their own

BUT through the death and resurrection of Jesus everyone has the opportunity to inherit eternal life with God

All that is required of us is that we believe in Jesus as God and do our best to live according to his teachings.