It’s not that we don’t think it’s going to come to us one day, we just don’t contemplate it because it may be too far in the future to be a concern. Yet, the question needs to be asked and faced.
It may just be that a person has assumed there is no afterlife.
But fact-checkers are not going to have much hope of answering this question.
Even if they say there is no afterlife due to the absence of sufficient evidence, the absence of sufficient evidence is never an affirmation of its opposite. At best, all they can do is shrug their shoulders and say they don’t know.
However, for over 2000 years, the church has been passing on witness of the resurrection of Jesus.
In fact, it is the very bedrock on the which the church stands. Jesus’s crucifixion and suffering cannot mean anything if He was not resurrected from the dead.
It could be said that western society is going backwards from the cohesive society it once knew when Christianity was the dominant system with its shared values.
We seem to be more divided than ever and there seems to be far fewer people doing voluntary service in the community (for example, Apex, Rotary, Lions clubs).
From the church’s beginning, the hope of resurrection drove church members’ actions with purpose and significance, fostering a society focused on compassion, service and the pursuit of a greater good, as they gave of themselves to the work of Christ.
They suffered and voluntarily gave up their time to care for others, realising that life didn’t end with death. They possessed a profound hope for a future that they firmly believed God would ultimately provide through a resurrection to everlasting life.
When Jesus was confronted with opposition to the resurrection view, He blamed the lack of belief on two fronts: they did not know the Scripture and they did not know the power of God (Mark 12:24).
For most people, they fall into the latter category of not knowing or understanding the power of God. This relates to a lack of faith that we have seen become pervasive in western culture for many decades now.
Many people struggle with reasoning through the process. Having many views available on the afterlife, many are not sure what to believe! They may even be thinking that the theory of evolution has disproved the reality and necessity of God!
Let’s consider these thoughts, however. If I had one $50 note and someone printed 99 counterfeit $50 notes and they were placed in a wallet, the 99 counterfeits don’t disprove the existence of the legitimate one. So many views don’t disprove a correct one.
(And if you thought that science had done away with such beliefs, new discoveries are constantly challenging the accepted theories about the origin and development of life: for example, https://returnofthegodhypothesis.com)
Perhaps it is time to re-examine our approach to life and death.
The question of what happens after we die is not meant to be dismissed or ignored.
It is a fundamental inquiry that has occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians and seekers of truth throughout history.
Pastor David McAllan,
echucacommunitychurch.com
25°C