Death is not the corruption of the soul in time but its deliverance into the eternal estate of its choosing. The soul is eternal. Its choice is to be with God, or separated from God—eternally. Having been personally tutored by God Himself in Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul describes this death of the earthly body and larger birth of the Christian soul and spirit into God’s eternal presence:
2 Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, (3) inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. (4) For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.
Here is an amazing fact, which many intuit, but are reluctant to pursue and investigate. Just as the fetal body in a mother’s womb with its dependence on a placenta for life support was rejected for the physical form suited for life in the world we presently occupy, so also this physical body, when worn out and no longer serviceable will be rejected for a heavenly body prepared by God and suitable for eternity.
Do we have any evidence that the “end” of the soul is its goal and entry into life rather than its obliteration, like the oxidation and assimilation of the physical body into the earth? Well, yes, we do.
First and foremost, we have the testimony of God Himself in His holy word, the Bible. The Bible will bear authentic testimony to any honestly open minded person who reads it searching for truth. The sad fact is that virtually everyone who rejects or ignores the Christian God has never, and will never, read what He has to say in His word. The Bible is unlike all other monastic musings and religious fabrications of mere men. As G.K. Chesterton said,
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”
That is to say, men know the Christian path can be strenuous and require self-denial. Therefore, in far too many cases, universal human selfishness predisposes too many sinful people to spurn the exhortations of a loving God and redefine death as eternal nothingness. The truly hellish reality will be to discover that we were wrong and had to live with the consequences of this choice—separation from the love of God—forever. It would be as though my second born twin son still in the womb was clinging to and clawing at the lining of his mother’s womb until the placenta separated so that he was deprived of its life giving oxygen and thus arrived stillborn in this world that should have been his living destiny.
In similar fashion, eternal Paradise with the loving God and Creator of this world is our proper destiny, for it is God’s kindly intention that none of us should perish but that all should repent of wrongdoing and be saved (2 Peter 3:9). All that is needed is that we repent and confess our sinfulness to God and be declared innocent by the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Christ took our punishment in death and gave us His life in eternity. All we have to do is accept the gift. The only requirement to our salvation and eternal security is repentance from our sins and trust in God. It seems, for many, that is too much to ask. It makes me weep!
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