In addition to the primary and authoritative testimony of God’s holy word, I think there is another type of evidence. That is our own intuition and experience, which can be explained in brief. After that brief explanation I would like to take more time to explore the Biblical perspective that death is the “end,” in the sense that it is the “goal” of life.
Regarding the first brief evidence—personal intuition and experience, let me say that most people believe or intuit that there is something that follows this life, something real and possibly better, that extends beyond death and in which the human soul and spirit continue to live. These same people usually fancy that they will be beneficiaries of that reality because they have “lived a good life,” or at least what they fancy as one better than others have lived. But God’s standards are higher that this human standard (Isaiah 64:6).
First, we have our own sense of longing for eternal existence. No one in reasonably good health is ready to die. Our strongest urge is to go on living. How long to go on is not defined, but, like Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:1-6) we just want more time than we have had so far. When death threatens to draw a line across our time line, we resist in fear and loathing. As the ancient book of Job declares death is,“the king of terrors.” (Job 18:14)
I think that the basis of this hunger for more and longer life is the intuition that we creatures of the Living God were never meant to die. It is not part of our intended destiny, so we resist death. The sage King Solomon declared that God implanted eternity in the human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11), but that man is unable to know even what has been done from the beginning to the end of time.
The beginning of the Bible in Genesis reveals that death is recompense for rebellion against God, and that the first man and woman could have lived forever if they had remained obedient to their Creator. But they chose to rebel, and so also have every one of their descendants since. But just as we have inherited their sense of rebellion, so also we have inherited their sense of eternity as Paradise lost, with a yearning to regain eternal life. But we, like they, have traded our intuition of life for the penalty of death because of our sin.
Physicians talk about the “descent” of the fetus in the womb as the fetal head engages with the upper birth canal preparatory to labor and delivery. Our experience in the womb and descent toward birth presages another very different birth through descent into Death, as I have mentioned. Let us look further at this suggestive experience. The fetus in the womb is obviously equipped for a realm different than its mother’s womb. It might wonder what its feet are for, or why it has mouth and throat to swallow when its nourishment is provided through the umbilical cord. The answer to the fetus’s wonderment is that it is being equipped for a world beyond its limited brief domicile in utero.
With the aid of modern science today we know that the fetus experiences emotions. For example, loud raucous sounds startle the little person, but soothing music produces a peaceful composure. Maternal emotions incite similar emotional states in the fetus. A prominent fetal emotion is fear; this can be seen with ultrasound during abortion, as the fetus retreats from the cutting and sucking instruments of the abortionist. The fetus withdraws from painful stimuli. Pleasant tastes cause the fetus to swallow, but bitter ones repulse it. These and many more fetal actions indicate its preparation in the womb for life outside the womb in a much larger and more complex environment.
As for the fetus in its mother’s womb, so also for each person born into the “womb” of this Earth timescape. Our all-to-brief days in this world are preparatory for a larger and brighter world beyond this one, in eternal Heaven. I capitalize “Heaven” because it is a proper name for a specific place. The Bible accurately prophesies fetal behavior and emotion (Luke 1:39-45), and declares the larger and brighter world of Heaven as a fact and eternal reality that God has put into human nature (Ecclesiastes 3:11). I think this is why so many people in western cultural traditions that are influenced by the Bible, intuit a life following death in this present life.
Some elements in our present worldly existence are rehearsal for life after death. Spiritual habits and virtues like justice and wisdom can be useful in this world but others, like humility, self-sacrifice, the longing for perfection (“divine discontent”) are primarily advantageous only in the next world. Christian virtues seem absurd to the majority in this world.
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