‘What happens when we die?’
The late scientist, Stephen Hawking once said :
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
Bertrand Russell, the well-known twentieth century philosopher, thought similarly. He recognised that brain function is necessary fro the mind to work. So, if one 's brain ceases to function, then one 's mind ceases too. To survive death, at least a person’s mind must survive. However as brain functioning ceases with death he deduced that no-one survives death.
Are such thinkers right? They think we should move away from ‘a superstitious mindset, a primitive dependence on metaphors, like God, and heaven, and final judgment, and into a mature realization that the reality the five senses give us is the only reality’.
Their problem is one of lack of evidence. They have not met anyone who has survived brain death. The only witness who could give valid evidence is rejected but seldom for good reason. Everything he said and did was admired by all who saw him.
Jesus’ teaching
In contrast, Jesus teaches very differently. He says that there will be a resurrection of the body which will include a functioning brain. In Luke 16:19–31, Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and Dives who each received their respective rewards immediately after death. They each had bodies and minds. Jesus said to the penitent thief:
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43
But Jesus wasn’t vague or indefinite about the reality of a continuing personal existence after death. He said:
“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” Matthew 10:28
Jesus promised Paradise to the repentant thief who was dying at his side, but he also used the Valley of Hinnom – a foul garbage dump outside of Jerusalem – as a symbol of what awaits those who insist on risking the judgment of God. Jesus taught that the most significant issue in life is facing the reality of life after death. He said, for example, that if an eye keeps you from God, you have reason to get rid of that eye.
“It is better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell” Mark 9:47
Jesus had a lot to say to those who turn their back on God and just live for this world. He keeps reminding us that we should live with the next world in view.
Some admire Jesus’ moral teaching on honesty and integrity but reject the main core of his teaching about salvation and being right with God. Even in his day, people wanted Jesus to simply be an arbiter of ethical behaviour but he refused to be drawn into this as his primary message was so much more important. One man approached Jesus because he thought the distribution of an inheritance seemed unfair.
“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’
Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’ And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.” Luke 12:13-21
This farmer’s great problem is clear from the way Jesus tells the story, he was greedy and selfish. He was besotted with himself and his comfortable life here on earth. He had forgotten God. Jesus has a simple message for him – ‘You fool’. What a catastrophic mistake this is for any person to make, yet this is what the Almighty God will say to many when they meet him face to face.
It is this same Jesus who said that the evidence that what he teaches is true will be that he himself will raise from the dead with a new body and mind.
Jesus’ apostles
These men all met the risen Christ and were convinced about his claim to be our incarnate creator. Eleven out of the twelve were so convinced that nothing would stop them convincing the world about Jesus. Eleven out of the twelve were martyred for this insistence.
Paul the Apostle similarly depicts death as sleep awaiting the resurrection of a glorified body: (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18), and (in 2 Corinthians 5) longs to be absent from the body that he may be present with the Lord. He understood death to be the doorway to his eternal reward (Philippians 1:21–30). The English word ‘cemetery’ literally means ‘a place of sleep’ – it is a Christian word reflecting that all people will one day receive new bodies and brains prior to an eternal judgment
BVP
