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| "Forget images of playing harps up in the clouds" |
When young
children – and many adults – do something for a while, they soon get bored and ask
“What’s next?” We’ve done that, been there, achieved this, arrived here, so
what’s next on the bucket list, or the life plan? It’s what drives us to gain
promotion, get more money, upgrade our lifestyle. Contentment is sometimes wrongly
equated with stagnation and boredom.
But the biggest
question of all – what’s next after death? – is not one we spend much time on
until tragedies or advancing years intervene. Almost every culture and religion
has some kind of belief in afterlife and Christianity is no exception. So what,
if anything, is next, and why should we think about it?
Death: an obscene intrusion into life
Life is
precious. When death intrudes, whether by “natural” or violent causes,
individuals grieve, communities mourn, and strangers may gather and offer
support. In some well-publicised and usually violent or tragic cases, shrines
spring up, Facebook fundraising takes place, and memorial concerts are
arranged. Life is glorious and to be celebrated. Death seems obscene, wrong.
We have “a
profound inability to conceive of nothingness,” author and columnist Caitlin
Moran wrote. Three years earlier she had declared, “I want there to be an afterlife,
now.”1 The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences has been offered for
anyone who can show a way of conquering death.
There have been
three modern attempts to postpone or escape death. The welcome rise of medical
expertise including transplant surgery, along with improvements to diet and public
health, has succeeded in lengthening average lifespans considerably in
developed countries. However, it can also have the effect of lengthening life
artificially so much that a person becomes a breathing corpse. By contrast,
good palliative care aims to enhance, not necessarily extend, a person’s
remaining days.
The technique
of cryonics, which deep freezes newly-deceased bodies in the hope that they
might one day be resuscitated has been available to rich people for several
decades, mostly in the USA (currently for $200,000). And there is growing
interest, fostered by science-fiction writers and partly illustrated in the
Channel 4 TV series Humans, in
“transhumanism”, in which electronic hardware and software extracts memory and
personality from the brain as well as replacing worn-out tissue.2
Contrary to
some popular misconceptions, biblically death is not seen as a friend but as
“the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Alfred Lord Tennyson caught
the conviction that death is an unwelcome intrusion into life at the start of
his long poem In Memoriam. It was
written over several years in response to the sudden death of his close friend
Arthur Haslam, which threw Tennyson’s faith into confusion:
Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:
Thou madest man, he knows not why,He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.
“Not made to
die.” But we do. Some believe there is
nothing beyond death. We live on only in others’ memories, through our achievements,
and through our genes in our offspring. That is largely how people in Old
Testament times viewed life beyond the grave. Apart from a hazy idea about a
shadowy existence in Sheol and the occasional glimmer of insight such as Job’s
“after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (19:25),
future hope for ancient Israelites lay more in genealogy than regeneration. It
is only in the New Testament that a clear and at the time revolutionary concept
of life after death appears.
The famous
reaction of Jesus Christ – “Jesus wept” – when his friend Lazarus died suggests
that there is even divine grief and anger in the face of death. Translators
struggle with the Greek original of John 11:33. The NIV suggests “he was deeply
moved in spirit and troubled”. The New Living Translation has “he was moved
with indignation and was deeply troubled”. It was not just because he had lost
a personal friend whose home had been a welcome retreat for him.
The 19th-century
theologian B.B. Warfield described Jesus’ anger thus: “It is death [itself]
that is the object of his wrath, and behind death him who has the power of
death and whom he has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may
fill his eyes, but this is incidental. His soul is held by rage: and he
advances to the tomb, in Calvin’s words, ‘as a champion who prepares for
conflict.’ Not in cold unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus
smites on our behalf.”3
Death, this
seems to imply is somehow an “unnatural” intrusion into life. Yet cold logic
tells us that death is part of the cycle of life. Plants and animals die, their
remains recycled by the seasonal rhythms. Age takes its toll on all living
things. Everything physical slowly decays or wears out. Even stars like our
sun, in their unimaginably long timescale, are born and eventually die and are
consumed.
This creates a
problem for interpretations of the creation stories in Genesis which suggest
that death entered the world only after the rebellion of Adam and Eve. (This
can be implied from Paul’s teaching in Romans 5:12-21 and 1 Corinthians
15:21-22.) Was everything before then as indestructible as modern plastic?
Where did the humus nutrients for plant life come from if not from decay? Were
all the animals vegetarian? Generally, commentators regard the threat of
“death” after eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis
2:17) as a purely spiritual alienation from God, which is probably how Paul
intended his teaching to imply.
So in their
pristine Paradise, how did death occur? Could Adam eventually have become
crippled with arthritis? Could Eve have developed breast cancer? C.S. Lewis in
his science fiction novels speculated on a kind of painless, joyful translation
of an un-fallen race from this life to the next. We’ll never know. This is now,
and everyone dies, sometimes prematurely, sometimes painfully, sometimes
peacefully. But the New Testament suggests that God has not left us to mope
over what might have been, but gives us a glimmer of hope for what could be.
Resurrection and re-creation
The Bible does
not teach that human beings are immortal. On that basis, it is possible to
believe that death is the end for all, or that life after death is granted only
to some favoured souls. It also rules out any concept of reincarnation; we
don’t go on and on in different forms. Instead the New Testament introduces a
whole new concept: resurrection.
Although the
idea had crept into Judaism during the previous few centuries, it was still
contentious and unclear in Jesus’ time. Hence the cynical question by the
resurrection-denying Sadducees about which husband would live with a
hypothetical seven-times married widow in the next life (Mark 12:18-27). Jesus’
teaching about his own forthcoming death and resurrection was received with
bemusement by his disciples (e.g. Mark 8:31-32; John 14:1-6).
What
transformed their understanding was the undeniable fact of Jesus’ own bodily resurrection.
Despite his attempts to prepare them for the unimaginable, it was only when it
happened that they understood. In the book of Acts, it was Jesus’ resurrection,
not his atoning death on the cross, which dominated the apostles’ preaching and
inspired the rapid growth of the fledgling church. The resurrection
demonstrated God’s power and love, and paved the way for anyone who believed in
him to enter eternal life.
And it was
Jesus’ resurrection that formed the basis of St Paul’s relatively brief teaching
about what lies in store after death for the rest of us. Like Jesus, we too
will be raised from death. In what is probably his earliest letter, he tells
his readers not to grieve for those who already “sleep in death” as if there is
no hope for them. “For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we
believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1
Thessalonians 4:13-14).
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| Human imagery cannot begin to comprehend spiritual and eternal reality |
In 1
Corinthians 15:20 he calls Jesus the first instalment of those who will rise at
the last day, when God creates a new “kingdom”. He suggests that the bodies we
shall receive will be spiritual and enduring rather than physical and mortal. This
tells us only enough to be sure that life after death will be conscious and
tangible.
The book of Revelation,
often appealed to as a picture of life after death, certainly portrays heavenly
scenes but only in figurative language. It must be remembered that the vision
given to John was not intended to describe the future life in any detail but,
in veiled language, to encourage persecuted Christians that their enemies would
eventually be vanquished and their faithfulness to Christ rewarded. The picture
of a new heaven and a new earth as a cubic city made of gold and precious
stones (Revelation 21) was never meant to be understood as a sneak preview of
God’s photo album but as an artist’s or visionary’s way of saying that “it will
be perfect and unblemished, beyond your wildest dreams”.
Forget the caricatures and conjectures
The idea of
life after death has attracted many caricatures, mythical conjectures and
hopeful assumptions and it’s hard even for Christians to throw them off. So forget
joining angels on puffy clouds to strum harps all day. And thankfully forget
the idea of heavenly equivalent of an endless church service. The image of
worshipping throngs in Revelation 7 – whose joy stems from God’s victory over
their persecutors – has to be matched with Paul’s assertion in Romans 12:1-2
that true and proper worship is serving God wholeheartedly.
Forget too the
idea of a perfected life as we know it on earth. At the end of Julian Barnes’
book A history of the world in 10½
chapters the hero asks to be taken away from heaven because he’s fed up of
going round the golf course in 18 strokes – a hole in one each time. Couldn’t
the creator of the universe come up with something more interesting, he asks.
He probably has, but we know precious little about it because we cannot
conceive of “life” beyond the material world.4
So what can we know?
Here’s some
bullet points from the scriptures, to feed the thoughts and conversations we
all need to have about life after death.
·
There
is something next. Jesus’
resurrection – the Easter story – points to that. Jesus rose, and is accessible
to us through prayer and in experience. He told Martha at Lazarus’s grave “I am
the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live even though
they die.” He told his disciples he was going to prepare a place for them (John
11:25; 14:2).
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| Life after death will be completely different: sculptor Phillida Barlow's "upside down house" defies imagination |
·
It
will be radically different to life now. “Heaven” is an unimaginable dimension
beyond space and time. It will be tangible but not as things are now. It will
be a timeless dimension. Eternity is not time extended infinitely, but a whole
other dimension. Theoretical physicists and cosmologists currently suggest that
there are already more dimensions in the universe than we can conceive, and
perhaps also other universes. Our imagination (and often our faith) is
time-bound and rooted to our concept of matter as we know it. Yet Jesus’
resurrection body had unworldly properties, behaving more like some of the
elusive elementary particles of matter discovered by researchers that behave in
distinctly non-material ways. As he was, so shall we be.
·
It
will be good but not a mere escape. St Paul declared that “I desire to depart
and be with Christ which is better by far”. But this was not the weary cry of a
man worn down by constant deprivations, ailments, and crises. He decided that
actually “it is more necessary for you [Philippians] that I remain in the body”
(Philippians 1:23-24). He didn’t want to go there yet because he had more work
to do here in order to comply with God’s good purposes. When Paul declared in 1
Corinthians 15:19 that if we have hope in Christ only for this life, “we are of
all people most to be pitied” he did not intend to fuel Nietzsche’s later
assertion that heaven is a myth devised to comfort weak people. Paul was
this-life affirming; the hope of eternal life was an added incentive to remain
faithful to God’s calling now. The promised upgrade to come doesn’t detract
from the call of the present to build God’s Kingdom as best as we’re able.
·
It
will be a place of knowledge and understanding. Our questions will be answered,
our doubts resolved, at last. “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
·
It
will be a totally new creation without the built-in blemishes and weaknesses
the present one endures. It will be without suffering, pain, and conflict;
justice will be seen to have been done; evil will be banished (Revelation 21:4;
22:5). The question as to why this life is blemished and prone to accident and
decay is perhaps only one that can be answered in the next life.
·
There
will also be continuity with this life. The biblical picture of “paradise”
begins with a garden in Genesis and ends with a city in Revelation. In between
is the call to contribute to the building of God’s “Kingdom”. God is not about
to destroy everything good that we’ve done corporately and individually.
Somehow all will be renewed, and thus incorporated into a new creation
depicting what we should and could have done had we been more faithful to God’s
purposes. Paul writes of the “redemption” of creation, not its wholesale
demolition (Romans 8:18-25).
More questions than answers
Once you begin
thinking about the topic, many other questions come to mind. What happens
between the time we die and the return of Christ and the inauguration of the
new creation? Paul suggests the after-death experience will be like sleeping,
which presumably means from the point of view of the deceased there’s no
passage of time at all – we’re oblivious to it.
But is there
some kind of intermediate state, a place of preparation, a dressing room, if
you like, before we take our place on stage before the King? Scripture is
virtually silent on the topic and focuses on this life as the training ground
(see the parable in Luke 16:19-31 which seems to rule out any “second chance”).
Yet we all retain our human imperfections. We need to receive our new set of
spiritual clothes (see Matthew 22:1-14; Revelation 7:9-17; and compare Paul’s
imagery of changing clothes in Colossians 3:1-14 and the promise that we shall
be changed in an instant 1 Corinthians 15:51-54). The jury is out; we wait and
see.
And then
there’s the question of the last judgement. “We will all stand before God’s
judgement seat … [and] each of us will give an account of ourselves to God”
(Romans 14:10,12). Is this an exam with rankings, to determine which position
we will attain in the next life? Paul suggests that our work for God will
survive, or be incorporated into the great transformation, and we will be
rewarded. Those whose lives here have contributed nothing to the Kingdom will
see their worthless activity “burned up” but they themselves will suffer loss
yet still be saved (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). Is this a hint of differing levels
of heaven? But how can a perfect new creation be anything other than
egalitarian? Otherwise I might think I ought to have a better spot than someone
else, and all the old rivalries re-emerge! Again, we have to wait and see; it’s
not for us to speculate, but simply get on with being the best we can for God.
And that leads
to the final question: who will be there? There’s plenty of room (or rooms) for
all, Jesus suggests in John 14:2. Paul seems to leave the door open to people
who have never had the opportunity of hearing the Gospel clearly in Romans
2:12-16. But Jesus also speaks of hell as well as heaven. “Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who
does the will of my father who is in heaven”; all others will be driven from
his presence (Matthew 7:21-23; 25:31-46; Luke 16:19-31). Tyrants, murderers and
the selfishly immoral appear to be excluded (Revelation 21:8), yet Jesus
promised paradise to the dying thief on the cross who may have repented to
Jesus but who had no time to make amends or communicate to others (Luke
23:40-43).
The imagery of
a loving God torturing sinful souls for ever is probably a distortion of the
biblical teaching. Better, perhaps, to think of the exclusion as permanent, and
that the realisation of such a fate may result in agonising regrets; beyond
that, scripture again seems to be silent. Biblical scholars these days are
talking more about exclusion from the Kingdom in terms of eventual annihilation
after the initial realisation, than of unending terror. Apart from other
considerations this underlines that fact that humans are not born immortal.
Death could be the end, for some, after the painful and damning judgement that
they’ve wasted their life and missed out on some glorious future.
These warnings
are not given as a basis to speculate about the fate of others. They are for
each person’s cautionary personal examination. When Peter presumed to ask about
the fate of John, he was rebuked by Jesus (John 21:20-23). Judgement of others
is to be left to God. We’ve got enough to do just to sort ourselves out (see
Matthew 7:1-2).
There’s just
one potential down side, which is why all this is worth thinking about. There
could be people in the next life who currently we can’t stand. God loves them
as he loves us. And they will be there, just as we will be, not because of any
merit on our part, but courtesy of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection on
that first Easter. One way of preparing for what’s next is to live and think in
Christ’s way now.
And the sure
way of being confident that however flawed we remain we will still be welcomed
into heaven is to take heed to Jesus’ promise to Martha: “I am the resurrection
and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and
whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John
11:25-26). And if the answer is yes, John much later in life assured his
readers, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. …
Whoever has the Son has life” (1 John 5:1,12). We do not need to go fearfully
into death’s good night.
Think and talk
1. Work through each section and its Bible
references. If you can, discuss the implications with a group of others.
2. What have you done to prepare yourself and
others for your inevitable departure from this life?
References
1. Caitlin Moran, The Times Magazine, 7 October 2017 and 22 February 2014.2. My short story Time to go explores an aspect of this. See http://gentlertales.blogspot.com/p/time-to-go.html
3. B.B. Warfield, The person and work of Christ, quoted in R.V.G. Tasker, The Gospel according to John, IVP 1979, p.140.
4. The Julian Barnes story was quoted by Bishop Tom Wright, “Imagine there’s no heaven – not such a hellish idea” in The Sunday Times, 20 April 2003
5. Quoted in The Times Diary, 16 June 2016.
© Derek
Williams 2018
