Hello, today's thought is about the idea of an after life. This question is nearly an unavoidable idea within the reality of death "is there an after life." Job put it this way, "Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again?"
For those of us who believe the bible we respond with an unequivocal, yes! There is good reason for this belief founded in the bible, because the bible is trustworthy. We believe it to be the inerrant, infallible, and the preserved word of God. For one that would question if there is an after life, we Christians only need to refer such inquirers to the word of God. We can say that there is an after life because the bible is true, and I know that the bible is true because it is logically consistent, empirically adequate, and experimentally relevant. In simpler words, the bible is coherent to what we see and know about life; there is nothing in the bible that is contradictory.
For example, one retort is that people do not believe in an after life because there is no tangible evidence of an after life, and one must go off of faith to accept and that there is one. This posses no problem for the Christian, for that is logically consistent with the bible. The bible doesn't seek to prove the existence of an after life by tangible evidence, the bible says we receive it by faith, with good evidence (although not tangible) that it is true.
However, those who wrote the bible did see tangible evidence that there is an after life when they saw Lazarus rise from the grave, Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration and the risen savior after he got up from the grave. And we have just as much historical reliability in their word as we do in any other historical fact.
Here is a quote from C.S. Lewis about how our desire for an afterlife is good proof that there in fact is one. “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find until after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.”So there you have it, what we feel is actually in relation with the bible. We fill that there should be an after life and the bible states that there is one. It should be noted that this bible fact is not a means to and ends, but an ends itself. What I mean by that is, the doctrine of the bible that there is an after life isn't there just comfort the human emotion regarding death. Some have even stated that political leaders came up with heaven and hell to control people. However, you look at those who wrote the bible and you will find that they didn't have power or prestige for writing it but quite the contrary. Therefore, emotion itself cannot falsify the probable reality that there is in an after life, as the bible says there is.
The real question in all of this is. Do you know where you will go when you die? You have to un-educate yourself to believe that there isn't and after life, because it is a natural phenomenon to feel that there is. Its like an article I saw about the Breatharian diet. It is a diet, that proposes that you don't have to eat food and you can live off of the energy of the universe. For you to try that diet you have to un-educate yourself that food is a basic necessity of life. So if i am not a fool to un-educate myself that food is not necessary for life than I also shouldn't be a fool if I do not un-educate myself in the primary belief of an after life.
Looking forward to going to heaven,
Pastor Silas
For those of us who believe the bible we respond with an unequivocal, yes! There is good reason for this belief founded in the bible, because the bible is trustworthy. We believe it to be the inerrant, infallible, and the preserved word of God. For one that would question if there is an after life, we Christians only need to refer such inquirers to the word of God. We can say that there is an after life because the bible is true, and I know that the bible is true because it is logically consistent, empirically adequate, and experimentally relevant. In simpler words, the bible is coherent to what we see and know about life; there is nothing in the bible that is contradictory.
For example, one retort is that people do not believe in an after life because there is no tangible evidence of an after life, and one must go off of faith to accept and that there is one. This posses no problem for the Christian, for that is logically consistent with the bible. The bible doesn't seek to prove the existence of an after life by tangible evidence, the bible says we receive it by faith, with good evidence (although not tangible) that it is true.
However, those who wrote the bible did see tangible evidence that there is an after life when they saw Lazarus rise from the grave, Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration and the risen savior after he got up from the grave. And we have just as much historical reliability in their word as we do in any other historical fact.
Here is a quote from C.S. Lewis about how our desire for an afterlife is good proof that there in fact is one. “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find until after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others do the same.”So there you have it, what we feel is actually in relation with the bible. We fill that there should be an after life and the bible states that there is one. It should be noted that this bible fact is not a means to and ends, but an ends itself. What I mean by that is, the doctrine of the bible that there is an after life isn't there just comfort the human emotion regarding death. Some have even stated that political leaders came up with heaven and hell to control people. However, you look at those who wrote the bible and you will find that they didn't have power or prestige for writing it but quite the contrary. Therefore, emotion itself cannot falsify the probable reality that there is in an after life, as the bible says there is.
The real question in all of this is. Do you know where you will go when you die? You have to un-educate yourself to believe that there isn't and after life, because it is a natural phenomenon to feel that there is. Its like an article I saw about the Breatharian diet. It is a diet, that proposes that you don't have to eat food and you can live off of the energy of the universe. For you to try that diet you have to un-educate yourself that food is a basic necessity of life. So if i am not a fool to un-educate myself that food is not necessary for life than I also shouldn't be a fool if I do not un-educate myself in the primary belief of an after life.
Looking forward to going to heaven,
Pastor Silas
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