Life after death? (Resurrection Sunday)

Sometimes during our conversation class at school we’re handed an article to read on a certain topic.  We read it over and discuss it and learn new words and so on.

One day, the featured article was called,"Is there life after death?" (in Spanish, of course).  I found myself getting extremely irritated by the article.  Not because of all the ridiculous things it said about the afterlife, but what it said about "the Judeo-Christian religions".  It dedicated a whole sentence to why these religions (which include Christianity, as most of you know) believe in life after death.

So why do we?  Well, according to this article…

The Judeo-Christian religions accept it just by faith, or because of medical states when people enter into a coma and see "another world".

When I read this, I went into a tirade in Spanish, which likely no one else understood.  But now it’s my chance to do it in English.

Let me tell you, if that’s all we have to offer as evidence, we’re pretty pathetic.  First of all, I don’t go for this "just by faith" business.  What’s that supposed to mean?  Believing something without evidence?  In that case, I can just as easily believe that we’ll all turn into pink monsters with green stripes who search the galaxy for jellyfish to eat after we die.  I can accept any religion I want "just by faith".  What a crock.

And you’re telling me near death experiences are proof?  We’re talking about a spiritual world here, folks.  Didn’t it ever occur to anybody that our physical mind may not be able to know or understand what’s happening to our spirit after we die?  Didn’t it ever occur to anyone that there may be other spiritual beings out there that could trick us into thinking something is happening, that isn’t even real?

Sorry.  This isn’t proof.  I’m not going to base my entire life and death on such nonsense.  And I can’t believe that the writer of this article would include such a straw man of an argument.

Here’s a statement I often hear when we’re talking about life after death.  "Well, no one’s ever come back to tell us what it’s like, so I guess we can only guess."  As a matter of fact, I think I heard that when we discussed this article.

Well, we know that someone did come back.  That’s the whole point.  We talked about this a bit yesterday.  This isn’t a matter of groundless faith.

For example, we have eyewitness accounts from the first century.  We have a mysteriously empty tomb, a body no one ever found (except for those who claimed it was walking around and talking).  We have the testimony that over 500 people saw Him at the same time.  We have people who died as martyrs because they believed He was alive again.  Isn’t it odd that no one ever came forward saying it was all a hoax?

And it’s not just that there was a spiritual resurrection.  The disciples claimed Jesus’ body was alive.  It wasn’t just an empty tomb – they claimed that they had seen Him.

That event changed the course of history.  It has since convinced millions to turn around and give their lives to the Saviour.  Many more have given their lives and been tortured for this belief.  Lives that were on the rocks have been transformed.  Miracles have happened.

Let me tell you, our faith is not based on blind believe or some vague experiences of a few medical marvels.  Volumes have been written about why the Word of God is trustworthy, and why we can have confidence that Jesus is alive.  There’s everything from ancient documents to present day testimonies that point to this fact.

Of course, all the evidence in the world won’t convince you to follow Him.  All the facts won’t remind us to trust in that new life that Jesus demonstrated.  But this "just by faith" business makes it sound like Christianity is just another religion – another flavour-of-the-month that you can choose or not choose because it really isn’t important.

What could be more important than where we will spend forever?  What could be more wonderful than knowing that our Master has already won the fight over death?  What could be more liberating than knowing death is no longer something to fear?  How could we not be excited to know that our dreams do not need to be set aside because life is short?

We follow the One who died, and then came back.  If we follow Him, we will someday shed all our pain, heartbreak and disappointment and live a life that is so fantastic we won’t want it to end.  And it won’t.