What Happens After Death?

There are three great questions that humans have asked through the ages: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? It is striking to me that people have assumed, or at least hoped, that there is something more than our brief time on earth—some greater cause, some purpose, some destination. Most worldviews and religions attempt to answer these questions. The Christian worldview believes that God has revealed himself and such answers in the divinely inspired book, the Bible.

In our church, we have been studying the book of 1 Corinthians and our next passage is 15:20-28. In vv. 20-23 Paul explains that all those who belong to Christ will be resurrected because Christ was resurrected. He is teaching on the resurrection because the believers in Corinth were disagreeing on how to answer the last big question: What happens after death? Some were claiming that there is no life after death (v. 12). In vv. 12-19, Paul argues that such a claim is logically inconsistent with the Christian faith.

God reveals that there is life after death. This truth is now connected to another great truth: Christ will gain total victory over all his enemies. Paul is arguing that there must be a resurrection because we know Christ will defeat all enemies and one of his enemies is death. Therefore, the resurrection of the dead is part of Christ’s final victory over all enemies (vv. 24-28).

For those who do not believe in Christ, this claim provides a motivation to make sure that he has honestly and carefully selected his worldview. It is possible to critically evaluate the various worldviews based on logic and evidence. This particular claim of a future event cannot be thus evaluated, but the Bible and other claims of Christianity can. Consider your position carefully, because if the Bible is right about this, there will be life after death, and you certainly do not want to be an enemy of Christ in the end.

For believers, this truth is a reminder that we cannot live short-sightedly. We must lay up treasures in heaven instead of on earth (Matt 6:19-21). And we must live without fear, having full knowledge of the final and total victory of Christ in the end.

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.”

- Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

When I consider the beauty and design of the world and the conscious, moral, creative, loving human existence, it does not seem reasonable to me to conclude that matter is all that is and that we have evolved to this point. Instead, there is evidence throughout history of supernatural longing and experience. Without an obvious physically observable explanation of our existence, it is logical to suggest that there is something else, some spiritual source.

“If a book be false in its facts, disprove them;
if false in its reasoning, refute it.
But for God’s sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose.”

- Thomas Jefferson

The Vanity of Wisdom

“There is more gain in wisdom than in folly,
as there is more gain in light than in darkness.
The wise person has his eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness” (Ecc 2:13-14).

Wisdom is about seeing. Figuratively, this indicates understanding. I want to “have my eyes in my head.” The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to explain, though, that even the wise die and are forgotten, so wisdom is also “a striving after the wind.” It must be understood that our Christian definitions of wisdom as faith in Christ and biblical truth are not in view here. It is possible for someone to be wise “under the sun” but to not understand eternal things. There are many smart, wonderful, wise people who just don’t grasp eternity.

As Paul wrote:

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor 1:18-25)