By Herbert Vego
DO you believe in life after death?
If there were no life after death, then human life would be no more than a hoax; therefore, not worth living. Belief in the afterlife enables us to conquer the fear of death.
That “conquest” is best achieved by embracing a religion that promises immortality. The Christian religion makes such a promise, albeit with different and often contradictory versions. As to what happens after death, opinions differ.
The concept of the conscious soul leaving the dead body originated in Egypt five centuries before the birth of Christ. The Greek philosopher Plato adopted this ?belief of death being mere separation of the soul from the body.
Creative Catholics have gone a step further: They say that souls meet St. Peter up above the clouds, to be informed on whether to spend life everlasting in heaven or in hell.
My friend Rolando Y. Dy Buco, a Catholic, wrote in his newly-published book By His Light, “No man has yet drawn up a clear road map leading to man’s final destination that lurks behind the mastered art of living. Life is tailored to address man’s concerns about the present. Death is an unknown factor that is better postponed indefinitely.”
Bible scholars insist, however, that the Bible ironically jibes with the atheist’s notion that “the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5); otherwise there would be no need for the promised resurrection which would transpire at the “second coming” of Christ.
Eastern religions, notably Hinduism, speak of death as transition to reincarnation. A person may be reborn into another human being or into another form of animal, depending on whether he has done good or evil.
The need to conquer death appears universal; all other fears spring from the fear of death.
The atheists, on the other hand, insist that death is a full-stop. To be candid, they see no “future” after their last breath.
They may taunt us, “If there is hope in death, then why do you grieve at the demise of your parents, children, siblings, other relatives and friends?”
That makes sense in the light of the following Bible verse: “You should not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
However, that verse does not really prohibit mourning. It merely amplifies the advantage that a hopeful Christian has over atheists because of God’s promise that they who have done good shall be rewarded “unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29).
Grief is therefore normal. It merely indicates love for the dead person. During his ministry on earth, Jesus himself wept on learning that Lazarus had died.
The Gospel of John (John 11:1–44) seems to suggest that the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead four days after his entombment was a demonstration of Jesus’ power to resurrect the dead.
John narrates that, thereafter, Lazarus returned home (John 12:1–2).
Some Bible scholars interpret this account to mean that Jesus had merely resuscitated, not resurrected, Lazarus because “once you’re resurrected, you’ll live forever.”
The Bible, however, gives us no information about how Lazarus’ finally died.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church is unified in its doctrine that the dead remain unconscious, waiting for Jesus’ “second coming” to resurrect the righteous into eternal life in Paradise.
My late Adventist father, a victim of lung cancer, kept a printed tract in his briefcase, to be opened post-mortem.
After his death, we read the tract: “Come view the ground where I do lie. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. Prepare for death and follow me.”
