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Life After Death BY wonting Death Is the one thing In life we can be sure about and that Is why religions have beliefs about what It means’ Everything else ‘might’ happen to us: we might get married, be rich, be happy, have children, set up our own business or travel the world, but the only real certainty is that we will die. It Is not surprising that people have always asked questions about what, If anything, happens after they die.
Although some people claim to have had ‘near-death experiences’ (Needs), and others lain to be able to talk to the dead, or to have seen ghosts, there Is no scientific proof that such experiences actually provide a glimpse Into a possible afterlife. It is possible, therefore, that when people die, they simply stop living and that there is nothing beyond this life. Ideas about what happens after death, and Its connection with how life Is lived on earth, is a fundamental part of all religions.
The details may differ between religions, but belief in an afterlife almost always: * Helps people to make sense of life, particularly when life seems unfair or at times f suffering (their own, and other people’s) * Gives support and comfort at times of loss and bereavement Christians believe there Is an afterlife. Although the body dies and Is burled or cremated, they believe that their unique soul lives on and Is raised to new life by God.
Their belief that Jesus rose from the dead three days after his crucifixion (a Roman method of execution) gives Christians hope that if they follow Jesus’ teaching and accept him as their Lord and Savior, then this new resurrection life awaits them. By being born as a human being (the Incarnation), and then dying on the cross, Jesus made this new ‘life after death’ possible for all. Christians believe that God is Just and fair, and so cannot let evil go unpunished. Most believe in the Idea of Judgment after death, and that God will treat people In the afterlife according to how they lived their life on earth.
Although heaven is often mentioned in the Bible, it is rarely described. Christians therefore have very deferent Ideas about It. Some believe that heaven Is a physical lace, where their body goes after death. Others believe that it is their soul that lives on, and that heaven is a state of being united with God. The Bible Is even less specific about hell, and Christians have very different ideas about this too. Some Christians believe that hell Is a place of suffering, and of separation from God. Others (perhaps most) believe that hell is a spiritual state of 1 OFF Some Christians, including Roman Catholics, believe in purgatory.
This is an in- between state for the majority of people of waiting for heaven, a time of cleansing room sin and preparing for heaven. Many Christians believe that there is a place in the Kingdom of God for members of other faiths, and for many who have not even believed in God on earth but have ‘done the will of God’ in many ways without knowing it. Some Christians believe in the Second Coming (Prussia) – the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from heaven to earth. This will herald the general resurrection of the dead, the last Judgment of the dead and the living, and the full establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.