“For Truman Capote, dying was a good career move.”
— Gore Vidal
An unavoidable consequence of getting older is the need to attend an increasing number of funerals. It reminds us of the fragility and fleeting nature of our lives. One minute a close friend is vital and present, and the next minute he’s gone.
Unless you concentrate, it’s hard to even remember what he looked like. The shock and grief of unexpected death fades into a wispy memory, as though the person never existed.
When it comes to the hereafter, most ordinarily responsible people inexplicably morph into hazy-eyed players in a high-stakes game of spiritual roulette that can only be explained as “the triumph of hope over experience.” We plan, analyze and strive to secure our “futures,” all the way up to our last breath, and — without a thought to its blinding inconsistency — leave the rest to chance.
And we do so in the face of the fragility and uncertainty of life all around us.
We seem to be afflicted with a form of spiritual schizophrenia, focusing our days upon comparatively trivial pursuits, while indefinitely deferring those looming thoughts about death, eternity, loss of existence and “meeting our maker.”
We agonize over a job loss or financial reversal, or spend weeks researching what kind of car to buy, while turning a blind eye to the inevitability that our lives will terminate one day — maybe soon — without notice.
Strangely, instead of honestly facing these “inconvenient truths,” we tend to retreat into creature comforts, an endless stream of entertainment or, for many, drugs and alcohol, which serve as temporary sedatives. But then the morning after announces, like a jarring gong, that reality has returned.
He Is a Fool, Whose Plans End at the Grave
It’s amazing how many divergent notions about death are held by otherwise intelligent and practical people. At funerals, it’s not uncommon to hear people gaze longingly upward and say, “Oh well, he/she is in a better place now.” How exactly do they know that?
Atheists, fatalists and secular humanists are even more certain, claiming that, at death, we just go “poof,” gone, annihilated, out of existence. They believe as Christian author Randy Alcorn put it, “we have no essence beyond our body, and at death we will cease to exist entirely. In short we came from nothing and are going nowhere.”1 Whoop-de-doo!
To the Buddhist, Hindu or New Ager, death just ends one life (usually in pain and sadness) only to immediately begin another “joyous voyage” in a seemingly endless cycle of reincarnation — ending up for the better or worse (e.g. rat or roach) depending on how they lived the previous life. If such a person reaches the ultimate state, “nirvana,” they get to simply disappear into the great nothingness.
And that’s the good news?
In their search for meaning, some thoughtful people adopt a materialistic world view, relying on science, culture and/or academia to explain it all, often discarding the notion of a higher creator-power in the process.
Others embrace one or another flavor of religion, seeking refuge among the rituals, supposed holy teachings, submission to leaders and their faith community. Still others abandon the search for meaning and plant their feet firmly in thin air for the remainder of their lives.
Someone Who ‘Crossed Over’ and Came Back
But what if we could find someone who had crossed over into death and came back to talk about it? One man did. And, not a single critic in 2,000 years has been able to disprove it. The evidence is too overwhelming.
Paul, formerly a sworn enemy of Christ, solemnly declared, “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.”2
Brooke Foss Westcott, an English scholar, said: “raking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.”
We Get to Come Along for the Ride
So why is Christ’s resurrection such a big deal? Because it can be our resurrection, too:
“Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life — no longer at sin’s every beck and call!
“What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in His life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word.
“When Jesus died, he took sin down with Him, but alive He brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.”3
Bottom line: Death is no big deal IF — and this is a big IF — you will allow Jesus to take you through death, hand-in-hand. In fact, you don’t have to wait to die to go through death.
Christ came back from the dead, and if you place your faith and trust in Him, here is what He says about you, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”4
That startling claim of Jesus was so revolutionary that, years later, the Apostle Paul said that the whole of the Christian faith hangs in the balance over its veracity:
“If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever.
“It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.”5
How About You?
Sooner or later, like it or not, we will all come face to face with the hereafter and the possibility of meeting up with our creator. So, I pose this question to you: What if you stepped out of your comfort zone before that fateful day arrives and take God up on His offer for a divine personal appointment? Suppose that encounter could usher in undreamed-of possibilities for you — possibilities that stretch out into eternity?
What’s to lose? As philosopher Blaise Pascal said:
“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
The issue boils down to this: Must death have the final word in your life? It doesn’t have to, you know.
— D.C. Collier is a Bible teacher, discipleship mentor and writer focused on Christian apologetics. A mechanical engineer and Internet entrepreneur, he is the author of My Origin, My Destiny, a book focused on Christianity’s basic “value proposition.” Click here for more information. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
1. D’Souza, Dinesh. Survival of the Sacred: Why Religion Is Winning. What’s so Great about Christianity. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Pub., 2007. N. pag. Print.
2. 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
3. Romans 6:6-11 The Message (MSG)
4. John 8:51 (NASB)
5. 1 Corinthians 15:16-20 (MSG)