Eternal Life:Life After Death as a

Medical,Philosophical, and

Theological Question

Resurrection of the Dead?Part 1

Organization Name

How do we talk about life after death?A few ground rules…1. Revelation – what is it?

In the 21st Century, a belief in eternal life cannot only be based upon an appeal to “revelation” God’s “word” or “scripture.”

The authority of scripture alone is not evidence of factual truth. Critical discussion is essential!

What is written in scripture requires careful study and appraisal – we have to understand the context of the words in the Bible as they were written.

Is “scripture” a projection and illusion in human words about human desires and longings about life after death?

How do we talk about life after death?A few ground rules…2. Belief – Belief in eternity must be

verified by theology(theos = God ology = study of)Belief about the “last things” must remain

communicable – we need to be able to talk about it.

Anyone, Christian or non-Christian should be able to discuss death, future life, or new life.

A responsible decision of faith in eternal life presupposes not a blind faith, but a justified belief in eternal life.

How do we talk about life after death?A few ground rules…3. Proof – Verification of eternal life does

not mean that it can be proved.Arguments for the immortality of the soul have

been used since Socrates and Plato.The soul as the principle of life is not visible,

nor material like the body.Plato: As simple, spiritual, divine, the soul

cannot be dissolved – it is immortal.In the Middle Ages, Christian thinkers followed

Plato.Pure reason cannot prove eternal life, but

neither can reason prove the opposite.

4. Existentials – For a person to believe in eternal life, existential constituents are required. So far there has never been a rational

demonstration of eternal life that is wholly convincing.

Theoretical reason cannot prove eternal life, but practical reason suggests otherwise, as evidenced by the proliferation of beliefs involving life after death globally.

Even so, while belief in eternal life cannot be theoretically proved, it can be shown to be well founded.

How do we talk about life after death?A few ground rules…

5. Experience – Belief in eternal life can be shown to be well founded by human experiences.Even so, personal experiences of the dying (or

spiritualists) should not be identified with the reality of eternity.

Also, our external reality cannot provide a case for a metaphysical reality (meta = beyond).

Strictly speaking – we have no direct experience of eternal life.

However, there is knowledge of eternal life related to common experiences of many people.

How do we talk about life after death?A few ground rules…

Ground Rules:1. Revelation – a decision based on

“revelation” alone cannot be merely asserted.2. Belief - Belief in eternity must be

verified by theology.3. Proof – Verification does not mean that

eternal life can be proved. 4. Existentials – For a person to believe in

eternal life, and existential “leap” is required.5. Experience – Belief in eternal life can be

shown to be well founded by human experience.

Trust: What is the Framework for making a decision about eternal life?

Eternal life at its deepest level is a matter of trust. 1. Affirmation – An affirmation of eternal life is

possible.1. We wish to prolong the reality of life, its positive

and negative experiences. 2. What is unsettled and transitory seeks

clarification and resolution in a life after death.3. Without eternal life, the present life seems to

many people aimless, pointless, and unstable.4. The affirmation of eternal life transcends our

experience.

Trust: What is the Framework for making a decision about eternal life?2. Faith – Self commitment of our whole

life to God and eternal life is faith.The fact of eternal life can be accepted only by

trust, but it is a reasonable and hopeful trust.It is neither a projection, nor a rational proof,

but is reasonable and related to our experience.

Belief in eternal life is possible for non-Christians, and non-Jews, for Hindus, Confucians, and Buddhists.

3. Choice – The question of God and eternity makes a free decision by an individual inescapable.Without intellectual constraint, but also without

rational proof, humans are faced with a choice: eternal life or not?

Belief in eternity is a “risk” – nothing ventured, nothing gained.

However, those who will not choose have in fact chosen – they have chosen not to choose. Abstention from a vote of confidence in eternal life is in effect a vote of no confidence.

Even though not intended, who does not in practice say yes, in practice says no.

Trust: What is the Framework for making a decision about eternal life?

1. Affirmation – An affirmation of eternal life is possible

2. Faith – Self commitment of our whole life to God and eternal life is faith.

3. Choice – The question of God and eternity makes a free decision by an individual inescapable.

Trust: What is the Framework for making a decision about eternal life?

1. Hereafter – The view of ancient Israel was that the dead live on.In the realm of the dead (Sheol) what lives on is

not just the soul, but the whole person.The shadow or shade broken away from the

living person remains tied to the grave or bones.Sheol was a closed space, dark and silent,

beneath the earth.Here humans, shadows of former selves have a

ghostlike existence without fellowship or God.A sad, joyless country from which there is no

return, no hope of seeing light, or earth again.

Israel – Stages in the development of resurrection faith in Jewish Scripture.

2. Resurrection – Ancient Jews focused on this world without much concern for a dismal thereafter.All the patriarchs of Israel, the kings, the prophets who

believed in God – all went into the darkness.For more than a thousand years none of these Jews

believed in the resurrection of the dead.There was no belief in an eternal life in the positive

sense of the term as in a Christian heaven.Nevertheless, Christians have appealed to Hebrew

Scripture to secure the Christian idea of resurrection. These scriptures are figurative and metaphorical (example Ezekiel chapter 37 – God is talking about restoration of Israel not resurrection of the body) not literal reality.

Israel – Stages in the development of resurrection faith in Jewish Scripture.

2. Resurrection – Ancient Jews focused on this world without much concern for a dismal thereafter.The prophets use the idea of resurrection only

as a metaphor for national restoration of Israel.Statements in the Psalms, Job, etc. are best

understood as reawakening to life as opposed to resurrection.

Israel – Stages in the development of resurrection faith in Jewish Scripture.

3. Development – Under Persian rule the people become less satisfied with the old answers.They no longer accepted that all accounts were

settled in the present between birth and death.The wicked so often do well and the good often

so badly; good and evil are not requited here.Some biblical texts supported the idea of a

possible intervention of God in time of distress.In the two centuries before Christ there arose

an expectation of a fulfillment still to come, which leads to a hope of resurrection found in later Jewish literature.

Israel – Stages in the development of resurrection faith in Jewish Scripture.

October 12 Resurrection of the Dead? Part 2We will look through early Jewish and Christian

literature and how they portray resurrection.We will discuss what Jesus believed and how he

talked about resurrection.

Next Week