RUSHWAVE: Establishing Believers in the Christian Faith

from The Judgment God Desires to Withhold

Chapter 2: Jesus’ Teaching on Life after Death

There are only one of two destinies awaiting every person after death: perishing or eternal life.

Understanding God’s love requires adopting an eternal perspective and realizing death is not the end of one’s existence. Death is but a door to another place. The statement “For God so loved the world … that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” has eternal realities in view.

The terms “perish” and “eternal life” deal primarily with what occurs after death. Specifically, both have in view a) the time immediately after death, when a man is separated from his physical body and either in hell experiencing torment (“perishing”) or in heaven experiencing blessing (“eternal life”), and b) the eternal state, when each man is reunited with his resurrected body to either be cast into a lake of fire (“perishing”) or live life on a new earth in God’s kingdom where righteousness reigns (“eternal life”).

Jesus and His apostles reiterated the idea of these two distinct fates. Note these two utterly opposite realities in their teachings.

An hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. John 5:28-29
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds … And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:12-15
But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world …” Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels …” These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 25:31-46
[God] will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil … but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good. Romans 2:6-11
There shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. Acts 24:15

The statement “For God so loved the world … that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” reinforces that only these two eternal realities exist. There is nothing in-between, and this teaching stands in glaring contradiction to other religious and non-religious views of what happens after we die.

Some believe after death we simply cease to exist. They teach there is no longer an awareness of anything — no consciousness of ourselves, our surroundings, or anything else. But this view is completely contrary to Jesus’ teachings. The truth is man not only continues to lead a conscious existence after death, but he does so experiencing either torment or joy.

Others hold there is an intermediate state between heaven and hell; a place called purgatory where certain people can be further purified and made acceptable to go to heaven. But again, there is no such basis in Jesus’ teaching. There is only perishing or eternal life; there is no in-between.

Some hold our eternal state is not fixed — we may initially perish or inherit eternal life after we die, but we can transition from one place to the other. In the afterlife if we perish, we may redeem ourselves and be rewarded with eternal life. Or if in the afterlife we inherit eternal life, we may rebel and end up perishing. But once again, these two destinies are never portrayed as reversible. Once people die not only will they either perish or inherit eternal life, but if they perish they will never inherit eternal life, and if they inherit eternal life they will never perish.

Some believe after death we are reincarnated; we are reborn to live on earth again either as another human being, an animal, or some other form of life. But Jesus taught the body one possesses in this life, and the soul that is connected to that physical body, are eventually reunited after death. The body with which a man is born is the only body that man will ever know. True, he will one day experience conscious existence apart from that body for a period of time, and his earthly body will decay and become dust. But eventually he will be reunited with his miraculously reassembled, new body, being resurrected to judgment and torment, or to eternal life and blessing.

Another teaching is after we die we become perpetual disembodied spirits. Our bodies decay and we lead a conscious existence, but that existence is void of any physical sensations or dimension. But this teaching denies the physical resurrection of the human body — something fundamental to the Christian faith.

Jesus and His apostles taught a man’s soul is inextricably linked to his physical body, and there is a physical resurrection. When a man dies and his body is either buried in the ground or cremated, he exists temporarily as a conscious, disembodied spirit. But a day will come when God Himself, with whom nothing is impossible, will resurrect that man’s body from the dead. God will reunite that man’s spirit with the dust or ashes from his original physical body. And that man will exist in a new resurrected body that will either be cast into a lake of fire, or he will exist on a new earth where righteousness dwells.

The depths of God’s love can only be grasped when one understands death is not the end of one’s conscious existence. Every person who has died, dies now, or will die either perishes or has eternal life. In John 3:16, the word “perish” has in view the negative scenario of what happens after death, and it is portrayed as the inevitable consequence apart from God’s intervention.

There are only one of two destinies for you and every single person ever conceived. And that destiny involves what happens after death. There is perishing, or eternal life; torment, or joy; a physical, bodily, resurrection to judgment and condemnation, or a physical, bodily resurrection to life and blessing; hell, or heaven; a lake of fire, or life in a world where righteousness reigns; wrath, indignation, and distress, or glory, honor and peace; living in relationship with God, or living without God. God’s love for the world has in view His desire to withhold from you judgment and torment, and instead graciously bestow life and blessing.

from The Judgment God Desires to Withhold

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