Category: Life After Death

Embracing Your Continuous Existence

The author reflects on existence, beginning with personal memories and the concept of eternal life. They emphasize that, while physically dying is inevitable, individuals continue to exist. The blog urges readers to develop a perspective beyond death, fostering certainty about salvation and understanding their eternal nature amidst life’s challenges and aging.

If it were based on my memory (and it shouldn’t be), I didn’t begin to exist until 1967 when I magically appeared in kindergarten. I have some memories of pre-school years, but I think they are false memories created more by pictures than direct memory. I fully trust those who swear I was born in April of 1962, as much as I would like to deny it. I also trust both Scripture and science that tells me I began to exist 9 months before that. Before the date of my conception no element of me existed anywhere, unless you count the foreknowledge of God.

I have now been a pastor for 33+ years. I have done many, many funerals. Of the deceased that I could still see, they all looked pretty finished. It could be easily construed that the person that I knew was now non-existent. But Scripture, an internal sense that I am more than an animated body, and even the Near-Death Experiences (NDE) of others tell me that we are now eternal. You can and need to physically die, but you will continue to exist in another body in another place (Heaven or Sheol). That is what this blog has mainly been about since 2016.

In this article I would like you to think about two aspects of your existence: the beginning and the approach to your physical death.

We don’t have a lot of information about our beginning. Science tells us that when we were a fertilized egg that we already had a unique, human genetic structure. The Bible tells us that our genetics were not like the information God created in us. They were altered by what is known as our sinful nature. As a corrupted being we were already disqualified from eternal life with God. We were sinful not potentially sinful. (Psalm 51:5)

Did we have a spirit at that time? The Bible doesn’t inform us, but it seems like a fair inference that the advent of the body is accompanied by the advent of the spirit. Technically the term “soul” refers to the interaction of spirit and body. See more here:https://afterdeathsite.com/2024/03/26/your-body-soul-and-spirit/ If that is the case, many complete and eternal humans never live independently on this fallen Earth. They die naturally or are aborted before birth. We know nothing for certain about their fate, other than they continue to exist. We would like to think that God saves them all, but with the fact that we are sinful from conception, I can’t definitively say that.

At that time, we were so fragile and yet indestructible. We began to exist and will continue to exist. I have a second cousin who had an epileptic seizure while driving a big rig. He arrived at the ER DOA (Dead on arrival), or so the story goes. Doctors revived him, but he had an NDE. In his experience he met a person who identified himself as his “brother”. His impression was this meant his physical brother, but he knew of no brother that was deceased. When he told this story to his mom, she confirmed that she gave birth to a stillborn male child. They exist.

This is the real issue with abortion. A woman with an unplanned pregnancy has much on the line. Her rights to her own body and healthcare are only second to one thing: the right to live of another person. I guess it wouldn’t be that much of an issue if we could know that all unborn deaths resulted in a free pass to Heaven. Sinful Earth is highly overrated. But as a society we can’t even agree to what we are: just a smart animal, a being with a spirit that reincarnates, an eternal being or something else. Government should defend the life of all humans. That is how it is involved.

The weight of evidence is behind the idea that we are eternal beings. That said, we struggle to embrace this fact fully. It remains surreal because of our weak faith in God’s word and our dependence on experience to determine reality. Without an NDE, death seems like an impenetrable dark wall. We don’t even imagine beyond it. God exhorts us to think beyond death.

18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18 (ESV)

The goal of this blog is to help you do this.

As you daily move closer to your physical death, even when you are young, you need to develop a horizon of thought that goes beyond your death. It is very possible to be certain of your salvation because it is based on Jesus’ work and God’s grace to you. It is possible to move toward death with such certainty of what comes next that you are not afraid and even eager. This does not discount that value of your current life. Rather it clarifies it. You are here to complete God’s plan for you. (Ephesians 2:10)

With clarity about your eternal nature, you can even cope with aging and illness well. Illness is a part of the curse for all–including Christians. Our bodies need to eventually break down to the point that we can separate from them. We will have a Heavenly body (2 Corinthians 5:1) and eventually also a massively upgraded Earthly body (1 Corinthians 15:50-54). Aging stinks. I hate it. Falling ill is worse. But I don’t want to be stuck here permanently. I am willing to stick out the whole 120-year maximum lifespan if it means fruitful work for the Kingdom of God for me. That said, you don’t have to cling to life like it is all there is. You are eternal.

Whoever Believes Has Eternal Life

The author reflects on a visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where they encountered a priest who mistakenly defined eternal life. The piece clarifies the distinction between “eternal existence” and “eternal life,” emphasizing that the latter is connected to belief in Jesus and a mystical union with Him, experienced both now and in Heaven.

I went to Israel about 10 years ago. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (shown above), which houses the traditional place of Jesus’ crucifixion and His burial tomb, I overheard a priest say to his tour group, “I don’t know what eternal life is, but I would like to think that it has something to do with being remembered.” This admission and glaring error shocked me. I want you to know very clearly what is meant by “eternal life”.

First, we must make a distinction between “eternal existence” and “eternal life”. God made a few creatures to have eternal existence. To my knowledge from the Bible these include: Seraphim/Cherubim (same thing different names), Angels/Demons (same thing but the latter is in rebellion against God), and human beings. You won’t cease to exist. Your body will die but you will find yourself in another body in another place (not Earth). This has been true of you since conception, and there is no way to opt out.

Because of our rebellion against God and the sin that is enshrined in our DNA, our eternal existence would naturally be first in Sheol (use the search box above to look for articles on Sheol), and then after Judgment Day in Gehenna, which we commonly refer to as Hell. Nobody should call such an existence “life”, and the Bible doesn’t.

Jesus’ life, forsakeness, death and resurrection are for the purpose of taking us from such a fate and giving to us instead “eternal life”. If the first temptation is thinking that life equals existence, the second is to think that eternal life begins at our physical death. Look at the following Bible passages:

47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

John 6:47 (ESV)

36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36 (ESV)

And to the question of “what is eternal life?”, we have this:

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:3 (ESV)

It certainly sounds like eternal life is something that we have already, if we have belief. Belief is not simply believing that Jesus is real. Like a person could believe in ghosts. It is believing the story of Jesus to be historical and factual and it is trusting in the promise connected to Jesus of forgiveness of sins. These are what I call “first-level” proofs that you are connected to Jesus and have eternal life. They are not exactly the cause of eternal life. The cause of our receiving eternal life is all that Jesus did and the existence of a bond that Jesus forms between us and Himself. This “bond” or “connection” is not cognitive like belief is, it is not emotional, for lack of better words it is mystical. Theologians call it the “mystical union”. Read more about this here:https://givingchrist.com/2024/10/01/understanding-jesus-prayer-for-unity-in-john-17/

Once that connection is made and as long as that connection is viable, we have eternal life. Having this connection is “knowing” the only true God. Being united with Christ has evidence but you don’t feel it like you might feel a part of your body. The existence of eternal life in you will be much more obvious when your physical body dies. Heaven is the place you would go first if you have eternal life. The experience we will have there will be glorious. If you want to know more about Heaven, use the search bar in my blog above. I have written numerous articles on that.

You can’t quite say eternal life is life in Heaven. That is part of eternal life. It is life now connected with Jesus, life in Heaven, and life in the New Earth post Judgment Day. It is a package. A great package that we did not deserve, but is offered freely to us.

How sad it is to not know eternal life. I hope the priest in my opening story found out. I hope you do as well.

And I Will Raise Him Up on the Last Day

The blog discusses John 6, emphasizing Jesus’ teachings on eternal life and resurrection. It distinguishes between physical death and spiritual life through a relationship with God via Jesus. The author reflects on personal mortality and anticipated resurrection, contrasting the hopeful fate of the righteous with the dire prospect for the unrighteous, urging faith in Jesus as the path to salvation.

Recently, on my other blog (GivingChrist.com), I discussed a very controversial passage–John 6. You can see that discussion here:https://givingchrist.com/2024/09/17/the-mystical-union-lords-supper-and-john-6/. In John 6, Jesus uses a phrase twice. It the title of this article.

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:44 (ESV)

54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:54 (ESV)

At the time, Jesus wanted the crowd, the Jewish leaders, and even His disciples to look for something more substantial than miracles, healing and food. He finally spells it out for them: eternal life and the resurrection.

The topic of the resurrection is a complicated thing. Daniel reveals that everyone will be resurrected for Judgment Day. It is not like one could avoid it. From Jesus’ perspective, the Resurrection is not synonymous with eternal life. We blur these topics together because we simply think of “life” as conscious existence. “Life” says Jesus, is knowing the true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. Or, as stated above, being drawn in to a relationship with God and sustaining a God-created bond through Jesus’ body and blood. The only experience that deserves the positive title of “life” is existing in the full presence of God. With that definition in mind, eternal life can be something you already have. I have it through the connection that Jesus has made between Him and me.

I have eternal life while my physical body is noticeably wasting away. I don’t have the stamina I used to have. I must take some medicines. I’m forgetting a few words. I know the direction that this is going. While I might realize a few short-term improvements, the general trend is toward my physical death. I am not a fan of the process, but I understand it and have confidence in its ultimate goal. My current body, brain included, has always been diminished by sin and a sinful nature. It was damaged goods at my conception. The plan is to dump this body but eventually gain a superior one.

How will we experience the resurrection of body? There are three possible scenarios. The one I expect to experience goes like this. I’ll die someday, and my spirit will separate from this body. I will immediately go to Heaven because of what Jesus did for me. My spirit will join with a heavenly body and recreate a soul. (See https://afterdeathsite.com/2024/03/26/your-body-soul-and-spirit/). My conscious existence will joyfully be engaged with Heaven until the day that Jesus rounds us up to head back to this planet. As we arrive, I will acquire my resurrected body. A body meant for a recreated version of this universe without any sin and with major upgrades.

Another possibly that is acceptable to me is if Jesus comes before I die. If this is going to happen, I hope it does before I break down too much. We still have to experience a break between spirit and body, but it will happen fast.

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (ESV)

For those who come to Judgment Day without the prior forgiveness of their sins through Jesus. The resurrection of the body will be of little comfort.

Some will have spent a long conscious existence in Sheol. They will have suffered much. Who can speak of their state of mind. It is like a long incarceration before facing a judge. Without eternal life, the resurrection is more of a curse.

The status of the resurrected body of the damned is a bit unclear. The passage above makes it sound like a resurrected body is imperishable. Malachi makes it sound like the resurrected bodies of the damned are torched.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.”

Malachi 4:1-3 (ESV)

Perhaps “indestructible” only applies to the righteous. Unfortunately for the unrighteous, this is not total destruction. Their spirits and possibly their resurrected bodies are cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire, along with Satan and his angels and forgotten.

There is a way to avoid such a fate. The way is Jesus. We all deserve the latter, but as a gift of God we can have the former. There is no greater gift to receive.

When Did Heaven Enter the Plan?

The use of the word “Heaven”, the absence of Heaven as a human destination in the Old Testament, and similarities between Heaven and the New Earth leads to confusion about the topic. The article presents a view about how all of this fits together.

I recently watched a show of the documentary series Frontline about President Biden. It shared how, as a first term Senator, Joe Biden’s world was rocked by the tragic death of his wife and daughter in a car accident. The show interviewed the Catholic priest who ministered to the family at the time. He said something that stunned my wife and me. He started a sentence by saying, “If there is a Heaven…”. If? I’m not sure if the “if” was a reflection of a lack of faith or a confusion about God’s plan or both. If it was the former, I would say to him and any of you, expect this world to be difficult and unfair. We are sinful beings under God’s curse and cohabitants on this planet with Satan and his kingdom. There will be rough spots, even cruel ones. If the “if” is the latter, then this article is meant to address that. First of all, from where does the confusion about Heaven arise?

There are a couple of confusing aspects about Heaven in the Bible. The first is the word itself. “Heaven” both in Hebrew and in Greek is a word that describes several layers. The first heaven is the atmosphere of our planet. The second is the universe. The third is Heaven proper, the abode of God. This clearly shows the structure of creation as revealed to or understood by people in the biblical times. This doesn’t mean it is how it is actually structured. The model worked as far as God was concerned.

Next there is the fact that both Old and New Testament revealed the plan for a new heaven and new Earth. Certain similarities exist between the descriptions of Heaven and of the New Earth. So, are they the same? Do we go to Heaven and Revelation 21 and 22 describe it? Or do we wait the New Earth and references to Heaven describe it? Or are they two separate things?

Finally, why is there no reference in the Old Testament to people being taken to Heaven upon their deaths? Even the righteous expected to go to Sheol until the Resurrection?

The Bible reveals that God’s plans were established even before the problem of sin and rebellion existed. How He rolls out those plans and reveals them to mankind is the thing. Very early on God revealed the end of the plan. Job knew about the resurrection. Daniel speaks of it as well. Isaiah 65 reveals a description of the New Earth that doesn’t seem to agree with Revelation or the idea of eternal life. I suspect that Isaiah is only given a description that he and his contemporaries can process. To read more about this passage look here: https://wordpress.com/post/afterdeathsite.com/1982

Information is given out by God on a “need to know” basis. Nothing about Heaven as a human destination is mentioned in the Old Testament, but we do find Satan in Heaven. This I believe is key. If we know about God’s plan, then Satan will certainly know about it. This is the reason why more specific details are not given about the Messiah. What is given is specific enough that they could be interpreted any old way, like a fortune cookie; but there is not enough information for Satan to defeat the plan–which he definitely tried to do. A big part of this is that with Jesus’ successful fulfillment of the Law, Satan and his cronies would be expelled from Heaven.

Satan’s expulsion is spoken of in Revelation 12:

7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the Earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation 12:7-9 (ESV)

I believe this to be the ultimate “Good New – Bad News” message. The good news is that now those redeemed by Jesus don’t have to dwell in the bland comfort of Sheol. With Satan expelled, Heaven is in play, and it is our immediate destination at our death. Resurrection, Judgment Day, and the New Heaven and Earth are future and time does matter. (See this article about time: https://wordpress.com/post/afterdeathsite.com/2356

The bad news is that Satan is exiled to here. This I don’t understand or like. Human beings are enough of a mess with our sinful nature. The world is also complicated by the curse. How much additional suffering does the presence of Satan and his angels create?

Heaven is indicated as our destination in several New Testament passages. This is not a development of theology as much as it is more information after a critical execution of the plan. 2 Corinthians 5 states that we have “an eternal house in Heaven” (speaking about our heavenly body). The fact that it is “eternal” does not make Heaven and the New Earth the same thing. Read about one possible scenario here: https://wordpress.com/post/afterdeathsite.com/2356

There are many surprises that God still has in store for us. That makes it exciting. The most critical knowledge is already ours. We can only enter into eternal life with God as a gift through God connecting us to Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of God’s Law for us. We would never be able to do it ourselves.

A Hard Proportion to Accept

I trust the Bible. That is different than saying that I like or want everything that it tells me. Life is predictably like that. It is often not the way I want. Specifically, the Bible shares that the proportion of humanity that will be saved will be small. This is especially tragic and confusing when you consider that the sacrifice that Jesus made for us is big enough to forgive any sin but one–blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

When some people hear of this, they reject the idea, the Bible, and even God. “I am not going to believe in a god who would send people to Hell.” They act as if their rejection of a painful fact will make it go away. It won’t. Denial is not a good coping skill in this case (or in most cases).

What does the Bible say on this? This verse was just in our Sunday morning readings:

3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

Jeremiah 23:3 (ESV)

The word “remnant” is not encouraging. It is better than nothing, but it suggests a small portion of the whole. Here it applies to the Jewish nation, but the idea of only a small fraction being saved spreads across all of humanity. My least favorite verse in the Bible is this:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

That is Jesus speaking, too. How can this be right? God is love. God is all powerful. God wants all people to be saved. All of this is true. But the poison of sin is in every human being from conception (Psalm 51:5). The solution to sin is a “narrow” list of one choice: Jesus.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6 (ESV)

The Bible tells us that people will not naturally accept the story or promise of Jesus without help from the Holy Spirit.

 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

Why can’t the Spirit get through to everyone? I don’t know. It doesn’t really say. I would guess that to do so would require the Spirit to violate the integrity of what makes us a human. It would just make us a robot. Maybe.

People who do believe and are saved have the burden to at least get the word of God’s plan and offer out there to everyone. I don’t think our failure to reach some people groups throughout history will necessarily preclude them. I base this hope on 1 Peter 4:6

For this is why the Gospel is preached to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

1 Peter 4:6(ESV)

But it not hard to see how the list of potential people inheriting eternal life gets whittled down very fast. All are sinful and damned, many reject Jesus as their Savior from the get-go, others fall away for multiple reasons. Soon you have a remnant or few.

How few is “few”? Percentage wise it is hard to guess. I would love for the answer to be 99% is few compared to the potential of 100%. I would even rejoice in 49.9% is few compared to 50.1%. I fear and even expect that it is less. Still the “few” are a great number of people.

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10 (ESV)

Not believing the Bible on this topic or any other should not be on the basis of not liking its contents or on feelings. It should be on the merits of how the text was preserved down through history, the reliability of the eyewitnesses of Jesus, and of Jesus himself. There is plenty of reason to believe it.

Here is a starting point to investigate the integrity of the Bible from my other blog Givingchrist.com.https://givingchrist.com/2022/02/01/can-you-trust-the-accuracy-of-the-bible/ After reading this you can find more by scrolling to the bottom and searching “Bible” or other key words.

You can use the search function here to find other related topics. It is a big deal. I hope that you are one of the “few”.

The Tree of Life and Abnormally Long Life in the Old Testament

Many people expect to live around 80-90 years, but the current maximum lifespan is 120 years. In the past, people lived longer, with biblical figures reaching nearly 1,000 years. Some seek to extend life through science or technology, but the true promise of eternal life lies in faith and connection with God.

How long do you expect to live in this life? Most would say 80 or 90 years. The average in the United States is 78. That seems young-ish to me. I have no aspirations to live to be 100. Perhaps that is because I visit many people who have significantly cognitively declined by then and I don’t wish to join that group.

The actual current maximum lifespan is 120 years, which sounds like a real burden to me. Life expectancy varies by gender, location and time. People in the not-so-distant past were lucky to make it to 50. Jesus is crucified at age 35 (I believe), a young man to us, but not so much for when He lived.

When you dig back into the Old Testament people were living enormously long lives: Enosh 905, Kenan 910, and the record holder Methuselah at 969. They were cranking out kids in their 100’s. It is clear that they were not elderly until much later. Is this a myth? I don’t think so. These people all lived before Noah’s flood, so some attribute the difference to the environment in some way, but I think it is a genetic change that God brought about.

 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Genesis 6:3 (ESV)

So we have been capped at 120 for a while. It is interesting that this limit seemed to phase in. The mechanisms that age us and result in our physical death didn’t come into full effect for a couple generations.

There is a branch of science today that seeks to undo the genetic cap on our lives. Others, clearly fearing death, seek immortality through capturing our consciousness as a computer code. The former might produce some lengthening of life for those who seek it. I am pretty skeptical about the later.

God limited human life, but when God created it, we were not built to die at all. Adam and Eve were immortals, physically and spiritually. God warned them to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil lest they die. Satan said they wouldn’t die. Immediately. Adam lived for 930 years and then he kicked the bucket, just as God said.

Adam and Eve also had the benefit of the Tree of Life. What wear and tear life produced in the body, eating from the tree could fix. I don’t think there was anything miraculous about it. It was designed to work that way. Similarly, I don’t think the impact of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was miraculous. It was a genetic modifier created, likely by Satan, to poison mankind and the world.

The Tree of Life was forbidden Adam and Eve by God after their encounter with evil. God did not want to leave them physically eternal and evil. Hence, our need to die. Sin is a part of the body not the spirit. Our soul, the interaction of body and spirit, is likewise corrupt.

The Tree of Life makes another appearance by name in the Bible– at the end. In Revelation 22 it says:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:1-2 (ESV)

As I have discussed in previous blogs, we will have a Heavenly body for Heaven, but we will also have a resurrected physical body for a New Earth. It will be a modified, superior version of what we have now. The Trees of Life described in the verse above have some role in the eternal preservation of that body. What exactly, I do not know.

I do not aspire to unnaturally prolong physical life as I am experiencing now, even though I am very blessed compared to many. I have confidence in the one who is my original Creator. I have confidence in His ability to deliver far superior and eternal life to me. All of it is because of things God has already done. Jesus has already successfully fulfilled God’s Law and paid the price for my evil. Already I am connected to Jesus and benefit from His work through being baptized in His name. It is a great, loving offer that is there for the taking. May God help you to receive it.

Here’s to truly long life.

Looking At the Unseen: Heaven

The passage from 2 Corinthians 4:18 encourages looking beyond the seen to the unseen, such as happiness through God’s preparations. Visualizing the promised can help detach from material wealth. Heaven, as the dwelling place of God, is envisioned as a separate universe of indescribable beauty, activity, and personalized dwelling places.

In my last entry I began to examine the meaning of 2 Corinthians 4:18 where Paul encourages us to “look not to things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” I do think the main meaning of this passage is that we seek our identity, meaning, and ultimately our happiness from the things that God has prepared for us through the victory of Jesus. These things are for the moment unseen. Being very visual creatures, however, we tend to attach to seen things like wealth.

How do we work with God to modify our worldliness? One possibility is to frequently try to envision what is promised. You will definitely fall short of accurately doing this, but even a poor attempt can help. My last blog demonstrated this for our Heavenly Body. How about Heaven itself?

This first thing to state is that Heaven is a place. It is not a state of mind or some other lame, ethereal concept. Though the Greek original does not capitalize Heaven, I believe that is because the word is used for multiple things. The first heaven is the atmosphere. The second is the universe. The “third heaven” is God’s dwelling place. We are talking about the “third heaven”, so, I try to consistently capitalize it. That may not be its name, but it is the only name we have.

I believe Heaven to be another universe, not within our space-time. I try not to use the word “parallel” because that has the connotation of an exact replica of ours with different circumstances (like the Prime series “Man in the High Castle”). I also don’t mean part of the multiverse. This is not the multiverse of superhero series, but rather is a very lame idea uncritically swallowed by scientists who want to explain away the uniquely fine-tuned nature of our universe for life on Earth. Rather, I expect there are a few other universes that are closely connected to ours that we cannot perceive. Still, at death, we move quickly to them.

How do I envision Heaven? First, I believe that there is a huge central throne room of God. This is the “new Jerusalem” described in Revelation 21. While at the core of heavenly existence, it is not the whole of Heaven. There will be streams and trees and physical features both familiar and fantastically new to us. These features may be manifestations of God himself. There will be wonderful food and drink. To contradict the “Beer Barrel Polka”, in Heaven there may be beer, just no hangovers or beer bellies.

There will be hundreds of millions of beings–both human and angelic, but never crowding. Heaven could absorb many more people than will ever be there. Beauty and creativity everywhere you look, listen, feel and taste.

Will there be other creatures? Possibly yes. Not like ours. Earth’s creatures will get their part of the resurrection with the New Earth.

How about activities? I expect that there will be satisfying productive activities and leisure, but not like anything here. Again, stronger similarities of activities to this life will be a part of the New Earth.

Will we have a dwelling that is ours? I would think so. Jesus said,

2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

John 14:2 (ESV)

The King James version uses “mansions” as opposed to “rooms”. You won’t feel cramped or disappointed in your housing arrangement, whatever you call it.

Heaven has been the dwelling place of Angels and Cherubim. Again, I capitalize but that may not be their proper name. It was until the victory of Jesus also the domain of Satan and Demons (which I understand to be fallen Angels). They no doubt have a fully developed culture and possibly even technology of their own. Intermingling won’t be a problem. It would have been a big problem, and wasn’t allowed, prior to Jesus.

Will it be disorienting, since it is so different? I doubt it. If there is a learning curve, it will be a joyful experience.

Looking At the Unseen

The passage in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 urges believers to focus on the unseen, eternal things rather than the transient world. Envisioning the afterlife may be flawed, but it encourages hope and motivation as disciples. Descriptions in scripture hint at a bodily, immersive experience in heaven, free from physical and emotional pain, surrounded by beauty, love, and pure joy, all made possible through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice.

For the next two blog entries I would like to ponder with you the meaning of 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, which reads:

17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (ESV)

How does one “look to things that are unseen”? It seems like an oxymoron. Our gift of vision is a limited function. It works only for objects that reflect or emit a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum that we call visible light. These objects also have to be big enough. Vision is a nice feature, but I need equipment to “see” many other objects, and even night-vision goggles and microscopes have their limits.

Paul is talking about looking to Heaven and the New Earth. Heaven, I expect, is extra-dimensional to this universe. As large as the universe is, I don’t expect Heaven to be hiding within it or just beyond our observational horizon. The New Earth is future. Neither suit our vision, but that doesn’t make them unreal. It might make them feel surreal, but that is our problem. That said, how do you “look to them”?

Perhaps it is enough to say, “I have a promise and a partial description given by inspiration from God”. “I look forward to that.” In that case “looking” is trusting. Would it be wrong if “looking” meant “envisioning”? Envisioning will necessarily be an exercise fraught with error. For,

9 But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
    nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—

1 Corinthians 2:9 (ESV)

Paul quotes Isaiah and both men had out-of-body experiences of Heaven. It is their way of saying, “What I saw would blow your mind”. Our envisioning of Heaven would no doubt fall short of the reality of it because our experience is limited to this fallen world. Still, Heaven and especially the New Earth do not sound like they are completely different from God’s creation here. Envisioning, though inaccurate, may be just the type of encouragement to keep us forward looking and motivated as disciples of Jesus.

So what could we envision? I would like to start with my heavenly body. The point is that our experience in Heaven is a bodily experience versus merely a dream or like a ghost is stated in the verse after text above.

5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2 Corinthians 5:1 (ESV)

The “tent” is your body here. The “house” is your body in Heaven, not a building in which you will dwell.

What is it like? I envision the same basic body plan. I have no pain. I still sleep, but my sleep is the most refreshing and wonderful thing. I feel strong. I am happy and excited about what each day will bring. I feel beautiful and complex. My senses are sharp and more than the five I have here. I sense love and feel it for every fellow creature around me.

The people and the angels around me are stunningly beautiful. I have an immediate bond with each one of them. I know their names instinctively. I recognize people I know from my life on Earth. They are more valuable to me and more pleasing to me than ever. Any sin between us is long forgiven.

I move in many ways. I can walk, run, swim, fly or just think my way to places far away. Heaven is vast. It is no smaller than the Universe I came from, but I am not limited to one planet. I feel at home anywhere, but I have a community I return to.

I can communicate with words or directly to the mind. I encounter people from different eras of time. None are like strangers to me. Some were part of my family tree. Language is not a barrier. We speak one language.

God is with me either visibly or fully in my mind all the time. He speaks to me. We spend time together one-on-one, for He is able to do this with everyone at the same time. We also gather in groups with God. Worship is not a struggle. It is spontaneous and is a highlight of our experience, but we do many things.

Music, celebration, eating and drinking, playing, learning, exploring, serving, bonding and much more is part of my experience. In Heaven, we are not reproductive, but we can feel a bond with each similar to the hormonal bond felt on Earth through sex. We are always safe, disease-free, sorrow-free.

We do not watch the events of the Earth because our experience in Heaven is immersive. Yet, we are aware of certain people who are still on their earthly pilgrimage. God speaks to us about them. We are eager for Judgment Day, primarily to end evil in all of God’s “inhabited” creation. Hell is “forsaken”. We are also mindful of being even further clothed. The day when we receive the universe of Earth and a resurrected body.

I am sure with a little creativity you can make this more detailed. Use the limited description given within Scripture as your guardrails, so that you do not envision something perversely incorrect. But enjoy the ride. Heaven is not wishful thinking, or boring, or tainted like this world.

By grace, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it can be and will be yours.

Life, Death and Consciousness

The post explores explanations for our complex universe, body, consciousness, and free will. It compares materialism and biocentrism, touching on consciousness, multiverse, and freewill. The author rejects the deterministic nature of materialism and embraces the spiritual dimension, referencing the Bible’s distinction between body, soul, and spirit. Jesus’ sacrifice offers hope for an eternal, heavenly existence.

What explains our experience of a complex and vast universe? What explains our complex body and the experience of being self-aware and having a free-will? Many religious, philosophical and scientific explanations have been advanced over the centuries. Do they work, do they have proof, and how did we arrive at these ideas?

The current scientific orthodoxy has a certain philosophical point of view. Materialism (not to be confused with the lust for money and property) is a philosophical point of view that says only the observable is real. Ironically, observation makes this philosophy doubtful.

One area of struggle for materialism is our consciousness. We can observe brain activity and even artificially create certain experiences within the brain, but the theory fails to explain our ability to choose in a satisfactory manner and seems somewhat desperate in its attempts to explain away Near-Death Experiences.

A more fringy and somewhat pseudo-scientific philosophy that has got a little attention is something called biocentrism. My take on what little I know about biocentrism is that it is trying to take some ideas (true or not) from the current mainstream of science and propose a largely unprovable theory of consciousness. I am interested, as well, as to how observable and tested ideas from science come into contact with information that we have by revelation from God. Consciousness obviously plays into the topic of this blog.

Biocentrism asserts that our consciousness is actually the energy within the brain. This is subtle difference from mainstream science which says that our consciousness is an illusion created by the interaction of our brain cells which is both chemical and electrical.

Where biocentrism rolls into the slightly more bizarre is how it uses the idea of a multiverse, which is strictly the desperate idea of theoretical physics to explain how we can have a fine-tuned universe that supports life. There isn’t great or any (to my knowledge) evidence for the multi-verse; especially not the version utilized by biocentrism. Their use of the multiverse is that we exist simultaneously in an infinite number of universes playing out an infinite number of choices at once. That idea tries to solve the freewill issue. We actually are not free, we are just playing out one set of possible circumstances. The odd conclusion is that since we may die in one universe, but death is an illusion since we must still live in others. The only thing unifying the multiple versions of ourselves is our brain energy. If we can train our brain energy to be more aware, we transcend the perceived problem of death.

Call me skeptical. I reject the idea that our choices are simply the product of inevitable brain chemistry. I also reject the idea that we are only an evolutionary product of the laws of nature. Getting at the true nature of what we are is hard if not impossible for scientific inquiry. At some point, we must be told what we are by someone who transcends creation–the Creator Himself.

The Bible speaks of our Earthly body, our Heavenly body (1 Corinthians 15:40, 2 Corinthians 5:1), our soul and our spirit. See https://afterdeathsite.com/2024/03/26/your-body-soul-and-spirit/ I think the Bible comes close to some of the ideas above, but remains significantly different. Our consciousness is not brain chemistry exactly. Our Spirit creates the consciousness which interfaces with the brain as chemistry and energy. Our Spirit is not limited to this universe, but is connected to it for now.

Death is a real thing, not an illusion. It is the consequence of being a sinful being that has rebelled and diverged from how God created us. That said, a human, is an eternal and potentially multi-dimensional thing. We are where God put us now, but we are created to be an eternal creature. Our life is not playing out in a different fashion in another universe, but we can have an existence in another universe. Which “universe” depends on our interaction with God, who wants us to have something good. If God can connect us by faith to Jesus, then our universe will be Heaven and eventually also a rehabilitated version of this universe.

Jesus’ death and resurrection were performed to give us that inheritance after death. Our body and spirit will separate but our soul will engage with another body in Heaven (probably another not a parallel universe). That is what completes the explanation of what we are, and that is a hope that we all can hang on to.

Does Life After Death Have Proof?

The only undeniable proof of life after death is experiencing it. Belief in God and the Bible’s promises is crucial. Jesus’ miracles and resurrection offer insight into the afterlife. Near Death Experiences (NDEs) provide further evidence. Denying the existence of an afterlife due to lack of proof is self-deception and disregards the love of the Creator.

In the end, the only thing that will constitute seamless proof of life after death proof is experiencing it yourself. Once that happens, you had better hope that it is positive life after death because there probably isn’t a way to change course. Promises made in the Bible, experiences documented in the Bible, and more recent Near Death Experiences constitute the proof that you can have. God has put a premium on having faith. In this instance faith means, confidence that He exists (see my last blog entry), confidence that what the Bible records about Jesus actually happened, and confidence that God can and will deliver on His promises. Faith is confidence in something you cannot see.

What is your default belief about life after death and why? Some think it to be more intelligent and educated to only believe something they can experience first. To me that seems like a dangerous position, and I doubt that you follow it consistently. Must you see germs to believe in their existence? I think not. Must you die to believe it will happen to you? We need the experiences of others and sometimes revelation from God to fully understand what we are, what will happen to us, and what (if anything) exists beyond death.

Jesus demonstrated that He was not just an ordinary being. He did it through miracles and even bringing back people from the dead. People saw these things and were profoundly changed. Jesus gave a couple of pieces of insight into life after death to be noted here.

13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man

John 3:13 (ESV)

You may suspicious of someone who claims sole authority over the topic of the existence of Heaven, but Jesus wasn’t just some crazy person without evidence of His claims. He also said,

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

John 14:1-3 (ESV)

His testimony is that there is eternal life with God after death. He states that if this life is all we get, He would have said so. Trust Him or not.

Then there is Jesus’ own experience. To win a favorable outcome for us after death, Jesus had to fulfill some legal requirements. We are sinners. To deserve a place in Heaven on our own merits we would have to be sinless. The Bible’s testimony is that the default outcome for a human being upon death is bad–very bad. Jesus’ came so that there would be one route to something much better. To fulfill the “legal requirements” Jesus had to be human, live a sinless life, and pay for an already accumulated sentence on human sin. That included experiencing being damned while hanging on a cross and a physical death. His death was guaranteed and certified by professional executioners and was more than obvious to observers. Yet in three days He rose from the dead and was observed by over 500 people.

If that is not enough, then you must deal with the experiences of now thousands of people who have been clinically dead, experienced an out-of-body experience and then were revived. Recent studies have shown that our brain has a storm of activity right before it has none. It is tempting to attribute NDE’s to that storm and claim that they are just an illusion created by that storm. I would advance a different theory. That the “storm” is our soul separating from our brain. Not unlike the arcing seen when slowly pulling out an electrical plug. The storm is not the creator of the out-of-body experience.

Near Death Experiences include both Heaven and Sheolhttps://afterdeathsite.com/2021/08/17/examining-near-death-experiences/ , https://afterdeathsite.com/2023/11/14/how-is-sheol-different-than-hell/

Remaining confident that death is the end because there is no “proof” is a form of self-deception in my opinion. If someone doesn’t want God to exist, doesn’t want dependency on Jesus, doesn’t want judgment on sin, doesn’t want to change their worldview, they can tell themselves that proof for eternal life is not ironclad. They can also ignore the giant holes in the proof of their worldview. That will be throwing away the love of their Creator and a tremendous existence.