A Christian Reflection on Life After Death

Death comes for all of us. Escaping it has been the wishes of many throughout generations. Under the sun as would have said the sage of old, after death all dreams cherished on earth ceases to be. This sentiment was expressed forcefully by the Ecclesiastes:

"At least the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing; they no longer have a reward, since memory about them has been forgotten."- Ecclesiastes 9:5

The Ecclesiastes is known to be a preacher that presented everything being done or happening on earth as being vain, futile and ultimately without lasting purpose, hence his signature, 'Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity' (Ecc.1:2). His specialty was to portray a grim picture of human life by taking out all purposes and meaning out of man's existence if this natural life was all there is to be. If all end with death, he reasoned, then nothing really matters. If all end with the end of this life, then it doesn't matter whether one live a life of nobility and goodness or if one live a life of wickedness and corruption, wise or fool, men or beast we all end up in a forgotten place with no memories, no pleasure and no pain.

"For neither the wise nor the fool will be long remembered, since in days to come everything will be forgotten. The wise man dies the same way as the fool, does he not?"-
Ecclesiastes 2:16 

Attracting our attention to the creation of man as expressed in Genesis, the Ecclesiastes reasoned that,

"All of them go to one place: all of them originate from dust, and all of them return to dust." - Ecclesiastes 3:20 

If man is no different from an animal or any other creation then his existence ends with this world. But, is this all the Ecclesiastes says about the death of human beings? We discover if we keep reading that as he come close to the end of his book, a message of hopes started emerging. A message that recognizes that not all is vain, not everything is insignificant. On the last chapter (12) of his book, he reminds his readers that evil man and good man in this life shall not be treated the same. He warned that there is indeed something more to this natural realm. There is a spiritual realm, and God who is Spirit is interested in what has happened in the natural world, "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it is good, or whether evil." (Ecc 12.14).

The language dramatically changes after 11 chapters of 'vanity, vanity, all is vanity'. Suddenly, not everything is vanity and meaningless. Now there is a judgment, there is someone who cares and remind us that the natural life is not all there is to be. It seems that the Ecclesiastes has tried to make an argument based on Genesis 2:7 throughout the book.

"(a) God formed man of the dust of the ground, and (b) breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7

 It seems that the Ecclesiastes in chapter 3:20, quoted above, was only making an argument based on the first part (a) of Genesis 2:7, namely "man was made of dust" without attracting the attention of the readers to the second part (b) which clearly pointed out that man was made with more than a material element namely "dust". There was a spiritual element in man, an immaterial element in man which has been called "spirit" or "soul". And it is in his last chapter 12 that the Ecclesiastes complete his thoughts in order to bring significance and meaning to human life,

"Then man's dust will go back to the earth, returning to what it was, and the spirit will return to the God who gave it." - Ecclesiastes 12:7 

In completing his thought, the Ecclesiastes make two affirmation, a) man's body which is dust will go back to earth. However, b) man's spirit which is immaterial and soulish will go to another destination, a spiritual destination, to the realm of his creator.

This belief that man has both a material aspect to him (the body that stays in the dust realm) and an immaterial aspect to him (the soul that goes to the Creator's realm) became more forcefully expressed in the New Testament starting with the one who had both knowledge of this world and of the other world,

"Stop being afraid of those who kill the body but can't kill the soul. Instead, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell." - Matthew 10:28 

The Lord Jesus encouraged his disciples not to be afraid in the face of deadly opposition to their faith reminding them that those who kill the body can not kill their soul. Even though they might put the believers body to death and return it to the dust as would say the Ecclesiastes, their soul can not be equally killed for their souls will survive the persecution, the Lord Jesus informed his disciples.

This wasn't the first time Jesus pulled the veil of what happens after death when man's body go to dust and his spirit to the Creator. In the book of Revelation, St. John is given a revelation of what had happened to the souls of the martyrs after their physical death,

Revelations 6:9 "When the lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given."

Rev 6:10  "They cried out in a loud voice, "Holy and true Sovereign, how long will it be before you judge and take revenge on those living on the earth who shed our blood?" 

Rev 6:11  "Each of them was given a white robe. They were told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers was completed, who would be killed as they themselves had been."

From this portion of Revelation 12:9-11, we are informed that St. John was able to:
1) see the Souls of the Martyrs (v.9)
2) hear them speak and cry out in a loud voice (v. 10)
3) see the Souls receive something (white robe, v.11)
4) see the Souls receive instruction about remaining calm and being at rest (v. 11).

These four (4) points are biblical proof that the Souls which survive the physical death are conscious. So conscious matter of fact that they could speak and hear instruction given to them. More interesting is that when God lifted the veil of the spiritual realm, St. John was able to see the souls of those who died as Martyrs as pointed out in verse 9. This is not unlike what happened to the disciples when they prayed with the Lord Jesus at the Mount of transfiguration and that God opened their spiritual eyes to see beyond the veil of the natural world as St. John did in the book of Revelation:

"And Elijah with Moses was seen by them, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah ... And suddenly, looking around, they did not see anyone any more, except Jesus alone with themselves." - Mark 9:4-5, 8.

The Gospel of Mark emphasizes that the disciples saw both Elijah and Moses. Regardless of what your theology maybe of the status of Elijah, what is sure to all though is that Moses was dead, "And Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab, according to the Word of Jehovah." (Deuteronomy 34:5). Despite Moses physical death, which mean his body returning to dust by being buried, his souls survived his physical death long enough to meet with his Lord in Palestine on the Mount of Transfiguration many centuries later.

We find similar stories of the human soul surviving the physical death of man. One such strange story is told of Elijah the prophet that involved the soul of a departed child,

"And he [Elijah] stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Jehovah, and said, 'O Jehovah my God, please let this child's soul come to him again'.  And Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he lived." - 1 King 17:21-22

So those who think that life end with this world have seriously misunderstood the Ecclesiastes, and have not paid much attention to what the scriptures kept saying on the issue of man's death. For man do not only have a body that sleeps in the dust but man has also a soul/spirit that survives man's bodily's death. This was the whole exercise of the parable of the wicked rich and the poor Lazarus. Though both bodies went to the ground, back to dust, and that their cerebral activities ceased functioning (Ecc 9:5), their story of their conscious existence didn't end there (Luke 16:19-31).

Here is what St. Paul the apostle had to say about death despite his desire to stay on earth to serve his beloved brothers and sisters in the faith,

"Indeed, I cannot decide between the two. I have the desire to leave this life and be with the Messiah, for that is far better." - Philippians 1:23-24 

St. Paul was totally positive that to leave this life was not an absolute end to his conscious life, but he knew based on the biblical evidence that he would be with the Messiah, Jesus. What He said to the Church to the Philippians he also reiterated to the Church of Corinth,

"We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from this body and to live with the Lord." - 2 Corinthians 5:8 

Understanding that man is made with a material part (body) and an immaterial part (Spirit and/or Soul) is the key to understand what happens to those who experience physical death. St. Paul exemplify this understanding of man as a tripartite entity, "And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blamelessly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Thessalonians 5:23

I will end by quoting Dr. Ravi Zacharias tributes to our departed beloved brother Nabeel Qureshi who is at this moment at the presence of His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

"Knowing the biblical message, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it well:

Life is real! life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal.

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul."