There is a primary question that everyone thinks of from time to time. What happens why we die?
A simple answer might be, “Something or nothing.” Either something happens or nothing happens. The human being continues in some way or other or the human person ceases to be.
Let’s survey the options, all which occur in scriptures in different places:
a) Nothing. The human person is so intimately tied to the material body, that when the body dies, the person dies with the body. Human life is merely material, a product of brain function. When the brain ceases to function, consciousness ends. In its way that is a quite comforting thought. However, painful the process of death might be, when death comes suffering ends.
b) Something. Human consciousness continues with no break. The person enters a new realm. This may be good or bad. It may be like being brought into a court to face the judge’s decision. If you have done well (according to certain criteria, the content of which need not trouble us at the moment), consciousness continues as pure joy. If you have not done well, then you suffer, either for a short time to make you better (then you will know pure joy), or for a long time, perhaps forever (your suffering is infinite).
c) Something, alternative. The human person falls asleep, to be woken at some future date. When the person awakes, it is much the same as the first “something.”
d) Alternative something. There is no reckoning, no judge’s court. The life after life is not like this life in any recognizable way. There is no pain, suffering, tears, or anything recognizably bad. It is all good. Everyone enters this life, irrespective of what happens in the life we know.
e) Something alternative. The human person finds another body, maybe human or maybe not depending on how well life was lived.
I think I have covered all the something and the nothing. How could we know? Simply, in some ways we cannot know. We cannot know in the sense of knowing something that is empirically verifiable. There is no test we can carry out to look at the results. We cannot know either in the other sense of knowing, “I know beauty, or love or goodness.” That kind of knowing is part experience, part intuition. In another way we can know. We can know in the way a child knows some things. We tell a child, “the grass is green, water is wet, two plus two equals four.” The child knows things (and we know them now) because we have been told that they are true. Everyone knows that water is wet. It is art of the structure of language itself. (Perhaps, there is nothing other than language.) The answers to the question I considered above are of this later type. They are claims to knowledge within a particular way of thinking about life, a particular language game. We know the answer because someone told us, and there is no way to verify the answer.
What happens, then when we die? Do you believe what you are told?
In the lectionary passages (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17, Luke 20:27-38) there are two different perspectives. In the Thessalonians letter, the folk seem particularly troubled that Jesus has not retuned to the world. This was troubling because they had been led to believe (they had been told) that Jesus would return soon and when he did there would be a general resurrection. The dead would rise to meet the Lord. This implies something like the option that when you die you fall asleep and you wait. They had been waiting now over 20 years (if you date the letter early) or perhaps 50 years (if you date it late). Some of their number had already died. They were beginning to get worried. So, the letter is written to encourage them to wait with patience. A tale is told that some other things would have to happen before Christ comes to the world again.
IN the gospel passage, there was a group of folk who believed something like the first option. When you die nothing. “Can the dead praise God?” asked the Psalmist. The implied answer is “no,” because the dead are dead. There is nothing.
In answer to this, Jesus said that as God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and as God is the God of the living, they must be alive after they have died. This implies something like one of the other options. But, it says nothing about any kind of reckoning. We must assume that either is not a reckoning or else that these three passed with flying colors.
So, can we answer the perennial question: what happens when we die? I think not with any certainty, not with any knowledge claim that means much.
The final thing Jesus says is “To God all of them are alive?” This is very hopeful. As a follower of Jesus, this is enough. What happens when we die? We are alive to God. How do you know? Jesus told me.
A simple answer might be, “Something or nothing.” Either something happens or nothing happens. The human being continues in some way or other or the human person ceases to be.
Let’s survey the options, all which occur in scriptures in different places:
a) Nothing. The human person is so intimately tied to the material body, that when the body dies, the person dies with the body. Human life is merely material, a product of brain function. When the brain ceases to function, consciousness ends. In its way that is a quite comforting thought. However, painful the process of death might be, when death comes suffering ends.
b) Something. Human consciousness continues with no break. The person enters a new realm. This may be good or bad. It may be like being brought into a court to face the judge’s decision. If you have done well (according to certain criteria, the content of which need not trouble us at the moment), consciousness continues as pure joy. If you have not done well, then you suffer, either for a short time to make you better (then you will know pure joy), or for a long time, perhaps forever (your suffering is infinite).
c) Something, alternative. The human person falls asleep, to be woken at some future date. When the person awakes, it is much the same as the first “something.”
d) Alternative something. There is no reckoning, no judge’s court. The life after life is not like this life in any recognizable way. There is no pain, suffering, tears, or anything recognizably bad. It is all good. Everyone enters this life, irrespective of what happens in the life we know.
e) Something alternative. The human person finds another body, maybe human or maybe not depending on how well life was lived.
I think I have covered all the something and the nothing. How could we know? Simply, in some ways we cannot know. We cannot know in the sense of knowing something that is empirically verifiable. There is no test we can carry out to look at the results. We cannot know either in the other sense of knowing, “I know beauty, or love or goodness.” That kind of knowing is part experience, part intuition. In another way we can know. We can know in the way a child knows some things. We tell a child, “the grass is green, water is wet, two plus two equals four.” The child knows things (and we know them now) because we have been told that they are true. Everyone knows that water is wet. It is art of the structure of language itself. (Perhaps, there is nothing other than language.) The answers to the question I considered above are of this later type. They are claims to knowledge within a particular way of thinking about life, a particular language game. We know the answer because someone told us, and there is no way to verify the answer.
What happens, then when we die? Do you believe what you are told?
In the lectionary passages (2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17, Luke 20:27-38) there are two different perspectives. In the Thessalonians letter, the folk seem particularly troubled that Jesus has not retuned to the world. This was troubling because they had been led to believe (they had been told) that Jesus would return soon and when he did there would be a general resurrection. The dead would rise to meet the Lord. This implies something like the option that when you die you fall asleep and you wait. They had been waiting now over 20 years (if you date the letter early) or perhaps 50 years (if you date it late). Some of their number had already died. They were beginning to get worried. So, the letter is written to encourage them to wait with patience. A tale is told that some other things would have to happen before Christ comes to the world again.
IN the gospel passage, there was a group of folk who believed something like the first option. When you die nothing. “Can the dead praise God?” asked the Psalmist. The implied answer is “no,” because the dead are dead. There is nothing.
In answer to this, Jesus said that as God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and as God is the God of the living, they must be alive after they have died. This implies something like one of the other options. But, it says nothing about any kind of reckoning. We must assume that either is not a reckoning or else that these three passed with flying colors.
So, can we answer the perennial question: what happens when we die? I think not with any certainty, not with any knowledge claim that means much.
The final thing Jesus says is “To God all of them are alive?” This is very hopeful. As a follower of Jesus, this is enough. What happens when we die? We are alive to God. How do you know? Jesus told me.