Written by A.D.H. Thomas

Brethren Of Christ Articles - Articles Expounding Biblical Subjects

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What comes after death?
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There is a presumption amongst all ‘religions’ or mythologies that there is some form of life after death. The form that life takes and the purpose for which it exists varies according to the imaginations of their adherents.

Included amongst a vast range of beliefs concerning what is called ‘the after life’ there is the belief that the ‘souls’ of warriors killed in battle are transported to a vast hall where they feast with the god Odin in ‘Valhalla,’ (the hall of those slain in battle). Another extraordinary belief is that of reincarnation, which imagines that we continue to exist as other living creatures at the point of death. And many, if not most, of those who claim their belief in an ‘after life’ is based on the Bible, espouse the idea of an ‘immortal soul’ that continues to exist outside and independently of the body, after death, as did the ancient Babylonian and Egyptian mythologies.

As to the object or purpose of this disembodied existence after death, there is almost universal agreement that it is for never ending and uninterrupted pleasure and happiness. The nature of that pleasure tends to be more specific according to the degree of carnal or fleshly pursuits envisaged. The realm where such disembodied souls or spirits experience these pleasures, is usually assumed to be somewhere in the heavens above.

The Roman Catholic Church, from which much of the imagery of the ‘after life’ is taken, often portrays such ‘souls’ in the form of beings with wings, floating above the clouds with harps in their hands. That same Church is also responsible for the hideous imagery of the ‘souls’ of the rejected or ‘damned.’ These are sometimes portrayed as writhing in agony in a cavernous furnace.

There is not much difference between ‘mythology,’ pagan religions and orthodox Christianity, concerning the form of life after death and its purpose. All believe, for the most part, that life continues to exist in some disembodied form, and that it is for the purpose of unending pleasure and enjoyment. In the case of orthodox Christianity, it is not too specific as to the nature of such pleasurable activities.

Now our purpose is to show what God, who is the Creator and Sustainer of our present life, has revealed in the Bible, concerning a future existence after the demise of our present life. What does it have to say of the purpose or object of such life; why indeed should there be a future life? What form does such a future life take? When does such life begin, and is such a future life conditional or unconditional on our actions during the present life?

We would expect that the Bible, in its revelations concerning the future, sets out the form such future life will take, and this is indeed how the Bible presents things. It shows what God has determined for the future, the form it will take, and the means and ends to the attainment of that future.

If there is life after death it is, we submit, not the result of some inevitable law of nature, for which we have to find a purpose, but the necessary means of fulfilling a God given purpose. Ignorance of that purpose accounts for so much speculation, and wrong beliefs concerning the form and purpose of life after death. Turning then to a section of the Inspired Record, which answers many of our questions, we find this statement; “. . . . flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption,” (1 Corinthians 15:50). This is a helpful and enlightening statement, in that it refers to a future inheritance; the kingdom of God, and says that it is unattainable in the form of life that we now experience, a flesh and blood existence. It does not say what form of life those who will inherit the kingdom, must partake of. It simply adds, by way of reinforcing the point, that flesh and blood which is corruptible, i.e. subject to decay and death, cannot inherit a kingdom, which is incorruptible, i.e. incapable of decay or demise.

We have here a present state and a future state set in juxtaposition; the one being incompatible with the other. The Bible has much to say about both states and the means by which those who are in the present state may attain to the future state. Indeed in this same 15th chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in Corinth, he states what must happen. “. . . . this corruptible (body) must put on incorruption, and this mortal (body) must put on immortality,” (1 Corinthians 15:53).

The process by which decay is arrested is by a change of nature that is likened to the putting on of a garment, not to the putting off of anything. That this is so is shown by the statement that follows; “so, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory,” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

Before looking further into what the Bible has to say about the nature of this incorruptible body, we note that the words just quoted speak of the time when this change of nature takes place. “ . . . When this mortal shall have put on immortality,” it will be in fulfilment of a written or recorded saying. We find this saying, “he will swallow up death in victory,” recorded in the prophecy of Isaiah. The use of the word ‘victory’ is surely significant. It implies that death is defeated. But for whom, and when will this take place?

In answer to the ‘when,’ the prophet Isaiah tells us that it will be “when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem…in which mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things….and when he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering (of darkness) cast over all people, and the vail (of ignorance) that is spread over all nations . . . and when the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from all the earth: fore the LORD hath spoken it.” “And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation,” (Isaiah 24:23, 25:6-9).

Here then we have the plain Scriptural testimony that the time when flesh and blood is clothed with immortal nature is at the time when the Lord shall reign in Zion and Jerusalem, with resultant blessings upon mankind. Clearly such a state of things has not yet existed. It is the time the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray for; “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth. . . . ” will have come.