Do We Know For Sure? Life After Death

When death is mentioned, a common reaction for people is to shutter and shun the topic.

Death is still a point of fear and anxiety, although death has been vanquished.

Death has been defeated and proven to be a point of transition and nothing to fear.

Fear is largely due to the unknown.

What lays beyond that final breath?

People's faith is measured when death is pondered, or when it happens near them.

It is unfortunate that this world's ideas are often most prevalent in people's minds, instead of what has been confirmed from Above.

Some of the most religious people can be the most mournful when someone near them dies, instead of understanding what has really happened and praising God.

For some people, religious or otherwise, the ritual over the dead body seems to be of greater importance than contemplating what has happened and where that person is now.

Christ proved life after death, heaven, and all that man's heart contemplates and worried about.

If certain historical facts and testimonies have been proven from parts of the testimony (the Bible), why are other parts doubted or looked upon with suspicion?

Has anything from the Bible ever been disproven or shown to be incorrect?

Not yet.

What is looked upon with suspicion is simply a matter of experience (lack of it), rather than the ability to prove or disprove something... yet much has been proven to us.

What is considered improbable or impossible is more about a lack of all things having yet to come to the forefront... as it has for some of us.

The testimony mentions a second death.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from His Presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 

- Revelation 20: 11-15

Reading this, it is reasonable why people fear death and descriptions of things beyond our purview.

Yet that fear, being a likely measure of doubt for the faithful, is like a 'death-nail' for those who are very sure in their sin.

Know for certain that we can be completely right or completely wrong about death... and it is a measure of one's faith how they understand and view death... how death has emotional hold on them.

There are some people who don't fear things they don't believe are true, whether it is God or His testimony... but deep down inside they always fear death.

Death has been proven to them time and time again, so to believe it is not real is quite irrational.

Death is unavoidable, although the testimony also mentions certain individuals having somehow been brought from life to eternal life without first tasting death.

For all others, this is the message and promise to those gifted faith:

“Lord,” Martha said to Yeshua, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”Yeshua said to her, 

“Your brother will rise again.” 

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 

Yeshua said to her, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” 

- John 11: 21-27

This reassurance of Christ to Martha may be speaking of the first death, and / or of the second death.

Sometimes it is about taking One at His Word... despite 'knowing' the mechanisms of 'how' a promise is fulfilled.

Man's mind is curious, always wanting to know something unknown.

Even when knowable information is shared, still the mind does not perceive.

It is best focusing on the promise and believing that.

It is best focusing on He who makes and fulfills promises.

To shut something out of one's mind and heart is not to make it go away or cease to exist, and this is what people often do with death and all things related (their role and responsibility over their life).

Knowing the manner in which death comes about and what happens next does not, I don't think, remove the fear.

Rather, it is believing the promise of life given to those who place their faith in Christ that extinguishes fear.

It is believing the testimony that He rose from the dead as He said He would... and will bring us to where He is.

It could be said there is actually another death (or living death), and this is the one we are to deal with rather than worry about death and the second death.

This 'living death' is our responsibility, while physical death and spiritual death is out of our hands.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things Above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things Above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your Life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. 

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 

- Colossians 3: 1-11

This 'living death' is our battle with the temptations and confusions of this world, its contradictions and all the rest of it.

One of the death-nails to encoffin this death comes when one is born again... of water and Spirit.

This death comes about through our choices, in what we think, what we say, and what we do.

There is a death that occurs while we are still in the flesh, and we embark on a life that continuously dies to the ways of this world.

There is also a resurrection that occurs while still in the flesh.

Although we may decide to be born of water (or it is decided for us), it is God's choice when a spiritual rebirth occurs.

What I mean is that some people simply get wet with water but are, sadly, never born again.

Surely you are to pass through both, and one is a humble submission God's order, while the other is God Himself baptizing us.

It is the Spirit's decision to give birth to the Spirit in a man, while it can be said it is man's decision to birth someone through water or be themselves born of water.

So this other death, as with all things of God, comes with specific clauses which man is unable to decide on their own... outside of submitting to obey His Word and go through the waters.

Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what they have done. 

- Matthew 16: 24-27

From your cross is hanging all that is detestable to God - your sin and your sinful nature.

I know my cross is heavy, but will never be as heavy as the cross He bore for me.

My cross is, however, able to be carried because He carried His cross on my behalf, and in some way also carries mine Today... via His Spirit living in me.

My participation is my part, my responsibility to obey, to continually submit, to remember to place my heart and mind on things Above and thus be filled with what He has already provided, even eternal life.

Christ proved to mankind that there is in fact spirit (a reality beyond the physical plane) and, that life continues despite the death of the flesh.

He proved that there is nothing to fear from death, but rather to fear Him after all He has provided.

Those who fear death fear the unknown, instead of fearing not doing the work of dying to themselves.

God is largely unknown to many, and thus why the fear of death haunts them rather than the comfort of His promises and the fact of His resurrection from the dead:

I turned around to see the Voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,  dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with a golden sash around His chest. The hair on His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His Voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 

In His right hand He held seven stars, and coming out of His mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. 

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Then He placed His right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I Am the First and the Last. I Am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I Am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. 

“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

- Revelation 1: 12-20

He is faithful and He always keeps His promises!

“Look, I Am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.“I, Yeshua, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I Am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” 

- Revelation 22: 12-16

If you believe that He saves and will also save you, you are promised to be where He is after death.