Preamble: Because I have been extremly busy for the past few weeks doing some business I was unable to write up an Easter Sunday column, so here is my belated Easter message.
Hope you enjoy it!
Why do I believe in Life after Death? First of all, because there is no proof, that any material thing can be annihilated. You may burn it, dissolve it, blend it with other materials, rearrange it, allow it to decompose slowly; but the actual elements which compose it, still exist.
Seeing this is so, why should I believe, that the spirit which God breathed into the first man, and which God breathed into us all, can ever cease to exist?
I believe in Life after Death, because Nature supplies us with striking examples of how life can be changed from one form to another. Take for example, the butterfly. The little caterpillar, who is later to become a butterfly, builds for itself a shell and “goes to sleep.”
It appears to have come to the end of it all. But we know that this is only the end of one stage of its life. Inside that shell, the caterpillar is mysteriously changing. He is becoming, one of the most beautiful of all creatures, the Butterfly. The Greeks aware of the process considered it the illustration of Immortality, and use the same word for “soul” as they do for “Butterfly”.
It is not really hard to believe, that the Death of one’s body, is only the preparation for another life. On the other hand, it is difficult to believe that our friends and loved ones, whom we know so well, can ever stop existing.
But someone says: “No one has ever come back to tell us, if there is life after death” “Our friends don’t come back to tell us”. But someone did come back from death, the Lord Jesus Christ himself and that is His message to us, on this Easter Sunday, that after death, we do live on, that we shall live again.
I Believe in Life after Death, because of the instinctive longing, in all people, for Immortality. Evidence is plentiful, in the tombs of ancient rulers, in the mounds of North American Indians, in the writings of the pagan philosophers, and poets, that men of all ages and places, have longed for life after death.
God, who has put this instinct in the hearts of all men, will satisfy it. Does he not satisfy the instincts of all of His other creatures? Birds feel the instinct to fly thousands of miles, over oceans and wasteland, and at the end of their journey, they find a summer haven. Salmon have the instinctive longing to travel hundred of miles down fresh water streams to the ocean. After several years in some mysterious way, known only to God, they make their way back to the very gravel beds, where they were born, to spawn their own off-spring God put these instincts in birds and fish, fulfills them, and satisfies them. And He will satisfy the longing in our hearts one day that cries out for life after death.
I believe in Life after death because no matter how decrepit or ill our bodies become, our spirits still want to go on.
I Believe In Life After Death Because Of The Unequal Distribution Of Rewards On Earth.
There is so much good done by people who love God, but no reward is given: and so much evil done by wicked people that go unpunished. The Bible says,” It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the Judgment”. Jesus said, “The hour is coming, in the which, all that are in the graves shall come forth. They that have done good unto the Resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the Resurrection of damnation.”
So our Lord tells us, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me…I go to prepare a place for you…that where I am there you may be also.”
For some, that future life will be a dreadful experience. For the Bible says,“Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the Lake of Fire.” Is your name in the Book of Life? If not, God will inscribe it there, when you repent of your sin, and ask Jesus to become your own personal Savior.
There is life on the other side of the grave, on the other side of death; but you must prepare for it now. And this you can do, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make the Resurrected Christ your own personal Savior on this Easter Sunday and you will make it the happiest Easter, of your entire life.
The Giver of Eternal Life is Only A Prayer Away!
Have A Blessed Day,
Pastor Bob