What Follows Life and Death

I'm always interested in ways to share the truth of God and the scripture in new ways.  It is one thing to discuss doctrine with believers, but another thing to engage unbelieving minds and encourage people to logically consider facts which supports faith in God.  In his book Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand shared an interesting perspective from a Christian who reasoned with an atheist to consider the reality of life after death:

"Suppose that we could speak with an embryo in his mother's womb and that you would tell him that the embryonic life is only a short one after which follows a real, long life.  What would the embryo answer?  He would say just what you atheists answer to us, when we speak to you about paradise and hell.  He would say that the life in the mother's womb is the only one and that everything else is religious foolishness.  But if the embryo could think, he would say to himself, 'Here arms grow on me.  I do not need them.  I cannot even stretch them.  Why do they grow?  Perhaps they grow for a future stage of my existence, in which I will have to work with them.  Legs grow, but I have to keep them bent toward my chest.  Why do they grow?  Probably life in a large world follows, where I will have to walk.  Eyes grow, although I am surrounded by perfect darkness and don't need them.  Why do I have eyes?  probably a world with light and colours will follow.'

So if the embryo would reflect on his own development, he would know about a life outside of his mother's womb, without having seen it.  It is the same with us.  As long as we are young, we have vigour, but no mind to use it properly.  When, with the years, we have grown in knowledge and wisdom, the hearse waits to take us to the grave.  Why was it necessary to grow in a knowledge and wisdom that we can use no more?  Why do arms, legs, and eyes grow on an embryo?  It is for what follows.  So it is with us here.  We grow here in experience, knowledge, and wisdom for what follows.  We are prepared to serve on a higher level that follows death." (Wurmbrand, Richard. Tortured for Christ. Oklahoma: Living Sacrifice Book, 1998. 96. Print.)

It is God and faith in Him which provides meaning and purpose to life which transcends time served on earth.  There is something in men which rejects the idea that life is without lasting significance.  Why else would people try to prolong their lives on earth, to labour for cures for diseases, and to hope of a brighter future?  What is the point of procreation, of spending thousands for artificial insemination, or cryogenically freezing your own body if life doesn't count for something?  Even people who despair of life on earth do not hate life itself, but want a life more agreeable for themselves.  If we could obtain life on our terms, I don't know a sane person who would refuse it.

Jesus came to earth to die so we might have eternal life through Him.  Life on earth is hard on everyone, and even more so for those who choose to deny themselves to follow Jesus.  There is more to life than these bodies we live in, for God breathed into every man a living soul, an eternal consciousness.  Matthew 16:24-26 reads, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?"  Even as Christ was raised from the dead in a new body, so all who follow Jesus will never experience the bitter defeat of death.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  It is folly to claim this life is all there is based upon the evidence.  Consider the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ.  In denying Christ man denies life and misses the profound satisfaction which comes from knowing God today and spending eternity with the One who created, loves, and knows our names.