{"id":63581,"date":"2021-08-30T17:16:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T21:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/blog\/?p=63581"},"modified":"2022-03-07T09:45:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T14:45:23","slug":"what-awaits-you-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/blog\/2021\/08\/what-awaits-you-after-death\/","title":{"rendered":"What Awaits You After Death?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LeeWe are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord<\/em>.
\n\u20142 Corinthians 5:8<\/a><\/p>\n

Is this dying? Why, this is bliss . . . Earth is receding; Heaven is opening; God is calling. I must go<\/em>.
\n\u2014Dwight L. Moody, just before his death<\/p>\n

My eyes fluttered. They opened and struggled to focus. My mind fought confusion. I was on my back, stretched out on a firm surface below a bright light. A face came into view, looking at me\u2014a doctor, his surgical mask pulled down.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re one step away from a coma,\u201d he said. \u201cTwo steps away from dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

My eyelids sagged shut. I drifted back into unconsciousness\u2014a welcomed relief from the grotesque hallucinations that had plagued me.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Sign up to receive the free email newsletter, Investigating Faith with Lee Strobel<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/center><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At times like this, hovering over the hazy border between life and death, the afterlife is no longer a mere academic topic to be researched, analyzed, and debated. Heaven and Hell, our existence beyond the grave, become desperately relevant. They\u2019re all that matter.<\/p>\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking: Poor guy; he almost died<\/em>. But here\u2019s what I\u2019m<\/em> thinking: Just wait until it happens to you!<\/em><\/p>\n

Because it will. One way or another, next week or in decades, you\u2019re going to creep up to the dividing line between now and forever. When you slip from this world, what will you find? A void of nonexistence? A dark realm of regret and recrimination? Or a reality that\u2019s more vivid, more exhilarating, more rewarding, more real<\/em> than anything you\u2019ve ever known? At that moment, in the midst of that existential transition, nothing will be more important. And if it will matter so much then, isn\u2019t it worth investigating now?<\/p>\n

When I was an atheist, I thought I knew what awaited me after my heart stopped pumping and my brain waves flattened. Nothing<\/em>. My existence would cease. Activity in the world would continue unabated, but I would be absent. It was difficult\u2014and disconcerting\u2014to imagine.<\/p>\n

After my wife announced that she had become a follower of Jesus, I used my journalism and legal training to investigate whether there was any credibility to Christianity or any other religion. I concluded after nearly two years that there\u2019s persuasive evidence that Jesus indeed is the unique Son of God. I ended up leaving my newspaper career to tell others what I had learned.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Christian faith gave me a whole different picture of eternity. The Bible talks about a vivid postmortem realm. Though this is embedded in overall Christian theology, I never really studied whether there was specific evidence or compelling logic to support this heavenly vision. Essentially, I set much of the issue aside for a while. After all, I was young and healthy.<\/p>\n

Then came that Thursday evening in the summer of 2011 when Leslie found me unconscious on our bedroom floor. The ambulance took me to a hospital in nearby Parker, Colorado, where the emergency room physician gave me the dire news that I was on the precipice of death.<\/p>\n

It turned out I had a rare medical condition called hyponatremia<\/em>, a frighteningly sharp drop in my blood sodium level that caused my brain to swell and threatened to snuff out my existence. Suddenly, it wasn\u2019t enough to have a few inchoate suppositions about the world to come. It was insufficient to cling to some antiseptic-sounding doctrines that had never been adequately examined. I needed to know for sure what happens when I close my eyes for the final time in this world.<\/p>\n

After recovering from my medical trauma, I decided to embark on a quest to get answers about the afterlife to satisfy my heart and soul. I traveled to South Bend, Indiana, and Portland, Oregon, to San Antonio, Denver, Chicago, and beyond as I sat down with scholars to quiz them about how they know what they know about this all-important matter.<\/p>\n

I discussed Heaven with them, but so much more. Can neuroscience tell us whether we have a soul that can survive our body\u2019s demise? Might the intriguing accounts of near-death experiences reveal something about our future? What insights can physics, history, and philosophy provide about our existence beyond this world? And what about Jesus, the one who was dead and gone but then reportedly was encountered alive a few days later? What light might he shed on the subject?<\/p>\n

I wanted to know whether spending forever in a blissful paradise makes rational sense. And who gets to go to Heaven anyway? Some Christians believe everyone wins a ticket to paradise\u2014even our pet dogs. And how about the awful reality of that \u201cother place\u201d\u2014wouldn\u2019t it be more humane for God to quickly extinguish people who are headed for Hell rather than consigning them to an eternity of suffering? More and more pastors are saying so.<\/p>\n

I also explored alternatives to the Christian worldview\u2014for instance, reincarnation. Shouldn\u2019t we listen to people who say they\u2019ve lived in the past? Maybe life is cyclical, as Eastern religions teach\u2014birth and death followed by more of the same until we\u2019re ultimately absorbed into The Absolute. Millions of people
\nbelieve that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it, there\u2019s a lot of controversy about life after death\u2014and sometimes religious leaders aren\u2019t much help. When Union Theological Seminary president Serene Jones was asked by a reporter what happens when we die, her first words were, \u201cI don\u2019t know! There may be something, there may be nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ask a cross section of Americans the same question, and one out of six will shrug their shoulders. They have no idea what occurs after death. Only a slim majority (54%) believe they\u2019ll end up in Heaven.<\/p>\n

As for atheists, I suspect many of them think about death more frequently than some of them admit. At least, I did when I was a spiritual skeptic, staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night and shuddering at the prospect of my ultimate demise.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the fear of death is far and away the most immediate and challenging aspect of my atheism,\u201d one humanist told The Atlantic<\/em>. \u201cDeath affects me in a profound way.\u201d Even Bart Ehrman, the agnostic New Testament scholar, once conceded, \u201cThe fear of death gripped me for years, and there are still moments when I wake up at night in a cold sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many people get to the closing moments of their life\u2014often a time of angst and abject fear\u2014without any certainty about what to expect next. One author tells of asking a 31-year-old friend who was on his deathbed what dying was like. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d the man replied. \u201cI don\u2019t really know. Sometimes it seems like some blackness coming toward me. And sometimes it doesn\u2019t feel like anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not poetic, but it\u2019s honest. He sincerely had no idea what would transpire in those fateful moments to come. What is hidden inside that ominous approaching darkness? Will he feel anything after he breathes his last?<\/p>\n

Truly, what\u2019s more important than answers to questions like these? Wouldn\u2019t you rather investigate these issues now instead of being tormented by them on your deathbed? Think about how your life might change today\u2014your priorities, decisions, and worldview\u2014once you ascertain with confidence what awaits you at the conclusion of your time in this world. After all, if there really is an afterlife, you\u2019ll be spending a lot more time there than here.<\/p>\n