STATION 9: THERE IS LIFE AFTER DEATHThis is a matter of quite some controversy in today's materialistic atheistic world. The prevailing view, evidently worldwide, is that when you die, you are dead, just like turning off a television screen, there is simply no more. This view affects all aspects of our lives, for certainly our actions and motivations are quite different. If we feel that we are living for the here and the now, that we must grab all that we can in life, that all that we are living for is simple common sensual pleasure, that is a very different perspective than if we think that we are living a life time of eternity, that this physical incarnation is merely one moment within the eternity of our lives. What evidence is there? One of the things that Christianity wants to say, one of the things which we can learn from the Cross, is that there is life after death. If nothing else, Jesus' death and resurrection testifies to us that the death of the physical body is not the end of existence. This is a concept which even most Christians do not genuinely believe. Most people, who think they want eternal life, do not know what to do with a rainy afternoon. Most people, who think that they want to preserve their individual identities forever and ever, have no concept of what it means to truly be alive. Within the mechanized view, all life proceeds from biology. The chemicals of the body in the world around us interacted, some cosmic lightning bolt struck the primordial ooze, and this chemical interaction, which we call life, came into existence. All thought is a result from this chemical interaction. Therefore, when the biological processes stop, all thought and all consciousness likewise cease. But such is not the truth. There is far more evidence to indicate that the body proceeds from the life source than vice versa. Jesus showed us through His resurrection that there is no end to our physical life. Though the body may die, we continue. Over the course of time, especially in recent years, we know of many people who have died and been resurrected. They may have, through some medical event, have had a heart attack or a seizure or whatever, and through the intervention of medical industry been, essentially resurrected. Many of them relay different stories of what they saw or felt. I'm not going to go into the particulars here. There are plenty of books for you to research this, if you choose. But the key point I wish to make, is that biological sciences, medical sciences, a certain amount of logic, at least to many people, and the Passion of Jesus, are all in harmony to say that the death of the body is not the death of the individual. Now what happens after you die? Well, you wind up in the next world, and all I will say in this context is that you retain your thoughts, you retain your memories, you remain the same person, only you no longer have a physical body with which to interact. It is quite clear from Jesus' resurrection, that He knew who He was. He still recognized the people that He had worked with. He still understood the geography. His thoughts, His memories, His desires, and His personality were unchanged through this death. Now, there is a certain controversy within the Christian world as to the nature of His resurrection. I have touched on this before. I am perfectly willing to grant that He was able to make His body appear to be actual material flesh and bone, and yet no flesh and bone body that I know of is capable of, all of a sudden, appearing in a room. or of changing its appearance so that people can and cannot recognize it. No physical body that I'm aware of is capable of floating up into the sky. I think it is most reasonable to conclude that Jesus had a spirit body, which He was able to condense into physical matter. I believe it is perfectly consistent with Biblical record to come to this conclusion. There is life after death, and there are many people for whom this is the ultimate fear. They fear they will close their eyes, simply never wake up, and, find on the other side, there is nothing, only emptiness. The gospel of Christ, the Passion, His death and resurrection, is here to say "No, that is not true." Just as He said to the thief on the Cross, "This day you will be with me in paradise." There is no soul sleep. Jesus didn't have to wait a thousand years in order to be in paradise with the thief. We do not go to this place of the dead, wherein we hang around in a state of suspended animation waiting for our bodies to become physically resurrected some several thousand years down the road. No, there is a continuity of consciousness. You retain your personality. You retain your appearance, although you can clean it up a bit, and you continue. I go into much greater detail about this in my writing, "Self Mover." There I attempt to show how your relationship to your body is exactly the same as your relationship to your car. When you step out of the car you do not die. You simply stop operating that vehicle. When you experience physical death, you do not die. You simply step out of that physical vehicle. For those of you who are interested, I suggest you check that
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