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Two Views Of The Afterlife
by John Ray
Originally posted to BNN 3/13/2005
Most of the world's religions claim that there is some immortal essence or "soul" within us all that survives death. The ancient Hebrew religion as recorded in the OT is then most unusual in saying that death is death and that is that (see e.g. my post of Feb. 20th. and lots of passages in the book of Ecclesiastes, particularly chapter 9). The OT hope for an afterlife is blessedly simple -- it lies not in an immortal soul but in a future resurrection back into perfected physical life in a restored Eden on this earth -- as described in (say) Isaiah 11.
And as I also point out in my post of Feb. 20th, the NT carries on the rejection of an immortal soul and offers hope in the form of a resurrection. But it is not the same simple old Hebrew resurrection. The pagan fascination with a spirit life had taken hold and the hope now became for a resurrection into the spirit realm (e.g. John 14:2) -- or God's Kingdom, as Jesus usually describes it. And in 1 Corinthians 15 that is set out as unambiguously as it reasonably could be.
Now that should not disturb most Christians too much as both Jesus and Paul make clear that they build on the OT to create a new and better understanding of reality. Although both Jesus and Paul quote the OT extensively to justify what they say, they are clearly claiming to offer a new understanding of the matters they discuss.
Not all Bible students are happy with that, however. They view the Bible as being one whole and think it should be consistent from beginning to end. They cannot accept that the NT tells a new and better story than the OT. They want the OT and NT to be consistent.
That is a big ask however and fairly heroic assumptions have to be made to accomplish it. Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians are the only ones I know that make a serious attempt at it but there are presumably others. The Jehovah's Witness solution is probably the easiest -- they split the difference and say that some go to Heaven and some stay on Earth. The Christadelphian solution seems to be to say that the body survives but without its blood! From what I have seen the arguments for both stories are specious and I don't think my readers would be interested enough for me to spend time rebutting them. My Christadelphian correspondent has however sent me a brief summary of the scriptural argument as he sees it so I reproduce it below for what interest it may have. I suspect that most of my readers will find the reasoning involved to be really stretching it.
Christ was raised to an immortal body which is not flesh and blood but flesh and spirit. Please consider these verses: 1st Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” For something to be quickened, a something has to exist to be operated upon to be “quickened”. In other words, you cannot quicken a nothing. In immortality, the blood is no longer needed to give life to the body. Spirit, which is God’s power (not a 3rd person of the ‘Trinity’) is the life of the immortal body. These ideas play out in John 3:6 with Nicodemus: John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Spirit does not give birth literally to spirit or itself, but to people who are born of the spirit (Joh 3:5-8), or in other words, quickened, made alive or energized by the spirit. And the same is found in Galatians 6:8 Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. “of the spirit...” Christ’s change to immortality then is described in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” Firstfruits... That means there are others who will follow the same pattern. And so we find the promise of 2 Peter 1:4 is consistent with this: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” So to be a partaker of the divine nature is to live by His spirit, or power.
I think we just have to accept that the OT and the NT accounts of the afterlife are different and take it from there. From what David Boxenhorn says, modern-day Jews cheerfully accept several quite different accounts of the afterlife all at once! I must confess, however, that I don't at all understand how serious Jewish students of scripture can accept belief in an immortal soul in view of the number of times that those same scriptures describe the "nephesh" as mortal. I guess they must place a lot of emphasis on uses of the word "ruach" but Ecclesiastes 3:19 must give them a few difficulties there. That scripture says that animals and people have the same "ruach" ("spirit" or "breath") so Heaven must be overrun with billions of rats, cats and dogs (just for starters). Good if you want to have a chat with a dinosaur or a pterodactyl, I guess. Very confusing!
John Ray blogs at A Scripture Blog.
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