Life After Death

July 4, 2024

The Afterlife

What form life after death takes is different in each religion, and sometimes there is a difference of belief between members of the same religion.

Some people who are not religious also believe in life after death, while others believe that there is no existence after death.

Ways of thinking about life after death include: reincarnation, resurrection, rebirth, immortality as a legacy, immortality as a memory of others, nothing.

Evidence of life after death

There is no scientific evidence for life after death, but the belief in an afterlife is strong among religious and also some non-religious people.

Source — https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides

It seems to me that belief in the afterlife can be a hope filled wish, a more convinced persuasion, an experience or personal overview of life, but further, I thought this morning, maybe it could even be instinctive — a built in knowledge like the instinct of migrating birds and butterflies — something that is a deep part of our being beyond DNA or RNA.

When growing up, I had no time for such ponderings and never pursued an inquiry. Yes, as a child, I was taught Sunday School Bible stories, but as a teenager, they never came to the surface, retreating to somewhere in the back of my mind. My life was full of other priorities.

As I had graduated from the 6th Grade, I had started to become aware of the World. For example, we had an assignment to present a speech. I regurgitated President Nixon’s Domino Theory of China’s Southeast Asia Takeover, including the possible invasion of Australia!

Looking back, our invasion of VietNam was no more of an idealistic venture than China’s, and for a long time, most Americans knew no better… Even today, there is a back and forth over the value of the sacrifice that so many Veterans made with their lives, their disabilities, and the continued consequence of being exposed to Agent Orange… I’ve lost some friends, and if there is no life after death, the futility of it all would make it all even worse. Their service was an honorable act of which we should all show appreciation and be grateful.

In such experiences, some may desperately hope — as in “Foxhole Religion.”

When a family member dies of illness or old age, we may desperately hope, as in fearing if we do not maintain hope, their life after death will evaporate.

The Japanese have a beautiful aspect of their hope in their expression of life after death in immortality as in keeping a memory of others who died very much alive with beautiful ceremony. Many Americans celebrate relatives’ lives in similar fashion.

What do Japanese believe about life after death?

Japanese Death Folklore. Traditional Japanese beliefs support that every human has a reikon which roughly refers to a spirit or soul. During life reikon is within the human body but after death it exits it. Thereafter, it goes to purgatory where it remains until the appropriate funeral rites are offered to the deceased …

Source — https://myend.com/country/japan-death-folklore

As I traveled around all the common questions of life like “Why are we here?” “What is the meaning of life?” “Does God exist?” “Why does God allow wars?” and so on.

The Draft Board sent me my notice, but I didn’t believe in the Domino Theory anymore. For one thing, Ho Chi Min had come to our Government to find out how to form a Jeffersonian style democracy. He dressed in his best black clothing, but was received with disdain as a short little “chink” in black pajamas. Rejected, he had to turn to the Chinese communists to form a government and gain financial support. The rest is history. We had knocked over the first domino.

I became a nominal member of the Peace Movement, but never offered any real contribution. The only meeting I ever attended, I blurted out something about arming ourselves with shotguns, because that is the only thing “They” understand… The leader of the meeting apologized for my outburst, explaining that we were all frustrated by the War…

I was not a very deep person.

I mention these things, because like the questions of life we all have, I still had a lot to learn.

In previous writing, I shared about my LSD use and tripping into a deep, dark abyss and God lifting me out when I desperately called on Him. So, I won’t repeat the story here.

Instead, I just want to say that starting from there, I was led — both geographically and metaphysically — to a personal encounter with Jesus, who saved me again — but this time, saving me from myself and all my hurtful deeds, and began to answer all those pesky life questions with which I had been challenging God.

So, God really does exist, there is life outside this material and temporal existence, and God, Jesus, and the Bible are real, existence is real, and life after death is real.

Then how does one get there?

From experience, just like any other journey, it may take some time. It also takes an open mind…

Seek the presence of God in your life. Talk to Him — even though He is invisible, so is the air we breathe. Read the Bible’s story of Jesus here on Earth, recorded by eyewitnesses, Mattew, Mark, and John, and written as an historical account by Luke.

What Jesus said outweighs anything people might claim that He said or meant.

So, read it for yourself. Get answers yourself.

God will not turn away an earnest seeker.

Remember all veterans on this Veterans’ Day.