People need forever, they fear an end point, especially that last one that we call death.
When a task is completed, its simple enough to begin another one, rarely do we rest for long between those tasks, it matters not if it’s a repetitive one, one that we perform every day, or one that requires years to accomplish, when that task is complete, we do not see life as complete, we do not just sit down and wait to die. It is why nearly everyone ever born sees nothing past that moment, “For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.” (Isaiah 38:18)
There is a finality to it, there is nothing more known of it beyond what fairy tales and songs have told to those who have no faith in Christ. There is no definitive proof of life after death. “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)
I’m sure that there were innumerable stories going around after the Lord rose from the dead, after He walked out of that tomb, and I have always wondered, did the Pharisees try to capture and kill Him again. Those to whom He appeared had no choice, they had to believe, they saw Him die, then they saw Him alive again, there was proof. Here is the tipping point of Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith,” we have not seen Him, and the further that we are removed in time from an event, the less likely we are to believe it, stories get modified, fact becomes fiction very quickly.
It has always been a trait of Satan, diversions keep the mind from debate, and the more diversions, the more rapidly they appear and then fade into the background, the more easily they are forgotten, or modified in such a way to seem to lose their value and importance. Death is, for the born-again believer, barely even the beginning, that door opens onto eternity, starting with the millennial period, and then continuing without end, is the way to eternity, to forever. It is where we find our hope, and it is only through the Lord Jesus Christ that this hope can be realized, it is He alone that can offer mankind forever. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
This shows the lost that door, the death of their flesh, is not the end, in the deepest reaches of who they are, they know this to be the truth, and so they make up stories, they envision another way to continue the task of life past the grave. Whether it be the Roman Catholic cult with their fantasies of purgatory, the Vikings and their Valhalla, the eternity of completeness in nothingness the eastern mystics speak of, they have all sought for something more, something that will offer them hope after they take their last breath here. They live with the same strength of faith that those who have been crucified with Christ live with, but only in part.
I fear that there are many who profess Christ as Lord that have not conquered this fear, this finality of the flesh, but not in the way that Thomas did. “The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25) He doubted not the truth of the assurances of the words of the Lord, words he had listened to for three years, but the truth of life after death in the flesh, the continuance of the spirit, the soul he believed.
If one does not live by faith in Jesus Christ, one cannot hold fast the assurance of forever, one cannot see the death of the flesh as only a minor occurrence, as a triviality that must be endured so that forever can begin. The account is true, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and all those that have placed their unquestioning faith in Him will be with Him throughout all eternity, of this there can be no doubts, or that person is not living by faith.
