Death and the Afterlife

Rich man and Lazarus:

Rich man and Lazarus: Luke 16:2-26

Abraham says "he is comforted here and you are in agony"

Heaven:

The faithful will go to heaven where God resides

No more suffering, no pain, and no death and people live in peace.

Is heaven portrayed in terms of the family home?

Heaven is often portrayed in terms of the family home, the place where an adult might return to stay with his or her father.

"My Father's house has many rooms" - John 14:2

Heaven portrayed as a place of plenty:

"The great street of the city was of gold" - Revelation 21:21

Abraham's death:

Genesis 25:8 - Abraham is "gathered to his people" - phrase is also used for Ishmael, Isaac and Moses

Daniel 12:2:

"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to everlasting contempt"

How can heaven be seen for the Jews?

coping mechanism

Way of encouraging Jews who were being persecuted for their faith, especially as those who remained the most faithful seemed to be the ones who came off worst

Belief in physical resurrection:

When we are raised from the dead we will have a different and improved body.

What happened after Jesus died?

After Jesus died, his body was placed in a tomb but on the third day after his death, when some of his female followers went to the grave to anoint the body and found the grave empty with the stone that had guarded the entrance rolled away.

Does the story of Jesus' death suggest physical resurrection?

Jesus was then seen as a physical person who could be touched, but his disciples did not recognise him at first, showing he must have been different in some way

Physical resurrection also explains the fact Jesus' physical body had disappeared

1 Corinthians 15

Paul shows the Resurrection of Christ was a promise for all Christians that they too would be resurrected

"The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable"

Tent vs. House:

In 2 Corinthians 5 - "the earthly tent we live in" + "eternal house in heaven"

What is the problem with physical resurrection?

The concept of physical resurrection seems incompatible with the decomposition or cremation of bodies, especially when considering scenarios like cannibalism and the nutrient cycle, which complicate the idea of raising distinct bodies from shared or recycled elements—a debate prominent in the 2nd century.

Response:

God is omnipotent - "with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

Response to Matthew 19:26

It might be logically impossible for God to resurrect two people from the diffused parts of their earthly body if some parts of each of their bodies belong to both of them. It is logically impossible for one part that belonged to two bodies to be used in the resurrection of more than one body.

What is the New Earth belief?

Heaven is a future perfected state of the earth

At the end of time, the earth will be cleansed by God and returned to its Eden state

After final judgement, the resurrected bodies of the righteous will have eternal life there

Revelations 21:1

God shows John the future, where there is 'a new heaven and a New Earth" where there will be "no more death, or mourning, or crying or pain."

N.T. Wright argument for New Earth:

N.T. Wright points to the Lord's prayer: "your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" - the kingdom of heaven means the sovereign rule of heaven is coming to earth.

Does the penitent thief disprove the New Earth view?

The Penitent Thief in Luke 23:43 - "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise"

What is the grammatical problem with the argument from Luke 23:43?

The original text of the Bible had no commas - it was added by later writers

"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise"

"Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise"

Did Jesus rise to heaven the day he was crucified?

Jesus did not rise to heaven the day he was crucified - he was dead for three days

In John 20:17 he says "I have not yet ascended to my Father" and therefore he could not have been with the thief in heaven on the day of their crucifixion

Parousia

Second coming of Christ in which he completes the whole plan for creation

Arguments against New Earth:

Karl Barth interprets this passage to mean events such as the Resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

The transformation and perfection of creation is underway and this is the role of Christians in the world today

What is the problem with the delay of Parousia?

First generations hoped for Jesus' return and the arrival of the Kingdom

BUT... Jesus himself warned against making exact calculations when the present age would end - "only the Father" knows

It will be sudden "like a thief at night" - Thessalonians

Spiritual resurrection:

Proponents of spiritual resurrection deny that Jesus' resurrected body was physical, and they therefore deny that our future resurrected bodies will be physical. They typically claim instead that resurrected bodies are non-physical, or simply just souls with a physical appearance.

Docetism

Docetism is an example of a Christian sect which believed that Jesus was spiritually resurrected in a non-physical body which only had the appearance of being physical. Believed pure mentality is spiritually higher and closer to perfected being than physical matter. BUT... Docetism denied Jesus was human.

Counter to docetism?

Docetism was considered a heresy as it goes against the Bible "the word was made flesh" (John) and undermines the meaning of Jesus' sacrifice during the crucifixion if the human suffering wasn't real but just an appearance.

What is the problem with the Protestant view that heaven is everlasting existence, where people would live in the presence of God, reunited with their loved ones and able to worship God every day?

Bernard Williams - an eternity in hell wouldn't be desirable!

We would be able to do and achieve everything we wanted

Part of the pleasure of living is making choices about what we will do with our limited lifespans and setting ourselves challenging objectives which we might or might not be able to achieve, so that if we do, we feel a sense of pride.

Response to Bernard Williams:

God would make sure this did not happen

If our minds and emotions are going to be controlled and programmed like this, we would lose our free will.

Issue of personal identity - if we were incapable of feeling pain and incapable of negative emotions and wrong doing, especially if we had bodies different from the physical, imperfect changing bodies we have in this world.

What is Aquinas' beatific vision?

Coming 'face to face' with God (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Perfect happiness is achieved after death, by living eternally outside time in a state of perfect bliss in the presence of God.

What view of the soul leads Aquinas to the beatific view?

Whilst other life forms have a perishable, humans have a soul which enables life after death (he argues that the ability to form chains of logical thought and philosophise could not come about from the physical)

Can the beatific vision answer Williams' critique?

If the beatific vision is eternally timeless in the sense of a being a single simultaneity rather than a timeline, then there is no need to wonder what the people in heaven would be doing all the time and how they would fill their endless days without getting border - just one eternal moment of being in presence of God

Problem of personal identity for the beatific vision:

If the soul is timeless in the presence of God, it is difficult to understand how this could 'the same person' as the one who had the physical body while on earth went about a physical daily life

The difference between a person living in time and a timeless soul is perhaps so great that it is impossible to assert that this person experiencing the beatific vision is really the same person as before death.

Revelations 21:8 on hell:

Bad people are thrown into a lake of fiery sulphur

What is the criticism of a literal interpretation of hell?

The existence of hell with eternal punishment that can never be escaped is not compatible with the existence of a perfectly loving and perfectly just God.

Response to the view that hell is incompatible with God:

Whenever we do wrong, we wrong God, and that every kind of wrong deserves eternal punishment because wronging God is eternally bad.

Hell is incompatible with an omnibenevolent God:

When a loving parent punishes a child, even if severely, the punishment does not go on for ever, but just for long enough to teach the child a lesson.

What would eternal punishment achieve if there was no possibility of redemption and if the good were too far away to need protection from the bad?

John Hick - this belief was developed as a form of social control

Can any human sin so badly as to deserve eternal punishment?

Better interpretation of hell:

Hell refers to a second death for the person who has not entered heaven. The body dies at the point of physical death and then the soul dies

Hell refers to a second death for the person who has not entered heaven. The body dies at the point of physical death and then the soul dies

Purgatory:

Catholic teaching of the interim state between the moment of death and life in heaven.

What is the Catholic teaching on purgatory?

Some souls are not in a sufficient state of grace to warrant being sent straight to heaven - need for a cleansing process that brings healing.

Catholic teaching is that the prayers of the living can contribute to this cleansing process.

What did Pope Gregory cite as an argument for purgatory?

Pope Gregory saw Matthew 12:32 as evidence for this: "anyone who speaks against the Holy spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come"

The point of death does not have to mark an individual's last chance to put things right.

2 Maccabees 12

Should pray for the dead so that "they may be loosened from their sins"

Origen on purgatory:

Origen argued that purgatory functioned like a probationary school where the soul is given an opportunity to develop and perfect itself

Karl Rahner development of the doctrine of purgatory:

Purgatory should not be understood as a place of pain, but as a metaphor for the soul's greater awareness of the consequences of sin, especially the individual's own sin, in the time between death and the last judgement. The pain of purgatory is therefore a self-inflicted personal pain as the individual comes to terms with the full meaning of repentance and grace

Purgatory criticisms:

Not supported by the Bible (no middle ground in the parable of goats and sheep)

Contradictory to biblical teaching about salvation - suggests that Jesus did not complete the final act of salvation on the Cross.

Moral argument: Catholic Church's corrupt sale of indulgences - key catalyst for the Protestant movement headed by Martin Luther

John Hick in his 1976 Death and Eternal Life:

Makes sense morally and philosophically to consider the state after death as a continued dynamic journey of soul or self - the need for an intermediate state makes a great deal of logical sense as the "gap between the individual's imperfection at the end of this life and the perfect heavenly state in which he is to participate has to be bridged"

Dante's book:

Divine Comedy (1308)

Inferno (hell)

Satan resides in the "deepest circle" of Hell where Satan resides

"Screams, keening cries, the agony of all"

Purgatorio (purgatory)

Virgil leads Dante up "the terraces of a mountain"

Void of colour, grey and dull

Paradiso (heaven)

"cannot be put into words"

The end of the journey is Empyrean from which God's light descends

Heaven as a spiritual state that a person experiences as part of their spiritual journey after death:

Someone might go to heaven after death in the sense of becoming fully aware of having shed the physical body and being eternally in the presence of God

Purgatory as a spiritual state that a person experiences as part of their spiritual journey after death:

They may be in purgatory after death as they recognise their earthly sins and the ways in which they have fallen short of God's standards and might work to repent and make themselves fit for God's presence

Hell as a spiritual state that a person experiences as part of their spiritual journey after death:

They might to be in hell when they realise that they have separated themselves from the love of God by rejecting him.

Origen on hell:

Origen regarded hell as a spiritual state where "each sinner kindles his own fire"

Punishment is not inflicted by God through Satan but is rather each person's own "interior anguish" at being separated from God

Heaven as a symbol of a person's spiritual and moral life on Earth:

When people talk in terms of heaven they are blissfully happy

"Inaugurated eschatology" - In many of Jesus' teachings he presents the Kingdom of God as if it has already started

Purgatory as a symbol of a person's spiritual and moral life on Earth:

Purgatory when they are going through testing times

Hell as a symbol of a person's spiritual and moral life on Earth:

Hell when they suffer bereavement or mental health problems.

Paul Tillich on hell:

Paul Tillich believe Hell to be a state of alienation - to find no purpose in life, to lie to one's self, to escape from reality into trivia, to find no joy in music, art and nature

"Heaven and hell must be

taken seriously as metaphors for the polar opposites in the experience of the divine" - Tillich

What are the strengths of seeing heaven/hell/purgatory as symbols of a person's spiritual and moral life on Earth?

Avoids the problem of being eternal

BUT... Biblical teachings have to be completely disregarded.

What is limited election?

Salvation and reward of heaven in the afterlife is only for those whom God, out of his graciousness, chooses and judges to be righteous.

What view of atonement does limited election presuppose?

Limited atonement - Christ died only for the sins of the elect

Cyprian of Carthage

extra ecclesiam nulla sallus - "outside the church there is no salvation"

What do Jehovah's Witnesses take literally?

Book of Revelation insists 144,000 have been chosen to receive salvation (Revelations 7:4)

Criticism of limited election:

Controlling picture of God that does not leave any room for human freedom of choice.

Would lead to a moral vacuum

Pelagius on predestination:

Predestination makes punishment unjust.

If we have original sin and are thus completely unable to avoid doing evil, it would surely be unjust for God to punish us for our sinful behaviour. indefensible view of moral responsibility - that people can be responsible for actions committed by others which is of special absurdity in this case since the action occurred before they were even born.

Punishment is just for sinful beings:

Augustine argues that humanity's infection with original sin is a consequence of Adam's sin, not God's fault, making predestination just, as those corrupted by original sin deserve hell.

This might seem unfair, but Augustine puts it down to the "secret yet just judgement of God", indicating that it is inscrutable - impossible for us to understand - but we should have faith it is just. Augustine points to Psalm 25:10: 'All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,' and concludes: "neither can his grace be unjust, nor his justice cruel".

Response to the argument that punishment for sinful beings is just:

It's not our fault that we have original sin, so it still seems unfair and thus incompatible with omnibenevolence to suggest that we deserve punishment for it. Especially when considering cases like a child with cancer, it's difficult to maintain that a child deserves cancer because it has original sin. Augustine would have to say that it is God's justice for a child to get cancer and that God is still omnibenevolent despite allowing it. That seems to contradict the idea that God is omnibenevolent.

Augustine insists that God's reasons and justice are beyond our understanding. We should not try to use our limited human minds to judge God.

Unlimited election:

The God of love calls all people to salvation and to achieve perfection

Unlimited atonement - Christ died for the sins of the whole world

Karl Barth on unlimited election in Church Dogmatics:

Jesus brought salvation for the whole world - everyone has the possibility of being saved

Origen's universalism:

Origen believed that Hell is not eternal but instead that the purpose of Hell is to purify all humans to allow them to attain salvation - apokatastasis

John Hick's universalism:

John Hick is a modern theologian to hold this position - a just and good God would not choose and guide some people to eternal salvation and exclude others.

Hume on hell:

Hume - Someone going to infinite punishment for a finite sin means God is not omnibenevolent but "omni-vindictive"

Romans 5:18

"Life for all men"

Timothy 2:4

God wants all people to be saved

Criticisms of universalism:

Invalidates the uniqueness of the Christian message and the redemptive act in Christ

The idea of terrible people like Hitler going to heaven doesn't seem right to many people, even if it takes a long time.

Response to Hitler objection:

Sending someone to Hell cannot ever be justice since as a punishment it is always disproportionate.

No matter the degree of immorality a person's actions have, they are finite. Proportionality is the view that true justice requires punishment to be proportional to the crime. Even though Hitler's actions were immoral and on a massive scale, their immorality was finite. It can't be justice for Hitler to receive an infinite punishment for his finite crimes - that is not proportional. Eternal punishment in Hell can never be proportional and thus never just.

Very immoral people like Hitler would thus not instantly go to heaven, and it might take him a very long time to improve morally enough to go there!

Predestination

God chooses and guides the elect to eternal salvation

Augustine on predestination:

Augustine's analysis of human nature led him to conclude that even faith in Christ's redemption was insufficient to overcome sin and concupiscence - salvation is only possible through God's mercy and grace

Even though God has called all to salvation, he knows from the beginning that only some are eligible for a place in heaven: those who are not capable of receiving grace are predestined to perdition

Two forms of predestination:

Single predestination - God elects only those whom he ordains to enter heaven and eternal life

Double predestination - God elects only those whom he ordains to enter heaven and eternal life and also decrees that the reprobate are destined to hell.

Calvin:

Calvin is associated with double predestination as set out in the Westminster Confession of Faith

Catechism on predestination:

Paragraph 1037 - God elects the righteous for heaven, but the wicked select themselves for hell by deliberately committing mortal sins.

When does Irenaeus think judgement will occur?

Irenaeus - most Christians do not enter heaven until the final Day of Judgement, which is when God's whole plan for the universe comes to its conclusion and time comes to an end. Before this time, but after death, they live in peaceful happiness while they wait for their final reward of heaven.

This posits a particular judgement distinct from final judgement

What is final judgement?

A final conclusion to all of creation

What is particular judgement?

Judgement for each person at the point of death (rich man and Lazarus + Luke 23:43)

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats background:

Matthew 25:31-46: The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Part of the 'Olivet Discourse' given by Jesus to tell his followers more about the end of time

"all the nations will be gathered

before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats"

"For I was hungry and you have me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in"

"Depart from me,

you who are cursed into the eternal fire"

Cool points about Matthew 25:31-46

Nothing here about their beliefs: no mention of the need for them to be Christians or to believe in God at all

Those condemned are not those who have necessarily done something bad - they have failed to take the opportunities they could have to do good to others.

Parable of the Fishing Net - Matthew 13:

Jesus compared God's kingdom to a fishing net that collects all kinds of fish from the sea. The fishermen sort the bad fish from the good. Jesus said thus it will be at the end of the age the angels will separate the wicked from the righteous - "cry and grind their teeth"