One of the blokes at the Men’s Shed had some time out, after being taken by ambulance to hospital.  He returned this week, minus part of his large intestine, but not minus his usual sense of good humour.

I asked him what would have happened if the medical team had not been able to bring him safely through his health crisis.  Would he have been prepared to face his maker?  He assured me that this wasn’t a problem for him.  He then proceeded to tell me that we’re really no different to a worm – when it dies it just ceases to be.  He added, “So when, in due course, I die I’ll just cease to be.”

Really?  I told ‘Steve’ that he was going to be in for a rude shock.  He got the point and laughed but told me that he was just following in the footsteps of his father who had died with that mindset.

I never cease to be amazed at the low view some people have of themselves and of all other human beings.  I shouldn’t be surprised though.  Isn’t this the logical consequence of believing that billions of years ago we all originated in some primeval soup and eventually crawled out of the swamp?  Well, it’s true of course that we came from dust and that we return to dust.  But there’s one important thing that sets us apart from the rest of creation: God endowed us humans with an immortal soul.

I told ‘Steve’ that I disagreed with him because I had a higher view of human beings than us being mere worms.  Okay, okay; I know that in Psalm 22 King David calls himself a worm.  But that’s the song-writer offering a lament from the depths of his despair.  Later in that same song he takes confidence in God’s goodness and speaks about our hearts living forever.

Many consider extinction at death an attractive option.  It means they don’t have to be anxious about a final judgment.  And of course they can then safely continue to ignore God and that we are accountable to Him.

Such folk really need to think a little further.  It’s not hard, for example, to find evidence that life goes on beyond death.  I think of the numerous near-death experiences that have been recorded over the years.  An elderly gentleman told me many years ago that as a child he had fallen into a canal and drowned.  A quick-thinking relative dived in and pulled him out.  They did CPR on him and after pumping the water out of his lungs he eventually got groggily to his feet.  The remarkable thing is that he walked right back to the edge of the canal and jumped back into the water.  They pulled him out a second time and asked him why he had jumped back into the canal again.  He told them that he wanted to go back to the beautiful world with its flowers and gardens at the bottom of the canal.  He told me that for the rest of his life he had never been afraid of dying.  He was certain that there is another life awaiting us when we depart from this one.

Ultimately of course we know life continues beyond death from the Bible.  We know that not only because it talks about a Judgment Day that all of us must face and because Jesus’ teaches that there are two eternal destinies after this life is over.  We also know it from Jesus’ discussion with a Jewish sect called the Sadducees.  They would have applauded ‘Steve’, for they too thought of death as extinction.

Jesus told them the story of Moses at the burning bush.  On that occasion God made Himself known to Moses by saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob!”  Interesting isn’t it?  Jesus didn’t say that he WAS (past tense) the God of these patriarchs.  No!  He told Moses: I AM their God!  The clear implication being that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had not ceased to exist.  When those three men died they didn’t die like worms.

Of course the strongest argument in favour of life after death is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He overcame death.  He lives.  Because of this Jesus was able to say: He who believes in me will never die!  Wonderful!  When Christians die they are simply promoted to glory there to await the day of resurrection.

John Westendorp