Questions You Need Answers To – Part 6
Presenter: Rev. James Destine | Series: Questions You Need Answers To | Destiny
Life after death
Two competing worldviews:
Theistic worldview life continues after the grave for all human beings
Two eternal states for all individuals after they pass from this world to the next:
Heaven eternal life with God in Christ Jesus
Hell eternal separation from God without Christ Jesus
The atheistic worldview:
Life ends at the grave
Who is right and who is wrong?
There is no life after death
No one has returned from the other side of the curtain
We can’t interview those who have already died
What would be the result?
Faith-based position
The absence of proof is not proof of absence
Logically
If there is no life after death, morality is obsolete.
If morality is dead, life is meaningless. It really doesn’t matter how you live your life.
If it does not matter how you live, life is meaningless.
All things would be permitted without repercussion, because human beings are primates evolved from one single cell by accident
Evolution cannot account for life, because evolution cannot happen until life begins:
Who are we?
How did we get here?
What makes us human?
Logic
If there is life after death, death is a gateway to another life and ultimate justice
Morality is no longer obsolete; morality is absolute. It has a huge implication on how you live your life on earth, because there will be ultimate justice.
That fact brings meaning to life.
Meaning can be attributed to life by design.
Theists are certain that:
Someone has returned from the other side of the curtain
That person was interviewed and eyewitnesses documented what they witnessed and others documented the testimonies of those eye-witnesses.
Jesus Christ!
The theist beliefs on destiny is based on scientific facts grounded in faith in Jesus Christ.
The theists level a challenge to the atheists:
1 Corinthians 15:14-19
Theists proposition:
If you can disprove that Jesus rose from the dead:
We will concede that our argument about life after death is useless and so is our faith
Furthermore, we will adopt your faith that there is no life after death, because if we don’t do that we of all people must be pitied
However, we are certain we can prove that there is life after death
Two scientific methods to prove or disprove that something is true or not:
Observable science science that takes place in the present. It can be observed, tested, hypothesized, and repeated.
Historical science a term used to describe sciences in which data is provided primarily from past events and for which there is usually no direct experimental data
Example:
Cosmology
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Geology
Paleontology
Forensics
Creation
Jesus’ resurrection
Jesus’ followers believed both in:
Observable science
Historical science
Observable science
His resurrection – despite him telling them 3 times.
Why?
They too believed when someone dies they stayed dead.
Zero
Three people showed up
Mark 16:1
They believed it was nonsense
Luke 24:9-11
Why didn’t they show up?
Why did they believe the notion of him risen from the dead was nonsense?
Why did they change their mind and believe?
Observable science:
They saw him with their very own eyes.
John 20:19-20
John 20:24-25
John 20:26-29
Myth or a lie fabricated by his disciples:
The resurrection story was not a lie or a myth the disciples put together
They saw him with their very eyes and could no longer deny observable science.
The books that form the New Testament:
Were not written to convince the public of Jesus’ resurrection
They were not written to be publicized
They were not written to become New York Times best sellers.
They are not even books.
To make certain the story did not deviate, that what people heard and believed in is the unadulterated truth
Luke 1:1-4
Most people who reject the resurrection of Jesus believe it is a myth or a lie fabricated by his disciples:
The resurrection story was not a lie or a myth the disciples put together
They wrote them to preserve what they had witnessed and preserved the truth.
The disciples were ridiculed, persecuted and murdered for what they observed with their very own eyes and could not deny.
Acts 7:57-58
2 Corinthians 11:23-27
By the way, the man that is currently saying this was the man who ordered the death of Stephen.
Galatians 1:23
“The man who formerly persecuted the church is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
Acts 9:21-22
The message that caused so much havoc?
The resurrection of Jesus Christ
Why did this man try to destroy this message?
Blasphemy: Irreverent behavior toward God and what God deemed sacred.
What caused Saul to embrace the very faith he once tried to destroy in exchange for ridiculed, prosecution and death?
Phil 3:7-11
Acts 4:16-20
They believed in the resurrection of Jesus because of observable science; they saw him with their own two eyes.
1 Corinthians 15:3-10
Fact check us
That is the difference between:
Those who believe
Those who don’t believe
Those who don’t will die, but those who believe will only fall asleep.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17