Ambrose of Milan teaches us that since the soul’s life continues even after death, it remains a good that is not lost through death but increases. The soul is not drawn back by any hindrance of death but is more industrious, for it is industrious in its hall, without any connection with the body, which is more of a burden to it than a benefit. After death, the soul is much more alive, not less, and is more conscious than before. So what does the Christian afterlife means? Is there life and death?
The Christian Afterlife is the life of Christians after death in the Bible. She reflected on the quietness until Jesus’ coming, resurrection, judgment, and eternal glory. According to biblical writings, life is just a barrier and a road; there is 100% indeed life after death. In this world, there is life and death.
Amazingly, after-death experiences have awakened in people an awareness of the soul outside the body and a sharper and faster state of mind. But this awareness, by itself, is not enough to protect one in that state and to guard him against deception by out-of-body appearances. Man must know the whole Christian teaching on the subject.
After leaving this body, souls are not idle; they are not without knowledge. This is proved by the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus. The souls of the dead do not lose their consciousness, but they do not even lose their beings – that is, hope and fear, joy and sorrow. And some of this they expect to receive at the Last Judgment, which they begin to taste beforehand. The souls are even more alive and too beautiful for the glory of God.
What is a Christian afterlife?
When the hour has sounded for the exit from the world, the soul withdraws from the body and gathers itself towards the head. That is why those who have led an intense spiritual life have their faces brightened with an unusual light. At the time of the soul’s departure, many of the saints of the wilderness had faces that shone like the sun. At that time, a peaceful conscience shows a serene face, while a troubled conscience shows a terrified look. Death loosens the soul from the body, and thus the soul comes to the knowledge of its spirituality and immortality.
The Christian Afterlife is the fellowship with Christ to eternal life. The Bible defines the Afterlife as a bridge that leads the soul to eternity. First, the soul goes to the resting place of the dead, and then it is judged.
Knowledge must be complete for the stage the soul is now in. Therefore, the angel led it to see heaven: the happiness of the righteous, the reward of good works. But above all, he is led to see his good deeds, which he has done, or could have done. Now he knows what measure God gave him and how much he has accomplished. On the 9th day after death, the 6th day after the burial of the body, the soul returns to God and worships Him. On earth, the Church prays on the 9th day for the one who has moved.
What is the Christian Afterlife in ancient Egypt?
According to Herodotus, the Egyptians were the first to talk about the soul’s immortality. But even if one cannot give absolute value to such a statement, the Egyptians certainly had a firm belief in the immortality of the soul, which is one of the essential characteristics of their life and religion. Archaeological excavations in Egypt have revealed evidence of an intense cult of the dead since prehistoric times and written. Later unwritten documents prove that for the Egyptians, the cult of the sun and the cult of the dead formed the central concerns of their lives.
The Christian Afterlife in ancient Egypt is the soul’s passage to its proper location and origin, the Heaven of the ancient Egyptians, a lovely Nile valley with irrigation canals and fertilizing floods.
Very bountiful harvests and even the possibility for souls to have others work in their place, as enslaved people worked in Egypt. Enamelled statues of earth were placed by relatives in the tomb and meant to be present when the dead, put to hard labor by their new master, Osiris, needed to be replaced by someone else.
What happens after you die?
The decision which God gives to the soul to pass into the kingdom of light or to be condemned to the division of torments is a provisional conclusion, and it holds until the last judgment. That judgment is final and without end. In the unseen kingdom of spirits, on the 40th earthly day, a great decision takes place on the soul, which has been clarified in such a short time as it had not been described in decades of earthly life. The Church on earth prays to God a third time for the soul awaiting its judgment from the King of the world. So the particular decision, that is, of each soul, in particular, takes place on the 40th day after the soul’s removal from its clay tent.
According to biblical and apocryphal writings, the soul passes to the Christian Afterlife after death., into rest until God’s coming and resurrection and then judgment to inherit God’s kingdom. It is also said that 40 days after death, the personal decision takes place when God decides where he will stand, for better or worse. But this is a provisional place until the Last Judgement when the final position will be determined for everyone.
One of the devil’s greatest wiles is to make a man believe that there is no hell and heaven but that they are fairy tales. Lacking the prospect of eternal life and the attainment of salvation, man lives on earth in total disregard for his soul, not caring to confess his sins and be delivered from his sins.
Do we get a second chance after death?
Because we cannot experience it directly, we most often associate the image of death with that of sleep. We know that death is our last sleep on this earth, a respite from which we never wake. This is also why the next world seems unreal because we liken it to a dream. We think of it as a dream that will never be interrupted because it is the dream of the sleep of death. From this dream, people no longer awaken to earthly reality, but as soon as they have fallen asleep, they awaken to actual reality.
Scripture tells us clearly that there is no possibility of a second chance after death. Everything that man does during his life is considered his only chance from above.
Death is equivalent to our breaking away from our earthly existence. We break away from one reality and awaken to a clearer one. The separation of soul and body is necessary for a new human being. He broke down by not using himself according to the instructions for use. Adam sinned because he misused his free will and died because of sin.
Key Verse related to Christian Afterlife
I honestly tell you that whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
Is death the end?
Everything natural in life does not frighten us, but the fear we are talking about is a sign of an intervention in the natural course. Something has appeared that has disrupted the order of human life on the heavenly plane, interrupted communion with the Source of Life, and placed us in a different order, or rather disorder. The fear of death shows that it is not an entirely natural phenomenon but has occurred as a phenomenon contrary to nature and our way of being.
We know from the apostles’ accounts that death is only a barrier the soul must cross to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Death is not the end but the beginning of things.
People enlightened by God are entrusted that, at the last breath, their deeds are weighed in the balance, in the balance and: If the right side is higher than the left, the soul is received into heaven, among the angels; if the two sides of the summit are alike, then of course only the mercy of God gains the victory. Death takes a man back when he has reached the term predestined by God’s judgment to fulfill his destiny. This term granted to man contains by divine provision all that is useful to man; therefore, death is useful to man.
What do world religions say about life after death?
All religions have different views of death. After death, the soul is seen as dependent on others as it is at birth. But the intercessory power of the Church, especially in the Eucharist but also in the liturgical prayer for the dead and the private prayer of each Christian, makes it possible for a man to be freed from the burden of evil and to receive the wages of the eleventh hour, which is a true gift of divine mercy. If all this cannot be regarded as dogmatic certainties, it must nevertheless be treated as hope for sleeping.
- Christianity
Christians believe that the Christian Afterlife is the passage into the glorious eternity of the New Jerusalem. Through Christ’s victory over the devil, “man was turned from the death of the soul, from that death of which he died as soon as he tasted of the forbidden tree, for we have been condemned after the transgression of the commandment to the end of the body. He has cured our death by one end, that of His body, and by one resurrection, that of His body.
- Islam
Islamists claim, just like Christians, that there will be an extraordinary life after death through Allah. Only Allah sets the limits of life and determines the day when the soul and the body separate expecting the resurrection, the body unraveling into what it was made of, and the soul passing into the unseen world. To every living being, this moment is unknown.
-
Buddhism
Buddhists believe in attaining Nirvana, karma, and reincarnation in the Christian Afterlife. After death, the Buddhist believer is open to the prospect of five forms of life or five temporal states of being, which perfectly accord with karmic retribution. The first three forms of life represent different punishments, while birth as a human or a god gives yet another possibility of achieving Nirvana. These are as follows:
- hell
- birth as an animal
- in the form of a prey
- birth as a man
- birth as a god
- Judaism
In Judaism, human life is a gift of God. The Christian Afterlife means His real blessing; thus, human life gains value when it becomes a response to God’s call. If the individual avoids fulfilling God’s will, he falls prey to the bondage of selfish personal impulses and ends up in self-destruction. A fullness of life that transcends empirical existence is not explicitly spoken of in the early books of the Old Testament.
- Hinduism
In the Old Vedic period, belief in the Christian Afterlife was seen as a communion with the ancestors. Belief in the transmigration of souls or reincarnation is not a specifically Indian doctrine, and it has been found in other more primitive or evolved peoples worldwide. In its Hindu or Indo-Aryan context, it is formulated in the following terms: at death, the soul does not pass into a permanent state of eternal happiness in heaven, or eternal punishment, in hell but will be reborn in other forms of life until the need for incarnation is over.
Primary Takeaways
- Judgment of Osiris. The Egyptians generally conceived of the future life as a kind of earthly paradise. However, since ancient times, morality has also appeared in their eschatology. The moral character of Egyptian eschatology is clarified in the so-called Judgement of Osiris.
- According to Theodora’s account, the soul passes through 20 veils on the third day after death. At the first vamp, the terrible devils come before the soul and throw in its face all the sins done with the word: evil speaking, haggling, filthy words, gossip, and the like. The second vice is lying, the third is slander, and the fourth is greed. The fifth vice is idleness, the sixth is theft, the seventh is stinginess, the eighth is cheating, and the ninth is deceit.
- At the tenth vow, we are called to account for the sin of jealousy; the eleventh vow is for pride. And at the twelfth vow for anger. The thirteenth vow is for revenge, the fourteenth for murder, the fifteenth for magic, the sixteenth for impurity, and the seventeenth for fornication. The eighteenth vow is sodomy, the nineteenth is heresy, and the twentieth is ungodliness and hatred. When the soul passes through the customs of heaven, it realizes how important it is to be confessed and cleansed from sins.
Conclusion
After death, the soul of the dead enters the blessed abode of the ancestors. Belief in the transmigration of souls or reincarnation is not a specifically Indian doctrine, and it has been found in other more primitive or evolved peoples around the world. In its Hindu or Indo-Aryan context, it is formulated in the following terms: at death, the soul does not pass into a permanent state of eternal happiness in heaven, or eternal punishment, in hell but will be reborn in other forms of life until the need for incarnation is over. Births and rebirths follow one another in ontological order towards better or worse states of being, according to the deeds of the person concerned.
If you enjoyed our article, please visit the following Quiz to test your biblical knowledge about the unknown mystery of death. Thank you for your time. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at office@doortoeden.com. Have a blessed day!
Quizlet about The Returning of Christ for the Christian Afterlife
[ays_quiz id=”49″]
