The Death Myth

As you pass through the wooden doors and begin to make your way across the dimly-lit hallway, you say a solemn hello to friends and relatives you haven’t seen in years. A handshake here, a “how you been?” there. Meanwhile, a somber mix of piano and violin plays in the background through the house speakers. After the brief family reunion, you manage to find your way to a vacant seat. Minutes creep by as if they are aware of their own passing. By the time that casual pleasantry begins to bleed into awkward silence, the reverend takes his podium. As he starts to speak his first few carefully-chosen words, you become completely in tune with the gravity of the situation. This is a funeral; a real person, like you or me, has left this world forever. A prayer invites God to enter the building, and even the skeptics hope (if only for a second) to feel something “spiritual.” You begin to hear about the person lying in the casket—where she lived, how long she experienced life, and who she is leaving behind. You quickly glance up to the front row in order to evaluate the condition of the immediate family. The momentary trance ends as the familiar words of Psalm 23 bring you back to focus: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” A relative comes up to read his favorite passage of Scripture and provide some personal details about the deceased person that most people in the room were not previously privy to. More passages are read, and you are asked to evaluate your own perspective on eternity. Finally, you hear some long-overdue words of encouragement. “We know that she is in a better place: somewhere far away from the trials and difficulties of this world. Having gone on to glory, she is now with the Lord.” Most of us have been in this situation before, and heard similar teachings. It’s commonplace at Christian funerals around the globe. It’s comforting. It’s powerful. It’s traditional. But the critical question remains: is it true? Will we go on to “be with the Lord” immediately when we die? If so, will we live as disembodied souls or embodied beings? How will it happen? What will it be like? What exactly does the Bible say about the afterlife? It has long been known that there are really only two types of people—those who have died, and those who will. I feel as though I faced my own mortality at a very young age. I was afraid of death before I even understood all that it entails. The death of a schoolmate disturbed me in the 5th grade, as did the passing of my paternal grandparents in subsequent years. I can recall a number of sleepless nights from my high school days, many of them due to my own concerns about the fleeting nature of life.