Life After Death: Humanity's Biblical Choice: a Life on Loan or Eternal Life

By William Landon

THERE ARE FEW SUBJECTS IN HUMAN THOUGHT THAT RAISE SUCH STRONG EMOTIONS AS THE AFTERLIFE. What if anything, awaits us after we leave this physical world? Are we reincarnated to try to "get it right" through another life? Do we simply vanish? Do we enter some state of bliss or torment based on our good deeds or lack of them? It seems that there is no end of conjecture offered by human religion and philosophy on this subject. Yet, most of this seems to be nothing more than baseless speculation.

As we have no evidence (indeed, we cannot have any physical evidence) of what becomes of us after our physical death, it appears that we have no choice but to pick the idea that is most appealing to us and go with it. It is true enough that we will ultimately pick the idea of the afterlife that we choose to believe to be correct, yet this is a matter of sufficiently great importance to warrant our choosing wisely.

The source of information we choose to accept as the correct depiction of the afterlife is one of the most critical decisions we will ever make. While this will ultimately be a matter of belief, we owe it to ourselves to make our choice based on what these sources actually say and not on what we think they say or what others tell us they say.

This book is presented as a look at the Bible's teaching on the subject of the afterlife and the choices available to us for an existence after this present life is over. The findings presented in this book are at considerable variance with the teachings of traditional institutional Christian church doctrine and dogma. It is the author's hope that the points presented here will give the reader a different perspective of the biblical view of life, death and afterlife.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 7, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595626229

William Landon

Bill Landon has spent 40 years seeking a relationship with God, in side and outside organized religion. After more than a decade of Bible study Bill has found a path of living with a personal relationship with God. This is the second book in which this journey is described. Bill lives with his family in Connecticut.

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Copyright © 2008 by William Landon

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Contents

Introduction 

Chapter 1 

The Bible 

Chapter 2 

The Nature and Character of God  

Chapter 3 

The Nature of People—the Body  

Chapter 4 

The Nature of People—the Soul  

Chapter 5 

The Nature of People—Spirit  

Chapter 6 

The Fall  

Original Humanity 

Chapter 7 

Life and Death  

Chapter 8 

The Immortal Soul  

Chapter 9 

Heaven and Hell 

Chapter 10 

Rebirth  

Chapter 11 

The Resurrection  

Chapter 12 

Between Death and Resurrection  

Chapter 13 

Religion, Law and Torment  

Chapter 14 

Eternity  

Chapter 15 

Problematic Verses  

Chapter 16 

Summary, Eternal Afterlife  

Table 1

Appendix A 

Endnotes 

Introduction 

The Immortal Soul

One of the facts about life in this world that I have always simply accepted as a given was the idea that the human soul was immortal. I had always understood that the soul carried some sort of an eternal characteristic that was integral to this part of our being. I, like many of us who follow the teachings of the Bible and subscribe to the teachings of Christ as Christians, simply assumed that this was the teaching of Scripture and a foundational tenet of the Christian faith. It is somewhat embarrassing to discover that the doctrine of the immortal soul is not conclusively taught anywhere in the Bible—either in the Old or New Testaments. While there are some verses that could possibly lead one to this conclusion there are more verses that lead to another, far different view of reality. This different understanding is that our human makeup, unless acted upon and modified from its original nature by God, is temporary and will eventually cease to exist.

The idea of an immortal human soul as well as the concept of a fate of eternal torment in hell are largely unsupported by biblical teaching. I guess I had long suspected that all was not quite right with the idea that the unsaved are forever tormented in their immortal soul for their lack of acceptance of Christ’s offer of eternal life. Yet, this idea of endless punishment was so deeply set in me that I simply assumed that the problem rested in my understanding rather than in the doctrine itself. To some extent this was true. I must acknowledge personal responsibility for accepting this understanding sight unseen. After all, each of us is ultimately responsible for the ideas we accept as true. I had never put the idea of either the immortal nature of the human soul nor the teaching of eternal torment to a rigorous scriptural test. All I can say about this situation is that this testing of ideas is better done later than never.

The re-evaluation of these points about the afterlife got started after a recent visit to the home of a very good friend of mine. My friend’s question about this part of our existence was quite naturally troubling to me. My friend’s reasoning held a good deal of allure to me as it touched a point that I have always found troubling. His point was this: How could a God who is by His very nature, love, condemn the creatures He had made to an eternity of torment? Certainly this does seem to fly in the face of the picture the Bible paints of the nature of God: The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. (Psalm 145:9) Interestingly, the Bible depicts God as a being that is endlessly loving and caring to the point that His very nature is love: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8) From such a being we must find it hard to accept a sentence of eternal torment with no hope of redemption no matter how grievous the crime in question may be.

I mentioned to my friend that he should exercise caution in this line of thinking because the idea of the unsaved not going to hell is considered by orthodox Christian teachers and leaders as being a cardinal heresy of cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This judgment from mainstream organizational Christianity on the Jehovah’s Witness movement is a testament to how deeply held the ideas of hell and the immortal human soul are. Yet, we are obligated to ask: Does the Bible support either of these ideas?

The Bible

In matters of faith and understanding the spiritual I am a committed Bible literalist. It is my understanding that the Bible is the revealed word of God’s truth. As such, this book is reliable and accurate in gaining understanding about God, people, the creation and life. In saying this I feel the need to add some clarification to this position. The Bible is a powerful tool and as such is capable of both great good and great harm. If properly handled, the Scriptures are used by the Father to give us confirmation and insight into His working and the truth of how the creation is established and how it operates. If carelessly used the Bible, like dynamite, can lead us into all manner of harm and folly. Simply put, the Bible can only be properly understood when studied under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit. This fact is completely consistent with the understanding that we were created by God to be His dependent children.

It is only in an attitude of dependent surrender to the leading of the Father that we can ever hope to come to an understanding of the reality of life either through the study of the Bible or by any other means. I put some mention of this position of mine at the beginning of all my books because this is only fair to the reader. If you don’t know this fact about me then much of what comes later will be rather hard to follow and almost impossible to verify. I think it is critically important to have some objective basis for our understanding. This need is present in all areas of study but it is especially critical in the area of spirituality because this part of our being defies most logical analysis. This is largely true due to the fact that in the spiritual realm we have the absolute need for the subjective knowing that comes directly from God. This is intuitive knowing that comes by means of revelation. It is in this way that we receive our primary knowledge and our surest form of understanding. Yet, it is in the objective that this understanding is corroborated and solidified. I would not ask or expect anyone to take anything I (or anyone) put forward on face value alone. Quite frankly you would be foolish to do so. I will provide numerous biblical verses as well as references to other writers and Bible study materials. This evidence is supplied to help the reader understand the trail I have taken to come to the place where I am as I write this. Nonetheless, these references are only a minor part of the evidence of the validity of what I present here. It is my firm belief that the most certain check anyone can have for the correctness (or error) of the ideas contained in this book is the confirmation or repudiation of them from the Spirit of God in each individual reader’s human spirit. It is in this way that these intuitive understandings become experiential. It is ultimately in the realm of experiential understanding that any knowledge becomes real and operative in our living. It is only through the Father’s instruction that anyone can have any assurance of the truth or error of anything.

I know that everyone has their own idea about the validity and reliability of the Bible as a guide to understanding life. These positions run the entire spectrum from literal belief to complete disbelief. Everyone must make their own decision on this matter. I will not try to convince anyone of the reality and reliability of the Bible’s worth. In the end to convince anyone of the true nature of the Bible is beyond any person’s abilities. I can only say that everyone needs to have some objective source of evidence for what they believe. To trust in anything without some objective basis while not impossible is extremely unwise. This is necessary so that new ideas and understandings can be checked against the standard to assure us that they pass muster. The objective source is also necessary so that understandings already held may be checked and confirmed or repudiated. As none of us possesses a complete and perfect understanding, both confirmation and repudiation are operating parts of our growth in knowing the spiritual realm.

Some may think that this position demeans faith or subjective belief. I don’t think that this is true. Certainly we all live, ultimately, by faith. This is a faith or understanding of the way things are that is beyond our objective grasp of fact. We are limited creatures and therefore possess no means to have a minutely complete objective knowledge of anything. As such we are forced to rely on faith (or belief) to fill in the gaps in our factual, intellectual knowing. At this level, it does not matter what our faith is in, it is only important to recognize that we inescapably live by a combination of what we know to be true and what we believe to be true. Hopefully we can see at a deeper level that it matters a great deal in what we believe. If we choose the truth as the place to put our faith then we will grow in our facility at dealing with life’s issues. If we choose something that is to some greater or lesser degree a fabrication then we will be plagued by increasing frustration and doubt as more and more of what we experience just doesn’t quite fit. Consequently, we will weary ourselves by the increasing effort required to force these disparate experiences to fit within the limits of our accepted version of reality. In the end, this successful application of what we believe is the only evidence we will have in this life that what we have accepted to be true is, in fact, the truth. The truth is the only thing that works over the long run. I can only give you the testimony from my living and that is this: I have chosen God and His revealed truth from the Bible and after more than forty years it has yet to disappoint me. I can only encourage everyone to choose well in this area of our living for so very much depends on the choice we make in what we believe.

The Rules of the Road

If we are to stand on the Bible as our primary (and ultimately sole) objective source of understanding, there are some rules of the road we need to keep in mind. It is absolutely critical to our success that we be careful in how we use the Bible. The Bible itself cautions us to do this: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15) As I mentioned earlier, if we do not exercise appropriate caution with our use of the Bible in our search for the truth we will find that this marvelous tool will blow up in our face. I find it best not to go into the study of any facet of life with something to prove. Having said this I must also note that it is quite impossible to be completely objective on any point. When searching for the truth we are almost always testing some hypothesis. There is nothing wrong with this approach. What I am speaking of avoiding here is staking our position, reputation or status on some idea being correct. When we do this we endanger our objectivity and may find ourselves forcing the data. It is best if we are willing to lay everything we know down for the sake of learning the true reality of life. In our current study I will approach this issue with the idea of finding out what the Bible says about the immortality of the human soul and life after death.

It is quite possible that I may have to eat some crow over this search. I have stated in earlier writings that the human soul is immortal. If I have to retract what I’ve previously expressed about the immortality of the human soul, then this consequence is a small price to pay for a clearer view of the reality of life. There is nothing that is as precious as coming to a better, deeper, clearer understanding of the truth. I can make this statement because any clearer understanding of anything is really coming to a better understanding of God who is the ultimate expression of all truth. I have seen far too many people go disastrously wrong by making the simple mistake of trying to force the Bible to prove a preconceived point. What most often happens in this case is that we are greeted with apparent success. The Bible is written in such a way that it can be made to say almost anything provided we are appropriately careless in reading what it actually says. This is why I take three steps when starting out on any search for truth. The first step is to strip myself, as much as possible, of all preconceptions. Second, I confine myself to what the Bible actually says and not what I would like it to say. Lastly, and most importantly, I commit myself to the leading and teaching of my Heavenly Father. All truth belongs to God and we can only come to an understanding of truth through His teaching. If we seek the truth for its own sake then what we are really seeking is a deeper relationship with God.

Interpretation, Negative Inference and Contradiction

Having said this, we need to be clear on what it means to confine ourselves to what the Bible says. First, the Bible does not need to be interpreted. When I hear some student or scholar talk about interpreting the Scriptures I immediately become suspicious. Interpretation is often a euphemism for twisting the Bible’s words to say what we want them to say. We will do well to take what the Scriptures say as it says it. Most often, God means exactly what He says. The only caveat to this comes in the Bible’s obvious use of poetic illustration, parable and allegory. The use of these literary and teaching devices is what makes the position of some that the Bible is to be taken literally without exception overly simplistic. The use of allegory and parable is not a significant problem in Bible study as these devices are obvious and can be quite powerful in making a point: Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34:8) It is obvious that we cannot take a bite out of God but this verse is a powerful teaching on the experiential nature of our coming to know the Father.

The next rule in Bible usage is that it is impossible to make a doctrine out of what the Bible does not say. Many people adopt all manner of wild ideas about God and His plan for us by committing this error. For example the Bible never says that people cannot fly, yet the reality of our being and our physical limitations are obvious. The Bible never says that we should not smoke marijuana yet it is clear that intoxication is seen as a problem: Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1) There is just as much error on the other end of the spectrum—namely in prohibition: Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses. (1 Timothy 5:23) It is no stretch of the imagination to see that the Bible teaches neither drunkenness nor abstinence, only moderation in all things. Of course, in the examples used here there are other issues that come into play. Remember that the Bible also teaches us to live in accordance with the laws of the land as long as these ordinances do not contradict God’s laws: Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. (Romans 13:1) The point is that we cannot infer anything based solely on the Bible’s silence in any area.

The next key point in Bible study is that the Bible never contradicts itself. If we find several verses that appear to say contradictory things then there is a problem and this problem is not with the Bible. When we see apparent contradictions in Bible teachings it is our understanding or the attempted application of the ideas that is really the problem. With contradictory verses we may have a flawed understanding of one or both of the passages but we cannot be right about both. The simple fact of the matter is that it is impossible for God to be for and against the same thing at the same time. We will look into this aspect of Bible study later when we discuss the dispensations of God’s word. It is in the dispensational nature of the Bible where most of the apparent contradictions in Scripture arise. For now it is enough to say that dispensations are different ways God has chosen to deal with various groups of people at set points in history. While God does not change, the way He chooses to deal with various groups of people does change. Some people may find this aspect of God’s working contradictory because of the Bible’s position that God does not change: I the Lord do not change. (Malachi 3:6a) The truth of this statement does not prevent God from dealing with different people (individuals and groups) in diverse ways at varying times. These differences are a function of God’s plan for His creation, the spectrum of possible options available and His position as sovereign ruler over all that is.

Lastly, I don’t think it is reasonable to expect that we (or anyone) will ever understand the Bible completely. The Scriptures are a book that represents a reflection of the mind of God and is therefore inherently limitless in its depth. For this reason, when I limit myself to these bounds of Bible study I do so knowing that the result will most likely be less than airtight. I accept this outcome because I don’t have all the answers on any topic and it would therefore be unethical to present any study that gives the appearance of being the total answer. From my position of limitation I can only hope to weave as much of what I understand into this work and tie up as many of the loose ends as the Lord gives me understanding to do.

The Tapestry of the Bible

It is my view of the Bible that it is like a tapestry. The Bible has a near infinite number of truths woven together into a cohesive whole. It is for this reason that if any real, substantive contradiction can be found in it then the entire work falls apart. This is what opponents of the Bible’s validity have been trying to do for centuries. If, on any point, the Bible can be proven to be in error or to contradict itself then the entire work is called into question. This must be so because if the Bible is not completely reliable we have no operative way of knowing which parts can be trusted and which parts cannot. So far, all of these attempts to discount the Bible have, to my understanding, been found to be either errors in logic or historical understanding. In the worst cases, these attempts have involved an intentional twisting of the truth. Yet, because of the nature of the Bible and of our understanding there will inevitably be areas in our study of Scripture containing unresolved questions. So we must decide whether or not we are to throw out the Bible as a possible source of understanding because of these unresolved points. Fortunately there is another way of dealing with this issue of the seemingly divergent parts of Scripture.

As a result of my initial position that the Bible is true, I have approached the apparent inconsistencies and verses that don’t fit in a different way from rejection of the entire Bible. When I am confronted with such a situation my response is to wait and see. It is my assumption that when I come upon a verse that doesn’t seem to fit into my larger understanding of how life and the creation work I put that verse on the shelf. I refuse to throw the entire Bible out merely because I don’t understand it all. It has been my experience that the Father brings understanding to these problematic verses in His own time and way. I do not have to either explain away or ignore such parts of the Bible. I am not troubled by the fact that I don’t have all the answers. My concept of this dynamic is that we receive the understanding we need from God when we need it. We can contrast this with the way Satan works. One of the ways Satan tries to trip us up is by giving us knowledge we are not equipped to constructively handle. This is what happened in the Garden of Eden: ‘You will not surely die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ (Genesis 3:4)

How Satan trapped humanity through the temptation of Adam and Eve in eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to get our ancestors to take on an understanding they were not ready to receive constructively. The lie of the serpent was that Adam and Eve were ready to receive the knowledge of good and evil. In reality, the fall came as a result of humanity taking on a kind of knowledge that they did not have the right kind of life to use properly (a spiritual life and not just a physical/psychological life). We all have areas of life we do not understand. There is nothing wrong with this as none of us are omniscient. Unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of feeling that they must come across as being all-knowing so that their position will be believable. In doing this what usually happens is just the opposite. The all the answers all the time position weakens the truths contained in people’s positions because any error that may be found in their position gives one the idea that maybe it is really none of the answers any of the time. My view on this is that none of us has the right to expect anyone to have all the answers. All we can do is to assess every position from the conformity of that position to the standard of truth we elect to use. In this way, we can take what shows itself to be true and reject whatever fails the test. At a minimum, we may put on the shelf the things that we can’t definitely prove or disprove.

The Father will never give us a knowledge that we cannot constructively use in our living. For this reason, we do not have immediate access to all the understanding contained in the Scriptures. With this in mind we can see that the entire Bible is not going to be instantly understandable to us. In this topic of life after death and the immortality of the human soul I have had this kind of experience. There are and have been several Bible verses that I did not feel completely comfortable with. For example: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28) This verse has never sat well with me given my belief that the human soul was immortal.

It has been my experience that when we are confronted with verses such as this one we can be patient and wait on the Father’s timing to sort out the inconsistencies that come from our errors or gaps in understanding. Generally speaking, I have found that these points are resolved without a great deal of tearing down of other points of understanding. Of course this is not a prerequisite but usually I find that God builds on what He has shown me before and the overall focus of the Bible becomes progressively clearer. This does not rule out the possibility of needing to give up on a previously held idea. For this reason we must always be ready to lay down any understanding when it is shown to be in error. Similarly we must always be open to new understandings no matter how outside the box they may first appear.

My Point

When I set out to investigate the issues of the immortality of the human soul and the dynamics of life after death I was surprised to find how much was written on this subject. I was also somewhat dismayed to find that I had some differences of understanding with most of the writers. The differences in understanding I found ranged everywhere from minor points of logical analysis to major points of fundamental understanding of what the Bible tells us about life. These differences of understanding were not in the area of the primary points of soul immortality and the nature of the afterlife. Rather, I was saddened to see that many of the writers deny the three-part nature of human beings (creatures of body, soul and spirit). Others try to write off all the problematic verses dealing with the subject of hell and the afterlife in ways I found not all that convincing.

It was because of these points of difference that I was prompted to enter my thoughts in this area in what I consider an already crowded field. At first I felt that the last thing the world needs is yet another analysis or opinion. However, I felt that the Lord was urging me to set down these thoughts as a part of the whole picture of understanding Him and His