Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know .. I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. ~ John 14: 1-6

Bring up the topic of an afterlife with someone and you might have as much of a contentious debate with them as you would by raising a political discussion on the merits of one party of politicians over another; which is likely why the old adage of “we don’t talk politics and we don’t talk religion” has been such a wise arbiter of probity over many centuries.

The topic arose yet again over the past few days with the latest Prager University video titled (appropriately enough) “Is There Life After This Life?” As of this writing, the fact that the video has attracted 1,107,259 viewings, and the comments thread 4,219, is proof enough that it is a forever topic of the curious, the believer, the unbeliever, and the atheistic naysayers. After all, who isn’t interested in whether or not we have an afterlife to look forward to?

As for yours truly, this temporal universe is so obviously consequential to the many other surrounding attributes, that one really must be simpleminded not to see the eternal ‘Real’ real Life for which this life qualifies as something of a sorting sieve; a consummate preparation for the afterlife to follow.

Consider that without the sun, nothing. Without the moon, nothing. Without the Milky Way, nothing. Nothing can be real if it doesn’t exist. This life cannot be real in any relevant sense to humanity unless it is somehow everlasting with regards to everything else surrounding it.

An argument could be made that it turns out to be everlasting in its consequences for individuals without being everlasting per se, with the power of prayer assuming an enormous advantage, both by the fact of releasing, and then in return being realized and answered. Surely answered prayers are a key indicator of an ongoing existence, otherwise from where would the answers be coming?

Take a look and listen at Dennis Prager’s take on it all…

Time and space constraints do not allow for an extensive scholarly response, but having read through a portion of the comments thread, here’s my cobbled-together commentary about the afterlife.

For every human longing there exists a satisfaction awaiting somewhere. If I’m hungry for instance, there is food, if I’m thirsty there is water, if I’m tired I can rest, if I’m bored there exists activity. During our entire lives (and particularly those of us who are in the ‘Moses’ years – Psalm 90:10), most of us have been longing for eternity and perfection, but the fact of the matter is that eternity and perfection don’t exist in this world; only in the afterlife.

There has to be another place outside of this cosmos where the satisfaction for that longing exists, otherwise we wouldn’t have it. The human perception of eternity far exceeds any Darwinian survival mechanism. All we really need to survive is to jump over streams and catch fish. We don’t need to be contemplating questions of God, heavens, alternate dimensions, origin, purpose, destiny, morality, etc.

The past majority of humanity has had some perception of eternal life after death, through the writings and insights of multitudes of prophets, leading all the way up to Jesus himself, whereby they all speak of heaven not as some abstract concept, but as a literal place outside of this continuum; the place in fact, where God resides.

In the beginning, God created …

In 2nd Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of being “caught up to the third heaven” implying that the highest heaven exists outside of the material world. The first heaven is the sky around our planet, the second is space-time and all its dimensions (the heavens), and the third heaven is after space-time/matter breaks down into the quantum vacuum, and is ‘membered’ on the other unrestricted side of it. The afterlife.

Whatever/whoever caused this finite universe must be infinite. That’s why Jesus warned against setting our minds on earthly things, because it blocks us from thinking about heaven.

In closing, I encourage you to check out all three of the links below (and believe me there are many many more out there) from people who have been through, or working within, or are professionally involved in, exploring the stories of people having experienced and come through near death encounters, having had a ‘taste of the heavenly glory’, and the effect it has had on their earthly beliefs.

As for me and my house: “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion”. ~ Jeremiah 10:12

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.  And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. ~ II Corinthians 12:1-5

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DON’T MISS:

Do Near-Death Experiences Prove That An After Life Exists?

And: God and Eternity Reconsidered: Is There Evidence of Life After Death?

Also: The Doctor, Barrister, Civil Servant, and Cambridge Academic who have Proof There’s an After Life

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Face of Jesus by Richard Hook

Soli Deo Gloria!