AFTER DEATH, WHAT THEN?

I Cor. 15:19 ... "If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied."

      "After death, what then?" is a question that has been asked by men since we first began to live on this planet. Various answers have been given, answers which to a large extent determine the character of the lives of those who accept them. This writer once toured the ruins of the ancient Phoenician city of Gebaal, presently Byblos in Lebanon. The native guide pointed out the area of the oldest habitation, which dated back before 3000 B.C. There, he said, archaeologists in the 1930s excavated the tombs of hundreds of people who had been buried in large clay jars. Interestingly, the bodies had been placed in the fetal position, obviously indicating that it was believed they would be born into another life in some other world. In every culture on earth people have strongly believed that death does not end human existence, but life, or some part of it, continues in a dimension of time and space different from that here.

      In more recent times the growing skepticism of human wisdom has adopted the view that death means annihilation. Human existence is believed to be confined to the period between birth and death. To defend this view it is pointed out that no one who has actually died has come back from death to testify that another life awaits the human soul. Furthermore, they say, there is no scientific evidence that anything answering to a "soul" departs a body at death to fly away to some other world. Robert Ingersoll, the famous 19th Century atheist, expressed the view in these words: "Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the  only answer is the echo of a wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word."

      The central tenet of the Christian religion is that life indeed continues beyond death. The entire fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians presents, explains, and defends this conviction with zeal and solid conviction. Our text (above) declares that "if we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied." Many people think that death terminates one's existence, and accepting that postulate, go on with life as best they can. Their ambition usually is to crowd as much meaning and pleasure into their daily activities as they can, thinking it to be the most they can do with their life. Christian doctrine, however, urges people to adopt its view and follow it by holding out the incentive of life after death in a state that far exceeds earthly life in both quality and longevity. If this teaching is a delusion, the product of overactive imaginations, then Christians certainly are "of all men most to be pitied." For by denying themselves the meaning and pleasure that this world offers, they are forfeiting all that humans are ever able to achieve. If the central issue of Christian faith is based on delusion, then either the God who foisted it upon us is indeed heartless, or else He does not exist, and the view is of human origin.

      This idea, however, can be reversed. If the Christian view is correct, then what about the person who believes his existence ends at death? After the confusion of the death event has passed, and the deceased discovers he is still existent and conscious in another world, what then? He lived his life for the moment with no reference to an afterlife, but now he "wakes up" in a very real afterlife for which he made no preparation. To this writer it seems far wiser to believe that death is a transition of life than its termination. If death ends all, I feel I have missed nothing, for I believe the temperate Christian life is far better than the one devoted to sensual and psychological pleasures. If death does transfer one's spirit into another world, for which preparation by the Gospel is necessary, then the unbeliever is the one who is in a wretched condition from which there is no possibility of recovery.

TRUE AND ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP

I Cor. 14:15 ... "What is the outcome then? I shall pray with the spirit, and I shall pray with the mind also; I shall sing with the spirit, and I shall sing with the mind also."

      One of the supernatural gifts conferred upon certain members in the church in Corinth was the ability to speak in tongues. The purpose of this gift was to bridge the language gap, so that a Christian preacher or teacher could readily convey the gospel message to someone in his own language. That is, the "tongues" were languages then spoken by nations or ethnic groups somewhere on earth. The gift of tongues was the ability from God to speak in those languages without the long, difficult process of learning them. It was not what it is often taken today to be, an incoherent babble expressed by someone in a highly emotional state.

      To a great extent the members in Corinth were abusing this gift. Rather than use it to its intended purpose, they were making vain and proud displays of it in their worship services. In this chapter Paul rebuked them for this excess and pointed them toward the proper, controlled use. He limited those who spoke in tongues at a given assembly to two or three, and then in succession, (v.27). Furthermore, no one could speak in tongues unless someone who could interpret was present, so that the audience would know what was being said, (vs.27-28). The net result of the tongues, as with all other gifts, was to be the edification of the church, (v.5), through a full understanding of what was being taught, (v.19). This would be accomplished only when "all things (were) done properly and in an orderly manner," (v.40).

      It is in this context that Paul makes the statement in I Cor. 14:15. In fact, he is repeating the word of Christ in Jno. 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." To worship God "in spirit" is the opposite of worshiping Him in a merely physical way. In Acts 17:24-25 the apostle declared that God "does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands." The attempt to worship God with manual activity is vain.  The object of worship is to praise, glorify, and please God, and only He knows what will do that.  It is not human prerogative to employ any manual activity because it seems good, majestic and beautiful in sight or sound.  Christian worship must be restricted to what the New Testament reveals to us the early Christians did as they were instructed by the inspired apostles.  This is what it means to worship God "in truth."  There are five activities of worship revealed in the New Testament: singing (Eph. 5:19), praying (I Tim. 2:1), observing the Lord's Supper (I Cor. 11:23-29), monetary offering (I Cor. 16:2), and preaching / teaching (II Tim.4:2). In this brief article there is not sufficient space to cover all the particulars about how we are to sing, pray, observe the Lord's Supper, give, and preach / teach.

      In I Cor. 14:15, however, Paul emphasizes them with special reference to singing and praying. In the case of each the worshiper must engage with "understanding" and with "spirit." These terms relate to Jesus' requirements of "in truth" and "in spirit" in Jno. 4:24. They require us to respond to the plan of worship specified by God with a keen mind focused upon what we are doing and why we are doing it. It is possible to perform these acts of worship, which we have reduced to a routine through long repetition, with no conscious thought involved. One can sing "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" without missing a word or note, and never once think about the crucifixion of our Lord. One may eat the Lord's Supper while he mentally reviews yesterday's football game. Worship performed by habit, without meditation and discernment, is vain because it is not "in spirit" or "with understanding." How much of our worship is vain? How much affronts God rather than praises, petitions, and pleases Him? True and acceptable worship demands mental discipline which comes only through determination, concentration, and the awareness that God is real and always present.