The question of the ages was posed by Job when he asked, “But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” (Job 14:10)
The answer to that question, I believe, is that man lives on after death. Why do I believe in life after death?
1. I believe it instinctively. A well-known atheist in France honestly confessed a deep-seated urge within himself. “I have in myself a great need of permanence,” he said. “I mean a need of believing that there are products not subject to decay and degradation, works on which temporal changes have no influence.” I have that need—don’t you?
2. I believe it from observation. The gaily colored leaves fall so gently to the earth in the autumn not to be destroyed but to be embraced by nature for future use. The falling leaves are a reminder that winter will soon be here to lull the earth into deep sleep. The ice and snow come and it appears that death is the victor. Then just when you are sure death is supreme, new life and color, fragrance and beauty come to all the earth. It is the resurrection of spring. Man has looked at that and wondered—could it be with men as it is with trees, flowers, and grass?
3. I believe in it because of reason. Wernher von Braun, America’s great space scientist, said that he believed in “the continuity of our spiritual existence after death” for essentially scientific reasons. He wrote, “Science has found that nothing can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. Now if God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of his universe, doesn’t it make sense to assume that he applies it also to the masterpiece of his creation—the human soul? I think it does.”
4. I believe in it because of the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus said, “Because I live, you shall live also.”