The Oldest Question

It was a Veteran’s Day observance at the Riverside National Cemetery in California. Everyone’s grave had a flag placed there by caring volunteers. Two hundred thousand flags. I was overwhelmed and had some tears. Then like a muffled drumbeat from afar, I seemed to catch an echo from the ages; life’s oldest question: “If a man dies, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14) And the answer that came back was one word: “Guaranteed!” As I gazed across those vast fields of flags and graves, I could almost see their contents changed from mortal dust to immortal beings at that moment described by that old song—“On that bright and cloudless morning, when the dead in Christ shall rise; and the glory of His resurrection share.”

If there was no life after death, none of us would ever think about it, much less worry about it. But God programmed eternity into the brain and heart of man. We don’t want to die. We really want to live forever. And we shall. Even science—the law of thermodynamics—states that energy or matter can’t be created or destroyed. Not a single atom in creation can go out of existence. It only changes in form—like from a solid to a gas. The same with energy and force. It’s only changed from one form to another. Greater minds than my little brain have pointed out that if man was to cease to exist, he would be the only thing in the universe to do so.

And even secular studies done on thousands of people pronounced clinically dead who were resuscitated and who reported after-death experiences should get our attention. Even the seasons tell us there is more than the grave. As William Jennings Bryan wrote, “If the Father (God) chooses to touch with Divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn and make it burst forth into a new life, will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, made in the image of His Creator?”

But all of the arguments are weak when compared with the one irrefutable fact that someone actually, historically, verifiably, came back from the dead to guarantee the world that there is life after death. The birth and death of Jesus Christ are historical facts. So is His resurrection from the dead an established fact to all but the willfully blind who live in a “pretend” land of evolution fairy tales and atheistic irrationalism.

The Hebrew prophets (always 100% accurate) foretold the Messiah coming to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world (Isaiah 53) and then being raised from the dead (Psalm 16:10). Then Jesus came and told those baffled disciples He would be crucified and would rise from the dead. And those terrified disciples who ran out on Jesus when the suffering began and then hid like little girls after His death, became fearless lions after witnessing the risen Christ (Acts 4:8-14). They and the early Christians suffered unbelievable tortures while preaching “He is risen!” As Paul Little said, “Men will die for what they believe to be true, though it may actually be false. They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.”

They knew He was dead. Very dead. Now He was alive. Very alive. And Jesus’ words to John would settle forever the old question, “Is there life after death?” with the guaranteed answer: “I am He that lives, and was dead; And behold, I am alive forevermore.” (Revelation 1:18)

"Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1)
The ST. PAUL SCHOOL, with Frank Eiklor, Eileen Young and Cecilia Contreras