aGod conquers death	3Back to Home

4 Navigation --------------- Homepage St. Matthew St. Matthew 2 St. Mark St. Luke St. Luke 2 St. John St. John 2 Acts of Apostles Acts of Apostles 2 --------------- The Letters --- Romans --- 1. Corinthias --- 2. Corinthias --- Galatians --- Ephesians --- Philippians --- Colossians --- 1. Thessalonians --- 2. Thessalonians --- 1. Timothy --- 2. Timothy --- Titus --- Philemon --- Hebrews --- James --- 1. Peter --- 2. Peter --- 1. John --- 2. John --- 3. John --- Jude --------------- The Apocalypse

To most people the fact of death is what seems to destroy life's meaning. For them, the whole story can be put in the formula: We live, struggle, and die. Our children live, struggle, and die. Their children live, struggle, and die. Finally everybody is dead and there is nothing to show for it. Over against this, the Bible affirms very positively the fact of "the life everlasting." Death is not the end of the human venture. The incompleteness of life is completed by God in a way that we cannot totally understand, but that stands as the crowning affirmation of the fulfillment of God's purposes for human life. We must not let the fact of life after death solve the problem of evil too simply. Too often, for example, people have been told not to worry about evil here on earth because "everything will be all right in heaven." But we must also see that Biblical faith in life after death cuts across the meaningless cycle of live-struggle-die-live-struggle-die-live-struggle-die generation after generation. We live, struggle, and die, yes-but God is able to raise us up, refashion us, and use us for his purposes in ways beyond our imagining, so that our incompleteness is completed by him, our unfulfilled lives are fulfilled by him. The Biblical claim is that nothing that threatens our lives can finally separate us from God in Christ, since God in Christ is the Lord of life and death. Paul put it most clearly: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord ( Rom. 8: 38, 39). These words are the heart and center of the New Testament. They are worth reading again: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord ( Rom. 8: 38, 39). God conquers death God gives us the power to conquer The Only Real "Answer" A Question You Can't Avoid Some Current Answers -- a Dime a Dozen The First Part of the Biblical Answer What Is the "Image of God"? Some Consequences The Second Part of the Biblical Answer What Sin Is Supplying Some Documentation What Sin Is Not Getting Straightened Out How Can I Be Changed? The Third Part of the Biblical Answer The First Step After the First Step The Heart of the Matter Not Once and for All Some Hints for Growing -- Tried and Tested A Final Warning Why Isn't "Individual Religion" Enough? The Case Against the Church -a Bagful of Objections When Did the Church Get Started? Just What Is a "Covenant"? The "New Covenant" Becomes a Possibility Those Words of Jesus to Peter Those "Upsetters of the World" A Rebuttal of the Case Against the Church Why the Church? Last Judgment? Second Coming? What Do They Mean? The Inescapability of Eschatology The Point of Biblical Eschatology: History Is Going Somewhere The Dangers of Literalism Exploring New Testament Eschatology The Kingdom of God A Few Bits of Help The Gift of God Schatology and "What I Do Today" What Happens When I Die? Sheol -- Where God Is Not Present The Community of the Resurrection Paul's Attempt to Describe the Christian Fact A "Spiritual Body" The Facts of the Case I Try to Live a Good Life. Why Isn't That Enough? The "Micah" Variation The "Worship and Action" Variation The "Therefore" Variation The Biblical faith that God is the Creator