Video (9 minutes) Podcast episode
Sophia, a philosopher, and Evan, an evangelist met in Athens. She wanted to see where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle had been, and he wanted to see where Paul had preached. Evan shared his Christian understanding with Sophia, and she shared her philosophical understanding with him, and they connected strongly. They stayed in touch by means of video conferencing, when they would often spend most of their time in silence, each working on their own projects, occasionally conversing a little.
Sophia: Evan, I just came across a short document online that raises interesting questions about what happens after you die. Let me send you the link.
Evan: OK, I’ll take a look.
After a few minutes, Evan said. This is interesting. But I think those who are only watching the video or listening to the podcast episode need to get it from the blogpost.
https://sites.google.com/a/kent.edu/jwattles/home/comparative-religious-thought/christianity/life-after-death See also “Jesus on life after death” in Jeffrey Wattles, Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, pages 77-79.
Sophia: What do you think life after death is like?
Evan paused for a while, and then said: To tell you the truth, I haven’t given it much thought; but it must be unimaginably wonderful. The superficial images of society sessions on pink clouds with angels playing harps don’t seem like real life. If I know anything about God, the afterlife has got to be even more real than down here, not less.
Sophia. What do you make of the fact that heaven is not just one place?
Evan. The Hebrew Bible does speak of “the heaven of heavens.” And Jesus did say, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Mansions means places where you stay or abide for a time. And in Second Corinthians Paul does talk about the third heaven.
Sophia: Here is the idea I have recently come across that intrigues me. We can go into it more on another occasion. On earth, we grow by the grace of God, and we’re called to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. But by the time this life is over, we still have a long way to go. Do you think that God just zaps people into perfection simply because they died?
Evan: That’s an aggressive way to put the question.
Sophia: Think about it. The need to grow, the opportunity to grow, the adventure of growing in God has a lot to do with what makes this life full of reality. I can’t believe that perfection is static contemplation, and I can’t believe that real life after death doesn’t involve growth.
Evan plunged into silence for about ten comfortable minutes, and Sophia went back to what she had been doing.
Then Evan was ready to respond: I’m not sure about your idea of the different mansions or heavens representing places where we achieve different levels of growth. But if that idea is right, it would have implications for the way we live. We would take our growth more seriously in this life. We would care for our souls better. If we pick up in the next life where we leave off down here, if we might get interested in becoming like God as much as possible down here. Just because we believe that we are saved does not mean that we can presume on divine mercy and live the rest of our days like a couch potato. We need to take action. And doing the will of God leads to growth. Your idea intrigues me, too. I’m going to sleep on this and ask God before I go to sleep whether we keep on growing in the next life.
Sophia: And I’m going to sleep on your reasoning. Good night.
Image credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Omaha-beach-cemetery.jpg
