Biblical Afterlife

  Growing up Catholic, I was constantly bombarded with stories about Heaven and Hell, the most prominent being that ‘good’ people go to Heaven while ‘bad’ people go to Hell. What I find fascinating, however, is how the Biblical text relating to the afterlife does not quite align with my typical conceptions of Heaven and Hell. For instance, I have always thought of Heaven as this great kingdom set upon clouds in the sky with golden gates that would stand in front of me as I face judgment shortly after my death. Hell, on the other hand, would look something like the Nether in Minecraft with lava and demonic creatures everywhere. However, this sort of imagery is never really featured in the Bible, and in fact, my basic conception of Earth, Heaven, and Hell seem to be wrong.

            The first and probably most prominent way my conception of the afterlife diverges from Biblical material is the timing of judgment. I always thought that people were sorted into Heaven or Hell shortly after death, but the Bible seems to imply that the dead will be sorted all at once upon Jesus’s second coming. For example, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the promised resurrection of the dead as an event in which “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Here, it appears that Paul is describing an imminent, collective event that shall affect all of mankind, whether dead or alive, in which everyone will be “changed” as God judges us all at once. Another interesting topic in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is how he addresses concerns that Corinth has with the aforementioned “resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:12). Particularly, he discusses how the risen dead from the promised resurrection will not return in a physical body, but rather, with a “spiritual body” in “the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:44-49). Throughout my childhood, I always wondered how I would appear in the afterlife, pondering specifically what age I would be resurrected as. I hoped it would not be the seventy year old version of me walking around in the afterlife, but then again, if I saw my grandparents in Heaven, I would like to see them as I knew them in their old age, and it was this lack of consistency that always confused me. While the statement by Paul simplifies my dilemma, I think it still flies in the face of most conceptions of the afterlife. Without physical bodies, the afterlife is clearly going to be completely different from life on Earth, and it definitely complicates the concept of interacting with friends and family in the afterlife. Without physical bodies, would we even recognize such people from our lives on Earth? Indeed, would we even be able to interact with others in the afterlife at all? Obviously, no one knows, but I believe these are natural questions and complications raised by such a foreign concept as life after death.

Revelation discusses the afterlife a bit more, and it too supports the concept of a singular judgment day through which all of mankind is sorted into Heaven or 'Hell’ at once. Specifically, at the end of days, there are two distinct resurrections, and the first depicts faithful individuals automatically joining Jesus and God in the afterlife: “the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” (Revelation 20:4-5). Following the casting of Satan, the devil, into “the lake of fire and brimstone”, we encounter the second wave of resurrection during which “the dead, small and great, [stood] before God… And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:10-15). Obviously, the second resurrection is not as happy as the first, but the two distinct waves are clearly outlined as singular events through which all the dead across all time are judged at once. However, another interesting detail from this passage is that the dead were drawn up from the sea as well as “death and hell”, which not only implies a distinction between death on land and at sea, but also implies that people who died on land go to “hell” upon their deaths as they await judgment day. However, this “hell” is not the same Hell that sinners are eternally damned to. Indeed, this Hell seems to be the “lake of fire” mentioned several times in the latter part of Revelation. This makes me wonder if “hell” was originally meant to be the fiery abyss of punishment that it is depicted as today or simply a place after death to wait for judgment. Another detail I appreciate is the so-called “book of life” mentioned multiple times as a way to keep track of whether someone deserves to go to Heaven or to the “lake of fire”, with the decision being made “according to their works”. In a rather paradoxical manner, this detail implies both predestination and control over afterlife based on the interpretation of whether a name is written in the “book of life” from the beginning of time or is written upon death based on a person’s deeds throughout life.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Revelation is its description of the “new heaven and new earth” that arise after “the first heaven and first earth were passed away” (Revelation 21:1). The formation of the new and destruction of the old appears to result from the joining of Heaven and Earth through the “holy city, new jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven”, but what I believe really supports this theory is the explicit detail of “there was no more sea” after this joining (Revelation 21:1-2). As one of God’s first actions in the Creation recorded by Genesis, God divides the waters above the firmament from the waters below the firmament as a way of separating Heaven from Earth, but with no sea and thus no more waters, Heaven and Earth lose that division. In this newly combined realm, we get reaffirmation from God that man will be judged such that “he that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:7-8). Though, the important detail here is that in addition to Heaven and Earth now being one realm, the Lake of Fire representing the popular conception of Hell appears to also reside in the same plane of existence. In fact, we are given definite dimensions for “new jerusalem”; the city is surrounded by four walls, each 1,500 miles long and 216 feet tall, in the shape of a square with an area of 2,250,000 square miles (Revelation 21:11-17). This is obviously smaller than the surface area of Earth, so it appears that while “they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” will reside in New Jerusalem, the sinful who would defile the city are confined outside of the walls, condemned to an eternity burning in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 21:27). On top of all this, with the joining of Heaven and Earth in New Jerusalem, there is a reversal of Adam and Eve’s fall from paradise as God’s residence with man in the city is explained with, “there shall be no more curse” (Revelation 22:3), an interesting detail characterizing the afterlife as reminiscent of the previous life of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

I especially love this week’s JWST image which is yet another image of the Pillars of Creation, my favorite astronomical entity. This picture is distinct in that it combines JWST’s near-infrared and mid-infrared images, both of which are featured in previous posts, and it has just a plethora of details that remind me especially of Revelation’s depiction of the afterlife. For one, the image is a combination of two other images, mirroring the joining of Heaven and Earth described in Revelation. The grand, white pillars remind me of the majesty of New Jerusalem in the midst of the reddish-orange dust at the top of the image reminiscent of the infamous Lake of Fire. Just as New Jerusalem is “garnished with all manner of precious stones” (Revelation 21:19), so too are the Pillars of Creation adorned with beautifully brilliant newly born stars. Even the name “Pillars of Creation” evokes divine imagery that I can’t help but associate with the Bible and its imagery of the afterlife in Revelation. Overall, I can’t think of a better topic and image to end my commonplace book on. I find it so intriguing that instead of distinct realms of Earth, Heaven, and Hell that people are sorted into upon their deaths, there will be a singular judgment event coinciding with the merging of the heavenly and earthly realms. On the other hand, this one realm will be divided into God’s holy city of New Jerusalem and everything outside of the city’s walls, an area dominated by the Lake of Fire. In this case, New Jerusalem is our conventional depiction of Heaven, with spiritual bodies residing with God, and the Lake of Fire outside the walls of New Jerusalem is our conventional depiction of Hell where the sinful are eternally punished.