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Death and the Afterlife - Coggle Diagram

- - - - When the rich man died, he went to hell and was tormented, he wanted to dip his finger in water to cool down, to warn his family, but was not allowed
        
        Lazarus went to heaven and was separated from the rich man by a chasm
        
        Linking the rich man and lazarus story to the different questions:
        
        heaven & hell are described physically (water, finger & chasm)
        
        Heaven and hell are eternal because you can’t leave (chasm)
        
        Heaven is not the transformation of creation into a perfect form at the end of time – because lazarus went to heaven while the rich man’s family was still alive – so heaven existed before the end of time
        
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  - - - We should not take it literally – it’s not a story about literal actual events that happened – and so it can’t actually tell us anything about the afterlife
        
        Luther points to the fact that the rich man wanted to warn his family and dip his finger in water – implying he could talk and had a physical body. However, that couldn’t be possible unless he had been resurrected. But, the resurrection doesn’t happen until the end of time – but it wasn’t the end of time because his family were still alive
        
        So, the story cannot make sense as events which literally took place. It’s just a parable. In that case, it does not have any of the implications for the afterlife that it seemed to when we viewed it literally
        
        The story might still justify unlimited election – since even as just a moral message, it’s suggesting we go to hell if we do bad – but really it’s just giving a moral message to be good to others, we can’t interpret avoiding hell as the punishment for that without taking the parable literally
        
        Furthermore, Luther followed Augustinian predestination and would have said the rich man failed to do good because he didn’t have grace, and that’s why he went to hell
  - - - The rich man may have desired to warn his family even if he was just a soul who couldn’t speak, and the finger dipping in water may have been metaphorical even though the story overall is literal
        
        This suggests Luther is wrong and the story actually happened and is meant to be taken literally
- - - - That’s what heaven is – it doesn’t exist now, it is a future state of the earth
        
        N. T. Wright argues for this view of heaven. He points to the lord’s prayer ‘thy kingdom come’ – this quote is showing that Christians are meant to pray for God’s kingdom to come to earth
        
        The prayer is not for us to go to God’s kingdom, but for us to come here to earth
        
        This suggests that at the end of time, God’s kingdom will expand to include earth and God will perfect earth again (after Adam and Eve ruined it)
        
        Furthermore, in the book of revelation chapter 21, God shows John the future where there is a ‘new heaven and new earth’ in which there is no suffering
        
        This theory also suggests that heaven is a physical place
        
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  - - - For example, Jesus was crucified next to a thief who expressed regret about their sin
        
        Jesus said “Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise”
        
        So Jesus is saying that he and the thief will both go to heaven that day
        
        So, heaven exists now and is not a future state of the earth
  - - - If we put the comma in a different place, we get a very different meaning:
        
        “Assuredly I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise”
        
        This is just a promise that they will both be in heaven at some point in the future
        
        This leaves open the possibility of new earth and general judgement and new earth
        
        So, since there is biblical evidence for the new earth idea, and this evidence from Jesus actually fails to go against it, the new earth theory is correct
- - - - The Bible (especially St Paul) also suggests that the afterlife involves physical resurrection – the physical body rising from the dead but in a perfected immortal form
        
        So the afterlife isn’t just some state of the soul – it is a physical bodily state
        
        Jesus’ body was used up in his resurrection – his tomb was discovered empty. This suggests that resurrection involves our physical body and therefore is physical
  - - - They are spiritual places that our souls go to
        
        The Bible says we have souls
        
        The physical resurrection view doesn’t explain what happens to us immediately after we die – before the end of time
        
        It makes more sense to think that our soul goes to the afterlife immediately after we die
        
        St Paul (the Bible) says that when he dies he will have a ‘presence’ with Christ – suggesting that there is an afterlife involving our soul being with Christ
  - - - There is so much biblical evidence for resurrection, and for resurrection being physical
        
        St Paul calls Jesus’ resurrection the ‘first fruits’ – implying that it was a promise that we too will be resurrected at the end of time if we follow Jesus
        
        The sheep and the goats parable suggests that we are judged at the end of time and it implies we have a physical resurrected existence on earth, backing up the physical new-earth view of heaven. Jesus describes hell as ‘eternal fire’ and ‘eternal punishment’, also implying a physical state (fire is physical)
  - - - First the afterlife is spiritual, then at the end of time it is physical
        
        Immediately after death, our soul is judged and sent to heaven to be with Jesus in a spiritual state, or sent to a spiritual hell to suffer
        
        Then at the end of time, our soul is joined with our resurrected body and then either sent to the physical new heaven/earth or to a physical hell
        
        So we are judged immediately after death AND at the end of time. This makes the most sense, since there is biblical evidence for both spiritual and physical afterlife
- - - - There is a moral argument for purgatory, however
        
        If we die in a state of ‘venial’ sin – meaning a more minor sin – it wouldn’t be right for them to go to hell for that
        
        Yet, they also can’t enter heaven in a state of sin
        
        So, there must be a temporary place they go to be purged of those minor sins before going to heaven
        
        Purgatory means ‘purge’
  - - - Furthermore, the Bible actually goes against purgatory
        
        The sheep and the goats – at the end of time Jesus sorts the sinners (goats) from the righteous (sheep)
        
        The sinners go to hell, the righteous go to heaven
        
        There is no middle-ground option between these two – nothing like purgatory is mentioned. There’s no mention of where people go for ‘venial’ or ‘lesser’ sins . People either go to heaven or hell
        
        So, the bible is against purgatory
        
        Furthermore, Luther argues the catholic church made up purgatory to scam money from people. The Church said if you give them money, they will pray for your recently dead relative and get them out of purgatory faster
        
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- - - - So, it is best to view the bible as a product of the human mind
        
        In that case, everything the Bible says about the afterlife has to be taken symbolically, not literally
        
        Heaven, hell and purgatory are just symbols – flowery language – for human psychological states while alive
        
        If you do good to others, you will have a better life while alive – that’s what the idea of ‘heaven’ is a symbol for
        
        If you are evil to others, you will have a worse life – that’s what the idea of ‘hell’ is a symbol for
        
        Purgatory is a symbol for our need to feel guilty and make amends for sinful actions
        
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  - - - Everyone will have their own interpretation of the Bible
        
        We can’t tell whose interpretation is right
        
        So, every Christian will just believe whatever they want
        
        Better to think the Bible is the perfect word of God
        
        Furthermore, if there is no afterlife, then there is no punishment for sin or reward for virtue. For example, Kant thought that an afterlife was a necessary postulate for morality to make sense
        
        There may be some temporary punishment/reward – where a bad person lives a ‘hellish’ life, but that doesn’t seem enough for people like Hitler, for example
        
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- - - - Original sin is a corruption in human nature, causing us to be born with an irresistible temptation to sin
        
        Original sin damns us to hell. It is only if God grants us his gift of grace that we could ever get to heaven
        
        By ourselves, because we are corrupted, we can never be or do good enough to deserve getting into heaven
        
        God either grants us grace, predestining us for heaven, or he doesn’t and our original sin damns us to hell
  - - - Pelagius: We had nothing to do with Adam and Eve’s disobedience – so how is it fair to punish us with hell for their actions?
        
        Predestination is not something a loving God would enforce
  - - - However, this still fails because it’s not a person’s fault that they are born with original sin and cursed to be a sinful being
        
        A loving God could not think a child deserves to die of cancer and go to hell
        
        So, Augustine’s theology still suggests an indefensible view of moral responsibility, which is inconsistent with an all-loving God
- - - - Potentially an unlimited number of people could go to heaven then, but only those who have been good will
        
        Sheep and the goats story
        
        Jesus says that what makes people sheep who deserve to go to heaven is that they helped others
        
        The goats, those who go to hell, failed to help others
        
        This suggests that getting into heaven and avoiding hell is a matter of doing and being good
        
        This shows that unlimited election is true
        
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  - - - For punishment to be fair, it must be proportionate. It’s not fair to lock someone up for their rest of their life for stealing a mars bar, for example
        
        In that case, it can’t ever be fair to send human beings to hell forever
        
        No matter how bad a crime a human did, they did not do an infinite crime – because we are finite beings, we can’t do infinite things
        
        So, we can never deserve an infinite punishment, therefore
        
        People like Hitler did terrible things – but did not kill an infinite number of people. They might deserve a lot of punishment, but can’t ever deserve an infinite punishment
- - - - So, Hick argued everyone ends up in heaven
        
        However, Hick accepted that there were issues with this – it doesn’t seem right for Hitler to go straight to heaven, for example
        
        So, Hick proposed his own view of purgatory
        
        Bad people have to essentially live another life in a purgatory other world where they have another opportunity to become a good person (soul-making)
        
        People can get endless opportunities to become good
        
        It might take Hitler a long time to become good – but eventually he will go to heaven too, once he’s actually and genuinely accepted his moral failures and become good
        
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  - - - Hick’s conclusion that Hitler eventually ends up in heaven seems uncomfortable, but his logic is unassailable. Justice in punishment does require proportionality. Hitler’s crimes were finite. So, he cannot deserve an infinite punishment. This conclusion is logically inescapable
        
        It might not seem valid to view the Biblical presentation of hell as merely symbolic – since that can’t explain its biblical connection to punishment. However, Hick is simply saying that the idea of hell as punishment goes against justice and omnibenevolence. So, we have to view the whole idea of hell – not just as a real place, but also as punishment – as all made up by humans
        
        So, universalism is true. Hell cannot be eternal. Also, hell must at most be symbolic, not literal
  - - - The Bible says people go to hell (sheep and goats etc)