A few days ago, we received an e-mail under the title "Understanding Death”. It said:

Nobody wants to die, isn’t it? Even a suicide or a terminal patient wants do live, however, with quality. This is what we really have in our hearts: the desire to live. The popular saying already stated: "If death is to rest, then I prefer to live tired". But what happens at death? Is there life beyond the grave?

Brazil is a fertile ground for beliefs based on communication with the Spirits and reincarnation. Research indicates that 80% of the people believe that the Spirit goes somewhere after death and 69% believe that the dead that were “good” in this life go to a Paradise, next to God. Now, if people do not die as some say, and reincarnate and go to Heaven, why is everyone afraid to die? Why does death cause so much fear?

The Bible teaches that only God is immortal (1 Timothy 6: 14-16).

The belief in the immortality of the soul came from the first lie on Earth, stated by the Devil, the father of lies (John 8:44). He used the serpent as a medium and said to Eve, "Certainly, you will not die" (Genesis 3:4). Such a statement was totally against what God said, "You will sure die" (Genesis 2:17).

As we saw in the questions of this study, to understand death we must first know what life is. According to Genesis 2:7, life is: DUST OF THE EARTH + BREATH OF LIFE = LIVING SOUL. The Bible says that at death comes a reverse process to the creation of life (Ecclesiastes 12:7), the soul dies, that is, the human being dies (Ezekiel 18: 4). Then, the soul is not an extracorporeal entity.

The word translated as breath or spirit in the Hebrew text is “ruach” and in Greek it is “pneuma”. These terms can mean "wind," "breathe," "temperament", "courage" or "breathing", including that of animals. With regard to man, never in the Bible do the words “pneuma” and “ruakh” mean an intelligent entity in existence, with life outside a physical body.

The Bible does not support the idea of ​​reincarnation, because "man is destined to die once, but after that comes the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

In more than 50 verses, the Bible compares death to a sleep (Psalm 88: 10-12; 115: 17; 146: 3, 4; Isaiah 38:18, 19). Jesus himself said that Lazarus was asleep (John 11: 11-14).

Some Christians misinterpret Luke 23: 42, 43, where Jesus says to the thief on the cross: "Truly I tell you that today you will be with me in Paradise." According to them, the thief went to Heaven that day, proving thus the afterlife. In the original text, however, there is not the word "that". It was added by the translator to make sense of text. In ancient Greek, there was no comma or punctuation. Therefore, it is up to the translator to choose where in the phrase goes the comma. So the best sense of the text is: "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise." That's because the text of John 20:17 tells us that Jesus and the thief did not go to Heaven that day. Thus we see that the text does not teach that we receive the reward immediately after death, but in the return of Jesus (Revelation 22:12). (E-mail text that was sent to us on June 11, 2015, at 12:27 PM.)

Samuel and Elijah reappeared alive after they died

Well, about death, we know that beyond the physical body we have an immortal Spirit, and that this Spirit, while we are still embodied, is called soul.

Science shows us that what we call "death" is only the cessation of functioning of vital organs necessary to sustain the life of our body wrap.

In the Old Testament, in 1 Samuel 28: 7-15, thanks to the Pythia of En-dor (or Endor in the Catholic version), Samuel, already dead, appears to King Saul. Of course: it is his Spirit that becomes visible, thus demonstrating that he is alive.

In the New Covenant, more exactly on Mt from 17.1 to 13, Jesus and his disciples Peter, James and John, walking up the Mount Tabor, faced with Moses and Elijah, who had already died. This mentioned biblical episode is a proof that there is afterlife.

Regarding the question: "Is there life beyond the grave?" If we answered this question in our condition of Spirits, we would say YES, and would quote the spiritual colonies narrated in the book "Our Home", which is a psychographics of the medium Francisco Candido Xavier, born in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, and dictated by the Spirit Andre Luiz. However, for the fundamentalists, we will just mention the Bible and the parable of the "Rich Man and Lazarus", which was told by Jesus in Luke 16, 19 to 31, and undoubtedly proves that there is life after our passage here by this world.

This talk of "if you are good, you will go to Heaven, or if you are evil, you will go to Hell” for some people, it proves that there is afterlife. However, at the same time, we see that this is a kind of a little tale to scare children. The argument that "Heaven is above and Hell below" is also not valid. We know that our planet is round, and through the SPIN movement, what's up will be down in 12 hours. On the other hand, science has searched the underground and found nothing.

Heaven is not a place but a state of mind

Some might say: "But the belief in Heaven and Hell is biblical!" He answer: We also read in the Bible: Luke 17.20 to 21: "Being asked by the Pharisees on when the Kingdom of God would come, He answered them: The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! For the Kingdom of God is within you. “Well, in some Bibles, instead of reading the word "within", there is "in between", but in both cases we see that "the Kingdom of God" or, as some want, "Heaven", really it is not an enclosed place, but a state of mind. Well, we can safely say that, like Heaven, Hell also is a state of mind.

In many cases, we hear the following conversation: "How's your life?" "Marvelous! A bed of roses! A splendid sky" or:" How is your life?" "No good! It could not be worse! A living hell!” Well, this confirms the words above.

Further, the Bible, in John 6:63, shows us that our body, which is the garment of the Spirit, is worthless, so that is where we must seek the importance of our life. In the Bible, also the Apostle John clearly tells us that God is Spirit (John 4:24). Here is our similarity to the Creator, because we are also Spirits and will always be living in a body or out of it.

Also in Luke 20.27 to 38, some Sadducees, talking about the situation of a woman who had married seven brothers, asked the Divine Rabbi of which one would she be a wife when she resurrected? Jesus said to them clearly that only those, who are still tied to a physical body, are capable of marrying. However, those who are already in the Spiritual Plan do not unite, and cannot marry, since this union can only occur when one is still in a physical stage. Furthermore, if God is God of the living (Luke 20.37 to 38), then all those who died physically remain on the other side of life, spiritually alive. This is what Jesus meant in this passage quoting Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had died, as being fully alive. This becomes clear when Jesus tells us in Luke 20.38: "God is not God of the dead but of the living; because for Him we all live". That is, all embodied and disembodied.

Stephen prayed to Jesus to receive His Spirit

On Golgotha, regarding the conversation Jesus had with the "good thief" it is not important for us now if the word "that" existed or not, or where the comma must be, or when he went to Paradise. What matters to us is that the Great Master took him to Paradise. It does not matter if it was today, tomorrow, or if it will be in 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 or 1000 years. What proves that there is life after death is that Jesus took him.
Stephen, one of the martyrs of Christianity, when he was being stoned, condemned by the Sanhedrin, "in prayer" he asked the Divine Gardener to receive his Spirit after his passing, which was going to happen at any moment (Acts 7.59). This request only justified if the dying man had a glimpse that there was a continuation of life.

There are also those who rely solely on the Scripture to affirm that IMMORTALITY is only granted to the Greater Divinity (1 Tim 6.14 to 16). To these we can only answer that by saying this, they are lowering our Creator to the same moral stature of man. "What do you mean?" ask a few. We explain: today, the Quantum Physics, no longer works with the hypothesis of the Universe, but of the Multiverse. Just read authors like Marcelo Gleiser (1). According to Science, the Universe has a cylindrical shape and was formed about 15 billion years ago. This assumes that we have about 200 billion galaxies. One of these is ours, the "Milky Way", which is not considered great because it has only 100 billion stars, and the Sun, presiding over our planetary system is one of the smallest. He, the Sun, has 8 or 9 planets revolving around it; one of them, the planet Earth, is one with less mass, and that's where we live. In short, the Earth is a small planet, which rotates around a little star, which is part of a group of 100 billion stars, part of a galaxy, with about 200 billion galaxies in one of the possible Universes.

See how we are important! And there are people who think God did all this only for us! He is an intelligent God! He really understands the relation between "cost and benefit"! He makes billions of stars, galaxies, and only we exist!

Paul told the Philippians that to die is a profit

Some will ask: "And what does all this have to do with the Bible, more exactly with 1 Tim 6.14 to 16, meaning that only the Almighty has immortality?"

Well, when the "Apostle to the Gentiles" wrote that Epistle to Timothy, Science had no knowledge of the Universe as we currently have. So when we read the Bible we have to adapt their writings to our times. Otherwise, if we follow the “letter blindly”, we will at least be lowering the Creator to the stature of man, and a man of ancient times.

We believe that this fact, described in Timothy 1 6.14 to 16, meaning that only God is immortal, is not true. If it was, why would Saint Paul state in a letter to the Philippians, 1st Chapter, v. 21st, that "to die is a profit"?

Another thing: they say that the Bible does not support the idea of ​​reincarnation, and cite Hebrews 9:27: "Man is destined TO DIE once, but after this the judgment." But of course! In a particular existence man dies only once; then he reincarnates and dies again, and so on, until he reaches the category of a Pure Spirit.  It would be contrary to reincarnation if in Heb 9.27 it was said: "Man is destined to LIVE once" But it does not say this, so this verse is not against multiple lives and does not deny afterlife, as those against Spiritism want.

Everything leads us to believe that the Spirit is immortal. And since we were blessed with immortality, it seems logical to develop life after life. By accepting this, reincarnation is automatically accepted too. 

(1) Marcelo Gleiser (Rio de Janeiro, March 19, 1959) is a physicist, astronomer, teacher, writer and screenwriter. Known in the United States for its teachings and scientific research, in Brazil he is more popular for his science columns in the Folha de S. Paulo, which is one of the leading newspapers of the country. He wrote seven books and published three collections of articles. He has participated in TV programs in Brazil, United States and England. In 2007, he was elected Member of the Brazilian Academy of Philosophy. (Source: Wikipedia.)