Life and Death
What is Life?
Physiological definitions
•
Life is defined as any system capable of performing
functions such as eating, metabolizing, excreting,
breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and
responding to external stimuli.
What is Life?
Philosophical definitions
•
Life is the aspect of existence that processes, acts,
reacts, evaluates, and evolves through growth
(reproduction and metabolism). The crucial difference
between life and non-life (or non-living things) is that
life uses energy for physical and conscious
development. Life is anything that grows and
eventually dies.
What is Life?
Scriptures definition•
•
According to the Bible, knowing God is the meaning
of life because He is the “author of life” (John 17:3).
The meaning of life is not based on things we see in
the world “for life is more than food, and the body
more than clothing” (Luke 12:23).
A. The Primary and Ultimate Value of Life
From the beginning to the end of the Sacred Scriptures,
and through the continuous revelation of God in the
church, the one visible value shared by God and the
human person is life.
The Living God is the God revealed to Israel, He is the
author and giver of life. The very act of living is a
participation in His lite (ct. Pss 42:2: 84:2). To not
participate in His life is to be dead.
The constant value of human life can be
understood in three instances:
1. The relationship between God and His people are
confined to this understanding of life. The dead do not and
cannot worship God; in the same way, the living God has
nothing to do with the dead. ("Please, God, in your own
interests as well as mine, keep me alive as long as
possible.“)This is the voice of Psalm
The constant value of human life can be
understood in three instances:
2. Have l any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the
Lord GOD, and not rather that they should turn from their
ways and live?" (Ezekiel 18:23).
And later, "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone,
says the Lord GOD. Turn, then, and live". (Ezekiel 18:32).
The constant value of human life can be
understood in three instances:
3. But when Jesus in the Gospel says, "he is not God of
the dead but of the living," the inference he draws from this
is absolutely clear; that the dead human person shall rise
again (Mk 12:26-27). Contrary to the negative inference of
the psalmist and Hezekiah, we may conclude that because
He is God of the living and not of the dead-the dead are
not dead. Ezekiel's conviction becomes an invitation to turn
away from our wickedness and live. And so that is why the
Son came into the world-that they may live and have life
more abundantly (Jn 10:10).
B. Resurrection of the Dead
The new testaments speaks about three
kinds of resurrection:
1. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
2. The resurrection of the just in the last day
3. The resurrection of the wicked
B. Resurrection of the Dead
1. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
The Resurrection of Christ, a central doctrine of
Christianity, is based on the belief that Jesus Christ was
raised from the dead on the third day after his Crucifixion
and that through his conquering of death all believers will
subsequently share in his victory over “sin, death, and the
Devil.
B. Resurrection of the Dead
2. The resurrection of the just in the last day
On the last day, all the dead will be resurrected. Their
souls will then be reunited with the same bodies they had
before dying. The bodies will then be changed, those of the
wicked to a state of everlasting shame and torment, those
of the righteous to an everlasting state of celestial glory.
B. Resurrection of the Dead
3. The resurrection of the wicked.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God [the
wicked are then raised for judgement]; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book
of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works.
C. Death
Since we need to die in order to be resurrected,
we might as well talk about death. Scriptures
attach certain values to death by evaluations
death in various ways. Since we started with life,
we are also interested with the evaluation of
death... in what death is; or rather in what the
human soul becomes after it ceases to animate
the body, which has become a corpse.
Facts about Death
1. Death is understood as a natural event
2. Death is a punishment
3. If there was no sin, there would have been no
death
4. Death and sin have an intrinsic affinity with each
other
Life after
Death
Within the Christian church there are different
explanations of what happens to people after
their death, but there is agreement that Jesus’
promise is true. The Bible book of John tells us
that before he died, he told his followers: ‘I am
going there to prepare a place for you? And if I
go and prepare a place for you, I will come back
and take you to be with me that you also may be
where I am’.
Mini Task: using the Venn Diagram compare and
contrast resuscitation and resurrection.
Resurrection.
Resuscitation
The action or
process of
reviving someone
from
unconsciousness
or apparent death.
Both are
focusing on
life or
existence.
The rising from
the dead of a
divine being who
still retains his
own personhood,
or individuality,
through the body
my or may not be.
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND
WORDS