United Church of God

Letter From Devin Schulz - February 7, 2020

Letter From Devin Schulz

February 7, 2020

Happy Sabbath!

One of the basic questions that mankind is confronted with is what happens after death. In the majority of those who claim to be Christians, this manifests in the belief in Heaven and Hell. In very basic terms, this belief is that upon death those who have been "good" will be rewarded by ascending into heaven to enjoy pleasure forevermore. Those who are deemed as "bad" are, in contrast, sent to hell, where they will be tortured in an ever-burning fire for all of eternity (although there are many variations that exist in today's thinking).

This belief is predicated on the idea commonly called the doctrine of the immortal soul. The premise of this states that humans have within their bodies a soul that is everlasting. Upon death, the physical body will decompose, but everyone's soul will be sent, as already mentioned, to either heaven or hell. This belief in the immortality of the soul is not limited to Christianity but is widely accepted in many of the world's religions. Where these other religions differ from Christianity is in exactly what happens to that soul upon the death of the body.

Within Christianity, the idea of the immortal soul was not fully accepted or even explained until centuries after Christ and the apostles lived. Various religious leaders drew from ancient pagan sources (Plato being one of the foremost) and twisted these ideas with misinterpretations of Biblical concepts to uphold the idea of heaven and hell.

The truth is the doctrines of the immortal soul and heaven and hell are intimately intertwined. To support the erroneous teaching on heaven and hell, theologians were faced with answering the question of what death really is. The conclusion that was eventually and precariously agreed upon was that death is the separation of the soul from the physical body. This then logically requires that the soul contains life apart from the body, drawing heavily from ancient pagan philosophers. So, death would be undergone only by the body while the soul does not experience it, but simply transitions away from the temporary body to be rewarded according to its works.

Fortunately, both the belief in the immortal soul as well as the commonly held beliefs on heaven and hell, are not in harmony with God's Word the Bible. While we do find the words heaven and hell in the Bible, no where do we find evidence that heaven is the reward for the good and hell the punishment for the bad. God reveals a much different picture to answer the foreboding question of what happens when we die. How would we answer that question? How about answers to the questions about heaven and hell? Perhaps we can spend some time this Sabbath and following week pondering these questions. We an discuss with each other on the Sabbath and we will continue this subject in next week's Sabbath Herald.

I pray that this is an edifying Sabbath for everyone.

Devin Schulz