DEATH AND BEYOND

Souls and spirits
in the Old Testament

Even as you have been reading this page, your eyes have blinked and your heart has been beating, your body temperature has stayed steady, your lungs have filled and emptied, and the systems of your body have been working. The individual cells of your body have been functioning, your hair has been growing, and the pupils of your eyes have been dilating and contracting. This is all due to the life that God has given you.

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 9:14

There is more to life than physical functions.

You are able to read and think about the words on your screen. You have experienced emotions. There has been a response. None of these things can be fully explained, particularly as they take place in a brain of flesh and blood, that looks like a huge walnut.

The surgeon can look at the brain and see the physical structure but he cannot observe the ‘life’ or the thought processes that lead to the desire to eat and drink, to move around, or to reproduce. They know which part of the brain controls each part of our living, but thoughts cannot be studied actually using the electrical pathways. We have easily-seen personalities. Some people are placid, others are very active and busy, others are introspective. We have characters too, that can be developed. We can choose what we become. We can develop patience, or determination and other qualities, good or bad. We can use our reason and our intelligence to make our lives special, or we can ignore these faculties - intellect, reason and conscience - to avoid the cause and effect of living and come to ruin. We have a conscience that speaks to us about right and wrong. We can choose to follow it, or to ignore it. That power of choice is the dignity of human life and it is given us by God. These are signs of active life, but where are they found in the body? The neuro-surgeon cannot open us up, and find the conscience, or the personality.

When does life begin?

This is an ongoing debate among scientists, but using the simplest understanding that is common to us all, we know what is alive and what is dead. When the sperm and the egg meet, life begins. There is activity as the cells divide. It is not long before the tiny embryo moves and has a little beating heart. The tiny thumb can be sucked. He or she is a little child that is alive, given that life by God. Unless we understand this fully, the small scrap of life is referred to as ‘foetal tissue’ and treated without the dignity and respect given to a living being; today we experiment on our own children, whose life is a miracle from God. A miracle is something supernatural and life is 100% supernatural. God looks after the new little baby as it grows inside its mother and has a record of all its parts.

To put it all together.

In order to understand death, it is necessary to be clear what we mean by life. Life is an absolute. It begins at conception. We all know when something is alive or if it is dead.