It is important to recognize that having a longing for life after death is a good thing. C.S. Lewis once wrote:
…a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next (Mere Christianity, [New York: Macmillan, 1952], p. 118).
A Barna poll taken in 2000 revealed that 81% of people in the United States believe there is life after death. What evidence is there for this? There are four lines of evidence, three circumstantial and one direct.
First, medical studies of the relation between body and spirit, primarily by studying near death experiences (NDEs) suggest there is more to people than just the physical. Conscious memory seems to exist even when machines indicate flat brain waves and no heart rhythm. Second, physiological studies on the brain itself have revealed that there seems to be a separate identity and existence apart from the body. We are more than the sum total of our cells and anatomical structure. The third circumstantial evidence has to do with unsatisfied longings or unfulfilled desires. C.S. Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” (Mere Christianity, pp. 119-120). This may explain the meaningfulness of certain themes of Scripture, for example, Psalm 23, John 10, and Revelation 7 and 21:1-5.
The only direct evidence that there is life after death is that a real person in human history demonstrated it to be true! The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ—supported by the facts of His empty tomb, of at least ten post-resurrection appearances, of eyewitness testimony, and of the transformed lives of His disciples—is the basis for certainty about life after death. Jesus died and then spent forty days physically on earth after He rose from the dead, appearing at one point to more than 500 people simultaneously (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). He said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies…” (John 11:25). Jesus’ promise to His followers is that He is preparing a place for each one in Heaven, saying also, “I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
