For more than 160 years
non-Spiritualists condemned Spiritualists for their knowledge that life
continues after the change called death. They were also condemned for believing
that mediums could contact the "dead" and communicate with them.
Mediums have been communicating with spirit people for thousands of years and
were able to document the information that spirits, the dead, provided.
One of the main things that mediums were able to show is that all people when they die go to the spirit world, heaven. The Bible says in John 14:2 "In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you..." (New Jerusalem Bible) Spiritualists believe that all humans when they die go to a place in the spirit world where there are people who are just like them. That is, a place for the average good person and a place for criminals, but all humans go there no matter who or what they were like when physically alive. The Christian church tells us that only those who have accepted Christ as saviour go directly to heaven and all others sleep in the grave until the great day of judgement.
In this world there are people who believe that this is the only life that they will ever have, when they die, that's it, life for them ends. Many more people believe that this will not be their only life and that life does continues after the change called death. But where does our belief in an afterlife come from?
In the Encyclopedia of the unusual and unexplained How the Major Religions View the Afterlife. "With all their diversity of beliefs, the major religions are in accord in one great teaching: Human beings are immortal and their spirit comes from a divine world and may eventually return there. Since the earliest forms of spiritual expression, this is the great promise and hope that religions have offered to their followers".
Anthropologists who study ancient man found proof that those early people had a belief in an afterlife. The Book of the Dead, the Enuma Elish, the I Ching, and the Avesta, they are among the most ancient religious texts still in existence and all of them have references to an afterlife. (Www.sacred-text.com) "Until recently, it was believed that the “primitive” cave paintings were merely depictions of hunting animals, but new research show that the cave paintings are evidence of travels to the spirit world these travels could be of a similar nature as the near-death experience, and therefore, it is possible that experiences of the ultimate reality are as old as humanity". (www.awakeningafterlifethebook.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=artice&id=67&Itemid=65)
As shown above, belief that life continues after the change called death, has existed for tens of thousands of years. The Bible even has many references indicating that even in the time of Noah man believed in an after life. In the Bible's New Testament 1 Peter 3:18 it says "For Christ ... was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit". If Christ continued to live as a spirit after his body was put to death, it means that every human, past, present and future, when their body dies will continue to live as spirit beings.
Christianity teaches that man is "body", "soul" and "spirit" and that when the body dies, the soul and spirit live on, believing that the soul is the body of the spirit. Other than the findings of scientists that there is an afterlife, Christianity is the source of our belief today that we, man, are created in the image of God. In the Bible, Gen. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness..." It says in John 4:24 "God is spirit...” this Bible verse tells us that we were created in the likeness of God as spirit beings long before we were born of woman. We don't know exactly when God created us (spirits). It could have been when God made mankind or untold millennia before that time, we just don't know. However, some people even believe that life only begins at the moment the male sperm unites with the egg of a woman and not before that moment.
Allen Kardec in his "The Spirit Book" asked his spirit guide Zefiro in question #78. "Have spirits had a beginning, or have they existed, like God, from all eternity?" "Zefiro replied
if spirits had not had a beginning, they would be equal with God; whereas they are His creation, and subject to His will. That God has existed from all eternity is incontestable; but as to when and how He created us, we know nothing. You may say that we have had no beginning in this sense, that, God being eternal, He must have incessantly created as to when and how each of us was made, this, I repeat, is known to no one. It is the great mystery."
An afterlife as mentioned above is a controversial subject in many respects but by the same token something that has been known for countless centuries. For us living in this physical world at this time the thought of an afterlife is a question. The church tells us that the bad person sleeps in the grave until judgement day, but do we. According to what is written above life continues after the change called death for all
Another question that comes up quite often is "do humans reincarnate"? The debate over reincarnation has been going on for hundreds of years. In the Far East, their is a strong belief in reincarnation. In the West, man believe that he has only one life to live. Whether you accept reincarnation as a fact or not makes no difference as to whether you go to heaven when you die, you will. I know that there are thousands of people who read this will say the reincarnation doesn't exist so, therefor, why debate the issue, if it is an issue.
One life to live, or many. You are the one who has to make up you own mind. For me, I'll wait and see what happens.
One of the main things that mediums were able to show is that all people when they die go to the spirit world, heaven. The Bible says in John 14:2 "In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you..." (New Jerusalem Bible) Spiritualists believe that all humans when they die go to a place in the spirit world where there are people who are just like them. That is, a place for the average good person and a place for criminals, but all humans go there no matter who or what they were like when physically alive. The Christian church tells us that only those who have accepted Christ as saviour go directly to heaven and all others sleep in the grave until the great day of judgement.
In this world there are people who believe that this is the only life that they will ever have, when they die, that's it, life for them ends. Many more people believe that this will not be their only life and that life does continues after the change called death. But where does our belief in an afterlife come from?
In the Encyclopedia of the unusual and unexplained How the Major Religions View the Afterlife. "With all their diversity of beliefs, the major religions are in accord in one great teaching: Human beings are immortal and their spirit comes from a divine world and may eventually return there. Since the earliest forms of spiritual expression, this is the great promise and hope that religions have offered to their followers".
Anthropologists who study ancient man found proof that those early people had a belief in an afterlife. The Book of the Dead, the Enuma Elish, the I Ching, and the Avesta, they are among the most ancient religious texts still in existence and all of them have references to an afterlife. (Www.sacred-text.com) "Until recently, it was believed that the “primitive” cave paintings were merely depictions of hunting animals, but new research show that the cave paintings are evidence of travels to the spirit world these travels could be of a similar nature as the near-death experience, and therefore, it is possible that experiences of the ultimate reality are as old as humanity". (www.awakeningafterlifethebook.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=artice&id=67&Itemid=65)
As shown above, belief that life continues after the change called death, has existed for tens of thousands of years. The Bible even has many references indicating that even in the time of Noah man believed in an after life. In the Bible's New Testament 1 Peter 3:18 it says "For Christ ... was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit". If Christ continued to live as a spirit after his body was put to death, it means that every human, past, present and future, when their body dies will continue to live as spirit beings.
Christianity teaches that man is "body", "soul" and "spirit" and that when the body dies, the soul and spirit live on, believing that the soul is the body of the spirit. Other than the findings of scientists that there is an afterlife, Christianity is the source of our belief today that we, man, are created in the image of God. In the Bible, Gen. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness..." It says in John 4:24 "God is spirit...” this Bible verse tells us that we were created in the likeness of God as spirit beings long before we were born of woman. We don't know exactly when God created us (spirits). It could have been when God made mankind or untold millennia before that time, we just don't know. However, some people even believe that life only begins at the moment the male sperm unites with the egg of a woman and not before that moment.
Allen Kardec in his "The Spirit Book" asked his spirit guide Zefiro in question #78. "Have spirits had a beginning, or have they existed, like God, from all eternity?" "Zefiro replied
if spirits had not had a beginning, they would be equal with God; whereas they are His creation, and subject to His will. That God has existed from all eternity is incontestable; but as to when and how He created us, we know nothing. You may say that we have had no beginning in this sense, that, God being eternal, He must have incessantly created as to when and how each of us was made, this, I repeat, is known to no one. It is the great mystery."
An afterlife as mentioned above is a controversial subject in many respects but by the same token something that has been known for countless centuries. For us living in this physical world at this time the thought of an afterlife is a question. The church tells us that the bad person sleeps in the grave until judgement day, but do we. According to what is written above life continues after the change called death for all
Another question that comes up quite often is "do humans reincarnate"? The debate over reincarnation has been going on for hundreds of years. In the Far East, their is a strong belief in reincarnation. In the West, man believe that he has only one life to live. Whether you accept reincarnation as a fact or not makes no difference as to whether you go to heaven when you die, you will. I know that there are thousands of people who read this will say the reincarnation doesn't exist so, therefor, why debate the issue, if it is an issue.
One life to live, or many. You are the one who has to make up you own mind. For me, I'll wait and see what happens.
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