TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE

1. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE How hard can it be?

2. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • The first thing to stress is that this is a delicate matter– especially when you are addressing older persons, and even more so those who are facing death imminently • You learn a lot about what people think about this matter from listening to how they talk– about ‘lost loved ones’ or those who have ‘gone on to glory’

3. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • Unfortunately while most people have convictions about the afterlife, usually they are not well informed about what the Bible actually says about such things • This is the difficulty of living in a Biblically illiterate culture, where even in the church there is widespread Biblical illiteracy • Moral to the story--- assume they do NOT know what the Bible says on this matter

4. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • It is probably best to start where people actually are– not where you would like them to be. • This means you had best start by talking about heaven, and what the Bible says about heaven • This will require gently deconstructing certain myths (e.g. everyone goes to heaven no matter their beliefs or behavior)

5. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • Since there is so little on heaven in the OT, you will probably need to focus on the few NT passages of relevance, like 2 Cor. 5 • Beware of over-interpreting apocalyptic visions in Revelation (e.g. Rev. 3-4) • The main thing to get across about heaven is that it is a way station on the way to the final destination, not one’s eternal home

6. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • Funerals are indeed a teaching moment, but it is a delicate matter– no time to try out new theories or ride private hobby horses– ‘stick to the basic Biblical truths’ • Funerals are not occasions to preach a person into either heaven or hell. Funerals are primarily for the living, to help them get closure in regard to the deceased

7. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • There is a good reason for emphasis on resurrection in the funeral liturgy. This is the ultimate hope– seeing the loved one again in the flesh, and fully conformed to the image of Jesus. • This of course means that one needs to teach the big subject of ESCHATOLOGY to your people

8. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • Unfortunately teaching on eschatology has been high-jacked by modern Dispensationalism in large parts of the conservative church • This means that one had best stick to the basics– the return of Christ, the last judgment, the resurrection, the life everlasting in the new heaven/new earth, and of course hell for those who reject the Gospel

9. TEACHING AND PREACHING ON THE AFTERLIFE • If one is able to take some of the audience to a second level of discussion then there will be time and opportunity to talk about modern notions like ‘the rapture’ which the early church (and the Biblical writers) did not believe in • Sometimes, you have to deconstruct non-Biblical ideas (e.g the interpretation of key rapture texts– 1 Thess. 4 etc.). You will also need to deal with the issue of ‘eternal security concepts’ based on mistaken notions of what happens at conversion