Life after Death, God's gift or man's wishful thinking?

About this Lesson        

The Apostle Paul said, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:19)." That is so true because becoming a Christian, contrary to what some teach, does not mean life will be easy and without troubles.

In reality, living as a disciple of Jesus in the self-giving way He wants us to live can mean extremely difficult challenges and sometimes deprivations of minor things like giving up time for others or of major sacrifices of giving your life for others or the faith. Christians do all those things because this life is not all there is.

Because of the importance of that reality, it upset me deeply when I discovered that some pastors and Bible teachers believe that the Old Testament did not have a clear belief in life after death. They say that most of the Old Testament believers in Jehovah only believed in a shadowy, vague afterlife in Sheol.

Based on my study of the Bible and History (see other lessons on this topic) I believe that though the Bible more fully develops revelation on major doctrines as time goes on (for example, the Messiah is promised in the Garden of Eden, prophecies about him are given through the Old Testament, and we see him in person in Jesus in the New Testament), that the core truths of the Christian faith, particularly about something as important as bodily resurrection should be consistent throughout the Biblical record.

And it is! One does not need sophisticated historical analysis to see this. You simply need to read what the Old Testament says from the earliest book written to the later prophets. Throughout all is a CLEAR belief in full, conscious, bodily resurrection. That is what this lesson is all about.

Included with this Lesson package

• An 1080p video
• Original PowerPoint file
• A PDF of Notes/Transcript of the lesson
• A PDF of Questions on the lesson for individual study or group discussion
• Two digital files of images you can use to promote the topic
• Unlimited reproduction rights of the video and handouts within your church, group, ministry, or business. 

In the files below:

• The MP4 file has the video—the name may be a bit odd as the program I’m using automatically sometimes gives it a new name when I save it.
• The ZIP file has the PDFs of notes and question pages, plus the image files.