Death and the Afterlife

Question 1

Give two quotes from the Bible which support a disembodied afterlife

Answer 1

“What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God’s kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality”- Corinthians

“Our bodies will return to the dust of earth, and the breath of life will go back to God”- Ecclesiastes

Question 2

Where in the Bible is the parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Answer 2

Matthew 25

Question 3

Embodied Afterlife Arguments

Answer 3

1) Humans require senses in order to experience Heaven
2) Jesus, Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus had physical resurrection
3) Scriptural support

Question 4

Disembodied Afterlife Arguments

Answer 4

1) An embodied afterlife would require Heaven to be a physical space. This space has yet to be found.
2) Burial and cremation suggests a disembodied afterlife
3) Scriptural support in Corinthians and Ecclesiastes

Question 5

What does it say in Luke about an immediate afterlife?

Answer 5

“Today you will be with me in paradise”- Luke

Question 6

What does it say in Isaiah about an immediate afterlife?

Answer 6

“It is your sins that separate you from God”- Isaiah

Question 7

Give two quotes from the Bible about an immediate afterlife

Answer 7

“Today you will be with me in paradise”- Luke

“It is your sins that separate you from God”- Isaiah

Question 8

What does it say in Matthew about a delayed afterlife?

Answer 8

“And then he will reward each person”- Matthew

Question 9

What does it say in John about a delayed afterlife? X2

Answer 9

“No one has ever gone into Heaven, except the one who came from Heaven”- John
“Do not be surprised at this: the time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice”- John

Question 10

Give three quotes from the Bible about a delayed afterlife

Answer 10

“And then he will reward each person”- Matthew
“No one has ever gone into Heaven, except the one who came from Heaven”- John
“Do not be surprised at this; the time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice”- John

Question 11

Why would the afterlife be delayed?

Answer 11

Because after death there will be a period of nothingness and only at the end of time, Parousia, will Jesus return and judge humanity as a whole

Question 12

Arguments for an immediate afterlife

Answer 12

1) Judgement of the whole of humanity is unfair
2) All predictions about the oncoming apocalypse have so far been incorrect
3) Scriptural support in Luke and Isaiah

Question 13

Arguments for a delayed afterlife

Answer 13

1) Near death experiences have not reported Heaven
2) The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
3) Scriptural support in Matthew and John

Question 14

What are the 3 forms of the kingdom of God?

Answer 14

1) A present moral state, as in the Good Samaritan
2) A future redeemed state
3) A place of punishment and justice, as in the Rich Man and Lazarus

Question 15

What does it say in Matthew about an embodied afterlife?

Answer 15

“As for this useless servant, throw him outside in the darkness; there he will cry and gnash his teeth”- Matthew

Question 16

What does it say in John about an embodied afterlife?

Answer 16

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all those who are in their graves will hear his voice”- John

Question 17

Give two quotes from the Bible in support of an embodied afterlife

Answer 17

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all those who are in their graves will hear his voice”- John
“As for this useless servant, throw him outside in the darkness; there he will cry and gnash his teeth”- Matthew

Question 18

What does it say in Corinthians about a disembodied afterlife?

Answer 18

“What I mean, friends, is that which is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God’s kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality”- Corinthians

Question 19

What does it say in Ecclesiastes about a disembodied afterlife?

Answer 19

“Our bodes will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God”- Ecclesiastes

Question 20

Arguments for the existence of Hell

Answer 20

1) The Rich Man and Lazarus
2) The Sheep and the Goats
3) Hell could exist, but be empty, as Pope Francis believes that the beatific vision means that Hell is empty
4) Pope Benedict XVI believed Hell was a real physical place
5) Hell makes a just world - the wicked are punished, whereas the virtuous are rewarded

Question 21

Arguments against the existence of Hell

Answer 21

1) Eternal punishment is retributive, rather than reformative or educative, which an omnibenevolent and omnipotent God would not allow
2) Friedrich Schleiermacher believed the knowledge of the misery of Hell would taint Heaven
3) If Hell uses physical pain, it must be a physical place

Question 22

What did John Paul II think of Hell?

Answer 22

“Rather than a place, Hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy”- John Paul II

Question 23

What did St Thomas Aquinas say about Hell?

Answer 23

“For mortal sin, which is contrary to charity, a person is expelled forever from the fellowship of the saints and condemned to everlasting punishment”- Thomas Aquinas

Question 24

Arguments against universal election

Answer 24

1) Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that universal election dismisses the point of Jesus’ crucifixion
2) There is no scriptural support for it, only John Hick
3) It is unfair that both the wicked and virtuous get to go to Heaven
4) “Nothing unclean shall enter [Heaven}”- Revelations
5) Patronising to tell religious people what they “really believe”

Question 25

Arguments for the existence of purgatory

Answer 25

1) “Nothing unclean shall enter [Heaven]”- Revelations
2) An omnibenevolent God would not condemn people to Hell
3) Pope Francis believes that Hell is empty
4) Eternal punishment is retributive, not reformative
5) “But if your work if burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire”- Corinthians

Question 26

Arguments against the existence of purgatory

Answer 26

1) There is little scriptural support
2) This would render punishment of earth, e.g prison, redundant, as purgatory acts a second punishment
3) Purgatory is a money-making Catholic institution

Question 27

Arguments against limited election

Answer 27

1) Incoherent with belief in an omnibenevolent God
2) “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not die, but have eternal life”- John
3) Pelagius supports salvation by merit
4) John Calvin’s belief that you must accept Jesus’ sacrifice in order to get to Heaven would mean that Moses would not be in Heaven

Question 28

Arguments in favour of unlimited election

Answer 28

1) “Many are invited, but few are chosen”- Matthew
2) “Do your best to go in through the narrow door; many will try to go in, but will not be able to”- Luke
3) Karl Barth argues that Jesus died for everyone, and that an omnibenevolent God would give everyone the chance of salvation

Question 29

Arguments against unlimited election

Answer 29

1) Karl Barth says Jesus’ death opens up the possibility of salvation for everyone, but this would mean that Moses and Abraham would not have been able to achieve salvation
2) God’s omniscience means that he already knows who will and will not achieve salvation
3) “Extra ecclesiam nulla salus”- Cyprian of Carthage

Question 30

Arguments in favour of universal election

Answer 30

1) John Hick believes that religions worship the same “transcategorical idea of The Real”, and that in the afterlife there is a “vale of soul-making”
2) An omnibenevolent God would allow all people to go to Heaven

Question 31

What does it say in John about a physical afterlife?

Answer 31

“In my Father’s house are many rooms”- John

Question 32

What does it say in Jeremiah about a physical afterlife?

Answer 32

“They will be like a well-watered garden; they will have everything they need”- Jeremiah

Question 33

Give 2 quotes from the Bible supporting a physical afterlife

Answer 33

“In my Father’s house are many rooms”- John

“They will be like a well-watered garden; they will have everything they need”- Jeremiah

Question 34

What does it say in Revelations about a non-physical afterlife?

Answer 34

“They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads”- Revelations

Question 35

Arguments for a physical afterlife

Answer 35

1) Scriptural support in John and Jeremiah

2) The afterlife could be the transformation of the earth into its pre-lapsarian state

Question 36

Arguments for a non-physical afterlife

Answer 36

1) Friedrich Schleiermacher argued that the knowledge of the misery of Hell would taint the experience of Heaven
2) Scriptural support in Revelation
3) Tedium of immortality

Question 37

Arguments in favour of limited election

Answer 37

1) “Extra eccelsiam nulla salus”- Cyprian of Carthage
2) “No one comes to the Father, except through me”- John
3) 144,000 people will be “sealed” in Heaven in John Calvin’s interpretation of Revelations
4) God is omnsicient, so -pre-destination makes sense
5) Augustine support salvation by grace