Life After Death AO2 and Essay Plans

Question 1

belief in heaven and hell are a reward/punishment

Answer 1

• Reward for the ‘just’ after judgement
• Bible states (Revelation 21)- Heaven is offered to the righteous and the saints.
• St.Paul (1 Corinthians) states that those who have worked to build God’s kingdom will ‘receive a reward’ those who have wasted an opportunity will ‘be saved but only as through fire’
• Dante- describes hell as a place of eternal punishment for those who have given in to vice and or turned away from virtue. It is a hopeless place that people have chosen based on their behaviour. ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’
• Jesus Parable of the Sheep and the Goats- God of love rewards all people who have pursued justice for the marginalised (poor, sick,imprisoned etc.)

Question 2

Belief in heaven and hell is more than just a reward/punishment.

Answer 2

• John Hick believed in universal salvation- there is no hell. All will be saved.
• John Calvin- John Calvin- believed in double- predestination: God elects or predestines some for heaven and others for hell.
• John 12:32 “ And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself”
• Alister McGrath-“the eschatological realisation of the presence and power of God, and the final elimination of evil’.

Question 3

Purgatory is the most important Christian Teaching about the afterlife

Answer 3

• Purgatory emphasises God’s mercy. Those who have died, not in a state ready for the Beatific Vision still have hope. They can get to heaven following purification.
• Dante’s vision of purgatory poetically describes that it is for the souls who believe in Christ and have repented before death.
• They have the opportunity for redemption to purge themselves of all wrongful desires/actions.
• As they are unable to sin, the process is entirely positive and is totally unlike hell where punishment perpetuates the initial sin.
• Hick recognises its possible importance. makes a great deal of logic.-bridging the gap between ‘the individuals imperfections and the end of his life and the perfectly heavenly state’ (Death and Eternal Life, Hick)

Question 4

Purgatory is NOT the most important Christian teaching

Answer 4

• Not supported substantially in the Bible, but heaven and hell are referenced often.
• not a belief widely held within Christianity outside of Catholicism.
• The concept of purgatory is ambiguous. Disagreements to what it actually is for. Ambrose- foretaste of heaven and hell, Origen, probationary school., Gregory of Nyssa- Redemption of the whole of creation. Agreed with Origen.
• Heaven is more important as it illustrates God’s love
• Hell is more important because it illustrates God’s justice.

Question 5

God’s judgement takes place immediately after death

Answer 5

• Much of Christian theology proposes that people go straight to heaven or hell after they die.
• Parable of Lazarus- Lazarus was taken straight to heaven after his death.
• Jesus’ words to the dying thief on the cross- ‘Truly i tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’
• Death of St Stephen (Acts 7:55) “But Stephen, full of the holy spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look”, he said, “ I see heaven open and the son of Man standing at the right hand of God”

Question 6

God’s judgement doesn’t immediately take place after death

Answer 6

• Iranaeus- Most Christians do not enter heaven until the final day of judgement, when God’s whole plan for the universe comes to it’s conclusion and time comes to an end. However some exceptional people saints/prophets/martyrs may immediately go to heaven.
• John Calvin- he argues that the dead are not sleeping whilst they await judgement, they are conscious, either in peaceful bliss or in pain depending on what God has chosen for them.
• Book of Revelation at the end of the Bible describes the second coming of Christ (Paraousia).