QUESTION:

Bob,

I was watching the movie Ben Hur and during one part of the movie where Judah Ben Hur was a slave on a Roman warship, the Roman in charge of the ship was saying that Judah had gone through so must and so many years of slavery he did not know how Judah had the will to go on.  Judah told him about his faith in God for the reason, that his life was meant for more.

Well, I was wondering, that was a movie, most of us have fairly plain lives.  Why do we have such a will to keep living if we know and believe there is a heaven?  Why don’t we have a sense to give up or to stop fighting even when we know the end is near, like when people are terminally sick?

I believe there is a heaven, but I am in no rush to get there.  I love life on earth and hope it is in Gods will that I don’t die until I am a very old lady.  Wouldn’t it make since that we as people would have no will to fight for our lives because there is a heaven we all want to end up in?

RESPONSE:

You’re asking an excellent question. God created us originally to live forever. Human beings were never meant to die. Because we decided as a species to sin, death and mortality did come to our planet. Fortunately, God chose to be merciful rather than abandon us. Due to Jesus’ restitution for our sins, we are allowed a path back to eternal life. Such  immortality, the Bible calls  heaven. Heaven is not some cosmic graveyard where people go when the die because, golly, they had to go somewhere. Heaven, rather,  is a continuation of life.

Meanwhile, yes of course, we cling to this life no matter how bad it is because God created us with an instinct for life. When Jesus saw His friend Lazarus die, He cried. That’s the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” Why did He weep? Not only was Jesus, of all people, aware of the hope that Lazarus was going to rise from the dead on judgment day, Jesus was planning on bringing him back to life within moments!  He still cried and for a very good reason:  Human beings were never meant to die. When we die, something has been broken. Something is not quite right.  It is a tragedy, despite the hope of the resurrection.

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