A New Heart

If we don't find substantial and convincing evidence from the natural world to prove the existence of Heaven, then where do we turn next? Is there any source that speaks to the examples given in yesterday's post that would confirm the reality of an afterlife? Of course there is: the Bible. Would this convince a skeptic? Only if God intervenes first.

God has to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the Scriptures. Once we see, hear, and believe the truth about God and Heaven from the Bible, then we can look back at the whispers of life after life from nature or history and feel something of the hope of Heaven.

For example, let's go back to the arguments previously presented from nature. Does the Bible see the seed germination process in any spiritual light? Both Jesus and Paul make extensive use of the lessons of nature that can be seen in this world in order to teach people about the life that cannot be seen. Both of them speak about a seed being planted as an analogy for our bodily death, and the life that somehow springs from that seed being a resurrection life. (See John 12:23-26 and 1 Corinthians 15:35-38.)

What about the fact that throughout history and across diverse cultures men have set their hopes on something beyond the grave? Ecclesiastes 3 addresses this: "God has put eternity into man's heart."

How about 'near-death' experiences?' Jesus' friend Lazarus was in the grave for four days before Christ called him back to this world. Moses and Elijah appeared at the Transfiguration. Christ was seen by many eyewitnesses walking the earth after His crucifixion. John and Paul were both brought up into Heavenly places and then returned to earth in order to write of their experiences.

And finally, what about the beauty of the earth, the joy of a newborn baby, the amazing creation of a human cell? The Psalmist states: "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"

Indeed, who am I that you are mindful of me? Why was I blessed to read your Word and then believe it? How is it that your Scriptures speak convincingly to my soul of the existence of Heaven?

Thank you, God, for taking the stone heart of a skeptic and turning it into a heart of believing flesh. (Ezekial 36:26)