Death is not the end; it is the gateway into our eternal future. Life eternal is freely given to everybody who asks for it. All we need do is to follow God’s guidance, choose to do His will. Again, it is truly that simple. Physical death is merely like walking out of one room and into another; like walking out of this physical space and into a more spiritual realm. Eternal life is ours for the asking; we should live with the certainty of this truth.
Our eternal potential
Our eternal potential resides in our soul, which will exist into all future eternity should we so choose. Every normal minded human being has within them a literal spark of God that gently guides us into a greater comprehension of spiritual awareness. As we choose to follow this internal guidance our soul becomes more real and aware.
As our soul grows and becomes filled with truth, beauty, and goodness, as it increases in God-consciousness, such a being becomes indestructible. If our eternal spiritual values did not survive physical death then our entire life is an illusion.[1] When our physical existence is viewed in isolation, apart from spiritual reality, then it indeed does appear without any meaning. But our life does have meaning and value because our soul will survive death, should we so choose. At all times we have the free will to choose between good and evil; we will then reap the consequences of our decisions.
Human life continues — survives — because it has a universe function, the task of finding God. The faith-activated soul of man cannot stop short of the attainment of this goal of destiny; and when it does once achieve this divine goal, it can never end because it has become like God — eternal. (Urantia Book 1459.7)
After physical death the memory of our earthly life resides with our internal spark of God (known as our Thought Adjuster or adjuster) while the soul is placed in the custody of our guardian angel. After the adjuster and the soul are reunited in the resurrection halls we will awaken as a morontia being ready to continue our journey toward Paradise and God.[2] Morontia is the name given to a level between the physical and spiritual regions.[3] At this point we will no longer be physical, but we are not yet true spirit beings.
The soul is our potentially eternal self, we must feed it with spiritual decisions, nurture it by always choosing to do God’s will and thus experience its growth throughout our earthy lives, and beyond.
Three kinds of death
True death comes only after the individual totally rejects the will of God and rejects continuing survival. There are three kinds of death. One is intellectual death, which happens when the brain is damaged so much that the ministry of the mind spirits cannot function. In this case the Thought Adjuster departs while the life energies of the body continue. Depending on the choice of the individual, the adjuster will later return for the resurrection of that individual after physical death. In any case the physical body may continue to function.[4] Our society calls this brain dead.
Physical death is merely when the physical energies of the body cease to function; the material body stops working. Similar to intellectual death, the Thought Adjuster departs and will return at the individual’s resurrection to reconstitute that personality for further growth in the climb toward Paradise.[5]
These two types of death are temporary, after them our adjuster will return at resurrection to resume its association with the individual. The final type of death is soul death, which is final. When the individual has made a final decision to deny God, reject eternal life and universe reality, then the adjuster departs never to return. This is the final death from which there can be no resurrection and it comes as a consequence of the individual totally rejecting our Heavenly Father, rejecting spiritual reality.[6] Soul death may come either before or after physical death. In either case there can be no resurrection.
Recalled Experiences of Death
For years there have reports of people experiencing what are called near death experiences where the individual apparently dies, has a vivid experience and returns to life. Due to modern methods of resuscitation these are becoming more common; a better term for this would be recalled experiences of death. A multidisciplinary team has issued a detailed study of the phenomenon;[7] the following discussion is based on their report.
“This study, which examined the accumulated scientific evidence to date, represents the first-ever, peer-reviewed consensus statement for the scientific study of recalled experiences surrounding death.”
What is surprising is that the number of people having such experiences could be in the hundreds of millions globally. These people are consistent in describing experiences surrounding death which have certain universal themes.
These experiences are not consistent with hallucinations nor do they appear to be drug related; instead they have the following characteristics: separation from the body with an enlarged sense of consciousness and an awareness of death, travel to a destination, a purposeful review of their life, being in a place that seems to be “home,” and a return to life.
Those who have frightening experiences at their death may observe something quite different.
While The Urantia Book does not describe such phenomena, it seems reasonable there would be a process between death and transport to our next existence. This would certainly include a review of our life, greater awareness, and a feeling of going home.
Death now becomes our valediction when we graduate from this preschool we call Earth into a wider reality, even cosmic reality. To paraphrase the poet Robert Burns “we will be from a world of woe relieved and arise renewed in heaven.”
Further reading
“Light of Truth: Anticipating the Triumph of Righteousness”
Chapter 2 – Spiritual Reality {2 e – Our Soul}
Chapter 7 – New Day Dawning {7 a – Reality}
Urantia Book
Paper 110 Relation of Adjusters to Individual Mortals {UB p 1203}
Paper 111 The Adjuster and the Soul {UB p 1215}
Paper 112 Personality Survival {UB p 1225}
All references are to The Urantia Book. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph; 1219.6 ↑
