Are Christians in Denial of Their Death?
Dying for the Afterlife: Part One
“The dark’s patience is infinite. Eventually, even stars burn out.”
Can someone who believes that he will go to Heaven after he dies truly embrace his mortality? After all, he has to be immortal to go to Heaven. If he goes to Heaven after he dies, he never really dies but exists through death. The “death” that a Christian refers to when he talks about “going to Heaven after he dies” is not the complete annihilation of his being from existence, but his disembodiment event – the moment that his human body fails for the last time and his essential him-ness or soul transports into Heaven to be with God forever. How can someone who believes that he’s immortal truly face death?
Christians use “death” in different senses. When a person becomes a Christian, he is said to have “died, been reborn, and given new life.” Death in this context is salvation. It’s the moment a person re-understands himself as an immortal being according to Christian doctrine. Christians die (salvation) so that they can go to Heaven after they die (disembodiment). Neither of these “deaths” is death in the mortal sense of annihilation. The proselyte’s salvation is precisely salvation from annihilation. Within his new worldview, even if he winds up in Hell, he never ceases to exist entirely. Christian conversion entails explicitly denying annihilatory death.
For the mortal, the idea of “death” (annihilation) ideally functions as an encouragement to prioritize lifelong values over short-term distractions. It reminds him of his limited time left and inspires him to pursue what is most meaningful. “Existential meaning” for the mortal is defined by his finitude. If the story of his life never ended, then it wouldn’t really be a story at all because real stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. An infinite life is like a book that has no cohesive narrative or clear point — no meaning whatsoever to speak of — because it rambles on and on forever. When the mortal embraces his mortality and accepts his death, he acknowledges that his time left is limited and rededicates himself to making the most of it.
Is there an idea that functions the same for Christians as “death” (annihilation) does for mortals? If so, then, even though they believe that they are immortal, Christians could still perform a similar if not identical existentially reflective exercise to the one that mortals call “embracing mortality.”
It turns out that there is such an idea and, paradoxically, it is “life.” “Life” for the Christian is not defined in contradistinction to annihilation like it is for the mortal. The distinction between existence and annihilation does not apply to immortal beings, by definition. Christians define “life” not as existence, but as the inhabitation (indwelling) of a particular story, namely the Biblical narrative, which unfolds in stages: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. When the Christian reflects on his “life,” he contemplates his personal journey through the stages of this cosmic story.
The idea of “life” ideally functions for the Christian the same way that the idea of “death” does for the mortal. It inspires a similar kind of existential reflection. Faced with his Christian life, the believer becomes aware of the ways in which he has fallen short and recommits himself to following Christ (prioritizing lifelong values over short-term distractions). Heaven gives embodied life its meaning for the Christian. Without a perfect utopia to look forward to after disembodiment, all the effort he’s putting into living the Christian way and becoming close with Christ would be meaningless for him.
Notice how annihilation and disembodiment into Heaven are both existential endpoints that create the possibility of meaning in life for the mortal and immortal, respectively. For the mortal, death gives life meaning by constraining time and opportunity. The mortal does not have the time to do everything. He must make tough choices about how to spend his life. He can choose to live a meaningful way, a way that would make for a good story, because he will eventually die. All good stories must come to an end. The end of the immortal Christian story is disembodiment into Heaven, a place defined by endless perfection.
Annihilation and Heaven have something key in common that explains why they both can afford existential meaning. Behind them both is death in its most universal form: stasis. A mortal does not change after annihilation, an immortal stays the same forever in Heaven. There is no more growth or transformation, there is only the same thing over and over and over. The dead mortal and the Christian in Heaven are both done becoming anything other than what they already are. Both of their stories have ended.