A fascinating read from Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Sooner or later all of us must face up to death. Energetic adolescents ignore it, and their middle-aged parents often pursue illusions of perpetual youth. But the elderly and terminally ill know better. Nothing in life is as certain as death. And we all wonder what happens when our friends and loved ones die.

Most Christians believe that our souls are taken immediately to be with Christ until we are reunited with our bodies at his second coming (cf. Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 58). This view of life after death has two phases—being with Christ until the resurrection, and then everlasting life in his kingdom. It also involves two modes of existing. Body and soul are unified during this life and after the resurrection. But we exist without earthly bodies between death and resurrection. Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most Protestant churches teach this two-phase doctrine.

Check it out. What do you think?

What I wish apologists like Cooper would emphasize is this. If Jesus really is who he claimed to be (God’s Messiah) and who the NT claims him to be (God become human), is there not an inherent authority in him and the NT that no other religion or teaching can claim about this subject of life after death? After all, if Jesus is God, then why are so many reticent in accepting his claims and what the NT has to say about life and death? I don’t get it.