Hope for the Dead, the Maimed, the still Living

I want this message to be very clear to any who may read it.  It is a religious message that is all about why we Christians celebrate Easter.  It is why even non-Christians have good reason to celebrate Easter.  It is why those who seemingly ‘lose’ loved-ones every day in every part of the world through the natural processes of life (it is estimated that 153,000 people currently die per day in the world) or even through the unnatural and obscene atrocities of terrorist actions that have most recently happened Brussels, Belgium, can have hope.

 

It is why the very Son of God came to this earth 2000 years ago to also die.

  

After Jesus died an early death (age 33) because of the decisions and actions of evil men, and after a short period as a disembodied spirit (as we all will be following our death) he was resurrected as the first person to do so in the history of man on this earth.  He overcame death.  (How and why is beyond the scope of this essay, but the knowledge is out there.) Because He overcame death He had the power given to him by God, the Father of his spirit and of our spirits, to be the recipients of His grace and likewise at our appointed time be resurrected from the dead. 

 

We will, following our death, remain for a longer time, depending upon how we lived in our mortality, as a disembodied spirit in a post-mortal Spirit World than did Jesus, but we, too, in our merited and appointed time will be resurrected.  This means that our living spirit will be rejoined with the elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) that made up our mortal body and we will become a living soul (spirit+body=soul).   In short, we will live again.  This is the essence of the Gospel (‘gospel’ means ‘good news’) of Jesus Christ--our Hope.

Most of the Christian world basically believes what I have written above, and it is Good News indeed.  But there is more!

 

The truths of the pristine Gospel of Jesus Christ that have been restored by revelation in our time to the earth teach that “The [spirit] shall be restored to the body, and the body to the [spirit], yea, and every limb and joint shall be restored to its body; yea even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame” (The Book of Mormon, Alma 40: 23).

Ponder the implications of that—for the ill, the elderly, the handicapped, the maimed! 

The best news, though, is the qualitative nature or type of a life after death with a resurrected and perfect body that is possible for the qualified.

   

If you would like to learn more, ask a Mormon missionary or any informed Latter-day Saint, for we are enjoined to “be ready always to give an answer every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in [us]” (Holy Bible, 1 Peter 3:15).

It is my absolute conviction that there is a sure hope for all of us.  The first step, though, is to develop Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on that first Easter day.  Hallelujah!