In the Book of Job, the question is asked: "If a man die, shall he live again?"[Job 14:14] This question has challenged people throughout history. All kinds of answers have been given. The Old Testament did not have a very clear idea of life after death. There was a belief in a kind of shadowy existence, but little was known about this or what it would be like.
In Jesus’ time the Sadducees claimed man had no soul, so at death he simply ceased to exist. Modern materialists say we evolved by natural forces from animals, so, like the animals, we simply cease to exist at death. There are those who might hope there is life after death, but are not planning on it. Their lives give no evidence that they expect to live on after death.
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection because they denied the existence of the soul. If there was no soul, then when the body died it simply rotted in the ground. Jesus responded by quoting God's statement to Moses [who the Sadducees did believe in], "I AM the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." God said this after these men had died. But God is not “the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
Of course, these arguments really only convince those who already believe in God. But what about those people who neither believe in God nor in the Word of God?
One of the best answers I have heard is the one describing the argument between the believer and the atheist. The atheist says to the believer: “Just think of the possibility that I am right and there really is no God. You will have wasted your whole life, since in the end you will just die and cease to exist.”
The believer responds by saying: “Think of the possibility that I am right and there IS a God. You will have wasted the whole of eternity! And what’s more, if I am wrong, I will never know it because I ceased to exist at death; but if you are wrong you will know it for all eternity!”
We believe in God and in eternal life. During this month of November we express our hope in the resurrection by praying for those who have gone before us and sleep in death. A passage in the Book of Maccabees tells us: “It is a good and wholesome thought to pray for the dead.” And so we do.