Recently, beloved entertainer Dick Van Dyke—who has just reached the remarkable milestone of 100 years on December 13th —was interviewed by People magazine.
During the interview, Van Dyke admitted he was nearing the end of his life.
When asked about death. His answer was candid and straightforward: “When you expire, you expire.”
Like many of us, I grew up enjoying Dick Van Dyke’s comedy in the 1960s. As People magazine observed, Van Dyke’s role in Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968 “cemented his status as a national treasure.”
So, I find it sad that Van Dyke, like so many people today, would view death as the end. The final curtain. No sequel. Just an expiration date. Like a carton of milk that is to be disposed of.
The Bible, however, offers a profoundly different perspective.
The Bible takes death seriously and doesn’t deny its reality. Paul called death an “enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26). Indeed. Death is the bully on the block. He taunts. And badgers. And beleaguers. With heartaches. Burdened spirits. Empty homes. Heavy Hearts.
However, from Genesis to Revelation, death is never portrayed as extinction, as a mere expiration where one ceases to exist. Death is not treated as the end of our existence, but as a beginning. An entrance into the next life. A new life. Eternal life.
When Jesus’ friend Lazarus died, he spoke to his sister, Martha, and offered hope that her brother’s death was not final. The Savior said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25). The single statement destroys the supposition “when you expire, you expire.”
The concept of life beyond the grave is not a Pollyanna approach to life, or wishful thinking, or whistling in the cemetery; it’s anchored in strong Biblical teaching.
David expressed belief in life after death when his baby son died, and he opined, “I cannot bring him back. But I can go to him” (2 Sam 12:23).
The prophet Isaiah penned, “Your dead will live; their bodies will rise” (Isa. 26:19). Like other prophets before and after, there is hope of an afterlife.
The apostle Paul taught conscious life with Christ after death when he wrote, “If the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God… away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:1) Furthermore, his detailed explanation a bodily resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 is neither vague nor critic, but plain and offered in a well grounded hope.
One of the most beautiful passages in the Bible that speaks to our hope of life beyond the mortal body is penned by the apostle Peter.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:3-5)
Christianity stakes its very nature on the belief that there is more to this life than just this life. Philosophers, theologians, and religious thinkers and writers through the years have embraced and echoed this scriptural doctrine.
Augustine of Hippo, in the 5th century, consistently emphasized the continuity of personal existence beyond death. “Death is not the end of life, but the separation of soul and body for a time.”
Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop, wrote, “By the resurrection of the Word, death has been destroyed, and life raised up again.”
John Chrysostom, who also lived in the 4th century, powerfully preached the resurrection. “For this is the meaning of the resurrection: that the death which has been brought in by sin is utterly abolished.”
The renowned Protestant reformer Martin Luther offered this beautiful analogy. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
Modern author J.I. Packer affirmed that “The Christian hope is not just survival of death, but the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
Dick Van Dyke is mistaken. When you die, you don’t just expire. In the words of the hymnist, Virgil Brock:
Beyond the sunset,
O blissful morning,
When with our Saviour
Heav’n is begun.
Earth’s toiling ended,
O glorious dawning;
Beyond the sunset
When day is done.Beyond the sunset,
No clouds will gather,
No storms will threaten,
No fears annoy;
O day of gladness,
O day unending,
Beyond the sunset,
Eternal Joy.Beyond the sunset,
A hand will guide me
To God, the Father,
Whom I adore;
His glorious presence,
His words of welcome,
Will be my portion
On that fair shore.
–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman
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