Over the last week my 𝕏 feed has been filled with responses to the shocking and senseless slaying of Charlie Kirk. Because 𝕏 tends to be an echo chamber and I am a committed Christian, most of the posts I’ve seen have to do with Charlie’s Christian faith and what a wonderful person he was. However, what struck me in all of this was the use of the past tense for Charlie’s existence even by those who own Jesus as their Lord and Savior! And I question this practice.
Humans are immortal; though not in the sense that this broken, sin-twisted body won’t die and our souls won’t be separated from it for a time, which is both a tragedy and a mercy (Isa. 57:1). No, we are immortal in the sense that once created we will exist forever. Knowing this reality we rightly rebel against the unnaturalness of physical death. As we study the path of the human being in Scripture, we see God’s presence at conception (Job 10:10; Ps. 139:13). The miracle of the joining of the egg and sperm is that in that instant a whole new being is created: a being designed to exist in both the physical and spiritual realms simultaneously (Ge. 2:7)! The reality is that the cessation of function of the physical form is not the end of the human. While the soul leaves the body for a time, for the Christian absence from the body is presence with Christ until the resurrection (2Co. 5:6-8). Our physical resurrection is guaranteed by Jesus Christ’s resurrection (1Co. 15:20-28,50-57). For the non-Christian Jesus says that the suffering of separation from God begins instantly and continues until the resurrection (Lk. 16:19-31).
Know this: all humans will rise again! The believers in Christ will rise as the first fruits (1Th. 4:13-18) so we can return with him triumphantly as his honor guard (Rev. 19). All other humans will rise at the final judgment, at which point the eternal God-distant suffering—known as the second death—begins (Rev. 20:11-14). For that is the truth of Hell: God mercifully gives humans what they want, namely an existence far from him without any of the good that his presence provides. However, the existence of the human continues into all eternity, either in communion with God or separated from him. Thus, we are truly immortal as a species.
So where does that leave us? I see two important applications: First, I think we need to change our language to reflect this reality. When someone goes on before, they are still alive, though their physical presence is no longer on this physical earth. Let us speak of them as such. No more will I talk of my departed grandmother Gretchen as “was” but rather as “is”. For she is in the presence of our mutual Lord and Savior and we will be reunited one day in that same presence.
Second, we must live as the immortals that we are. We must remind ourselves that this broken world is not our final home. We must remember these bodies are temporary and live beyond ourselves, modeling the true Immortal, Jesus Christ, who is even now transforming us into his image so newly reclothed spirit will reflect him perfectly on New Earth as his eternal bride. And remembering this awesome truth, we must encourage our fellow immortals to believe in Jesus before it is too late, and they spend their immortal eternity in suffering and separation from God. Let us do it fearlessly, kindly, warmly, and lovingly; as Charlie Kirk did.