What happens after we die?

While a grade school child growing up in Dearborn, Michigan, like all other children I hankered repeatedly for an ice cream cone. Ice cream cones did not come in scoops then. A scoop was called a “dip.” A nice round ice cream spoon shaped dip! Yum! The shop sign indicated one price for a single dip. And a higher price for a double dip. The cone was the same in both cases.

My stingy father would ask me for my preferred flavor and then order me a single dip. I threw a tantrum. I wanted a double dip.

My father paid for the single dip and gave it to me with a stern lecture every time this happened. “Why can’t you be satisfied with a single dip? You get your favorite ice cream and then complain because you can’t have a double dip!”

This was meant to make me feel guilty about myself. It worked. My frustration with my father turned inward and I blamed myself for being an ingrate.

From Single to Double Dip

I firmly believed my father exhibited a cruel streak here, even though he thought he was teaching me a life lesson. But, when I became a father, I repented on his behalf. My children always received double dips when they requested them.

One very hot summer day when my young family was enjoying Disney World, I bought ice cream cones for each of my three children. One child dropped her ice cream on the steaming sidewalk and began to cry profusely. The mess was hopelessly spoiled and could not be eaten. I could not move fast enough to buy a second ice cream cone to dry the frightful tears.

What happens after we die? Does life have a second dip?

Mature theologians these days tend to tell us to be satisfied with the one life that God has given us on Planet Earth. Life is a gift. Even if life is only a single dip, it’s enough to be grateful for. Why ask for more? Why ask God for some form of afterlife? Why throw a tantrum if our Father in Heaven gives us only a single dip?

Our Calvinist friends are even more stern. Shouldn’t we be willing to be damned in the afterlife for the greater glory of God? Who are we to ask for a double dip and show ingratitude for the grace we’ve already received?

At some level I fear our theologians have eaten their single dip but dropped too many cone crumbs. Let’s try to pick up some of those crumbs.

Does Judaism believe in a Double Dip after we die?

Ecclesiastes 12:7 says that when we die, Dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. “In other words,” comments Patheos progressive columnist Ginny Baxter, “our physical body dies and our spirit or soul — which is the essence of our being — leaves the body and enters into God’s presence.”

“Judaism does believe in life after death, and it always has,” adds Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin. On the one hand, Rabbi Salkin thinks that we live on after our death through legacy in this world, through our children and our good deeds. On the other hand, we do have a soul that God takes care of after death.

“I believe that the soul returns to God and that God, the Soul of the Universe, is the guardian of all souls.

“When I perform a funeral,” the rabbi says, “I recite this prayer: O God of Compassion, let the soul of our beloved rest beneath the wings of God’s Presence, along with all the other pure and righteous ones in the Garden of Eden.”

The New Testament Double Dip Gospel

When asking what appens after we die, does the New Testament gospel announce a single dip or a double dip?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

My good friend and colleague, Karen Lebacqz, likes to translate “eternal life” as “abundant life.” No single dip theology for Karen!

Conclusion

Morgan Freeman asks about the afterlife in his video travelogue, “Beyond Death.” He interviews those who make proclamations about what happens when we die. But can proclamations of an afterlife guarantee that an afterlife exists? Closer to Truth podcasts ask expert theologians and philosophers. No one answers here with apodictic rational answers either way.

So what happens after we die? This is one of the most anguishing of our existential questions. Materialists answer: when yer dead, yer dead. Get over it! Dualists answer that our immortal soul goes to live with God. Easter Christians answer with the promise of bodily resurrection.

So the answer to the question– what happens after we die? — depends on whether the God who gave us the first dip is gracious enough to give us a double dip. The Easter resurrection is God’s promise to us that we too will rise like Jesus.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15:20).

PT 3606 Asking Google Existential Questions / ST 4126 What happens after we die?

Existential Questions: Does life have a double dip?

Try this series on the afterlife.

Afterlife? Really? What are the options?

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For Patheos, Ted Peters posts articles and notices in the field of Public Theology. He is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union. He co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, with Robert John Russell on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. His single volume systematic theology, God—The World’s Future, is now in the 3^rd edition. He has also authored God as Trinity plus Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society as well as Sin Boldly: Justifying Faith for Fragile and Broken Souls. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

Watch for this new 2023 book, The Voice of Public Theology, published by ATF Press.

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