Basic HTML Version
Heaven, Hell
and
e
Hereafter
Why do millions believe they wi/1
go
to heaven
or
he// when they die? Where did this idea come
from? What does the Bible say about an afterlife?
by
William F. Dankenbring
N
ANCIENT
Babylonian legend
..!-\..
tells of a young man, Etana,
who was challenged by an
eagle to soar to tbe heavenly abodes.
Convinced that the eagle had a
good idea. Etana, with the eagle.
rose higher and higher into the sky
until the whole earth looked like a
mountain, people like dust specks ,
and the ocean like a gardener's
small irrigation ditch.
As Etana flew bigher, he finally
reached the dwelling of Anu. The
offended god, upset by the presence
of a mere mortal in his heavenly
abode, hurled Etana and the eagle
dowo to Hades.
So far as human legend is con–
cerned. Etana's flight was certainly
one of man's earliest recorded at–
tempts to go to heavenly abodes.
Man's Olde st Quest
The belief in a heaven or a para–
dise beyond the grave is a recog–
nized tenet of the creeds of vi rtually
a ll nations and races from the be–
ginnings of recorded human history.
The heaven of the Hindu is ab-
24
sorption into Brahma. Moslems
await paradise where they shall en–
joy perpetua! light and pleasure -
including physical pleasures, al–
though the height of happiness will
be seeing Allah face to face.
The ideas of various nations and
peoples about heaven vary widely.
The paradise of sorne primitive
tribes in Australia is caBed "gum–
tree country." There, everything is
better than in this world. The path
to sky-land, they assert, is by way of
the rays of the setting sun or the
Milky Way.
Among pre-Christian Polyne–
sians, paradise was somet imes
thought of as being in a subterra–
nean world. or inside the moon, or
in the west, or on an island - or
even underwa ter .
J
n Raratonga,
warriors who died were thought to
be living with the god Tiki in an
underground region of fragrant
shrubs and ftowers,
with
limitless eat–
ing, drinking, dancing, and sleeping.
In North America, among the
Delaware, Blackfeet, and Ojibwa
Indians, those who broke tribal laws
were banished to a gioomy region
after death ; others entered a happy
life of bliss. To the North American
Plains Indians, a future life was very
real. but their understanding of it
was vague and hazy. They believed
one who died lived on in the after–
life just as he was in this world -
with the same passions, feelings,
wishes, needs, and enmities.
Earlie st Be liefs
From earliest times, men have
wondered about an afterlife. In the
caves of earliest man, the presence
of objects to accompany the dead
reveal a belief in life after death. In
Neolithic cultures, evidence from
specially constructed tombs pro–
vides even more proof of men's con–
tinua! fascination with death and
the hereafter.
Ancient Egyptian religious texts.
called the Pyramid Texts, are
mainly concerned with the desire of
the dead to avoid leading a gloomy
eJtistence in the underworld. The
august dead, supposedly, could
dwell in the sky like the gods, voy-
PLAIN TRUTH July-August 1973