If Memory Serves
Asking The Question
When I started working at The Press of Ohio I made a decision to never tap-dance around my faith in God. This has led to a great many conversations with people from all walks of life, and topics have varied greatly. I’ve discussed all kinds of things with my fellow employees. My only guideline has always been to present an answer I know to be in keeping with the tenets of Scripture. If I didn’t know of an answer directly given, I tried to answer based on my knowledge of God’s character. Below find a list of some of the questions I’ve been asked.
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Do you think animals go to heaven when they die?
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Why did Noah live to be so old?
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Do you think Jesus would listen to Ozzy Osbourne?
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Doesn’t the Bible say that if you get a tattoo you’re going to hell?
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Doesn’t the Bible say that if you commit suicide you’re going to hell?
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I’ve decided to follow a mix of Christianity and Buddhism. What do you think?
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How can you be sure that what you believe is true?
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What does the Bible say heaven will be like? I thought I read that we turn into angels.
- How can you have tattoos and call yourself a Christian? (this one asked by a fellow believer in Christ)
Believe it or not all of these questions were asked in sincerity, even the one about Ozzy Osbourne. Now at the end of my career, I can only conclude one thing- people are searching for truth. Ironically enough they create it half the time. The other half of the time they’re worried about what the Bible might say. But that’s not the point of this writing. This past Friday I was asked yet another question.
Answering The Question
I was returning to my station after a bathroom break when three guys working at another machine called me over. “Jeremiah!” they yelled. I turned to see them waving me over, so over I went. They all started talking at the same time. I asked them to slow down and hurry up because I had to get to my station. Finally one piped up, “Joe told Tony that the Bible says that when we die, we forget everything. Is that true?” My response was short and sweet and the best I could do in the thirty seconds allotted me. “No,” I replied. “The Bible says nothing of the kind. In fact, it alludes to the exact opposite.” They were satisfied with my answer. Mostly, I think, because they just wanted Joe (whom they don’t like) to be wrong. But it was a good question and one I considered that evening on my drive home.
Questioning The Question
“Do we forget everything when we die?”
My answer at the time was based solely on logic. In about 15 seconds I had to consider the ramifications of an eternal human spirit with a finitely existent memory. Where does the spirit stop and the memory begin? Are they not part and parcel? Basically what I concluded was that if it was true that we forget everything, people who entered heaven (or hell) would have no clue who they were, where they were, or why they were there. I am convinced that we will have memory of the decision we made to follow Christ if we are in heaven and if in hell, a person may be able to recall opportunities they had in life to receive Christ and didn’t, thus adding to their eternal torment.
Rock This Town
Interestingly enough, God uses all kinds of things in Scripture to help people remember. The Israelites are always setting up some pile of rocks or another so when their children happen upon it in the future and ask “What is this pile of rocks?” the parent can answer “This is the place where God did such-and-such for us.” Specifically I recall their carrying of the Ark of the Covenant across the Jordan River. God stopped the water so the priest’s feet would not get wet. Once all were across, he instructed them to set up a pile of stones for this very reason of remembering. God values memory to the point of making sure it is reinforced by physical means. He’s in the business of making mnemonic devices!
Remember When You Decided Not To Decide?
A parable comes to mind to illustrate the survival of it even into the afterlife. In the gospel of Luke, chapter 16:19-31, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and the beggar. It is a rather long excerpt so I will not quote it in its entirety. Suffice to say we see a prime example of a dead man remembering something:
25 “But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish’.”
Abraham literally tells the rich man to remember! He prompts him! Remember how comfy you were? Remember how you wanted for nothing? Oh yeah, he remembers. And he’s miserable.
Two verses later we see an example of unprompted recollection on the part of the rich man:
27 “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, send him to my father’s home. 28 For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them about this place of torment so they won’t have to come here when they die’.”
Apparently the rich man remembers quite a bit in death. He knows he has five brothers, some or all of whom live at his dad’s house. And he also knows they’re going to end up in the exact same state of eternal want that he is currently experiencing.
What Was I Talking About Again?
It seems like an easy question to answer, “Does the Bible say we forget everything when we die?” But like many of the questions surrounding biblical precepts, answering one only seems to spawn more questions, or rhetorical questions, that must be considered to arrive at a biblical conclusion.
- If we do forget everything when we die, then Jesus must have forgotten everything when he died upon the cross. Did his memory return upon his resurrection? How?
- Jesus resurrected a man named Lazarus after he’d been dead for three days! If we forget everything when we die, Lazarus had no clue who he was when Jesus brought him back!
These are just a couple of rhetorical examples that come to the surface when you consider the ramifications of an eternal spirit coexisting with a finite memory. A better question to ask might be “Can the dead experience regret?” As to this I would answer a categorical “Yes.” But only the dead in a certain place experience regret, since it is a concomitant of a state of desire. In heaven there is no state of desire, only a state of sufficiency. So what is the other place? Hell. And it’s…well…hellish.
