Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 27, 1999 at 23:48:33 {nwG7wj0NI.OL4VPHgCQsFMFBt36Xyc}:
Dear New H2O Visitors,
Perhaps you found this site for the first time, and wonder about what the Bible teaches about death? Perhaps you recently buried someone you love very much, and want to one day be reunited with them again. Is there a God who is powerful enough to one day raise the dead and reunite them with those they love?
Yes. No matter what you have been told, the return of everyone who has ever existed to life is an event that is 100% certain. The book that was inspired by God and written through the hands of men through divine supernatural forces, then canonized by the early Church and tells the history of the world from the beginning to the end, says that death is an illusion. 
Like the butterfly that moves from one state to another, our "deaths" are really a transition into a future life after our resurrection. That is possible because God sent a divine Being -- one of his own children -- into the physical universe to make it possible for humans to live forever in a paradise on an earth restored to complete ecological perfection, in a civilization of peaceful spiritual harmony, in a universe of neverending wonder.
We have been conditioned our entire lives to believe nothing but death is 100% certain. This has lead the majority of mankind throughout history to believe God doesn't exist.
The butterfly develops in a cocoon before it emerges. Why is it difficult for each to accept that this world, our limited scope of understanding and frail flesh and blood bodies comprise a protective "cocoon" where our fragile lives safely develop?
Like little children, we don't understand death. This is so plainly illustrated in the book of John of the New Testament of the Bible, when Jesus said to his disciples "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better."
Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." (John 11:11-15)
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:20-26)
Believe it, and learn all you can about this book called the Bible, its history and the God who inspired it.
Rick
P.S. I got the DVD original Prince of Egypt and its beautiful score and its lyrics will take your breath away.
When You Believe
Whitney Houston - Duet With Mariah Carey
From The Soundtrack The Prince Of Egypt
Many nights we've prayed
With no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts, a hopeful song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know there’s much to fear
We were moving mountains long
Before we knew we could, oh yes
1 - There can be miracles when you believe
Though hope is frail, it’s hard to kill
Who knows what miracles you can achieve
When you believe, somehow you will
You will when you believe
Oh yeah, in this time of fear
When prayer so often proves in vain
Hope seems like the summer birds
Too swiftly flown away
Yet now I’m standing here
My heart so full I can’t explain
Seeking faith and speaking words
I never thought I’d say
Repeat 1
They don’t always happen when you ask
And it’s easy to give in to your fears
But when you’re blinded by your pain
Can’t see the way, get through the rain
A small but still, resilient voice
Says hope is very near, oh
Repeat 1
You will when you
You will when you believe
Just believe
I believe, I believe
Just believe
You will when you believe