Why cling to life if Heaven is so wonderful?

Some people are worried or scared about leaving their loved ones behind and if they will be ok once they're gone. My father in law was in the hospital unconscious and my mother in law kept telling him to hang on and she loved him and didn't want him to leave her, etc. We all knew that he was too sick and wasn't going to come out of it and it was just a matter of time. When she wasn't in the room, I leaned down to his ear and told him I loved him and also that it was ok to let go and that she would be ok and that we would help her through it. Before she came back in the room, I told her what I said to him and let her know she needed to let him go and tell him the same thing. Two minutes after that, he look his last breath and passed away. Coincidence? Maybe. But I think it was the reassurance that he needed knowing that she was going to be looked after and that she would be ok with things before he would let himself take that final breath and really let himself go.

WOW Tracy, this is an amazing coinsidence! That is exactly what happened between my Father and Step-Mother! Exactly. Except that I convinced my step mom to tell him herself that it was okay to let go. I have often repeated this story because I found it so amazing that we humans have that much mental control over whether we live or die.

Just to add one other point.....we, like all animals on this earth have been given a survival instinct. It's an instinct , not something we can turn off and on. Our time here on earth is so miniscule when compared with eternity. This is our test, concerning where we end up in the afterlife.

I think mankind has the desire to eke out every iota of earthly life, partly because he's frightened of what lies beyond, but mostly because his life feels unfinished, and he has not yet become the person he has aspired to be.

Another strange but amazing thing that happened was when my grandpa was sick. He was pretty out of it towards the end and was home in hospice care. He really had no idea who any one was or anything, but one day he just reached his arms up in the air and said, "I'm going home tomorrow". And sure enough he passed away the next day. It all really makes a person think doesn't it?

Good question.  We have all read tragic cases where children take their own lives to go to heaven to be with their mommy who died.  First a formost is trust GOD (YHWH) with all your will and might.  Heaven is pictured as a glorious place to be, and if you believe in Yeshua and YHWH some day you will go their.  But only when it is YHWH's time.  I for one, even though in constant pain, do not want to miss any of the excitement of earth.  The advantage of knowing heaven is a wonderful place is, it frees you from the fear of death.  But do not seek it, but live your live and do God's work here and then go home in triumph and joy.

Dear Willi, I believe that the degree of clinging to life in this world is inversly proportional to the amount that a person believes in God. In other words the more you believe in God the less you cling to the things of this world. The less that God plays a roll in your life the more you cling to life even to the last breath. In the end we all will meet Jesus and find that his great mercy will shine on us no matter how we feel in this the here and now. Much love, Tom

Taking a religious prespective, life is mandatory. I mean, it is not  -  usually  -  well liked, according most, and especially mainstream religions (right?), if you just quit. Besides dying isn't too pleasant, is it. ... According to hindues, if you havn't lived well enough, you get to retry living. According to christian beliefs, you don't get a second attempt. ... In either religion, people find it better to relate to life as a trial that is best to try to finnish the test already, neither just in the next life, nor, of course (I guess), as in christianity, never.

An atheist perspective usually makes death seem even more morbid. If one is religious, there is no stopping ones attempts of living up to whatever demands one may feel fate has for the continuation after death, whereas as an atheist, there's no continuation, and thus nothing to live up to but one's own conscience. That conscience is then supposed to be independant of any supreme being, which leaves it fairly unexplained, compared to the notion of some kind of infinitely old being that can understand the wisdom in believing in Goodness.

I assume that heaven is characterized by infinities such as eternity, where never anything has a beginning and an end. So nothing is ever achieved. In order to escape this ordeal, this finite material World was created as a strongly desired material and transient embodiment of the eternal ideas. Here an error in judgement occurred: the immortal ideas or souls identified with the mortal bodies. Due to this erroneous identification, the death of the body became an unbearable ordeal. Only a few enlightened people are able to reidentify with their soul and use their body as  expressions for the purposes of the soul.

Many people do not have the peace of knowing God in their hearts, have not been truly born again, and also, as human beings we will still have some fear of the unknown, partcularly pain. I don't believe that it is death most fear, but dying. When you live as close to the Lord as you possibly can, you can have a peace that has you looking forward to that day with great hope and faith.