God Arises
Argument for the Life Hereafter
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rewards in the after life, whereas a weak, immoral
man will find himself propelled towards the
straight and narrow path of virtue by his inner fear
of the punishment that awaits him after death.
These motivations will be far stronger and more
effective than any external, artificial sanctions. This
holds for everyone, whether in a superior or a
subordinate position, be it in darkness or in light, in
private or in public. The moment one seriously
considers the fact that tomorrow, if not actually
today, one will be made to stand before God
Almighty on the Day of Reckoning, and that God,
having kept a watch over everyone, will indeed sit
in judgement on that day, one will be stiffened in
one’s resolve to perform only good and right
actions and to eschew all that is base and evil. On
this most important of religious beliefs, Mathew
Hales, an eminent jurist of the late seventeenth
century commented: “To say that religion is a cheat
is to dissolve all those obligations whereby civil
societies are preserved.”
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How meaningful is the concept of the life hereafter
when seen even from this angle. Even unbelievers
who refute the notion that a day of judgement is an
