The following lecture by D. A. Carson, PhD was originally presented at CBHD's 26th Annual Conference Taking Care: Perspectives for the End of Life.

Abstract: Christians, who gratefully submit to the authority of God’s self-disclosure in Scripture, invariably hold distinctive ideas about death, including ideas about what comes next. For example, unlike supporters of reincarnation, they do not think they might come back after death as a butterfly, a bullfrog, or a rich prince, but anticipate resurrection existence in the new heaven and the new earth. Unlike certain philosophical materialists, they do not think that death ends all personal consciousness, but that death, though it may rightly be called the last enemy, doesn’t have the last word. The distinctive substance of Christian belief about life after death necessarily constrains the way Christians think about death itself, and that in turn ought to have a bearing on how Christian medical professionals, not to mention relatives and friends, ought to treat people with terminal illnesses. This lecture surveys some of these distinctive Christian beliefs about death and suggests ways in which our view and treatment of the dying ought to be influenced by such considerations.