Participating in God's Eternity

In the Christian tradition, we believe that God is eternal and that we are eternal.  We do not believe that death is the end of existence, but merely a transition to another form of existence.  The very notion of "death" is a misnomer in the new covenant community, the Church.  When we hear someone talk of death as the end, we should have no idea what they are talking about.  We affirm that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; we do not affirm that God was so only in the past.

The way that we live and perceive death should reflect our understanding of God's eternity and our participation in God's eternity.  Death is not something that we should fear, because to any extent that we perceive death as the end of our existence and our separation with those we love is an illusion.  Those who have gone before us are still with us and we will remain so.