The distinguished historian Niall Ferguson seems to think that we could be heading back into the dark ages, or as he would says into a world that is ‘more mystifying.’ For writing in a recent edition of the Sunday Times, he suggests that in contrast to ‘the old world of mystery and magic’ modernity was all ‘about the advance of rationalism and the retreat of mystery.’ Ferguson however is clearly beginning to think that this process ‘may be reversible’ given the astounding advances in the field of artificial intelligence.

And I can see why he is beginning to think like this given the fact that ‘we shall no more understand the workings of the machines than they (our forefathers) understood the vagaries of nature.’ As he points out, one system intriguingly know as ‘Deep Patient’ can already predict which patients may succumb to schizophrenia, but we have no idea how it is able to do so and the system is not designed to explain its reasoning.

Now I am an intellectual pygmy compared to Ferguson, but I would question the assertion that the modern world said goodbye to mystery and superstition. I was reminded of this the other day when I heard a trailer on Radio 4 referring to the most recent research into the type of experiences people have when they have lost a loved one. It took me back to the day when I went to visit a friend whose wife had developed dementia which meant they were living in care homes more than twenty miles apart. She had just passed away and I expected to find him in despair. But he was not. In fact, he was quite upbeat and incredibly thankful that she had been able to visit him for one last time before she died.

But the truth was rather different. She had never left her care home. Her family were able to attest to that because they had stayed with her until ‘she finally went to be with the Lord’ as she would have said.

Something remarkable certainly happened that day. And I’ve never been able to explain it other than to say that as His Good Shepherd the Lord ensured he had everything he needed at an extremely distressing time.

Now I am no expert on what happens after death, but I do know that Jesus promised a dying man that he would join Him in Paradise - that very same day. But He did more than that. He has promised that all those who trusted Him will be raised to life again, and in so doing be given new bodes, bodies that will be carbon copies of His.

One of His earliest followers put it much better than me when he wrote this way ‘Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed.’

That’s not magic but it’s clearly a mystery. Having said that though it’s a mystery for which there’s solid support in history. We will be raised to life again because Jesus was, and there’s an empty tomb to prove it.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]