While preparing for a message recently, I decided to to a simple Google search.
People often refer to “That World” in Japan when talking about the place when people go after they die. To hear some public thought, I searched for “Where is That World.”
The very first result was on Yahoo Japan’s Chiebukuro, which is Japan’s version of Yahoo answers. Here was the question. First in Japanese, then a translation:
死んだら天国へ行くと言いますが、天国とかあの世はどこにあるのですか？
非常に子どもっぽい単純な質問ですが、誰だって死ぬのは怖いし、死んだ後のことは気になります。もしかしたら死んでも自分は死んだことに気づいておらず現世に魂だけ漂い続けているのかもしれません。でも心臓の機能していない肉体そのものは腐るので火葬（荼毘）にします。この世に残るのは灰と骨のみです。もういい大人なのに、未だに天国やあの世って雲の空の上にあるのかなって思ってます。きっと火葬場で焼かれた煙が大気を漂い、空へ舞い上がり、空から見下ろしているのかなと思うのです。
Translation:
It is often said that you go to Heaven when you die, but where is Heaven or “that world?”
While it is an extremely childish and simple question, anybody is scared of dying and curious about what will happen after death. Maybe, even though you die, you won’t realize that you died and your soul continues to wander around in this present world. But, bodies that don’t have an operating heart will rot so they are cremated. What remains in this world is ash and bone. Even though I am a grown up, I still think that Heaven or “that world” is somewhere above the clouds in the sky. Maybe even the smoke from the crematory lingers in the atmosphere and rises up and looks down from the sky. That’s what I think.
This is what people know about life after death in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world.
What will you do to reach them with the Gospel?