“And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

I vividly remember attending my first Buddhist funeral in the 1970s as a young missionary in Thailand. The woman who died was the relative of one among the tiny minority of Christ-followers at that time.

As the attendees stood together, I looked at the swollen, tear-stained eyes of the immediate family. Some were still wailing in grief and sorrow. Others were placing clothes and belongings into the open, wooden box serving as her casket. They believed these items would accompany the woman on her journey into an unknown “reincarnation.”

Her brother even lit and placed one of her favorite cigarettes into the lips of his dead sister. For them, death was so raw, real, personal, painful and final! There was not a single glimpse of hope or joy or celebration involved in this distressing event. 

I was overwhelmed with an even deeper realization of why God had called me, as well as my wife and children, to serve Him in this country.

Those who carried the crude, wooden casket led a solemn procession to an area in the Buddhist temple grounds where the body would be openly cremated. The open casket was placed upon cement pillars that would elevate it high enough to build a roaring fire beneath it.

All the attendees were given wooden sticks with a highly flammable tree resin on the end. As each of us passed by the casket and tossed our stick into the flames under her body, the fire grew ever more intense with each bit of fuel added.

Back in those early days of serving in Southeast Asia, the entire Christian population of Thailand was less than 1% — in spite of more than 150 years of evangelical missionary efforts. The area where my family and I were serving was less than .01% Christian.

A message of hope from a resurrected Savior called Jesus Christ was exactly what was needed in the midst of such hopelessness and despair. That is why the Apostle Paul says, “For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). 

As followers of Jesus, our hope is not in a doctrine or belief about resurrection as opposed to reincarnation. Our hope is not even in a religion contrasting Buddha with Jesus. We have a living hope, brought about by the Living God who sent our Savior, Jesus Christ! He died on our behalf, came back from the dead, and is now alive in our world and active in our lives.

Jesus is still calling us to take the Good News to those living in darkness, despair and hopelessness until everyone, in every village and town, has an opportunity to put their trust and hope in Jesus Christ.

Bob Craft

Reach A Village Founder and President