You are probably right about the non-believers never thinking about what comes after death - they just drift. But, you would think that when they lost someone close, they would start thinking about where the loved ones go.
Seems awfully hard to believe that when death comes, death comes and there is nothing else.
We are involved in one of the "read the entire Bible through in 2006" efforts where each day's designated passage is scheduled.
One of the neat things is the reminder of the nature of God as reflected in the Old Testament in his trials and efforts with the children of Israel (his chosen people).
He sent prophets to tell them what to do, gave extremely detailed instructions on how they must worship, listened to their complaints, gave them manna to eat daily while in the desert. He led them to the promised land out of slavery. Yet, did they stay true to God? No.
They were continually worshipping false gods, wooden idols. In the period of the kings, each reign was judged by how the king handled the idols in the society. If the king tore down the idols and destroyed them, God was pleased. But, if the king allowed them to stay, or participated - God judged that they were not faithful and condemned them. Many times there were comments of "why pray to a wooden bull that man, himself, created? How could that wooden image come to help them, it could not move - it was merely wood"?
Seems that God was really perplexed at His people. He got angry, allowed them to be overtaken, killed in battle, destroyed, but then always softened because He loved them - same as a parent. Yet, that anger was really severe and often lasted for generations.
In our lives we tend to make God in our image of what we think He would be like. It is very helpful to read the Old Testament just to learn the nature of God. It is an eye opener and scary at times. Makes me realize - "Don't mess with God".
DITTO
That's a good observation. Keeping a balance between the Old and New Testaments, or integrating them, can be challenging. OF course, the Old Testament is shot through with references that clearly point to Jesus. So it is a "seamless web."