“He’s dead. No! I can’t believe it…. He’s really dead.” Our host sobbed as she told us about the events surrounding the passing of our mutual friend. It had all been too sudden.

At times like this we are reminded that what we believe really matters. Truth matters. Eternal life matters.

In Hindu culture, when someone dies, their body is burned, preferably on the banks of the Ganges River. Their skull is cracked open to release their spirit to be reincarnated into another human, an animal or even an insect depending on what they did in this and “previous” lives. Hindus believe this cycle repeats infinitely until somehow the individual is merged into deity.

Some Buddhists believe that when someone dies, their body should be cut into pieces and fed to vultures. They believe that, through the process of reincarnation, in some future life the person’s spirit might someday realize the vanity of being an individual and feeling desire, and they will achieve nirvana, or nothingness.

Among our Muslim friends, when someone dies they are buried and await the Judgment. Muslims believe that in order to enter paradise, a person’s good deeds need to outweigh their bad deeds. Paradoxically, some define becoming a suicide bomber and slaughtering innocent victims as a good deed.

In matters of life and death, truth matters, and eternal life matters.

There are billions of people who do not know they can have the hope of eternal life through faith in the sacrifice of the Son of God. They are not on a treadmill of reincarnation. They do not have to renounce all desires. They do not need to fear. They have a Savior!

You know Jesus Christ is your Savior. You have the hope of eternal life through faith in His sacrifice. Go and share the amazing good news of the crucified, resurrected and soon-coming Savior with the unreached. Why? Because eternal life matters.

• Twitter