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A
Matter of Life and Death
There
are literally dozens of views and opinions about life and death - just what
exactly is life (?), and what happens to our consciousness or
self-awareness when we die (?). These views range from the materialist,
who sees life as a random clustering of atoms which, for a brief moment in
eternity produce a living creature, to the mystic, who thinks that life is
either an illusion, or a passage through a multi-layered experience in which
there is no death. The materialist sees life in terms of mechanics, the mystic
sees life in terms of infinity in which all things are possible but nothing is
provable.
Some
people like to avoid the subject altogether by saying "I’ll know when I
get there" or, "Its not for us to know such things". There are
also those who say, quite logically, that such things as life and death are
unknowable, because (they say) the very people who enquire about it are also
part of the whole machine, so to speak. It would be like a cog in a clock trying
to understand the whole clock, they say. One would need to be separate from the
clock in order to see it objectively, they say. There is some truth in this
argument, but not enough to defeat the possibility of a cog being able to view
its immediate surroundings and objectively come to some conclusions.
For
example, there are some who claim to have mind-reading abilities. If this were
the case, then we would expect to find that the ability to do this depended on
some sort of transmission and reception, which implies some sort
of power which has to be broadcast and picked up. Over short distances,
this would probably not be detectable, but over distances of half a planet (as
has been claimed) the transmission power would have to be immense - yet
there is no noticeable or measurable energy loss in those who claim to be able
to send a message over thousands of miles to someone else’s head.
The
same can be said about those who claim that humans have an afterlife which
consists of a semitransparent substance (ghosts). If this were true then we have
many problems. First of all the belief in ‘ghosts’ contradicts the Bible,
which says that God has designed humans to die once (Heb.9:27), and
therefore to be resurrected only once (Matt.22:30 etc). There is also the
great problem of ‘ghost clothes’ which seem to have an afterlife along with
the people who wear them. ‘Ghosts’ may be real phenomena, but humans they
are not.
The
‘eastern’ view of death also contradicts the Bible, because the idea that
life is an endless succession of ‘levels’, or ‘realities’ of
‘existences’ (or that life is an illusion), implies that ultimately there is
no final judgement. Man, it is presumed, will eventually rise, through
his own efforts, to a state of perfection. Man is therefore not accountable to
any Creator. There is no such thing as literal, unending death. But Jesus made
it clear that this life we live now is the only chance we have to make peace
with God, and that one day all the dead will rise to stand before the Great
Throne of Judgement - to receive either rewards or punishments (Matt.19:28,
25:31,32, Luke 1:32, Acts 2:30)
The
Bible speaks about life and death, but the difference between the Bible and all
other accounts, is that the Bible makes the most sense. When it describes the
origin of life and the origin of death, it places them in a consistently logical
context.
One
example of how this works, is the matter of moral accountability. It is
universally and generally acknowledged, that some people are "good"
and some people are "bad". The common view is that Hitler was a
"bad" man, who did many horrible and evil things to his fellow human
beings - such as initiating a war, allowing the torture of prisoners,
instituting the so-called medical ‘experiments’, ordering the building of
gas chambers, overseeing the brutality towards Jews, and so forth. Along with
Hitler can be included the Nazi Party, the Gestapo and a huge number of other
people all connected to Hitler.
It
is a common feeling, often expressed, that Hitler does not deserve mercy, that
he and his clones are due some sort of punishment. The fact that people feel
this way is because they have an in-built sense of right and wrong, and of
justice and injustice. The belief that there must be some kind of final
judgement is inherent in human nature. Logically, this sense of a necessity for
judgement fits perfectly into the Bible account of Adam and Eve, who sinned and
received an immediate reprimand. This satisfies our innate sense of justice.
(What if God had said to Adam : "I don’t mind what you do. Go ahead and
rape or kill Eve. It means nothing to me"? Our sense of justice would be
forever violated - unless we ourselves were made the same way.)
Assuming
therefore that the Bible is a true and accurate account, this little study will
attempt to examine "Life" and "Death" from the Scriptures.
Life
- what is it, and where did it come from?
"And
the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7
Here
we have the account of the first living human in the whole history of the
universe. The Materialist would be happy, because this human was made from the
same ingredients as the soil. Other philosophies would also find something to
suit their way of thinking, because it seems that just by rearranging the basic
materials of the planet in an ordered and intelligent way, a living organism can
be constructed.
But
there is one thing here which no earthbound science can explain, and that is the
"breath of life" which made the dead soul - the material shape of the
human - into a "living soul".
Logically,
all life on earth comes under the category of "soul". There are living
souls and there are dead souls. It is a common misconception that humans have
souls, but the account in Genesis shows that humans are souls.
In
Hebrew the word "soul" is "nephesh", which we call a
"living organism". All life on earth began as a "nephesh",
and then received the "breath of life", becoming "living
souls" or, as we would say, "living organisms". Once this first
understanding of what life is has been laid, the rest of the story can be built
correctly on it.
One
of the most common modern church traditions says that when people die some part
of them, either their "soul" or their "spirit" goes
somewhere - either heaven, or hell, or purgatory. Unfortunately, this teaching
is not supported by Scripture, but rather caters (in some cases) for those who
like to think kindly thoughts about the dead. It is always a pleasant
alternative to think that when a Christian dies, they fly spiritually to God’s
presence and don’t really die at all. But such fanciful thinking actually
plays into the lie which Satan told to Adam and Eve ("You shall not surely
die" Gen.3:4) and does damage to many other Bible teachings, such as :
"And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever:" Genesis 3:22 Obviously, if Adam and Eve failed
to eat of the second tree, they could not have lived for ever, so death means
death, otherwise Satan was right.
When
God warned (threatened) Adam with death for disobedience, He said "in the
day you eat of it (the tree), you shall surely die" Gen. 2:16. The
Hebrew expression is "dying you shall die" - a description which fits
perfectly with ageing, sickness, deterioration and finally death. The Second Law
of Thermodynamics says that all processes go towards a condition of greater
probability, or increasing randomness i.e. All complex things gradually break
down into less complex things. At the moment of creation, the universe and the
earth were at their maximum complexity, and order, but when Adam sinned, a
‘winding down’ process began, and the effects are continuing with us today.
"Death" is therefore a wider term, including the gradual breakdown of
all material structures - DNA and genes accumulate errors, species die out,
orbits of planets deteriorate, fuel supplies in stars are used up, comets
disintegrate, gravity weakens, land masses disappear due to erosion, radioactive
substances decay, and so on.
It
would be unthinkable for God, having set the first principles down so clearly,
to then go and contradict Himself, so what we should find from here on is a
consistent teaching about life and death through the whole Bible.
When
God breathed into Adam’s soul the "breath of life" He breathed the
"neshamah" of life into the material shape of the creature-to-be. This
same word is used elsewhere to denote the "breath of life" in a living
organism.
"And,
behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all
flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; [and] every
thing that [is] in the earth shall die." Genesis 6:17
"All
in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry
land, died." Genesis 7:22
"For
the life of the flesh is in the blood:" Leviticus 17:11 This was written
long before it was discovered that blood cells capture oxygen (breath) and carry
this gas to the body through arteries. The statement is therefore literally
true.
"The
Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me
life." Job 33:4
The
word for "soul" is "nephesh" and in 754 places it means
"living organism". This means that God’s warning to Adam and Eve
that if they disobeyed they would bring the sentence of "dying you shall
die" upon themselves - and all creation, since it was part of their
dominion was included under this sentence - and so when an organism dies, what
happens is that God withdraws His "neshamah" or "breath of
life" from it. Logically, this means that Christians and non-Christians,
and animals are all equal in this respect.
Some
people might object to the thought that Christians and animals share the same
fate. This objection is dealt with more fully later on, but first let us look at
Ecclesiastes 3:18 - 21 :
"I
said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might
manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
For
that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them:
as the one dies, so dies the other; yes, they have all one breath; so that a man
has no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
All
go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who
knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes
downward to the earth?"
From
the above passage we see that :
1.
Animals (beasts) are the same as humans
2.
Animals and humans both die
3.
Animals and humans share the same breath
4.
Animals and humans both return to dust
5.
Humans are not better in any way from animals in this regard
6.
Animals and humans go to the same place
7.
The spirit (breath) of animals and humans is undetectable.
The
last part is a rhetorical question. In light of what we already know, and the
context of this question, we can see that the question must be answered by words
"Nobody knows where the breath goes."
Ecclestiastes
9:1 - 6 shows that there is no communication between the living and the dead :
"For
all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous,
and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knows either love
or hatred by all that is before them.
All
things come alike to all: there is one event (death) to the righteous, and to
the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that
sacrifices, and to him that sacrifices not: as is the good, so is the sinner;
and he that swears, as he that fears an oath.
This
is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event
to all: yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is
in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
For
to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is
better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die: but the
dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory
of them is forgotten.
Also
their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have
they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun."
So
obviously it is utterly futile to try to contact the dearly departed, since
"the dead know not any thing" and "neither have they a portion in
any thing that is done under the sun" i.e. "in the land of the
living."
This
shows that Satan’s lie "You shall not surely die" has been carried
on for thousands of years, in the form of seances, ghosts, poltergeists, Ouija
boards, wizards, witches, mediums and so on. There are now hundreds of
television programs which promote the idea that there is life after death, and
the Protestant Church has also fallen into this deadly trap by suggesting that
when Christians die they go to heaven. The Roman Church has gone even further,
by placing Mary on the Throne beside her Son, and by elevating Saints to
positions of power and influence over people’s lives.
The
New Testament
is completely consistent with the genesis teaching, although some Christians
like to pull certain New Testament verses away from their context and make their
own doctrines out of them. This is always possible, provided the foundations are
forgotten. This is usually the way cults grow, and false teachings arise.
Returning
to Genesis 2:7 - "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul." Let us go to 1 Corinthians 15:35 - 55 :
"But
some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
You
fool, that which thou sow is not made alive, except it dies (first):
And
that which thou sow, you sow not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may
chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
But
God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
All
flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another
flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
There
are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the
celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
There
is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differs from another star in glory.
So
also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in
incorruption:
It
is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is
raised in power:
It
is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body,
and there is a spiritual body.
And
so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was
made a quickening spirit.
Howbeit
that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward
that which is spiritual.
The
first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
As
is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly.
And
as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the
heavenly.
Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold,
I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality.
So
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory.
O
death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?"
From
the above passage, we see that :
1.
Some foolish person has suggested that God will raise us from the grave in the
bodies we have now - frail, weak, ageing, disintegrating vessels, fit only for
the rubbish.
2.
The resurrection will be graded, with each Christian being raised in a new body.
3.
The bodies we are given will relate in some way to the way we have lived as
Christians. This is brought out by the comparison between different tars - some
are brighter than others.
4.
We have inherited the doomed earthly body of Adam, so, like Adam we must also
die.
5.
We will receive our new, immortal bodies "at the last trump" that is,
when Jesus returns. Our immortal lives begin at the resurrection, and not before
then.
6.
When we receive our new bodies, then will death be defeated - and not before
then. Logically, if when we die we go straight to heaven, we have not really
died, so the prediction that death will be defeated at the return of Christ is
nonsensical.
2
Corinthians 5:1 - 10 :
"For
we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For
in this (body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house
which is from heaven:
If
so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
For
we that are in this tabernacle (tent) do groan, being burdened: not for that we
would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life.
Now
he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto
us the earnest of the Spirit.
Therefore
we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are
absent from the Lord:
For
we walk by faith, not by sight:
We
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
present with the Lord.
Wherefore
we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
For
we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may
receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad."
The
above passage can be put into other words, without damaging the essential
meaning :
"For
we know that if our present body is destroyed, we have a new future body, made
by God, waiting for us in heaven. This new body was not made out of soil, as
Adam’s body was. For in the body we have now, we feel incomplete, while we
look forward longingly for the new body to come. But when we lose this present
body, we won’t be suddenly exposed. (There are no ‘transition’ bodies. We
long for the new body right now - not that we actually want to die - but that we
may receive our immortal body.
It
is the Spirit of God who gives us this longing, and it is God who has prepared
our new bodies for us. Therefore, we are confident that, even if we die, we will
always end up with God (This solves the problem of getting to God in our present
body - an impossibility. To solve this, God has prepared a new body, which can
withstand being in His presence).
For
we walk by faith, not by sight: (that is, we live our lives believing that one
day we will receive our new bodies - even though we haven’t see them yet)
We
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from our present body, and
to be present with the Lord. (Not instantly, but eventually, after we have died
and ‘slept’ in the grave for a while)
So
we work hard as Christians, and try to honour God in every way, because one day
we must all stand before God’s Throne. Everything we do now adds up to a
reward. There will be some good rewards, some not so good rewards. (These
rewards include different kinds of body - some glorious, some not so glorious.)
Having
see that Paul longed for his new body, and that this new body was ready for him
at the time he stood before God, we go to 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 17.
"But
I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep
(the dead saints), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also
which sleep (have died) in Jesus will God bring with him. (That is bring
up from the graves)
For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (go ahead of) them which are
asleep (dead).
For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord".
From
the above we see that :
1.
All Christians will eventually die
2.
Death rules until the day when Jesus returns
3.
All the dead Christians will come back to life
4.
Jesus will descend from heaven and the resurrected Christians will rise to meet
Him.
5.
Christians alive when Jesus returns will not go ahead of the Christians who are
being raised.
Obviously,
if the Christians are in their graves, and resurrected when Jesus comes,
they cannot also be in heaven, coming with Jesus. Christians alive at the
moment of the return of Christ will receive their new bodies instantly. There is
equality here. No saints are treated partially - even Adam, Abraham, David,
Solomon, and all the prophets, and all the great Christian leaders of the past
2000 years - will all be raised together.
The
Passover
was a type of the death and resurrection of Jesus. In its literal nature
it predicted the reality of what Jesus literally went through, though on a
deeper level. Exodus 12. The lamb was killed for the Passover, as were
all the sacrifices listed in Leviticus. The Bible says that "the life is in
the blood" - Lev. 17:14, 19:26, Deut.12: 16-23. In the same way Jesus
poured out His blood, His life, for sinners. It would hardly do to find that the
lamb was only injured, or hurt, for the Passover. The type shows the reality of
the anti-type - Jesus literally died, and in this He trusted His Father to raise
Him from the tomb. Because it happened this way for Jesus, why should Christians
expect anything else to happen when they die?
Someone
might object to this line of reasoning, and point out that at the
Transfiguration, two of the Old Testament prophets were seen, apparently
alive. If this was the case, surely it means that at least two men made it to
heaven before the return of Christ? If this is so, then we have a direct
contradiction of all that the Bible has said - an impossibility of course, since
God cannot lie, neither does He contradict Himself.
Matthew
17:9 "And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying,
Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the
dead". In the account we see that the disciples were "heavy with
sleep" when the "vision" ocurred. A vision is not the same as a
reality. It is an illustration, or a picture, or a prophetic visual effect.
One
interpretation of this "vision" is that Moses represented Old
Testament believers who had died believing in God’s promises, and that
Elias represented Old Testament believers who had been alive and
believing - a type of Christians who will be alive and believing when Jesus
returns. Elias, or Elijah, was the prophet who was parted from Elisha by a
chariot, and taken up into the sky by a whirlwind. Apparently he died in mid-air
- perhaps this was one way of destroying his body, which would have become a
source of ‘holy relics’ if it had been buried? There are other
interpretations, but the main thing is it was a "vision" and not proof
of life after death.
Another
objection is that of The Rich man and Lazarus, in Luke 16: 19-31. One
thing which the Church of England maintains is that no parable should be used as
a basis for doctrine. A quick glance at this parable will show why. IF we
take this parable literally, some of the conclusions we would come to are
:
1.
Rich men go to hell because they are wicked,
2.
Poor men go to heaven because they have a hard life,
3.
People in hell can send messages to people in heaven,
4.
God compensates people depending on whether they are rich or poor,
5.
Angels carry dead people away when they die,
6.
Abraham is a sort of god in heaven who can dispense blessings on request,
7.
Abraham is really tough and shows no mercy to suppliants.
Taken
as a parable, the story Jesus told is really an illustration of
things pertaining to the Jewish nation and the people of the house of Israel.
Taken as literally true the story destroys and contradicts several
major doctrines, including the one which states that death claims us all and
there we remain until the resurrection.
Another
objection is based loosely on Paul’s reference to a mystical state which he
calls "the third heaven", in 2 Corinthians 12:2 - 5.
"I
knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot
tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) such an one caught
up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or
out of the body, I cannot tell: God knows;) How that he was caught up into
paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter.
Of
such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine
infirmities".
That
there is a place called "the third heaven" is not in dispute, and that
someone was taken there is also accepted, but the above passage is not a basis
for saying that when we die we go to heaven.
What
we have here is a very humble account, by Paul, of an experience he himself had.
Paul does not want to brag, or make out that he is in any way better than other
Christians. He speaks in a distant way - "I knew a man" - about
himself, and describes his visions as so wonderful he could not tell whether he
actually went somewhere or stayed where he was. Two other believers who had
similar experiences were Ezekiel (8:3) and John (Rev.1:10).
Jonah
illustrates the literal death and literal resurrection of Jesus. Jonah was
swallowed by the sea creature, and literally perished, but God brought Jonah
back to life three days later.
Jonah
1:17 - "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And
Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Matthew
12:40 "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth".
Jonah
actually describes his imminent death in 2:3-6, where his rapid words and
thoughts are all in the past tense, which shows what he went through just before
he died. Because Jonah really died, Jesus also really died, to fulfil Jonah’s
experience. Logically, if we assume that Jonah didn’t really die, but lay
comatose inside the sea creature, then we have to believe that Jesus also did
not die, but went in some conscious spirit-form to some other place and waited
for the three days to run their course. If this was so, then the ‘death’
Jesus died for sinners was a sham, and Christians cannot rely on a literal
resurrection from a literal death. In other words, if Jonah and Jesus did not
really die, then Satan’s lie must be true, and death has lost a great deal of
its ‘sting’.
The
"resurrection"
, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is a word which means (1.) The rising of
Christ from the grave, (2.) The coming to life of the dead at the last day.
What
exactly happened when Christ rose from the dead is a matter of debate, as there
are several views, but the main thing about the event is that, for at least two
whole days or 48 plus hours, the Son of God was totally separated from the
Father. (The ‘day’ for the Jews meant a portion of a day as well.) It was
not a matter of His moving about in some ‘spirit’ form, conscious and mobile
as a human except without a fleshly body. God did not say to Adam and Eve
"In the day you eat of that fruit, your body will die. Death means
death, not ‘half-death’ or ‘quarter-death’.
In
Matthew 27:50 it says "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice,
yielded up the ghost." In Luke 23:46 he "gave up the ghost".
Literally, this means that Jesus breathed his last, or breathed out his last
breath of air. The word ‘ghost’ can also be translated "air"
depending on the context. So Jesus literally gave his life - it was not the
crucifixion which killed him, or the whipping, or the hunger, or the pain. At
any moment Jesus could have reversed his situation and jumped from the cross,
perfectly healed. It was his own deliberate choice to force the air from his
lungs and then refuse to breath in again - the lamb of God, come to die for
sinners, yielding his own life for you and me.
Logically,
if dying on the cross meant nothing more than moving into some 'spirit' world,
then Jesus did not, in a manner of speaking, ‘die far enough’, because that
kind of death would not have been sufficient to redeem humans, who die
completely and absolutely.
The
resurrection was not a new idea.
It is implied or promised, in different ways, through the Old testament. For
example :
The
first indication that God intended humans to live forever is in the
unfinished sentence in Genesis :
"And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever . . ." Genesis 3:22. God could have added "
. . . if he lives for ever as a rebel, he will become an immortal monster."
But
God gave Mankind a possible way to earn immortality - by keeping the Law. If
humans kept the whole Law perfectly, they would be able to stay alive for ever.
Of course this was, and always is, impossible, because of the inherent
imperfection of human nature, so the best the Law-keeper can hope for is
forgiveness - provided they offer the right sacrifices.
You
shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgements: which if a man do,
he shall live in them:". Leviticus 18:5
Righteous
Job believed in the resurrection : "If a man die, shall he live again? all
the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come". Job
14:14
"The
meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your
heart shall live for ever". Psalm 22:26
The
resurrection is clearly foretold in Psalm 72, which is all about the coming
Messiah :
"And
he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also
shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised". Psalm
72:15
The
resurrection could be implied in David’s words : "I shall not die, but
live, and declare the works of the LORD". Psalm 118:17
Ezekiel
repeated the promise of law-keeping :
"Nevertheless
if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he does not
sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also you have
delivered your soul". Ezekiel 3:21
"And
I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgements, which if a man do, he
shall even live in them". Ezekiel 20:11
"And,
behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?
He
said unto him, What is written in the law? how do you read it?
And
he answering said, You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your
neighbour as thyself.
And
he said unto him, You have answered right: this do, and you shall live.
Luke
10:25-28
In this case, the man who wanted to gain immortality through obedience to the
Law was convicted of failure to love his neighbour. God offers "life"
to anyone who can keep His Law, the reason being that when anyone tries, they
fail, and realise their need for help.
See
also Rom.10:5, Gal.3:12, Neh.9:29, Hab.2:4, Rom.1:17 and Heb.10:38.
The
curious case of Enoch
There
are some who say that one or two believers went to heaven in Old Testament
times, such as Enoch, and Elijah (2Kings 2:9), and perhaps Moses and one
or two others. In the case of Enoch at least the evidence seems very clear :
"And
Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him". Genesis
5:24
This
verse, it is assumed, means that Enoch was going about his daily business one
day when all of a sudden he disappeared, and arrived in God’s presence in a
twinkling. Enoch was a godly man, the Bible says, therefore he was a suitable
subject for heaven.
"By
faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not
found, because God had translated him: for before his translation
he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Hebrews 11:5
The
word "translate" (Greek - ‘metatithemi’ ) = means "to
transfer to another place".
What
do we know about Enoch? Several clear facts :
1.
He walked with God - that is, he communed regularly with God. As Adam did.
2.
He was the seventh from Adam (Jude14)
3.
He prophesied by faith (Heb.11:5) therefore he was Divinely instructed
(Rom.10:17)
4.
He ‘walked with God" for 300 years before God took him.
5.
Like Elijah, Enoch also went to heaven without having to go through a
resurrection (2Kings 2:1,11)
These
two men are the only clear examples of humans entering heaven without having to
die first, and as such they stand in stark contrast to the majority of believers
who have had to go the other way. Exceptions, we know, prove the rule. Just as
Jesus overcame death, when millions of others failed, so God saw fit to
demonstrate His power in the lives of these two sinners.
There
is a huge difference between translation and resurrection.
-
Translation means taking a living human and conveying them directly to
heaven, presumably replacing their mortal body with an immortal one during the
process.
-
Resurrection means raising a dead human and restoring them, complete with
a new body. - Translation occurs before the 2nd Advent, resurrection
occurs at the time of the 2nd Advent.
-
Translation is for the godly only, resurrection is for all who have died, godly
and ungodly.
If
there were any other saints in heaven we might expect the Bible to tell us, but
it does not. In fact, it says the opposite. For example king David is definitely
not in heaven :
"For
David is not ascended into the heavens:" Acts 2:34
And
Jesus is called the "firstfruits of them that slept" :
"But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them
that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead.
For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
But
every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that
are Christ's at his coming. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23. (See context also)
Notice
the sequence. Christ is the firstfruits, then afterward, that is at his 2nd
Advent, the believers. Everything in the right order. Jesus himself stated much
the same thing, in John 5:21-29, 11:23-26. Also Heb.9:27. As I read it, there is
but one general resurrection, in which all believers and unbelievers will be
raised back to life, and join the people living at the time. From this vast
crowd God will draw out the worthy saints and catch them up to his aerial
position, then judgements will begin on those who are left.
One
other objection
is the vision which king Saul supposedly had of Samuel. 1Sam.28:7-19. In this
account, Saul sought out a medium, to "divine" for him (v.8) by
"a familiar spirit". This was necromancy, a practise soundly condemned
by God. It was and still is, based on the idea that the living can contact the
dead, but as we have already seen, there is no communication between the living
and the dead. Obviously necromancy and other similar practises, are either a
fraud, or demonic, since it is very helpful to Satan if he can seemingly
contradict God’s word. God said that sinners must die, but if
‘dying’ means moving into a ‘spirit world’ where life continues,
then Satan has seemingly proven God wrong.
In
the necromancer’s house the woman fearfully summoned Samuel, and said that she
saw "an old man . . . and he is covered with a mantel". Saul decided
that this must be Samuel and the demonic impostor delivered a message which was
already fairly obvious.
There
are many discrepancies in this account. The first one is the fact that Saul did
not see the vision, but assumed the "old man" must be Samuel. Also,
the "old man" was wearing a mantel - what happened to the grave
clothes? And if Samuel was still an "old man" what does this say about
the blessings of heaven?
Another
discrepancy is the fact that in 1Sam.28:6 we are told that "when Saul
enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor
by Urim, nor by prophets."
Saul
disobeyed God by consulting a spiritist, an action forbidden by the Law. It is
hardly likely that God would allow Samuel to come to the bidding of a wicked man
in a seance!
Saul
perceived only what he wanted to, and went entirely on what the woman told him.
The evil spirit impersonated Samuel, just as they still do today, and all it
said was what was already well known - see 2Chron.18:19-22.
(There
is also a subtle side-issue objection, which hinges on semantics, so, for the
record here is how it works. On the one hand we read that Saul "enquired
of the Lord, and the Lord answered him not", yet, on the other hand 1
Chron.10:13,14 says "He asked counsel of one that had a familiar spirit . .
. and enquired not of the Lord". This looks like a contradiction,
but it is not.
In
the first text the word for "enquire" is shaal = to ask or consult. In
the second text the word for "enquire" is darash = to seek with the
whole heart. (As in Psalm 77:2 and 119:10) Saul plainly consulted the Lord, in
the same way that he consulted the witch of Endor, but Saul did not seek with
his whole heart in submission and humility.)
Additional
notes :
A
prophetic picture of creation
is seen in Ezekiel 37. First the bones are clothed with flesh, then the bodies
stand up, but they are still dead until the breath is put into them. Life comes
from the breath of God (v.9). Dead souls become living souls when oxygen enters
their blood stream.
God
is called the "God of the spirits of all flesh"
- Num.16:22, 27:16 and also Luke 23:46, Acts 7:59. And the "Father of
spirits" in Heb.12:9. The ‘spirits’ means ‘the breaths’.
Ecclesiastes
12:7 The breath of God
is taken back from the soul (nephesh) resulting in the death of the soul.
"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it".