Kingdom Ready Blog

Here’s the 6th installment in this series:

Biblical Common Sense – Death – An ENEMY!

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:26 says: “The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” Now everyone knows what an enemy is. It is someone or something that harms or opposes us.  However the typical sentiment one hears at a mainstream Christian funeral is that death has taken the deceased to a “better place”.  Other variants often expressed can be “God has called so and so home”, or “The Lord needed another member of heaven”.  But does anyone stop and think about what this actually means?  Such ideas mean that death isn’t so bad.  For the saved, death would be taking us to the best possible place we could ever hope to be!

Recently, I was asked by an inquirer how I understand the text where Jesus seems to say he will raise himself from the dead.

John 2.19-22
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it.” Then the Jews said, “This temple was built for forty-six years, and will you raise it in three days?” But that one spoke concerning the temple of his body. Therefore when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus spoke.

Here’s the 5th installment in this series:

Biblical Common Sense – Death – Usage of the Sleep Metaphor

I’ve been to several funerals the last few years where I have heard the preachers often say that the deceased is now “more alive than ever” up in heaven.  Yet this runs counter to the most consistent description used in The Bible in reference to the dead. A description that isn’t something that means energized and alert, but the exact opposite with the word “sleep”.  Of course this is a metaphor (something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else) to describe the death.  This metaphor is repeatedly used throughout many of the Old Testament books.

Here’s the 4th installment in this series:

Biblical Common Sense – Death – You shall surely NOT die!

In all of God’s Holy Scripture, there’s not a single verse that tell us that human beings have an immortal soul. In fact the very word “immortal” is used only once in 1 Timothy 1:17 and there it refers once again only to God Himself.

However there is a verse in the Bible that does promote the idea that we don’t really die.  That verse would be none other than Genesis 3:4.

I thought this was a fascinating video about near death experiences. At death the brain loses oxygen and the patient hallucinates. The bright light is probably not a portal to heaven but the operating light shining on them from above. In the following video scientists experiment with airplane pilots in high-g scenarios for training. They make the case that there is a parallel between pilots who pass out in the simulators and those who have near death experiences. Check it out if you are interested. The video is about five minutes.

Here’s the next installment (Part 3) on death.

Here’s the next section (Part 2) on death.

Biblical Common Sense – Death – Who Possesses Immortality?

One might ask, is anyone naturally in possession of immortality? Yes! Scripture in fact clearly indicates who already has immortality.

1 Timothy 1:17 “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

1 Timothy 6:15-16  “which He will bring about at the proper time– He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”

Finally, after way too long of a delay since posting the first third (about Jesus) of my lengthy paper entitled “A Common Sense Approach to the Biblical Presentation of Jesus, Death, & THE Devil”, here is the 2nd main topic – DEATH.

Like the first section on Jesus (started on KR here: Biblical Common Sense – Intro – What & Why), this has several sub-sections that are best published in smaller, easier to read sections here on KR.  So for my next several posts, I’ll add the sections that follow one another.  I’ll also try to provide all the links at the end of each post to the entire series just for reference.

Alright, time for me to get back on track and start the New Year right with a post in Week #1!  So here we go with something short & easy.

Before Christmas I uncovered in a packed-away attic box – a TON more pamphlets, books, leaflets, and other treasures of theology that my parents had collected back in their day.  There’s a ton of stuff from individuals, Advent Christian publishers, The Restitution Herald (in Oregon Illinois), and the Layman’s Home Missionary Movement.  This particular one here is from the Layman’s – or LHMM for short.  There’s no copyright or published date on it so I’m not sure from when it originates.  But I’d guess from the 1940′s – 1960′s.  I saw the title listed on another site associated with the LHMM, but not the actual content of the piece.  Therefore I thought I would re-publish it to the world-wide-web for all to enjoy.

Note: this post is essentially a “follow-up” to my last post – which dealt with the question of “Is any knowledge required for salvation?”. That post can be found here.

Introduction

From my experience, most mainstream Christians have a rather limited understanding about the topic of death. Essentially, most Christians believe that death is a one-time, permanent event. In other words, most Christians hold that when a person dies, his physical body disintegrates – and that his body will never be re-created, ever again.