Friday, January 25, 2013

C - Life, Death, Life Hereafter - 3


C – LIFE, DEATH, LIFE HEREAFTER – 3
James Gibbons from Sword and Staff
Patriarchal anticipation

In retrospect, the writer of the book of Hebrews in the N.T., looking back at the old patriarchs of long ago, seems to have a deeper insight into their thinking than we do.  In that great chapter on the heroes of faith, he wrote (Heb.11:8-10) By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went.  By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:  For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.  Then we further read (Heb.11:13-16) These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.  Obviously, they had hope of life beyond the grave, although their knowledge was incomplete.  The Savior had not come.

Unexpected Expressions of Hope

During this span of time called the Old Testament, in the Psalms we find David extolling his relationship to God as his good shepherd.  And, finally, these unexpected words appear in Ps.23:6.  …and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Then Daniel in his marvelous prophetic writings from Babylonian Captivity anticipated another time of great trouble for the people of God, but encouragingly looking ahead, said, (Dan.12:2,3) And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt…[Read Heb. 11:33-40 on your own.]  (Heb.11:35) Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.  This was before the coming of Christ.  It seems that in their dealing with God they had assuredly come to a decided conviction that there was life after death.  It was only left to the coming of the Savior to spell out the details and to fully confirm their assurance of this awakened hope.

The “Seed” and the Resurrection

In keeping with the promise of the coming “seed” (Gen.3:15), we read many other related Scriptures.  Gen.12:1-3;  Gen.18:18;  Gen.26:4;  Gen.28:14   There are others.  Prophetic words of the book of Psalms (sometimes veiled in language almost obscure to our modern mentality) sets the stage for the great things to come, and in the process of their being fulfilled the truths become plainly evident.  Sometimes it involves language, not only having reference to the first David, but with a dual and spiritual reference and application to the second David, Christ (the type and anti-type harmoniously corresponding).  In several such Scriptures we find truths that are highlighted in the N.T.
Ps.2:1,2  (Acts 4:25,26);  Ps.16:10 (Acts 13:35);  Ps.22:1,7 (Matt.27:43,46);  Ps.118:22 (1 Pet.2:6,7)  We find one psalm, among others, that was effectively used by the early preachers in preaching the gospel, that is, Ps.16:8-10.  …for thou will not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.  Acts 2:26-28   In anticipation, it looked forward to the resurrection of someone from the dead, even before their body had time to decay.  Obviously these words didn’t refer to the first David as would be explained in the N.T.

Prevalent Conviction and Hope

As the O.T. age was drawing to a close, there seemed to be a settled conviction among believing Jews that there would be a resurrection and life after death (and with a lingering anticipation they looked forward to the fulfillment of Gen.3:15).  However, their society had been put into an upheaval by the cultural wars in the years that followed the conquests of Alexander the Great (and its subdivision among his generals).Two opposing schools of thought emerged among the Jews, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  The Sadducees largely imbibed the Greek thinking while the Pharisees staunchly stood for the old ways.  Acts 23:8   Paul pretty well summed up the state of affairs then when he says that the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.  The hypothetical case made up by the Sadducees of the woman who had successively been married to 7 different brothers, and they die, as to whose wife she would be in the resurrection, typifies the ongoing clash between the two views.  This is found in Matt.22:23-33.  What Jesus said to the Jews in Jhn.5:39 fits in with the answer he gave to the rich young ruler, who asked him, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?  Jesus answers in Mk. 10:19-21.  Jesus pointed to the Ten Commandments (the Jewish way of thinking), attesting to their belief in life after death.  According to Paul, not only did they believe in the resurrection in spite of their incomplete O.T. revelation, that string of promises that we find throughout the Bible of the coming one had been kept very much alive (that hope of the one who would crush the head of the serpent in victory over death).  In his defense before the Jews, Paul spoke of the resurrection from the dead.  Acts 26:6-8;  Acts 28:20



Life, Death, Life Hereafter - 2


B – LIFE, DEATH, LIFE HEREAFTER – 2
This is lesson 2 taken from Sword and Staff by
James Gibbons

Belief in Life after Death before the Coming of Christ
Early Impressions


Although we don’t understand all that is involved, there is mention of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden and the possibility of man partaking of it and living indefinitely. Gen.3:22-24   But man’s fallen state after eating of the forbidden fruit (Gen.2:17; Gen.3:19) and that of subsequent generations was one of death (“and he died”  Gen.5:5, 8,11,14,17,20) with the chain being temporarily broken one time in those early days by Enoch.  Gen.5:24   And Enoch walked with God:  and he was not; for God took him.  Heb.11:5, in commenting on this, says, 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.  At an early time in man’s history this implied the reality of life beyond this earthly existence.

But more specifically, a continuing struggle and climaxing victory over the serpent (Satan), and thus sin and death, had been spoken by God with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden in the veiled prophetic words of Gen.3:15.  Finally, the “seed” of woman would be involved in bringing about this triumph.  And I will put enmity between thee (Satan) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise (crush) they head, and thou shalt bruise (strike) his heel.  Gal.4:4   Notice in this Scripture and the use of the Genesis terminology in Rom.16:20 shows us the spiritual significance of the expression.

He “Was Gathered to His People”

Then intriguing references are found throughout the book of Genesis in speaking of death, which we are at a loss to fully understand.  When Abraham passed from this life, we read in Gen.25:8.  Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.  Of Isaac it is said with similar expression in Gen.35:29.  And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people.  Later Jacob died in Egypt, but had expressed a desire to be buried back in Palestine in the cave of MachpelahGen.49:29   On his death bed, having pronounced the prophetic blessings about his sons, (Gen.49:33) he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.  Being “gathered unto his people” seems to mean more than just being buried with them in the same graveyard.  Jacob was “gathered to his people” before his body was taken back to Palestine to be interned in the cave of Machpelah.  Likewise, an earlier reference stating that Abraham would “go to his fathers in peace” does not mean that he would be buried in the same graveyard with them.  “His fathers” died and were buried in the East country (countries) before he came into Palestine.  Could there be a clue to understanding this in the parabolic language Jesus used when speaking of Lazarus being in Abraham’s bosom?  Lk.16:22   This was beyond death.  Perhaps Christ best implements our understanding of all of this when He, in His rebuttal of the Sadducees refers to the burning bush experience Moses had with God.  Matt.22:32   I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  Jesus explained this by saying, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  When God says, I am the God of…,it is in the present tense—not “I was the God of…”  God was still their God and it is implied that they still were very much alive, though their spirits had been separated from their earthly bodies hundreds of years before.  God is not the God of annihilated entities no longer in existence.  Luke’s account augments our understanding even more with his fuller version of the Lord’s statement in Lk.20:38.  For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him (including those who have passed from this present life being still alive in a different situation).  Although cloaked in obscurity (the Savior had not yet come), there was life beyond the grave.

Job’s Unanswered Question

During this benighted period of time another matter gets our attention.  A man named Job was personally going through the most awful ordeal.  It seemed that he had mercilessly been left at the disposal of the devil.  In the midst of unspeakable sufferings and trials, which he could not understand, he was having to deal with the perplexing questions of life and death.  In anguish of soul he cried out in Job 14:14.  If a man die, shall he live again?  Earlier in this 14th chapter of Job he vents his feelings of anguish, beginning with Job 14:1,2.  Man…is cut down:  he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.  Then he ponders.   Job 14:7-10   He compares man to the hope of a tree which will sprout again after it is cut down.  But man dieth…giveth up the ghost, and where is he?  That brings  him to the distressful question that we have noticed.  At this point in time he did not have a clear-cut answer to this question, but he hoped and believed that he would, All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.  Job 14:14   He makes more of an affirmative statement later in Job 19:25-27.  But the answer had not been explicitly  given yet, only anticipated.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A-Life, Death and Life Hereafter-1


A - LIFE, DEATH and LIFE HEREAFTER - 1
This article was written by James Gibbons and comes from the periodical,
              Sword and Staff.  I was given permission to use this for a study.

Life and Death of Man Initially Considered
The Human Entity

Man is created in the image and likeness of God.  Gen.1:26,27    God is a spirit.  Jhn.4:24; Lk.24:39   He is called the father of spirits.  Heb.12:9   He is our heavenly Father.  Matt.6:9   Man is a spirit-being clothed with a physical body, spiritually bearing the image and likeness of his Father in heaven (which is spirit).  We are told in Gen.2:7 that God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [spirit]; and man became a living soul...  A parallel verse to this, showing the composition of man is found in 1 Thess.5:23.  …spirit and soul and body...Here we have the spirit, soul and body highlighted as they are converged in being a human entity.  God formed the body of man into which He breathed..the breath of life [spirit]. 

Elihu, the one who spoke after Job and his three “friends” had finished (evidently speaking from common knowledge), said The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.  Job 33:4   As a result of the spirit coming into the body, the animated life of man came into being and is called the soul (although sometimes soul may be spoken of in the sense of spirit as the eternal essence of man).  It seems originally man was created with the potential to live indefinitely in this physical body.

Human Life,
Sacred and Astounding

Human life coming directly from God, and being created in His very image and likeness, is especially sacred.  The Psalmist, contemplating man and the wonder of it all, said I will praise thee [God]; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made… Ps.139:14—an interesting psalm to read.  Although Adam and Eve had sinned, making us a fallen race, we are impressed at what Eve said with the birth of her first son.  We read, (Gen.4:1) And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.  An amazing thing had taken place as human life was passed on in an off-spring.  And the life of the unborn is sacred, even in the inferior O.T. order of things.  Ex.21:22-25   In view of the dignity and sacredness of life, and God being the author of it, how alarming that millions of babies have been and are being aborted in our society today!  There is a great day of judgment coming!

What Takes Place in Death

Man was created and placed in the beautiful garden home of Eden.  He was given a prohibitive law, which had a positive and negative aspect, so that he could exercise himself in the capacity of being a free moral agent.  Gen.2:16,17   …of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  After Adam and Eve sinned, God said to man.  Gen.3:19   …till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.  The physical part of the entity would be disengaged, with the body going back to the elements.  But Ecc.12:7 lets us see the larger picture of what takes place in death.  Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Further Thoughts about Death

From this we see that death is a separation, not annihilation.  The spirit is separated from the body in death, thus taking life from the body.  The spirit goes back to God.  Death being a separation is verified by Jam.2:26, where James is dealing with the subject of works.  It reads, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.  When Stephen was being stoned to death in Acts 7:59,  he cried out,  Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.  Upon saying this, he fell asleep [died].  Acts 7:60  

In raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, Christ said (Lk.8:54,55)  “Maid, arise.”  And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway; and He commanded to give her meat [food].  Initially, when Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually (were separated from God).  Then after many long, hard and toilsome years, they died physically (Gen.5:5; Gen.3:19), with the spirit returning to God.  (The tragic story is subsequently repeated with each successive generation—and he died.  [Gen.5:8,11,14,17,20, etc.]—with the exception of Enoch, [Gen.5:24] and later Elijah. 2 Kgs.2:11  

Then the apostle Paul sums up the situation by saying, (Rom.5:12) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.  And as we can undeniably attest, the earth became one big grave yard.  Heb.9:27   …as it is appointed unto men once to die…