The Young Man & His Reason

January 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

A Christian once asked a young man if he wanted to believe in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. The young man answered, “No.” When the Christian asked him to give a reason for his refusal, he did so. The reason was this:

Several years ago, I was in a man’s kitchen. When he found me there he swore at me and kicked me out. That man was a professing Christian, and from that time I decided never to have anything to do with religion. And I never have to this day.

After hearing that, the Christian asked the young man to write the reason down, word for word, and sign it. The young man played along and did so. Then the Christian handed the signed document back to him and said, “Take this, and when you are asked for your excuse on the day of judgment, hand this up.”

We should learn two lessons from this illustration. First, we Christians should mind our behavior. We do untold damage to the cause of Christ when we our lives slip into sin and compromise. Second, there is no valid excuse for refusing to believe in Christ as Savior. If you think you have one, write it down, sign it, and carry it with you always. You can try using it in the afterlife. Don’t expect it to work, though.

Filed under Backsliding, Belief, Coming Judgment, death, Evangelism, God's Wrath, God's judgment, hell, Personal Holiness, salvation, Witnessing Tagged with , , ,

Peace On Earth?

December 22, 2011 3 Comments

What was it that those angels said on the night of Christ’s birth? The New King James Version renders it: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14) That translation simply follows the classic King James Version. Other translations, however, do a better job of conveying the meaning of the original Greek. Consider the following:

-The New America Standard: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

-The New International Version: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

-The Revised Standard Version: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

-The Holman Christian Standard: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!”

In case you are wondering why it’s important to nail down the translation so precisely, it’s because there are those who try to make something of the fact that Christ’s birth really didn’t bring peace on earth. Obviously, there have been untold numbers of wars since His birth, just as there were untold numbers of them before His birth. But as we see in these various other translations of the angels’quote, this argument reads something into the quote that actually isn’t there. The angels weren’t saying that there would be peace on earth. That wrong idea sprang from the inferior translation of the cherished King James Version. If the angels really were saying that Christ’s birth would bring peace on earth, why did Jesus Himself prophesy that the future would bring “wars and rumors of wars” and that “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom”? (Matthew 24:6-7) Even more than that, why did He flatly say, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword”? (Matthew 10:34)

Still, what we need to understand is that there will come a time when there will be peace on earth, and Jesus will be the cause of it. That time will be His 1,000 year reign upon this earth. Isaiah 2:4 describes it this way:

He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Of course, Christ’s 1,000 year reign isn’t here yet, is it? And according to Bible prophecy, a lot has to happen before it gets here. A detailed list of events and proof texts would go on for pages, but here at least are the major highlights:

-There has to be Christ’s snatching away of His people in what is called the Rapture. (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

-There has to be the rise of the Antichrist and his right hand man the False Prophet. (Revelation 13:1-18)

-There has to be a seven-year Tribulation period. (Daniel 9:20-27, Revelation chapters 6 through 18)

-There has to be a battle of Armageddon that climaxes the Tribulation period. (Revelation 16:12-16, 19:19)

-There has to be Christ’s Second Coming to literally walk this earth again and win the battle of Armageddon. (Revelation 19:11-21)

-There has to be the capturing of the Antichrist and the False Prophet and their banishing to the eternal lake of fire. (Revelation 19:20)

-There has to be the binding of Satan and the imprisoning of Him in the bottomless pit for the 1,000 years of Christ’s earthly reign. (Revelation 20:1-3)

-There has to be the great dividing between the living “lost” (those who took the so-called “mark of the beast” during the tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period) from the living “saved” (those who accepted Christ as Savior during the Tribulation period and lived to see the end of the period). (Matthew 25:31-46, Revelation 13:11-18)

-There has to be Christ’s formal establishing of His Kingdom throne in Jerusalem. (Psalm 2:6-12, Zephaniah 3:14-15, Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Daniel 2:44)

And so, you see, this world isn’t anywhere near ready for Jesus to reign over it in peace. As a matter of fact, the death tolls that will come from the battles and wars during the Tribulation period will be almost beyond belief (Revelation 6:3-8, 7:9-17, 9:13-19). This isn’t to say, though, that world peace isn’t one day coming. And who will bring it in? Not surprisingly, it will be the One who was born on that starry night so long ago. He is, after all, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

Filed under Angels, Christ's birth, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Return, Christmas, Coming Judgment, God's Timing, King James only, Prophecy Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

So Far, So Good

November 18, 2011 3 Comments

A man jumped off the Empire State building. As he went plunging down past the 50th floor, an onlooker spoke to him from an open window and said, “Well, how does it feel?” The jumper answered, “So far, so good.”

Just as that jumper didn’t grasp that the end of the story hadn’t been written yet, many people don’t understand that we shouldn’t judge God’s opinion of a situation based solely upon the current outlook. Take the great flood for instance. Genesis 6:3 tells us that God instituted nothing less than a 120-year countdown for that judgment:

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

(By the way, some have wrongly taught that this statement was God limiting the individual lifespan to 120 years. Long after the flood, however, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob each lived more than 120 years. So, clearly, the 120 years refers to how long it would be before the flood struck.)

Now imagine that you were a citizen of earth during those 120 years. Couldn’t you have said, “So far, so good”? Jesus spoke of the footloose and carefree attitude that people had during those years. He said:

“For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:38-39)

Right here I could really run with the fact that Bible prophecy teaches that this world has some dark days slated for its future. It’s hard to read Revelation chapters 6 through 19 and miss that. But I feel led to present the application in a different way. Rather than focus upon the coming judgment laid out in Bible prophecy, I want to ask you to examine your own life. Have you been engaging in some sin for which you haven’t paid the price yet? If the answer is yes, consider this post to be your wake-up call. God is longsuffering, but He isn’t foreversuffering. Just because you have gotten by with your sin so far, you shouldn’t take that to mean that you are untouchable. The truth is, you’re already on God’s countdown and a flood is headed your way. So why not repent of your sin today, confess it to Jesus, and lay hold of the forgiveness that comes with believing in Him as your personal Savior? If you don’t, all I can say is enjoy the free-fall while it lasts because you won’t like how it ends.

Filed under Backsliding, Coming Judgment, Forgiveness, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Personal Holiness, Repentance, Sin, Sowing and Reaping Tagged with , , , , , , ,

G.P.S. and Armageddon

July 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

For our vacation this year, Tonya and I borrowed a G.P.S. from her parents to help us with the driving. For anyone out there who doesn’t know, G.P.S. stands for Global Positioning System. Basically, a G.P.S. is a small computer that attaches to your windshield or dash and gives you highly specific directions on what roads to take and when to turn. It will even list local stores and restaurants in the area. All this is made possible by the fact that the computer links up to a satellite somewhere out in space and computerized information is relayed via the connection. I don’t want to understand the device much more than that because, frankly, it gets a little too creepy for me.

“What do you mean by that last statement?” Okay, I’ll tell you. First, the fact that the data concerning virtually every interstate, highway, and site location in the United States can be stored in a satellite system that mounts in your car is too Star Trek for me. When did we get smart enough to devise such technology? Second, if a satellite up in space can tell exactly where my Dodge Caravan is at any given time and place, who knows what else the powers that be know about me and mine? That’s too Big Brother for me. Third, by living in a world that has become so dependent upon computers, we seem to have ripened ourselves for some kind of cataclysmic technological meltdown in the future. And that’s a little too book of The Revelation for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really not the type to go around playing Chicken Little by saying, “The sky is falling.” I’m also not the type to grow a long beard, dress in weird clothing, and stand on a street corner holding a sign that reads, “The end of the world is near.” With that said, though, there is something about The Revelation that has aroused my curiosity for years. That something is the fact that the book seems to go out of its way to make mention of horses being used in battle in the future.

The passage I have in mind is Revelation 19:17-18, two verses which are found in the context of the book’s classic passage on the famous battle of Armageddon. They read:

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.”

The bloody carnage that will be on display in the wake of the battle of Armageddon will be unfathomable. Revelation 14:20 speaks of blood flowing as high as the horses’bridle (about four feet high) covering a distance of 1,600 furlongs (the approximate distance between the site of the battle of Armageddon and Edom in the south). Then, in addition to that verse, the words of Revelation 19:18 speak of untold numbers of corpses and carcasses that will become a great feast for the vulturous birds of the air. And here’s the point I’m trying to make: A bird can’t eat the remains of a tank, jeep, helicopter, fighter jet, or transport truck, but it can eat the remains of a horse. Because of this, how can we not interpret the horses at the battle of Armageddon to be literal horses?

Of course, I realize that this interpretation hinges upon the idea that the events of The Revelation are future events, and not everyone holds with this idea. But after studying the book for several years now and preaching through it twice, I side with the now predominantly held belief that the events are still to play out in the future. This world simply hasn’t yet seen the likes of all that is described in The Revelation.

And that brings us back to the matter of the literal horses at the coming battle of Armageddon. The question is, why will this world’s future soldiers be relegated to mounting horses? Could it be that there is coming a time when our vast array of military technology, technology which is based upon computers, will cease to function? Will someone invent a weapon that will render computers inoperative? Will this world one day be forced to endure a true Y2K-type event? While I freely confess that this is all mere speculation on my part, it’s certainly something to think about.

If it does happen, I suspect (and again I’m not preaching any of this as indisputable fact) that it will not take place until after the man the Bible calls the Antichrist has instituted his worldwide identification program known as “the mark of the Beast” (Revelation 13:16-18). That will take place at the midway point of the coming seven-year tribulation period. Students of prophecy puzzled for centuries as to how the Antichrist would be able to pull off such a worldwide program, but now, with computers having the power to store oceans of data and give us a cashless society, the puzzle is solved. So I’m guessing that all our computer technology will still be up and running at the half way point of the tribulation period.

You see, this is the kind of stuff that I think about when I use a device such as a G.P.S. I know, I know, I should just sit back and enjoy the ride, right? But give me credit for at least trying to understand how all of today’s computer wizardry factors into Bible prophecy. I may not have all the answers right, but at least I’m trying to take the test.

Filed under Bible Study, Christ's Second Coming, Coming Judgment, God's Word, Prophecy, Scripture Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Word About Lighthouses, Fire, & Wood

July 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

One foggy night a captain saw a faint light directly in the path of his ship. He ordered his signalman to send out the message: “Alter your course ten degrees south.” The signalman did so, but back came the reply: “Alter your course ten degrees north.”

With his pride hurt, the captain ordered that a second message be sent out: “Alter your course ten degrees south! I am a captain!” But back came the return message: “Alter your course ten degrees north! I am Seaman Third Class Jones.”

At this point the captain was enraged and ordered that a third message be sent: “ALTER YOUR COURSE TEN DEGREES SOUTH! I AM IN A BATTLESHIP!” But he had to concede defeat when back came the message: “ALTER YOUR COURSE TEN DEGREES NORTH! I AM IN A LIGHTHOUSE!”

Disagreeing with God’s written word, the Bible, is about like that captain expecting that lighthouse to move for him. In the end, either in this life or in eternity, that’s not an argument that you are going to win. God’s word has stood, is standing right now, and will continue to stand. You disagreeing with it won’t change it. You getting mad at it won’t alter it. You resisting it will only hurt you.

Jeremiah 5:14 is a very interesting verse. It reads:

Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.”

Notice that in this verse God compares His words to fire. When we think of fire, we think of its many advantageous uses. Fire can be used for illumination, cooking, warmth, purification, forging, etc. But God wasn’t telling Jeremiah that His words were going to be a blessing to the people of Judah. His point was, those words would destroy the people. The words would be the fire and the people would be the wood.

Here in America, we have reached a state as low as Judah’s. We argue with God’s word. We disagree with it. We doubt it. We scoff at it. We explain it away. We ridicule it. We ignore it. Therefore, as a nation, we stand as dried wood, ready to be consumed by the fire of God’s judgment.

Frankly, I wish that I could change this about America, but I can’t. I’m just one person. All I can do is remain true to God’s word and take my personal stand with it. Just as Jeremiah stood in stark contrast to the typical citizens of Judah, I can stand in such contrast to the typical citizens of my country. And the great news is that as I do this God’s word will become a source of blessing, not condemnation, to me. I will experience that word as a source of illumination, warmth, and purification. And isn’t that better than being dried out wood awaiting the fire?

Filed under Bible Study, Coming Judgment, God's Word, Personal Holiness, Reward, Scripture, The Bible, Trusting In God Tagged with , , ,

The Power of One

May 10, 2011 Leave a Comment

…one sinner destroys much good. (Ecclesiastes 9:18)

Wow, you talk about a statement with truth to it! These words from Ecclesiastes punch us right in the face, don’t they? What a sad but very real fact it is that just one person, acting in an ungodly manner, can ruin a ton of “good.”

And I’ll openly admit that I hate this about life. I mean, if God is really trying to fix this world, then He shouldn’t let one sinner destroy much good, right? We’re certainly never going to get much accomplished with that setup.

Ah, but there, you see, is the foundational flaw in our thinking. Please pull up close while I let you in on a secret the vast majority of people don’t know: God isn’t trying to fix this world. The noted preacher and author Warren Wiersbe is the man who helped me understand this. He says that rather than trying to save this world, God is saving people out of this world. I have to say that once I got a hold of that idea, life on planet Earth made a lot more sense to me.

Listen, I’m glad that Osama bin Laden has now been brought to his final justice, at least for this life. I’m also happy to hear that gas prices are expected to fall over the next few weeks. And the news that the economy is recovering and employment figures are on the rise is music to my ears. But make no mistake, this world (and that includes America) is still in an irreversible death spiral. Consider the following verses:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come… (2 Timothy 3:1)

But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)

Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. (1 John 2:18)

I assure you that the Bible is crystal clear in its teaching that this world is headed for dark, dark times. The climax of these times will be a seven-year period commonly referred to as “the tribulation period.” Getting even more specific, the last three-and-a-half years of that period will be the worst of the worst. How bad will those days be? Jesus said that unless they are shortened no one will be left alive on earth (Matthew 24:22). In other words, if God didn’t put a cap (a time limit) on those days, mankind would completely wipe himself off the face of the earth. Think about that!

“When will these perilous times begin?”, you ask. Well, would you believe that passages such as Hebrews 1:1-2 teach that the “last days” actually began when Jesus came into this world? This means that the momemtum for them has been building for some two thousand years now. Some day, perhaps today, Jesus will miraculously rapture His people away from this world (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; John 14:1-3). Sometime shortly after that moment in time, God’s official clock for the seven-year tribulation period will begin ticking. That clock will see the prophesied events of Revelation chapters 6 through 18 come to pass upon the earth. And that clock won’t stop ticking until Christ’s Second Coming at the famous Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:1-21). It is that battle that will finally signal the end of this age as Christ then establishes His one-thousand-year kingdom upon this earth (Revelation 20:1-6).

Now, tell me, does all of that sound like God is really working hard right now to fix the mess we have made of life on earth? No, it doesn’t. And that’s why He doesn’t always stop it when “one sinner destroys much good.” Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that God always lets the troublemaking sinner get away with his deeds. Neither am I saying that God wants us to just throw up our hands and give up on making this world a better place. But what I am saying is that we must always remember that this world has major Biblical prophecies hanging over it, and God isn’t going to cancel those out simply because one sinner now has the power to destroy much good.

Filed under Christ's Second Coming, Coming Judgment, Current Events, God's Timing, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Human Life, Influence, Prophecy Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The Foolish Man & His Diamond

May 5, 2011 Leave a Comment

A wealthy man sold all his possessions for cash and bought an incredibly expensive diamond. He put the diamond in his pocket and took a voyage from England to America. On the deck of the ship, he pulled out the diamond and began flipping it in his hand. Some of his fellow passengers warned him not to be so careless with something so valuable, but he took great delight in how much they worried over his actions. To increase that worrying, he walked over to the ship’s rail and started flipping the diamond there. But as you’ve probably already guessed, during one flip the ship lurched forward unexpectedly and the diamond went down into the sea.

True story? I’d be shocked if it was. No one would be so foolish, right? But the fact is that millions of people act even more foolishly every day as they take the ultimate gamble with the ultimate prize, their soul. What I mean is, they walk around literally one breath out of hell.

Oh, there I went and used an inconvenient word, didn’t I? In this modern era we aren’t supposed to use the word “hell” unless it is for the purposes of profanity or explaining where despicable people such as Osama bin Laden go in the afterlife. But the Bible is still God’s written word, and it still teaches that the souls of all those who die without Christ as Savior go to that awful place called hell.

The New Testament original Greek word for this place is Hades, and in Luke 16:19-31 no less an authority than Jesus Himself described it as a place of torment, flame, separation, remembrance, and regret. In Matthew 13:42, He called it “the furnace of fire” and said it produces “wailing” and “gnashing of teeth.” Obviously, Jesus didn’t shy away from letting people know just how gruesome hell is.

You say, “Okay Russell, I’ll go along with you that hell exists and that the souls of certain people go there in the afterlife. But God only sends murderers, terrorists, pedophiles, rapists, and all the other ‘worst of the worst’there.” Well, that certainly sounds logical and reasonable to our modern mindsets, but it simply isn’t correct theology. There are so many verses that I could cite here, but I’ll just use a few from the third chapter of the gospel of John:

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36)

And so, you see, the only way for you to escape the horrors of hell is to place your belief in Jesus as your personal Savior. Anything less than that and you are still flipping up the priceless diamond of your soul as you stand next to the ship’s rail of the afterlife. Why act so foolishly? If you’ve never done so, why don’t you ask Jesus to be your Savior right now?

Filed under Belief, Choices, Coming Judgment, death, God's Wrath, God's judgment, hell, Priorities, salvation Tagged with , , , , ,

The Awesome Seriousness of Unbelief

March 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

Revelation 21:7-8 contrasts the two potential eternal destinations. First, in verse 7, Jesus says:

“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be His God and he shall be My son.”

This brings up the all-important question, “How does one overcome?” We find that answer in 1 John 5:1,4-5, which says:

“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him…For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

So, when a person places his or her belief (faith) in Jesus Christ as Savior, that person becomes an “overcomer.” And all “overcomers” will spend eternity with Christ.

But now let’s turn to the other potential destination. Revelation 21:8 says:

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

You say, “I’m no coward. I’m not abominable. I’ve never murdered anyone. I’m not sexually immoral. I’m certainly not a sorcerer. I don’t have an idol that I worship. And I don’t lie.” Okay, I’ll give you credit for living a life of bravery and morality. But did you notice that the word “unbelieving” is also on that sordid list? And the “unbelief” in question relates to Jesus.

You see, even if you have the rest of the list covered, but you have not believed in Christ as Savior upon your death, you will experience what the verse calls “the second death.” And this “second death” is nothing less than spending eternity in “the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.”

This is how high the stakes are concerning your belief (or lack of it) in Jesus as Savior. Most people wouldn’t rate this unbelief as a heinous sin on par with the likes of murder, sexual immorality, or sorcery, but God does. As a matter of fact, while those other sins will all be forgiven the moment a person believes in Christ, there is no forgiveness to be found (in this life or eternity) for the sin of refusing to yield such belief.

Filed under Belief, Coming Judgment, death, Doing Good, faith, Forgiveness, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Heaven, hell, salvation Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Man’s Body

February 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

This will be the last post in a little three-part series on the subject of man’s spirit, soul, and body. This time we’ll deal with man’s body. I’ll grant you that the body is more easily understood than the spirit or the soul, but my guess is that there are still some important things that you need to learn about it.

The best way to describe yourself is like this: You are a soul; you possess a spirit; and you live in a body. Really, the only thing that others see of you is your body. Furthermore, whatever you get done in this world, you’ll do it via your body. As mysterious and wonderful as the spirit and soul are, they aren’t much for mowing the yard, cooking a meal, holding down a job, reading the Bible, going to church, witnessing, etc. You need body parts (eyes, ears, arms, legs, feet, a brain, a skeletal structure, etc.) to get those things done.

This is why, at the moment of a person’s salvation, God the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the person’s body, not the person’s spirit or soul (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:5-11; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 5:5). Just as a pilot flies an airplane, a captain steers a ship, or a driver drives a car, the indwelling Holy Spirit wants to be at the controls of the person’s body. Also, having God the Holy Spirit inside your body automatically turns your body into a temple. Please understand that everyone’s body is not a temple. That honor is reserved exclusively for the Spirit-indwelt believer (the genuine Christian). The body-builder, the yoga instructor, the fitness guru, and the health- food advocate may all have bodies that are in peak condition, but if these people don’t know Christ as Savior their bodies aren’t temples. Only Christians have “temple bodies.”

Still, though, just because a Christian’s body is a temple and the indwelling Holy Spirit is in there, that doesn’t mean that the Christian has handed over the controls to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul understood this and said to the Christians of the city of Rome:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

That term “living sacrifice” is an odd one, isn’t it? How can a sacrifice survive an altar of death? How can it live once it has become a sacrifice? The answer is: The Christian’s body remains alive, but the inner will, which is sin-tainted, corrupt, and prone to take destructive paths, dies on the altar. The body will now be used to carry out that which is “holy, acceptable to God.” The indwelling Holy Spirit will be given the controls unreservedly. He will now fly the plane, captain the ship, and drive the car.

But would you believe that even the indwelling Holy Spirit will not stop the aging process? Mark it down, the bodies of non-Christians and Christians alike wear down over time and eventually cease working. This goes back to the sin in the garden of Eden. Genesis 2:16-17 says:

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Hebrew scholars tell us that the original Hebrew behind the words “you shall surely die” literally mean “dying you shall die.” You see, when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit their bodies began the long, long process of dying, and eventually that process culminated in their physical deaths. Genesis 5:5 says that Adam actually lived 930 years, but that verse ends with the words “and he died.” And the members of his race have been dying ever since, haven’t they?

But did you know that when all of the various stages of God’s sweeping, eons-long, prophetic program have played themselves out, not one body will be left unresurrected? This isn’t the time or place for me to go into every last detail of that prophetic program, but concerning the resurrections John 5:28-29 is a good summation passage. There Jesus says:

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Notice that Jesus spoke of two categories of resurrection. There will be the resurrection of life, and there will be the resurrection of condemnation. Scripture teaches that the saved believers from all of history will have their bodies resurrected and glorified, even though there won’t be one general “resurrection day” upon which it all happens. (As I said, there are multiple stages to God’s grand plan of prophecy.) But what about the bodies of the lost people from all history? Well, those bodies will all be resurrected too, but for them the resurrection will not involve glorification. Also, their bodies will all be resurrected on a single day. This day will occur at the end of Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon this earth, and it is described in Revelation 20:11-15.

You can read that passage for your homework, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that the bodies of the lost are called forth from wherever their final resting places are (graves, the sea, etc.). Each body is then reunited with the soul that once inhabited it, as each soul is called forth from that unimaginably horrific place we know as “hell.” And it is then that the lost person will be cast resurrected body and reunited soul into an even worse “hell” that is known as “the eternal lake of fire.” There the souls will not be annihilated and the bodies will not be burned up. Instead (and this is beyond tragic) each lost person will spend all eternity, body and soul, in that place of torment.

The Greek word for this eternal lake of fire is Gehenna, and Jesus says in Matthew 10:28:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna).”

You see, the “Him” who is able to cast both soul and resurrected body into the eternal lake of fire called Gehenna is Jesus. But listen, He doesn’t want to do that to you! What He wants is for you to experience salvation by placing your belief in Him as your personal Savior. Once you do that, you won’t have to ever worry about the eternal fate of either your soul or your body, and you’ll be able to present your body as a living sacrifice to Him in this life and enjoy the awesome rewards of the afterlife. So, if you haven’t made this decision for Christ, won’t you do so right now? And, one last thing, get used to that body of yours because you’re going to be spending all eternity in it.

Filed under Belief, Church attendance, Coming Judgment, death, dieting, fear, God's Wrath, God's judgment, God's Will, Heaven, hell, Human Life, Personal Holiness, Prophecy, Reward, salvation, submission, The Holy Spirit Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Man’s Soul

February 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

In my last post, I talked about man’s spirit. With this post I want to say some things about his soul. I suppose I should begin by pointing out that some people teach that the “spirit” and the “soul” are simply interchangeable terms. For you theological experts out there, this view of man is known as the dichotomist view. But, as I study the Bible, I find that it really does differentiate between the two. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12, the apostle Paul makes a point of listing each one separately. So I find myself in agreement with those who hold to the trichotomist view of man.

Actually, the fact of the matter is that each person doesn’t have a soul; each person is a soul. Consider the following passages:

1. Genesis 2:7 says: “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 nephesh (the Hebrew word for “soul”).”

2. Genesis 12:5 describes the servants that Abram had acquired in Haran as “the souls (nephesh) whom they had acquired.” This is just one of numerous places in the Old Testament where groups of people are referred to as groups of “souls.”

3. 1 Peter 3:20 says that eight “souls” were saved by way of Noah’s ark.

4. James 5:20 talks about saving a “soul” from death.

5. Romans 13:1 commands that every “soul” be subject to the governing authorities. Obviously, this means that every “person” should be subject to the governing authorities.

6. In Revelation 6:9, John sees heaven’s altar and under it the “souls” of many martyrs. Then, in 6:10, he hears those souls actually speak.

7. In Revelation 20:4, John sees the “souls” of those who had been martyred for Jesus during the Tribulation period.

When you understand that each person is a soul, you’ll understand how the Hebrew behind Amos 6:8, which says “The Lord God has sworn by Himself,” can rightly employ the word nephesh. The point is that God Himself is a soul. Furthermore, you’ll also understand why the Bible talks about the need for the human soul to get saved. You see, the term “soul saving” is just another way of saying “person saving.” Passages that speak of “the saving of the soul” are: Hebrews 10:39; James 1:21; and 1 Peter 1:9.

For the record, I should also mention that creatures and animals are also “souls” in the strictest technical sense. Verses such as Genesis 1:21,24; 2:19; and 9:10,12,15,16 all use the Hebrew word nephesh and translate it as “creatures.” Unlike the case of man, however, this doesn’t mean that creatures go to any kind of afterlife. Believe me, I like to think of my favorite dog, Tramp, as being out there in eternity waiting for me, but the Bible really doesn’t teach that he is. It does mention animals as being a part of Christ’s future 1,000-year reign upon this earth (Isaiah 11:6-9), and if you take Revelation 19:11-14 literally (and I do) there will be horses in heaven. But all that is not the same as saying that the souls of animals depart to an afterlife at death. I know there is a movie called “All Dogs Go To Heaven,” but I can’t find that verse in the Book.

But where does the soul of the individual go in the afterlife? Since the soul is eternal it must go somewhere, right? Well, first let me say that, like the spirit, the soul immediately departs from the body at death. Genesis 35:18 describes Rachel’s death in this way:

“And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.”

There is, however, a serious difference concerning the spirit’s departure and the soul’s departure. As I said in my previous post, each person’s spirit returns to God at death (Ecclesiastes 12:7). But the soul passes on to one of two locations. It either goes to a place of eternal salvation with God or a place of eternal damnation apart from him. The proof texts here are: Luke 16:19-31; Acts 2:27,31; 1 Corinthians 15:50; Matthew 5:11-12; Romans 8:16-18; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 25:41; and Romans 2:5-9.

And so, when everything is said and done, the main thing that you need to pull from all this is that you are a soul and you are going to spend eternity either with God in perfect bliss or separated from Him in indescribable torment. And the deciding factor on where you end up is your belief in or lack of belief in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. 1 Peter 2:24-25 says this to Christians:

“who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

Jesus really is the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul. I wonder, can the same be said of your soul?

Filed under Belief, Bible Study, Christ's Second Coming, Coming Judgment, death, Evangelism, God's Wrath, God's judgment, Government, Heaven, hell, Human Life, Prophecy, Reward, salvation, Scripture, The Bible, Witnessing Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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