The Blessing of Rest During the Coronavirus

Posted on April 27, 2020 by russellmckinney

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6:31, N.K.J.V.)

As the Coronavirus continues to adversely affect our daily lives, many people are wondering what lesson God is trying to teach us through it. While I don’t claim to have a patent on that answer, I feel safe in saying that, if nothing else, God seems to be using the virus to slow us down. I mean, who can argue that “Go, go, go” hasn’t become “stay home, stay home, stay home”?

This reminds me of a lesson that a certain college football player once learned the hard way. The player’s name was Nate Irving, and he was a linebacker for N.C. State. Going into the 2009 season, Irving was a preseason All-ACC pick and was poised for big things. That all changed, though, on June 28, 2009, when he left N.C. State’s Raleigh campus and made the 90-mile drive to visit his family in Wallace, NC. When the visit was over, Irving’s family tried to get him to spend the night with them and drive back to school the next morning. Irving, however, would hear none of it and insisted on driving back to Raleigh that night. That turned out to be a bad decision as he fell asleep at the wheel about 30 Raleigh miles outside Raleigh and crashed his car.

The wreck left Irving with broken ribs, a separated shoulder, a compound fracture in his left leg, and a collapsed lung. His injuries forced him to miss the entire 2009 season, but he counted himself fortunate just to be alive. He then rehabbed his injuries, returned to the team for the 2010 season, played at an All-American level that season, and was drafted in the third round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos. Needless to say, Irving’s story had a happy ending. Still, though, he never forgot his death-defying crash and said of it, “There’s nothing more important than getting your rest. I almost lost my life because I didn’t get enough rest.”

Am I staying busy during this current pandemic? Yes, I am. I’m still preaching to my congregation twice a week (by way of You Tube online streaming and short-distance radio broadcasting), I’m writing three blog posts per week, and Malcolm Woody and I are doing a podcast most every week. But am I as busy as I was before the Coronavirus hit? No, I’m not. I haven’t been doing any personal visiting, and I haven’t been having any meetings at church, either.

Of course, my family and I count ourselves blessed that not one of us has been afflicted with the Coronavirus (at least not yet). That blessing in and of itself would be plenty for which to thank God. I have to say, though, that another blessing that we’ve experienced during this time has been simply being able to slow down for a while and catch our collective breath from life’s hectic pace. Others have experienced this blessing as well even if they haven’t fully appreciated it for the good it’s done in their lives. No doubt God knew that many of us needed such a slow down. And maybe, just maybe, that’s one of the reasons why He has allowed the Coronavirus. It’s at least something to consider, even though I’m sure that it hasn’t been His only reason.

Posted in Current Events, God's Provision, God's Sovereignty, Needs, Personal | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Is God Doing Anything With You?

Posted on April 25, 2020 by russellmckinney

Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. (Acts 14:27, N.K.J.V.)

Most of us want God to do something for us. We prove that by taking our Christmas list of prayer requests to Him on a regular basis. But how many of us want God to do something with us?

The events of Acts 14 are found within the context of the record of Paul’s first missionary journey. His ministry companion for that trip was Barnabas (Acts 13:1-3), even though Mark, the writer of the gospel of Mark, traveled with them for a while as well (Acts 12:25; 13:13). Paul and Barnabas were both Jews, but they ministered to Jews and Gentiles alike. As a matter of fact, their ministry to Gentiles produced more spiritual fruit than their ministry to Jews.

That missionary journey ended where it had begun, at the church in Antioch. It was there that Paul and Barnabas gave a full report to the church. And what did they tell those Christians? Our text verse says they told them how God had worked with them to open up salvation (“the door of faith”) to the Gentiles.

Could God have opened up the door of salvation to those Gentiles without using Paul and Barnabas? Certainly. He could have had a host of angels visit all those cities and preach the gospel. Or, He could have had every single one of the Gentiles in those cities have a dream, a dream in which the gospel was presented. But God’s preferred method of getting the gospel shared in all those cities was to have Paul and Barnabas preach it.

Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, once said:

I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.

Those words “do His work through me” equate to the same thing as Paul and Barnabas reporting what God “had done with them.” Either way the idea is that God uses you as the vessel by which He gets His work done. The funny thing about God is that, as awesome as He is, He is always hard up for help. That’s because He relies upon volunteers rather than draftees.

Trust me, if God isn’t doing anything with you or through you, the problem isn’t on His end. He has given you talents. He has given you skills. He has given you abilities. If you are a born-again Christian, He has given you have at least one spiritual gift. Also, He has sovereignly placed you in your little corner of the world, which means that you live next door to people, work with people, and meet people that are uniquely your folks.

There’s an old saying that goes, “He’s our man in ………( fill in the city).” Well, God is looking for you to be His man/woman in wherever you happen to be at any given moment. Paul was that person. Barnabas was that person. Hudson Taylor was that person. But the question right now is, will you be that person? If you will be, then I guarantee you that God will do important things with you. Just give Him a try and see.

Posted in Commitment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Faithfulness, God's Work, Individuality, Influence, Missions, Prayer Requests, Sacrifice, Sanctification, Service, Spiritual Gifts, Talents | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Respecting the Elderly

Posted on April 23, 2020 by russellmckinney

You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God. I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:32, N.K.J.V.)

Every pastor feels the not-so-subtle pressure to keep the young people (and their parents) happy at church. Statements such as, “The young people are the future of the church” become so stamped onto a pastor’s brain that they become nothing less than official church doctrine. The result is that the wants, desires, and preferences of young people (and their parents) oftentimes trump those of all other age groups in the church.

However, when we come to the Bible we find that the elderly are the age group to whom God would have us give the most honor. Our text verse is a perfect example of this truth, but there are plenty of other passages that present this same teaching. Consider the following (all from the N.K.J.V.):

  • Job 12:12: Wisdom is with aged men, And with length of days, understanding.
  • Job 32:4-6: Now because they were years older than he, Elihu had waited to speak to Job. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was aroused. So Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are very old; Therefore I was afraid, And dared not declare my opinion to you. I said, ‘Age should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom.'”
  • Proverbs 16:31: The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, It is found in the way of righteousness.
  • Proverbs 20:29: The glory of young men is their strength, And the splendor of old men is their gray head.
  • Proverbs 23:22: Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.
  • 1 Timothy 5:1: Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as a father…

In 1 Kings 12:6-16, we find the story of how King Rehoboam, Solomon’s heir to the throne, foolishly favored the counsel of his young companions over that of the elderly men who had advised Solomon. That decision led to Israel’s ten northern tribes breaking away from its two southern tribes and forming their own kingdom. The split ended the unity the nation had enjoyed under the reigns of David and Solomon.

In Isaiah 3:1-5, God actually lists young people’s insolence toward the elderly as being a mark that His judgment is upon a nation. That same passage also quotes Him as saying of His judgment upon Judah, “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.” How different this assessment is from our modern world that is constantly on the lookout for fresh young voices in politics.

In Psalm 92:12-14, the Psalmist speaks of how the true servant of God will flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in the courts of God. And what else will the servant do? He will continue to bear spiritual fruit even in his old age.

A similar passage is Titus 2:1-3, where the apostle Paul exhorts Titus to speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine so that the older men and the older women can be all that God wants them to be. In regards to the elderly men, that amounts to them being sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, marked by love, and marked by patience. In regards to the elderly women, that amounts to them not being irreverent, slanderous, or given to much wine. The elderly women are also encouraged to teach the younger women to love their husbands, love their children, be discreet, be chaste, be homemakers, be good, and be obedient to their husbands. Isn’t it interesting that the teaching should flow down from the elderly women rather than up from the younger women?

This goal of being a godly instructor to the younger generation was one that the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 71 understood full well. In verse 18 of that Psalm, he pleas with God not to forsake him when he is old and grayheaded until he has had time to declare God’s strength to the younger generation. How much more worthy a life goal that is than to simply retire comfortably and not be bothered with trying to help anyone.

The point in all of these passages is that the younger generations should hold the elderly in great respect. Even more than that, they should learn from them. This applies to every realm of life whether it be the church realm, the home realm, the political realm, the business realm, or any other realm. In God’s grand plan for the human race, old people are a blessing rather than a nuisance because they have the wisdom that can only be gleaned by years of living. That’s why God actually made it a national law in Israel that the younger generations should literally stand in honor anytime they found themselves in the presence of an elderly man. Am I advocating that we return to such a custom? Not necessarily, even though it wouldn’t be a bad idea. But I am advocating that we give our elderly the proper respect and attention they deserve according to God’s word. Not only will this be pleasing to God, it will also be beneficial to us.

Posted in Aging, Church, Counsel, Elderly, Youth | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Christian Verses” Podcast: Luke 23:34

Posted on April 21, 2020 by russellmckinney

In the new podcast Malcolm and I discuss Luke 23:34, where Jesus utters His famous, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” statement. That statement absolutely dripped with grace, and that grace wasn’t lost on one of the two criminals who were crucified alongside Jesus. As a matter of fact, that man no doubt understood grace in a deeper way than most of us ever will. To hear the podcast, just click on the link below:

Posted in "Christian Verses" podcast, Christ's Death, Grace, Salvation | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Landing Is Important

Posted on April 20, 2020 by russellmckinney

A student pilot was doing an excellent job flying the plane during his lesson. Then came the moment when the flight instructor looked over at him and said, “Okay, let’s take it down and land.” The student said, “Sounds good, let’s do it.”

As the plane began to descend, the instructor couldn’t help but notice how calm the student remained. Whereas most trainees instinctively got a little nervous at the thought of bringing the plane in for a landing, this trainee’s facial expression and demeanor didn’t change one bit. The instructor thought to himself, “This guy is going to make a great pilot.”

Not too long afterward, though, the plane hit the runway hard, bounced 50 feet into the air, hit the runway hard again, bounced 25 feet into the air, hit the runway hard again, bounced 5 feet into the air, and finally came to a full stop. The instructor was horrified. Actually, he was just glad to be alive after that awful landing. He looked over at the student and said, “You did just fine flying the plane, but your landing was the worst one I’ve ever seen.” That’s when the student looked at him and said, “MY landing? I thought YOU were handling the landing!”

When you seek God’s will regarding a decision and then do that will, the landing for that decision becomes God’s responsibility. Conversely, when you do your own will regarding a decision, God isn’t responsible for the landing. Unfortunately for God, His reputation has taken many a hit simply because He got blamed for a landing in which He had no part.

So many times we go our own way, do our own thing, and then somewhere in the middle of it all say, “Lord, please bless Your work.” God must think to Himself, “MY work? Do you really think you are doing MY work here?” The term “rubber stamp a decision” is a metaphor that means that the person who is technically in charge of an operation robotically grants approval to what his underlings think should be done. This approval is evidenced by the person opening his desk drawer, pulling out the custom-made rubber stamp that has his signature embossed on it, and pressing that stamp down onto the official document that sanctions the project. Needless to say, God doesn’t “rubber stamp” anything that isn’t His will.

Right now, whatever decision you are facing, seek God’s will concerning that decision. Even more than just seek it, do it. Then take your hands off the controls and let God bring the decision in for a landing. Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that even God’s landings can sometimes get a little rough. Oh, and did I mention that He might not land you where you thought you were going to land? Still, though, the great benefit from doing God’s will and letting Him handle the landing is that when you are finally at “all stop,” you will have the deep-settled inner peace that only comes from doing God’s will. And that, of course, is really the only way to fly.

Posted in Choices, Decisions, God's Will, God's Work, Humor, Inner Peace, Obedience, Prayer Requests, Submission, Trusting In God | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What the Bible Teaches About Cremation

Posted on April 18, 2020 by russellmckinney

According to the website for the National Funeral Directors Association, the cremation rate for funerals in the United States was 40.4% in 2010 and 47.9% in 2015. It is projected to be 56.4% by the end of 2020, 63.5% by 2025, 69.7% by 2030, 74.8% by 2035, and 78.7% by 2040.

Currently, the highest percentage rate for cremations in the world is Japan at 99.97%. Nepal and Taiwan aren’t far behind with rates of 95% and 92.47% respectively. India and South Korea both have rates over 80%. In terms of sheer numbers of cremations per year, China leads the world. With that nation’s rate of cremation currently standing at approximately 50%, that equates to approximately 5 million cremations annually.

But now let’s get to the all-important question: “What does the Bible teach about cremation?” In answer to that question, I should first point out that the word “cremation” is nowhere to be found in the Bible. This doesn’t mean, though, that the Bible offers us no guidance concerning this topic. All it means is that we must consider the totality of scripture and glean from it the relevant truths and principles that apply.

First, the Bible provides us with several examples of bodies getting burned to ashes, and the vast majority of these examples involve God’s judgment and wrath. Here is a list:

  • God rained fire and brimstone down upon the citizens of the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 19:1-25; 2 Peter 2:6)
  • After having received God’s law at Mount Sinai, Moses and the Israelites began making their way toward the land of Canaan. At some point along the way, the people complained enough to arouse God’s anger. That caused God to throw down fire among the people, a fire that consumed some of them. (Numbers 11:1)
  • As part of a rebellion that was led against Moses by a man named Korah, 250 men carried censors that had fire and incense in them. After God caused the ground to open up and swallow Korah (as well as several others associated with the rebellion), God threw down fire that consumed the men who were carrying the censors. (Numbers 16:1-40)
  • Nadab and Abihu, the two oldest sons of Israel’s high priest Aaron, violated the holy rituals associated with the Tabernacle. God judged their sin by sending down fire that devoured them. (Leviticus 10:1-2)
  • Achan, one of Israel’s soldiers, violated God’s command about not touching any of the spoils from the nation’s victory over the walled city of Jericho. Once the sin was discovered, Joshua led Israel in burning Achan and Achan’s entire family alive. (Joshua 7:20-26)
  • God was not pleased with the actions of Israel’s King Ahaziah. Consequently, God sent the prophet Elijah to tell the king’s messengers that Ahaziah was going to die from a recent injury the king had suffered. Upon hearing Elijah’s word from those messengers, Ahaziah dispatched a group of 50 men, led by a captain, to fetch Elijah and bring him to Ahaziah. But God protected Elijah by throwing down fire from heaven to consume the captain and the 50 men. After receiving this news, King Ahaziah dispatched another group of 50 men, led by another captain, to bring in Elijah. They too were all consumed by fire that fell from heaven. (2 Kings 1:1-12)

In the interest of being thorough, let me mention that the Bible also provides some examples of bodies that were incinerated apart from God’s judgment and wrath. Obviously, though, these examples are not God’s ideal for what He’d like to see happen to a body. The examples are:

  • all the infant children whose bodies were burned as part of the hideous Canaanite worship practice of offering those children as burnt offerings to the false god Molech: (Leviticus 18:21; 20:1-5; Deuteronomy 12:31)
  • all the infant children whose bodies were burned as part of Israel sinfully engaging in the worship of Molech: (1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 16:1-3; 17:16-18; 21:1-6; 23:10; Jeremiah 32:34-35; Ezekiel 20:30-32)
  • the bodies of King Saul and his three sons, whose bodies were all burned by the godly men of Jabesh Gilead in a devout effort to hide the fact that the Philistines had desecrated those bodies and displayed them as trophies of war: (1 Samuel 31:8-13)

Second, the Bible provides us with several examples of people burying their deceased with God’s blessing. Here is a list:

  • Abraham buried his wife Sarah. (Genesis 23:1-20)
  • Isaac and Ishmael buried their father Abraham. (Genesis 25:8-10)
  • Jacob buried his wife Rachel. (Genesis 35:16-20)
  • Jacob and Esau buried their father Isaac. (Genesis 35:27-29)
  • Jacob’s twelve sons buried their father Jacob. (Genesis 49:29-33; 50:1-14)
  • Joseph’s descendants ultimately buried him at Shechem in the land of Canaan after his body had been embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt to await Israel’s exodus out of Egypt and into Canaan. (Genesis 50:22-26; Exodus 13:17-19; Joshua 24:32)
  • God Himself buried Moses. (Deuteronomy 34:5-6)
  • Israel’s leaders buried Joshua. (Joshua 24:29-30)
  • Israel’s leaders buried Eleazar, Israel’s High Priest who was the third son of Aaron. (Joshua 24:33)
  • Israel’s leaders buried Samuel. (1 Samuel 25:1)
  • Israel’s leaders (presumably Solomon and the rest of David’s family) buried David. (1 Kings 2:10)
  • John the Baptist’s disciples buried him. (Matthew 14:9-12)
  • Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus. (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42)
  • Some of the members of the early church buried Ananias and Sapphira. (Acts 5:5-10)
  • Some of the members of the early church buried Stephen. (Acts 8:2)

Of this list, the burial of Joseph is particularly noteworthy. If cremation was ever a simpler option for the disposal of a corpse, surely it was in regards to Joseph’s body. I say that because his body remained in a coffin in Egypt for over 400 years awaiting Israel’s exodus to Canaan. Even when the Israelites finally transported that body with them from Egypt to Canaan, it would have been much easier for them to travel with an urn than a coffin. But cremation simply wasn’t Israel’s custom. Going all the way to Abraham, they buried their dead (Matthew 8:21-22; 27:7; John 19:40).

Someone might say, “Yes, but the fact that the ancient people of Israel did something doesn’t mean that we have to do it today. They also offered up animal sacrifices and practiced capital punishment by way of stoning.” That’s true, but there are three New Testament verses that make it clear that God wants us to learn some valuable lessons from Israel’s examples. Those verses are (all from the N.K.J.V.):

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness… (2 Timothy 3:16)

Third, the Bible teaches that the Christian’s body should be buried as a way of evidencing the Christian’s expectation of the future resurrection and glorification of that body. Consider the following passages (all from the N.K.J.V., added emphasis mine):

  • Romans 8:22-23: For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of the body.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:51-53: Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
  • Philippians 3:20-21: For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
  • 1 John 3:2: Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

You see, Christian, there is a valid reason why Christians have been burying their dead for 2,000 years. Actually, the word “cemetery” comes from coemeteria, the Latin word for Christian gravesites. This word literally means “sleeping places,” “resting places,” or even “bedrooms.” The point is that Christians don’t expect the corpses of their Christian dead to remain in their gravesites forever. They only put those corpses there for a while until Jesus will resurrect the corpses and glorify them, making them suitable for eternity.

It is no coincidence that the further the United States drifts from its Christian moorings, the more the national rate of cremation rises. (Did you know that in the U.S. in 1962 only 5% of funerals were cremations?) Needless to say, any nation that is dominated by either a lack of religion or a religion other than Christianity — i.e., Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Confucianism, Taoism, etc. — probably isn’t going to see the need to bury bodies. Of all the world religions, only Judaism, Islam, and Christianity teach the resurrection of the body. Not surprisingly, these are the three religions that trace their roots back to Abraham.

The Bible’s best passage on the topic of Christian resurrection is 1 Corinthians chapter 15. There, the apostle Paul links up Christ’s resurrection with the promise that all Christians will have their bodies resurrected in similar fashion. In verses 35 through 44 of that chapter, Christian burial is likened to the sowing of a seed in the ground. As any farmer will attest, the harvest that eventually comes up from the ground doesn’t look like the seed that initially went into the ground. However, this should not be taken to mean that Christians are wrong to bury their dead in mausoleums. If you think about it, Jesus’ burial tomb didn’t involve His body being literally planted in the ground, did it?

Of course, God’s basic plan isn’t always possible when it comes to burial. For example, untold numbers of corpses have ended up at the bottoms of oceans by way of shipwrecks, tsunamis, and the flood of Noah. Other corpses lie at the bottoms of caved-in mines. Others have been more or less obliterated by explosions such as bombs being dropped. Others have been incinerated by house fires and car fires.

And then there are all the Christians who have been burned alive as martyrs for their faith. That list includes the likes of Polycarp and many other Christians from Rome’s persecution of the early church. Similarly, the Catholic Church used to employ the practice of burning supposed heretics at the stake. Some of these “heretics” were Christian notables such as John Huss and William Tyndale. The Catholic Church despised John Wycliffe so much that four decades after his burial they dug up his remains and burned them.

Still, whenever possible, the Christian should be buried rather than cremated. Again, the reason has to do with the Christian’s confident expectation of an eventual resurrection. Speaking as a pastor who has served multiple churches that owned cemeteries, I know all too well the problems that can come with that particular realm of church work. No matter how many rules and regulations a church writes up for how its cemetery will be used, it’s almost impossible to cover all the bases. If nothing else, the cost of the upkeep of the cemetery can run into many thousands of dollars for the church. This explains why most church start-ups today have no interest in getting into the cemetery business. For that matter, some churches that have cemeteries are trying to delegate the responsibility for them to outside groups. Is God pleased with this modern-church attitude toward cemeteries? The more I think about it, the more I suspect that He isn’t. If we are serious about our Christian faith, that ought to translate into providing a place for our church members to have their bodies buried in expectation of resurrection.

Finally, let me say a word to anyone reading this who has had a Christian loved one cremated. Perhaps you chose cremation because it was much cheaper than burial. Perhaps you chose it because you honestly had never grasped the fact that a Christian burial is a public object lesson for the promise of resurrection. Perhaps you chose it for some other reason. Whatever your reason was, please know that you cremating your Christian loved one will not prevent God from resurrecting and glorifying that body when the time comes.

In science, there is The Law of Conservation of Matter. That law states that matter, once created, cannot be destroyed in an isolated system. This means that the matter that makes up each human body can never go completely out of existence within the confines of God’s creation. That matter can change forms, such as a human corpse withering down to dust, but it cannot fade into nothingness. The takeaway from this is that the matter from each and every body that God calls into existence will always be somewhere within God’s creation.

Therefore, when God is ready to resurrect that body, He will have no trouble pulling all of that matter back together to reconstitute that body. Whether that matter is lying inside a casket in a grave or whether it long ago became a part of the ocean depths by means of ashes being scattered upon the sea, God will be able to locate it. This doesn’t lessen the Bible’s teaching concerning the importance of burial rather than cremation, but it does at least provide some comfort to the individual who has had a Christian loved one cremated.

Posted in Christ's Resurrection, Cremation, Death, Resurrection | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Matthew 27:50-54

Posted on April 16, 2020 by russellmckinney

A friend of mine recently sent me a text asking about Matthew 27:50-54. I promised him I would devote a blog post to the answer, and so here it is. I also told him that it’s always surprised me that more people don’t ask me about this particular passage. It is, after all, one of the most bizarre texts in the New Testament.

The passage deals with a certain event that happened in Jerusalem in the wake of Christ’s death and resurrection. What was that event? I’ll let the verses speak for themselves:

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (N.K.J.V.)

Okay, here are the questions that must be asked and answered if we want to rightly understand this resurrection of these saints:

  1. Who were these “saints” who had their bodies resurrected?
  2. Following this event, what became of these saints?
  3. Were these bodies resurrected at the moment of the earthquake or were they resurrected after Christ’s own resurrection?
  4. Are we right to assume that the souls that had inhabited these bodies rejoined the bodies for this event?

Question #1: Who were these saints who had their bodies resurrected? There are two primary options for the answer to this question. Option 1: These saints were a select group of believers from the Old Testament era. Option 2: These saints were New Testament believers who had believed in Jesus as Messiah/Savior during the three-and-a-half years of His earthly ministry and had died before He did.

I have to say that option 2 seems to be the correct interpretation because the Old Testament believers won’t have their bodies resurrected until Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the tribulation period (Daniel 12:1-3; Job 19:25-26). As a matter of fact, these saints could well have been the likes of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35), Anna (Luke 2:36-38), and John the Baptist (Matthew 14:1-12). Since it is generally believed that Joseph (the earthly father of Jesus) died before Jesus did, his body could have been one of those resurrected, too.

Question #2: Following this event, what became of these saints? The answer to this question hinges solely upon whether or not these bodies came out of the graves as merely resurrected or as resurrected and glorified. If they came out as merely resurrected, that meant that one day these people died again and were buried again. On the other hand, if they came out as resurrected and glorified, that meant that they ascended to heaven shortly thereafter.

To me, it seems much more likely that these bodies came out resurrected and glorified and ascended to heaven with Jesus shortly thereafter. I say this because there is no other New Testament example of a body that had been buried for a long time being resurrected (but not glorified) and given a second chance at life on earth. For example, all of the resurrections the New Testament specifically names from Jesus’ ministry — Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain — were very recent deaths of just a few days at most. Also, if these resurrected believers had taken up new residences in or around Jerusalem and lived for many years afterward, it seems likely that Matthew would have made some mention of that. The way the story reads, the appearances of these resurrected saints in Jerusalem were very widespread but not prolonged.

Question #3: Were these bodies resurrected at the moment of the earthquake or were they resurrected after Christ’s own resurrection? Frankly, the passage is written in a way that can be taken either way. Let me explain. Verses 50-52 say (in order):

  • Jesus yielded up His spirit in dying.
  • The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
  • The earth quaked.
  • The rocks were split.
  • The graves were opened.
  • The bodies in question were raised.

Okay, so all that makes it sound like those resurrections occurred at the moment of the earthquake immediately following Christ’s death. But wait a minute. The next verse, verse 53, says: “and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”

That, of course, makes it sound like these resurrections didn’t take place until after Christ’s resurrection. It’s either that or the bodies were resurrected immediately following Christ’s death, remained in their tombs from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, and then left their tombs and went into Jerusalem after Jesus had arisen. By consulting the New Testament, we find no example of a resurrected body ever remaining in a tomb for any amount of time at all. Therefore, the answer to the question seems to be that, despite the fact that the earthquake opened the tombs immediately following Christ’s death, these bodies weren’t actually resurrected until after His resurrection.

In further support of this interpretation, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 calls Jesus the “firstfruits” of resurrection, and both Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5 call Him “the firstborn from the dead.” You see, there had been other resurrections before Christ’s, both in the Old Testament era (1 Kings 17:20-23; 2 Kings 4:33-37) and the New Testament era (Luke 7:11-15; 8:40-56; John 11:1-44), but all of those people eventually died again. Jesus, however, never died again after His resurrection. To the contrary, He arose in a body that wasn’t just resurrected but was also glorified. In this way, He was the “firstfruits” of that kind of resurrection, the “firstborn from the dead.”

This means that if the resurrections described in Matthew 27:50-54 also included the glorification of those bodies, those resurrections could not have occurred before Christ’s resurrection. Such a thing would have eliminated Jesus from being the “firstfruits” and “the firstborn from the dead.” Therefore, the better understanding seems to be that even though the earthquake that immediately followed Christ’s death opened their graves, the bodies being resurrected and going into Jerusalem didn’t occur until after Christ’s resurrection.

Question #4: Are we right to assume that the souls that had inhabited these bodies rejoined the bodies for this event? This one is easy to answer. There is no Biblical example of a body ever being resurrected in any way to remain soulless. That might work in zombie movies but God doesn’t roll that way. No, if those bodies resurrected, left their graves, and went into Jerusalem, they did so with the souls that had once inhabited them back inside them.

As for where those souls came from, it had to be the site that is known in the Greek as Hades and in the Hebrew as Sheol. That is where all souls, saved or lost, went at death before Christ’s ascension back to heaven. In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus provides the Bible’s most vivid description of this site as He talks about the site’s two sides: one side for the saved souls and another side for the lost souls. We might think of the “saved” side as the “Paradise” side (Luke 23:43) and the “lost” side as the “torment” side (Luke 16:24).

Just to finish out this part of the discussion, when Jesus ascended to heaven following His resurrection, He emptied all the souls from the “Paradise” side of Hades/Sheol and took them into heaven with Him (Ephesians 4:7-10). This officially closed for business that side of the site, and saved souls now immediately go straight to heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21-23). However, the “torment” side of the site is still very much open for business and is the “hell” that we think of when we use that word.

And so, by putting everything together, the interpretation I apply to Matthew 27:50-54 goes as follows:

  1. Those resurrected “saints” were New Testament believers who had believed in Jesus as Messiah/Savior during the three-and-a-half years of His earthly ministry and had died before He did.
  2. Those bodies were not only resurrected but also glorified, and following this event they ascended to heaven with Jesus sometime shortly afterward as He ascended in His own resurrected/glorified body and soul.
  3. Even though the grave sites were split open by the earthquake that immediately followed Christ’s death, those bodies weren’t resurrected and glorified until immediately following Christ’s resurrection.
  4. Simultaneously with those bodies being resurrected and glorified, the soul that had once inhabited each body was called forth from the “Paradise” side of Hades/Sheol to rejoin the body. Those souls were then taken on up to heaven as part of those resurrected/glorified bodies ascending into heaven.

Finally, in closing, let me mention that I believe that C.I. Scofield, the man who gave the world The Scofield Reference Bible, was in the right ballpark when he suggested that Matthew 27:50-54 ties in to the Old Testament law’s Feast of the Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:10-14). For that Feast, Israel’s priest would wave a single sheaf of barley before the Lord to commemorate Israel’s thankfulness for the coming harvest.

However, as Scofield pointed out, Jesus Himself said that if one grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it produces much grain (John 12: 24). As Scofield understood the application to Israel’s Feast of Firstfruits, Jesus’ death was one seed dying, a singular seed that in turn produced not just one sheaf of barley to represent the firstfruits but a larger harvest to represent them. Those saints from Matthew 27:50-54, who joined Jesus in entering into heaven with their resurrected/glorified bodies, were that larger harvest. Putting it another way, while Jesus was undoubtedly the “firstfruits” of God’s eventual total harvest of resurrected/glorified bodies, His death and resurrection were actually great enough to create what we might call a spillover abundance in regards to Him being those “firstfruits.” And those resurrected/glorified believers from Matthew 27:50-54 were that spillover abundance.

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Digging Deep (Really Deep) Into Resurrection

Posted on April 13, 2020 by russellmckinney

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and Easter always gets any preacher onto the topic of resurrection. Actually, though, I had already been on that topic recently by way of a prophecy series I’d been preaching entitled “Things to Come.” As part of that series, I had devoted sermons to the topics of The Rapture, Christ’s Second Coming, and The Great White Throne Judgment. Each of these events will feature a whole lot of resurrections.

First, The Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:50-58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) could take place at any moment, and when it does the bodies of all deceased Christians from what we call “the church age” will be resurrected and glorified. The church age began on the Day of Pentecost that is described in Acts 2:1-47, and it will end at the moment of the Rapture. Each person who places saving belief in Jesus Christ during that time period becomes part of “the church,” and “the church” is the “bride” of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-32; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:1-10; 21:9; 22:17).

Second, Christ’s Second Coming (Revelation 19:11-21) will take place at the end of the seven-year tribulation period that follows The Rapture. At the time of His Second Coming, Jesus will establish His 1,000 year reign upon the earth and the bodies of all the believers from the Old Testament era will be resurrected and glorified just prior to that reign (Daniel 12:1-3; Job 19:25-27; Revelation 20:4). Someone might ask, “Why aren’t the bodies of the Old Testament believers resurrected/glorified as part of The Rapture?” The answer is, The Rapture will be exclusively for “the church” and technically those believers aren’t part of that group. At one point in His earthly ministry, Jesus said, “I will build My church…” (Matthew 16:18). That wording proves that He hadn’t started building His church yet, a fact which excludes the believers from the Old Testament as being part of that church.

Third, The Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15) will take place following Christ’s 1,000 year earthly reign. This judgment will be exclusively for all of history’s lost people, and in order for this judgment to happen the bodies of all of history’s lost people will be resurrected. However, there will be a very important difference between these resurrections and all other resurrections. That difference will be that this round of resurrecting will not include the glorification of the bodies. In other words, whereas the bodies of all of history’s saved people will ultimately end up not only resurrected but also glorified, the bodies of all of history’s lost people will ultimately end up only resurrected. Immediately following the resurrection of the lost person’s body, that body will be reunited with the soul that once inhabited it — that soul having been called forth from “hell” (the site known in the Greek language as “Hades”). Each lost individual will then stand resurrected body and soul before Jesus to be sentenced by Him to eternity (body and soul) in the lake of fire (the site known in the Greek language as “Gehenna”). This sentencing will be the purpose of the Great White Throne Judgment.

While these three major prophetic events will account for most of history’s bodies in regards to resurrections, they won’t account for all of them. Here now are some other “mop up” details on this whole subject:

  1. The Bible doesn’t tell us how or when the bodies of children who were either miscarried or aborted will be resurrected. It does indicate, though, that the soul of any child who dies before reaching what is commonly referred to as “the age of accountability” goes to be with God (2 Samuel 12:21-23; Jonah 4:11). Presumably, then, the bodily remains of these children will somehow be resurrected and glorified to become bodies fit for eternity. These resurrections will take place as part of The Rapture, as part of Christ’s Second Coming, or perhaps even as parts of both events if God makes a distinction between such children from the pre-church age and the church age.
  2. The believers from the New Testament period prior to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection will have their bodies resurrected/glorified at Christ’s Second Coming alongside the resurrecting of the bodies of believers from the Old Testament era. Like the Old Testament believers, these believers aren’t part of the church. John the Baptist is a prime example of this group. Even though he lived in the days when Jesus was walking this earth, John technically gets categorized with the believers from the Old Testament era because he died before the church age began.
  3. During the seven-year tribulation period, God will have two “witnesses” that will perform a tremendous ministry for three-and-a-half years of that period. These two men are described in Revelation 11:1-14. However, once their ministry is completed, God will allow the Antichrist to kill them and leave their bodies unburied in the streets of Jerusalem for three-and-a-half days. But then God will resurrect those bodies (presumably to glorification), and at that time they will ascend up to heaven immediately.
  4. At the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period, 144,000 Jewish evangelists will get saved by believing in Christ. These men will then go into all the world and preach the gospel in the first half of the tribulation period (Revelation 7:1-8), winning millions to Christ (Revelation 7:9-17). Once their ministry is completed, however, they will be transported to heaven in a mass event similar to The Rapture (Revelation 14:1-5). Since no mention is ever made of their deaths, it seems likely that the bodies of these living 144,000 Jewish evangelists will be glorified and caught up to heaven. If this is true, these 144,000 will be akin to the Christians who will be caught up to heaven alive at the moment of The Rapture, their bodies being glorified as part of the event.
  5. While it’s true that those 144,000 Jewish evangelists will win millions of people to Christ in the first half of the tribulation period, many of those new believers will get martyred for their faith at some point in the tribulation period (Revelation 6:9-11). These martyred believers will receive their resurrected/glorified bodies at Christ’s Second Coming alongside the resurrecting of the bodies of the believers from the Old Testament era (Revelation 20:4-6).
  6. Of those millions who will be won to Christ by those 144,000 Jewish evangelists, many of them will not be martyred but will, instead, live to see Christ’s Second Coming at the end of the tribulation period. Those believers will then go into Christ’s 1,000 year reign — i.e. “the kingdom age” — in their earthly bodies. Jesus will heal all of their bodily sicknesses and infirmities at the beginning of His 1,000 year reign, and this will allow those tribulation-period believers/survivors to live long lives in “the kingdom age.” Still, though, each of these believers will at some point die over the course of those 1,000 years and, presumably, will have his or her body resurrected/glorified immediately following that death. I use that word “presumably” because there is no specific Bible passage that actually addresses the resurrecting/glorifying of these bodies in any way.

While I realize that all of this information can be somewhat overwhelming and confusing, I’m passing it all along to you because I want you to understand one very simple fact. That fact is: By the time God is finished resurrecting bodies, there won’t be even one body left that isn’t resurrected (either to glorification or not to glorification). Of course, even this simple fact raises some oddball questions about all these resurrections. Here are a few examples of such questions:

  • How can a body that has completely turned to dust be resurrected?
  • How can a body that has been cremated, with the ashes being scattered, be resurrected?
  • How can the body of an individual who lost a leg to a war, an appendix to an appendectomy, and a tooth to an extraction be resurrected in tact?
  • How can a body that was eaten by a shark or a bear be resurrected at all?
  • How can the body of a baby that was miscarried or aborted be resurrected?

In answer to these questions (and any other oddball ones that might get asked), let me mention something called “The Law of Conservation of Matter.” This is a scientific law that states that matter, once created, can never truly be annihilated or go out of existence. This means that all the matter associated with any human being’s body will always be in existence in some form somewhere as part of God’s creation. Obviously, the matter can change form, such as a human body turning to dust, but what the matter can’t do is fade away to complete nothingness. And what does this mean in regards to God resurrecting bodies? It means that whenever God is ready to resurrect a body, He will be able to scour every corner of His creation, find all of the matter that once made up that body, and bring all that matter back together to reorganize that body.

So, when it comes to every round of resurrecting that God will be doing in the future, we should just leave it all in His capable hands. We can rest assured that a God who can create matter out of nothing won’t have any trouble locating matter He has already created and getting it reorganized to suit Him. As the old saying goes, if you can get past Genesis 1:1 — which tells us that God created all of creation out of nothing — you shouldn’t have any trouble believing that God can do anything He wants to do at any time. And, yes, that includes resurrecting all of the bodies from all of human history.

Posted in Christ's Return, Coming Judgment, Death, Eternity, God's Omnipotence, God's Judgment, God's Omniscience, God's Sovereignty, Heaven, Hell, Human Life, Prophecy, Resurrection | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

When Jesus Used Jonah As a Sign

Posted on April 11, 2020 by russellmckinney

“Jonah” series: (post #6)

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:38-41, N.K.J.V.)

Is the story of Jonah true? Jesus certainly believed it was. Even more than just believe it, He boldly referenced it when the scribes and Pharisees asked Him to give them a sign that He truly was the long awaited Jewish Messiah. That fact alone should tell us all we need to know about the veracity of the story.

By comparing His own death, burial, and resurrection to Jonah’s experience with the great fish, Jesus was saying to those scribes and Pharisees, “One day I’ll be buried and you’ll think you’ve heard the last of Me, but like Jonah I’ll emerge again.” Obviously, Jesus was talking about His resurrection, but the precise wording of His quote has left the door open for an interesting question to be asked. That question is: Did Jonah literally die and be brought back to life by God?

Jesus didn’t just faint, swoon, or pass out on that cross, did He? HE LITERALLY DIED! Therefore, if Jonah’s experience was intended to be a foreshadowing of Christ’s experience, doesn’t that mean that Jonah literally died and was brought back to life? Well, I can tell you that a handful of Bible teachers have interpreted Jonah’s experience just that way.

Probably the most well known example of this minority was J. Vernon McGee. As evidence for his interpretation, McGee ran with the idea that Jonah said, “…out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2, K.J.V.). The Hebrew word translated there as “hell” is the Hebrew word Sheol, which in the Old Testament refers to the general realm of the dead. When we understand what Sheol was then we can understand that the only way for anyone to cry out from there (at least literally) was to die and have his or her soul go there. According to McGee, this must mean that Jonah literally died.

By reading Jonah’s own account of his experience, we find even more possible evidence that he actually died. To be specific, that account (if read in a straightforward, literal manner) describes a death by way of drowning. Consider the following words from Jonah:

  • He says that he went into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded him. (2:3)
  • He says the billows and the waves passed over him. (2:3)
  • He says the waters surrounded him. (2:5)
  • He says the deep closed around him. (2:5)
  • He says weeds were wrapped around his head. (2:5)
  • He says he went down to the moorings (foundations, bases) of the mountains. (2:5)
  • He says the earth’s bars closed behind him forever. (2:6)

If we take Jonah’s words at face value, his story becomes easy to reconstruct. First, those sailors threw him overboard to calm the storm. Second, he either didn’t know how to swim or refused to swim and consequently drifted down to the bottom of the sea. Third, somewhere along the way — either in making his way toward the bottom or in reaching it and remaining there — he died by way of drowning. Fourth, as his corpse was resting at the bottom of the sea, the great fish came along and swallowed him whole. Fifth, after Jonah had spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish (1:17), the fish vomited him onto dry land, with his resurrection taking place either just before or just after the fish did the vomiting.

Okay, so is this what actually happened? Did Jonah literally die? The vast majority of Bible scholars, commentators, preachers, and Bible teachers would answer, “No” to both questions. Rather than take Jonah’s description ultra literally, they take it poetically. If this interpretation is correct, it makes the description similar to some of David’s writings. Here are some examples of David using such poetic language (all from the N.K.J.V.):

  • In Psalm 18:4-5, David says of a time when his life was in great danger: “The pangs of death surrounded me, And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.”
  • In Psalm 42:7, he says to God: “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All your waves and billows have gone over me.”
  • In Psalm 31:22, he says to God: “…I am cut off from before Your eyes…”
  • In Psalm 69:1-3, he says: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying! My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.”
  • In Psalm 16:10, he says to God: “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”

It is important to note that Jonah, as a Jewish prophet, would have known all about these poetic descriptions whereby David described his near-death experiences. It makes sense, then, that Jonah would have used similar language in his description of his own near-death experience, especially considering that his experience involved waters far more literal than David’s experiences had. For that matter, when Jonah said things like, “the floods surrounded me,” “billows and waves passed over me,” “the deep closed around me,” and “I went down to the moorings of the mountains” he could easily have been talking about all of that happening to him via him being inside that fish. Similarly, when he said, “weeds were wrapped around my head” he could have been referring to that happening while he was in the fish’s belly.

Other factors point us to the conclusion that Jonah didn’t have to literally die in order for his experience to foreshadow Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. These factors do this by evidencing why we shouldn’t try to make Jonah’s experience too closely resemble Christ’s experience. These factors are:

  • It was the sin of others that brought Jesus to His situation, but it was Jonah’s own sin that brought him to his.
  • If Jonah was attempting to give us a literal, play-by-play account of his experience, it seems strange that his prayer is so short (only eight verses long). If he really was in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights, surely he prayed more than that.
  • Jesus never died again once He was resurrected, but even if we accept the idea that Jonah died and was resurrected, Jonah died again one day.
  • Jesus Himself dismissed complete literalness regarding the link between the two stories when He said that He would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. Assuming that He died on Friday afternoon and was resurrected on Sunday morning — an assumption that is based upon the scriptural account found in the gospels — He didn’t spend three literal days and three literal nights in the heart of the earth. (If you are interested in devoting further study to this topic, please read my two posts:  “Was Jesus Crucified on Wednesday?” and “Was Jesus Crucified on Thursday?”

In closing, let me encourage you not to get so bogged down trying to figure out every last detail of what happened to both Jonah and Jesus that you miss the main point Jesus is making in Matthew 12:38-41. What is that point? It’s that Jesus arose from the dead! That means that we Christians serve a living Savior, not a dead one. It means that we serve a Savior who has conquered death. And it means that we serve a Savior who legitimately can return to this earth one day to rule and reign over it. All of that is awesome news, Christian, and it’s news that should cause us all to draw great hope from it as we walk in the light of it each day.

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“Christian Verses” Podcast: Matthew 16:21

Posted on April 10, 2020 by russellmckinney

The Coronavirus is making for a strange Easter this year because the vast majority of churches are choosing not to assemble themselves together in their buildings. Some churches are doing “drive in” type services wherein people sit in their cars in the church parking lot and listen to the service. Most churches are at least doing some type of online service. But the point is that this year isn’t a normal Easter. Because of this it easier than usual this year to miss the message of Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this week’s podcast, Malcolm and I discuss how Christ’s apostles missed the first Easter by not believing that Jesus was going to resurrect. To hear the podcast, just click on the link below:

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