TO ALL MY FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND NEIGHBOURS WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY THE COLD, ICY HANDS OF DEATH - Capitalization for heading purposes, so i am Not shouting at you. :) SUNDAY: The State of the Dead Old Testament writers consistently held that a human is an indivis-ible living being. The various Hebrew terms usually translated as flesh, soul, and spirit are just alternative ways to describe, from dif-ferent points of view, the human person as a whole. In harmony with this perspective, the Scriptures use different metaphors to describe death. Among them, sleep stands out as a fitting symbol to reflect the biblical understanding of the condition of the dead (see Job 3:11–13, 14:12, Ps. 13:3, Jer. 51:39, Dan. 12:2). Death is the total end of life. Death is a state of unconsciousness in which there are no thoughts, emotions, works, or relationships of any kind (Eccles. 9:5, 6, 10; Ps. 115:17, 146:4). By the time of Jesus, however, this view of humanity, and particu-larly of death, was challenged by the pagan dualistic concept of the immortality of the soul, which was rapidly propagating throughout the known world. How did Jesus describe the death of his friend Lazarus? See John 11:11. Despite this and other passages, a number of Christians argue that Jesus believed in the immortality of the soul, for He said to the thief on the cross: “ ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise’ ” (Luke 23:43, NKJV). The meaning of this text changes entirely, depending on where the commas are placed. (The oldest Greek manuscripts of the New Testament don’t have punctuation marks.) If the comma is placed after you, as most Bible versions render the text, it means that Jesus and the thief went to Paradise that same day; if the comma is after today, the text means that Jesus assured the thief his future redemption. Actually, Jesus’ words emphasize assurance of sal-vation, not the timing of the thief’s entrance into heaven. The context confirms this. To begin with, the thief had not asked for an immedi-ate transfer to heaven at death but rather to be remembered when the Lord would come into His kingdom. Moreover, three days later Jesus Himself affirmed that He had not yet ascended to Paradise (John 20:17). This text, therefore, does not teach that the souls of the dead go to heaven after death. Because we understand that death is an unconscious sleep, why is the teaching of the resurrection so crucial to us?
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 12:35:06 +0000
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