We spent a few hours visiting after we had cleaned our house. Jana had washed all the carpets and I worked on the basement, cleaning it and putting things away and preparing the spare bedroom for my parents to stay over during their visit tonight.
They'll be watching our daughter as we go out to have a movie date. I'm really looking forward to it. Spending some time with my wife and enjoying a good movie. Should be fun.
Well, let's see where we get today!
The Return
The Bible is so explicit about what happens to us after death. It really shouldn't be a mystery. The only reason it remains shrouded in mystery and illusion is because of traditions, mythology and poor translation of the Bible.
Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread, until you return to the ground, for from it were you taken. For soil you are, and to soil you shall return.
Do you remember your birthdate? Go back 10 months before that, what do you remember of those days? Nothing right? You have no recollection of any existence before that. Death is simply that. A return to the state you were in before you were born.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 And the soil returns to the earth, just as it was, and the spirit returns to the One, Elohim, who gave it.
Again, your body returns to the earth, your spirit returns to God. What is spirit? Genesis 2 describes the forming of man, soil+breath = a living soul.
In the greek and hebrew, breath is the same word given for spirit. The breath of God breathed in us forms our spirit. When we die, the spirit returns to God.
Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall return to the unseen...
Acts 2:27 For Thou wilt not be forsaking my soul in the unseen...
Where does our soul go? It goes to the unseen. In short, it returns to oblivion. Even Jesus' soul was in oblivion for the 3 days he was dead. This is the state of death.
It's ridiculous when people say at funerals "Oh he's gone to a better place." Or that craptacular phrase "Sudden death, sudden glory."
Uhm... No. The Bible doesn't teach that.
Death is not glorious. It should not be glamorized or glorified. We should be embracing death as some longed for state of being.
1 Cor 15:26 26 The last enemy is being abolished: death.
Job 30:23 I know that you are returning me to death, to that house appointed for all the living.
Job mourned his future demise.
Philipians 2:27 For he is infirm, also, very nigh death, but God is merciful to him, yet not to him only, but to me also, lest I should be having sorrow on sorrow.
Even Paul didn't glorify death nor celebrate it. He celebrated that God delivered his friend from death.
This teaching on death and what it really means is so vitally important. If we do not grasp the complete horror that death truly is, we cannot grasp the depth of Jesus' sacrifice or the faith he had in his father when he died himself. Jesus DIED people. He completely and utterly TRUSTED that God would rescue him from the death state. He became powerless in himself to rescue himself.
There are no casper the friendly ghosts floating around. When we die we don't become angels or spirit haunting these earthly halls. We die. We all die.
The good news is that Jesus has risen! He is coming back to raise the Body of Christ and even MORE the he is going to abolish death for ALL mankind and ALL will be saved.
If there is no death, then there is no reason for our faith and everything we believe is in vain.
Glory to God!
Travis Penner
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