Episode Transcript
Welcome to Countdown. Back to the future. Very, very important presentation in our series. In this one, we're looking at life after death, the search for truth. The search for truth. On this matter, what happens when we die? J.B. phillips gave us a translation of the Bible. He was sitting in his home one day, so the story goes, and suddenly there appeared before him the C.S. lewis, the great Christian philosopher. Now, the problem was C.S. lewis had already died, but here he was appearing in front of JB Phillips. JB Got on the telephone and rang a friend about it and he said, this is what happened. He said this sort of thing is happening all the time. And it's true. What's going on here? Ghosts, the dead contacting the living? Is that what's happening here? What are we going to do with out of body experiences where people say they're on an operating table and they look down and saw their body, or they're near death and they're traveling down a big tunnel with light at the end? What do we make of these things? And how about haunted houses? What's going on here with people who say a house is haunted by some ghost who's haunting the house? I like what's written on a tombstone or was written on a tombstone some years ago in Virginia in the United States. This is what was on the tombstone. Stop, my friend, as you go by, as you are now alive. So once was I. As I am now. That's dead, you soon shall be. So prepare yourself to follow me. Good words. Where do you go? A little boy evidently came by and he scrawled a message underneath and this is what it said, to follow you. I am not content until I know just where you went. Wow, good words, eh? Where do you go when you die? Now, many people believe that when you die, if you're not being so good, you're going to go straight to the hot place. There are millions of people who believe. No. Your immortal soul is recycled endlessly in a process of reincarnation and what we call samsara. There are other people who believe. No. Death is like a sleep, like a state of unconsciousness. What's the truth about what happens when people die? Where do they go? Do they go straight to heaven if they're good, or to hell, or get recycled or go to sleep? What's the matter? What's the truth on the matter? I should say the question is, is there actually life after death? Is there really life beyond the grave? Can we have an opportunity to contact the dead who were once alive? And is there A hope that goes beyond the grave? Or is it just wishful thinking on our part? Well, let's begin by going to the Book of John. Jesus is doing what Jesus did best. Healing broken lives, mending people's homes, mending broken bodies. When suddenly a messenger pressed through the crowd with this message. He said, you, friend Lazarus is sick. Now, Lazarus had two sisters, Martha and Mary. Their home was one that Jesus loved to come to. It was sort of like a place of rest from all the stresses that he was facing, from the opposition to the priests and so on. And so he stayed in their home often. Now Lazarus is sick, the. The sisters send the message. Notice what the Bible says next. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Let's just pause. Push the pause button there. I'm glad it said Jesus loved them. Cause it sort of doesn't look like it when you keep reading. Notice what the text goes on to say. So when he heard that he. That's Lazarus was sick, he. Jesus stayed two more days in the place where he was. In other words, the sisters were saying, jesus, come quick. Lazarus is sick. We need your help. And Jesus stayed two days. Sort of didn't like, as I said, looked like he loved them. You know, sometimes the ways of God are difficult to understand, aren't they, if we're honest? We pray for our husband to be healed, but he dies of cancer. We pray that God will save our marriage, but it doesn't work out. We pray that God will give us the right person in life, but it doesn't happen. And we wonder sometimes, where is God? Does he really love me? Well, these ladies were no strangers to that thought, no doubt. I'm glad it said he loved them. Let's notice what the Bible goes on to say. We know that all things work together for good. To those who love God. That's one thing we need to keep in mind. When things don't seem to work out the way we want them to, when we don't get what we ask God for. God will bring good out of the bad. Not all things are good, but God can bring good out of the bad. Very important that we realize that. Well, four days too late, Jesus turns up at the town of Bethany, where Martha and Mary lived and where their brother Lazarus had lived. When he meets Mary, the Bible says Jesus wept. Can you picture it? This is Jesus, the God of the universe in human flesh. He's crying. He's got tears in his eyes for his friends and for his enemies. Because there were many at that place, at that Time who didn't believe in him. Jesus wept. My friend, you may have said goodbye to a father, a mother, a husband, a wife, a child. You may have laid them in the ground and your heart is breaking. Let me tell you that Jesus is the same Jesus. Just as he wept with people back then, so he weeps with us today. He hasn't changed. He's the same Jesus Martha met Jesus. And I want you to notice what happened when Martha, the other sister, met him. Now, Martha said to Jesus, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Whoa. Do you see what happening is happening here? It seems Martha is blaming Jesus for not coming sooner. How come you didn't show up? Jesus, he wouldn't be dead if you had come. You know, when we lose a loved one, we go through the grief process. There are a number of stages, and one of them is blame. We often blame ourself. Why didn't I tell my husband to go to the doctor sooner? He wouldn't have died of cancer if I'd only sent him earlier. Why didn't I take my child's hand and cross the street with them, take them to the other side? They wouldn't have got knocked down and killed by that car. We blame ourselves, but usually we end up blaming God. Why God did you let this happen? Why God this and why God that? How come you did that to me? You know, my friends, the amazing thing about God is that he understands. He doesn't get angry with us. He's been through the grief process. He's been there before. He was beside a cross when his son gave up his eternal life, as it were, for you and I. He understands what we go through and he loves us, even though sometimes we blame him. The Bible went on to say, Jesus said to her, martha, your brother will rise again. Martha said, I know he will rise again in the Resurrection. At the last day, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He or she who believes in me, the though he may die, though she may die, he or she shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this now? I can almost hear Martha saying, yes, Lord, I believe it. But I don't get it. Lazarus believed in you. He put his trust in you and he's dead. What do you mean we'll never die if we believe in you? Never die? Can't you imagine the question that must have been raging through Martha's mind right then? Well, we need to go back to answer that question. What did Jesus mean Go back to Bethany. Sorry. To the place where Jesus was before he came to Bethany. Four DAYS EARLIER let's go back there. Your friend Lazarus is sick. Remember, the Messengers came through with that message. Notice what Jesus said to his followers. Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. His disciples said, lord, if he sleeps, he'll get well. Everybody knows, don't they? If you're sick and you have some sleep, it does you good. That's why you never want to go to a hospital if you're sick. No, I'm just kidding. Someone's gonna wake you up to poke a needle in you, take your temperature, whatever it is. But no hospital's the best place to go if you're sick. I'm just kidding you. But you know what we mean. If you go to sleep, you'll get well. So these fellows said, if he sleeps, he'll get well. However, Jesus spoke of his death. But they thought that he was speaking about taking rest, as in sleep. Then Jesus said to them, plainly, Lazarus is dead. Do you see what Jesus is calling death here? Jesus is comparing death to a sleep. And why is that? Why would Jesus compare death to asleep? Well, there's a very good reason. When we go to the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, the wisest man, wrote these words. The living, that's you and I. We know we will die because. What is it? Our pulse is the funeral march to the tomb, right? The moment we're born into this world, we begin to die. That's the sad reality. Since sin came into the world. The living know that they will die, but the dead know that nothing. And they have no more reward. For the memory of them is forgotten. He doesn't mean that we don't remember them. Cause we do. We go to the grave, we take some flowers and put them on the grave there. No, their memory is finished. They don't remember anything. That's what he's saying. Their memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love, their hatred and their envy have now perished. Job put it this way when he wrote in the Old Testament, if a man dies, his sons come to honor. They come to the grave, but he does not know it. They are brought low. They have some trouble in their life, and he does not perceive it. Interesting. Why is that? Because death is called asleep. Because the dead know nothing. It's like a state of unconsciousness. They just don't have any sense of the passing of time. They're asleep, so to speak. When I was a little boy, my brother Murray and I. We used to be taken to programs similar to the ones that I'm presenting here. When we first got to this place, they had these big choirs who would sing and we enjoyed the singing. And then someone sometimes would do some chalk art on a big board, you know, with black light. Looked pretty spectacular. By the time the guy got up to speak, my brother and I were asleep on the floor. We were dead out to it. The next moment we remember is our dad carrying us from the car into the house 20 kilometres from the building where we'd been. We had no sense of the passing of time. And isn't that what happens in sleep? Suddenly we wake up. So the Bible calls death is like asleep. Now here's a question that some people have, and that is this one. But don't our loved ones go to heaven to be with Jesus at death? Isn't that what we're often told? You know, you go to a funeral and the minister will say, well, Uncle Bill is now in heaven. Isn't that what happens? Well, let's notice what the Bible says in the Book of Psalms. It says the dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence. But weren't you taught when you were little that when you go to heaven, you play a harp on a cloud or something? Praise God in heaven. But yet the Bible says the dead do not praise the Lord. Let's notice what the New Testament says. It's the day of Pentecost. Peter is preaching. Notice what Peter says. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, King David, that he is both dead and he's buried. And his tomb is with us to this day. Now, when I take people to the Middle east and to Jerusalem, I always take them on most occasions to the tomb of David. We see the tomb of David, like Peter said, his tomb's here. He's dead and buried. But notice what Peter went on to say. Notice what he continued on. For David did not ascend into the heavens. David's not yet gone there. But he's been dead for what, nearly 3,000 years now? But he hasn't yet gone to heaven in Peter's Day. That's 2,000 years ago. A thousand years after David. He's not there now. Do you think that's because David is a bad guy? Well, David did some bad things, didn't he? I'll admit he committed adultery. Then he killed the husband to cover up his crime. But David also prayed to God for mercy. Have mercy on me, O God. Blot out my Transgression. Forgive me. And when you go to the New Testament, David's recorded as one of the people in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, the people who are one day going to be part of God's forever kingdom. But he's not yet there, says Peter. He's not yet there because he's asleep. Until Jesus comes, David did not yet ascend. So Job writes, so man lies down and does not rise. He's dead. Till the heavens are no more. They will not awake nor be roused from their sleep. So the question is then, when will the dead wake up? If they're asleep now, when will they wake up? Paul tells us very clearly, when the dead will wake up out of their sleep. We go to the city of Thessalonica, where we were in a previous presentation. Paul came here to Thessalonica. He preached for three weeks, just three weekends, three Sabbaths, the Bible says, and he was run out of town. Evidently the people in Thessalonica didn't understand all Paul taught about what happens when we die. Or he didn't have a chance to share with them what happens when we die. But he heard as he after he left the area, that they thought that death was like a black hole. Only the living would go to be with Jesus when he came. The dead would not wake up. So you had to be alive when Jesus came. You can imagine what would happen. What would happen to these people. Here's their son, their daughter, who's very sick. They don't want him to die. Don't die. Don't die. Wait till Jesus comes. And then they slipped into death and they're shattered. They're never going to see him again. Maybe mom and dad in aged care home don't die yet. Wait till Jesus comes. But they die. They're shattered. Well, Paul heard that they had this belief and so he wrote a pastoral letter to them. Want you to notice what he wrote to these friends of his in Thessalonica when he heard their predicament. The Bible says, I do not want you to be ignorant without knowledge, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, those who have died, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. You can sorrow, you can cry. But don't cry without hope. Of course we're going to cry. Jesus cried for the Lord himself will descend from heaven. Here's why they don't have to cry without hope for the Lord himself. Jesus will come down from heaven. What with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead In Christ, those who have put their trust in Jesus will rise first. Then we who are alive and shall remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And in this way we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. Do you see what the Bible is saying here? What a tragedy. Many people believe that when we die, we go straight to heaven. Well, if that's the case, we would have met the Lord. But Peter says, Paul says, we don't meet the Lord till Jesus comes and the trumpet blows and he wakes the dead up. That's when we meet the Lord, not before we meet him when he comes. You know, sometimes we often go to a funeral and the priest or the pastor will say, well, folks, don't worry, Uncle Bill is now in heaven. But the problem is everybody knows that Uncle Bill was a womanizer right to the end. He was a crook. He was a grumpy man. But the minister or the priestess just put him straight into heaven. What do you think this says to people? It doesn't matter how you live because you're all going to end up there. Paul doesn't say that. He tells them to comfort one another with these words. These words are not the words. Well, Uncle Bill or dad is now in heaven. These words are, the Lord will come down from heaven with a shout, with a loud command, and the dead in Christ will rise first. That's the hope of the resurrection. That's the great point to where Paul pointed his people. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when he returns. That's the great resurrection day. And that's where the New Testament points people. Now here's a very important question. Someone says, but isn't the soul immortal? Don't we have an immortal soul inside of us that at death it escapes and goes off somewhere? Well, let's have a look at that for a moment. It's a very good question. Now, The Bible says 1600 times it mentions the word soul, but never once in those whole 1600 times is the soul ever called immortal. In fact, in the Bible, there's only one person who's called immortal, and that's God. Notice what Paul says. He who is the blessed and the only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality now alone means he's the only one. No one else has immortality, only God. So we do not yet have immortality according to the Bible. Well, this brings us to an important question then. So what is a soul? How do we understand this word? Well, let's go back to man's creation when Jesus, remember he was the creator God when he made Adam and Eve. Notice how he made Adam. The Bible says these words, the Lord God, that's Jesus, the pre incarnate Christ before he became a human being. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Now you can almost see there is Adam lying on the ground, his body, he's got hands, but they're not working yet. He's got ears, but they're not hearing anything. Eyes, but they're not seeing a mind, but it's not yet working. Then the Bible says, and this is the Creator, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, the breath, and man became a living soul. So God breathed breath of life into him. So the dust of the earth, that means the chemicals, the elements of the ground, the chemicals plus the breath of life from the Creator and man becomes a living soul. The Bible says he became a soul, the breath of life from the creator, Jesus himself. And that means we now have a living soul. Do you notice that you don't have a soul unless you also have a body with it? It's not a soul. Two things make a soul. According to the Bible. The earth elements press the breath of life from the Creator and it produces a living soul. So if there's no body, there's no soul. Because the two together are what makes a soul. Very important when we look at what the Bible says. Earth elements plus the breath produces a living soul. Earth elements plus the breath produces a living being. Now notice what the Bible says in the Book of Ezekiel. The Bible says the soul who sins shall die. Now that's why nobody is immortal. Because how many of us human beings have sinned? The Bible is very plain. In the Book of Romans, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So therefore the wages of sin is death. That's why the soul who sins die. That's why every human being dies. That's why no, nobody yet has immortality. Because immortality means you cannot die. We don't yet have it. And that's why the Bible translates this word in some translations as the person. The soul is not immortal, but also the person who sins, he is the one who will die. Another translation, the living Bible. It is for a man's own sin that he will die. You see, the soul is the person, body and breath of life from God. That's what makes a soul. You know, pictures of souls were taken by camera. We have pictures of them. Here they are. Here is a family of souls. These are people. That's what a soul is. You and I are called souls in the Bible because we've got a body and we have the breath of life from the creator. Without the both, we don't have a soul. It's not some ghosty thing that lives inside of us. Body and breath of life here are a bunch of souls out in the Pacific. That's what a soul is. That's a person. And that's why the Bible translates it that way. The person. Now death is creation in reverse. Just the opposite. Notice how the Bible puts it. The Bible says then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit, that means the breath, it will return to God who gave it. That's how it is. So at death, what happens at death? The soul, that is the person, he goes back to dust. And the spirit or the breath part goes back to God who gave it in the first place. Now, there wasn't something that Adam was living somewhere before God put his spirit into Adam's body. Adam became a person. When the breath of life and the elements got together, that's when he began. It was the breath that God breathed into the chemicals there of Adam. Now let's talk about the spirit for a moment. The spirit in the Bible comes from a word in the Old Testament called that is ruach. And this word means the wind or the breath. That's what the word means. Now, breath, ruach, that's the word that's used for the spirit or the breath. Now, the spirit and the soul are different. Many people think the soul and the spirit are the same thing, some sort of a ghostly thing that lives inside of us, that our death escapes to go somewhere. But notice the Bible says they're totally different. Notice how the Bible puts it. Let's go back to when man was made. God breathed breath, or the word is ruach or spirit or wind into man. And what happened? Man became a living soul or a person. God didn't put a spirit into him. The breath and the and the body or the elements came together to make. He became a soul. So the spirit plus the breath makes a soul different. The spirit and the breath. Now the spirit and the breath, they are the same thing. Of course. Notice the way the Bible puts it. For as long as my breath is in me and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, now, nobody thinks a ghost lives up our nose, right? There's some sort of a ghost that lives up our nose. This is where we breathe in our nose. As long as my Breath is in me. It's Hebrew poetry. That is the spirit of God is in my nostrils. Spirit and breath, the same thing. Notice what else the Bible says. For as the body without the spirit or breath is dead. You try it. Hold your nose, close your mouth, and you'll learn the reality of that statement from the Bible. Right? The body without the breath, which means the spirit, it gives death. We know we have to breathe, and that's the way the Bible puts it. Now let's illustrate it in a very simple way. So we get the idea. Here are some boards, some pieces of wood. We take a bunch of nails and we get a hammer, and we drive the nails into the hammer and we make a box. So wood plus nails put together in the right way, we get a box. Now, this is a bit like what happens with us at creation. We've got the body that's like the wood and the nails like the breath. And we make a soul. The two things together is what a soul is. Now let's pull the box apart. So let's take. Here's our box. Let's pull the nails out, and we put the nails in one pile, and we put the boards in another pile. Where did the box go? Did it go to a place of disembodied boxes somewhere in the room? No, of course not. It just went back to its component parts. It went back to the boards and the nail pile. Those are the two things that when they came together, they made the box. The box didn't go anywhere. It just ceased to exist at that point, back to its component parts. Now, here's a vital question that someone may have. But will we ever be immortal? Good question. Let's notice what Pastor Paul had to say to his friends living in Corinth. Paul wrote to his friends about this matter. I want you to notice what he said. For the trumpet will sound. This is the coming of Jesus. He's talking about when the trumpet blows and wakes the dead. Remember, the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible. They won't have a body that can wear out and so on. And we shall be changed for this corruptible. This body that can wear out must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. Then when it happens, shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Now, did you notice what Paul said? Immortality is put on at Christ's return, not before. If we put it on when Jesus returns the second time, it means we don't have it now we only put it on when he comes at the second coming. That's why many people now are realizing that resurrection is the clear answer for what happens when we die. Because we cease to exist until Jesus comes and raises us to life. And that's when we put on immortality. If we put it on then we clearly don't have it before that time. Well, here's a good question that someone has then. So how did this idea of the immortal soul, how did this belief come into Christianity? Good question. Where did it come from? Let me share with you where it came from. We have one of the church fathers who actually tells us now, the church fathers were people who lived after the Bible was finished. Written by John, the book of Revelation. They come after this, after the Bible. Notice what Tertullian, who was one of the church fathers said he lived about 200 AD. Notice what this man said. I use the opinion of Plato when he declares every soul is is immortal. Now who was Plato? Well, Plato wasn't a Christian. Plato was a Greek philosopher. This is what Plato believed. He believed the body was like a house and at death the house crumbles and the immortal soul can get going out somewhere. So Tertullian says, I don't get this idea from the Bible because we've seen it's not in the Bible, only God is immortal. I get this from Plato, a pagan philosopher. The Romans had this idea in the time of Jesus. But not only the Romans before them, the Babylonians, they had ancestral worship, worshiping the spirits of the ancestors and so on. Not only the Babylonians, we go back further than that. The Egyptians were into the immortal soul big time. Let me take you here to the bottom of one of the great pyramids there in Giza in Egypt. What's this big hole in the ground that these guys are looking at? Well, they discovered what was in the hole. It was a boat. This boat was reassembled eventually by the people today. And this was going to help carry the pharaoh into the next life. They were big into the afterlife of the immortal soul. But where did the Egyptians get the idea of the immortal soul from? Well, we need to go back even further. We need to go back to a talking snake in a garden. The garden home of our first parents. You remember what happened way back then. We saw it in an early presentation. God said, 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 will surely die. It Was very clear what God said, you're going to die. But notice what the snake, the dragon who was the first front. Notice what he said. He said, you will not surely die. And he has been repeating that lie down through the centuries, ever since. He says it this way. At death you don't really die. Something continues after death. The immortal soul goes on somewheres, may be recycled for those who are in the Eastern religions, but you don't really die. Something continues after death. Now the question is, why this global lie? There's a good reason. According to the Bible, the devil lives for two things. Global deception for global destruction. That's why he lies about this matter. So what are we going to do with near death experiences and out of body experiences where people say looking down on the table and I see my body, or I'm near death and I'm going down a long dark tunnel and I see light at the end of the tunnel? Well, one thing's for sure, if we're going to follow the Bible, the truth of the matter is the dead know nothing. Cause if they're dead, they wouldn't know anything. You see, my friends, the Bible is plain. The dead know nothing. That's why they're called near death experiences. They're not actually dead. In fact, science knows now what happens when we're near death. Time magazine near death experiences back in 2007. Altered states of consciousness when we're near death. In other words, when we're getting near death, our chemicals getting out of whack, so to speak, and we sort of hallucinate when we near death. Not only that, the BBC reported that scientists can create out of body experiences for very alive people just by putting electrodes and so on in certain places. They can create out of body experiences. Now think of it this way too. It doesn't matter whether you're an atheist, whether you're a Christian, whether you're a Muslim, whether you're a Buddhist or a Hindu. People have the similar experience near death. A light at the end of a tunnel looking down on their body. No matter what belief they have. How come? Because it's not really. They're not dead, they're just hallucinating, as science is now showing because of the state of their chemicals. All right then, what about this idea of reincarnated lives? There are many people who say I was once Napoleon in a previous life or I was Mozart in a previous life. And they tell things that if they've been, you know, say living in a recent time, that is, while people are alive, you know, they're now dead. They come back and say, well, I was this person. And they say things that only the people know about that particular person. They say they are. They're the reincarnation of them. Amazing things. You read about these in magazines, glossy tabloid magazines, these sort of stories, and people think, wow, that must be the case. But the Bible is plain. The dead know nothing. So it's not Mozart, it's not Napoleon, because Napoleon's dead, Mozart's dead and they know nothing. The Bible is plain. But also the Bible says something else. The Bible says as it and as it is appointed for men to die once, not a number of times, recycled soul. It is appointed for men to die once and after this, the judgment. So it's not a case of recycling of the soul according to the Bible? No, no, no. We die once and after that the judgment for each person. Napoleon is waiting for the judgment. Hitler is waiting for the judgment. He's not getting recycled according to the Bible. What are we going to do with haunted houses and ghosts at haunting the house? What's going on? Notice what the Bible says. So he who goes down to the grave, who dies, does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore. Notice what else the Bible says about this. They will never again take part in anything that happens on this earth. So who's haunting the house? It's clearly not the dead because the Bible says they don't come back to their house again. The Bible says they don't have a part in anything done on the earth once we die. So who's doing the haunting of the house? What's going on here? We need to understand very clearly. Let's talk about one more thing before we put this together. What about spiritualism, contacting the dead? What about people who go to seances? They've even had live television seances where people seem to be talking to the dead. What's going on here? Notice what the Bible says. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. Let me tell you, my friend, if it seems that mom is talking to you and mum's died and she's giving you a message, it's not mum. Now that may seem hard, but it's what the Bible is saying. Because the devil is actually lying to us. The dead know nothing and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten. They can't remember anything. Their love, their hatred, their envy is now perished until Jesus comes. Remember now the strongest warnings in the Bible are given against trying to contact the dead. Notice the very strong warning that's given in the books of Moses, writings, Deuteronomy. There shall not be found among you anyone who practices witchcraft or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord. Man. That is very strong wording, isn't it? Very strong warning. Don't try to contact the dead. Those people who do these things, they're an abomination to God who try to bring up the dead. Very strong warning. Why such a strong warning in the Bible? There's a very good reason, my friend, because we are not contacting the dead. We are contacting demons. That's the teaching of the Bible. Notice what the Bible says, for they are the spirits of demons performing signs, miracles, wonders. John in the book of Revelation indicates that in the end of time we're going to see these phenomena. Don't miss the program. Babylon rising, Night cry, demonic dimensions. We're going to talk about these things in more detail because God wants us to understand what's going on in this world at this time. You see, demons can impersonate people. They really can. We even have an example of it in the Bible. Let me talk to you about it for a moment. Have you heard of Saul, King Saul and how he visited a spirit medium at Endor? In other words, someone who said, I can bring up the so called dead. Now let me talk a little bit about Saul. Saul had been disobedient to God. Saul had not followed what God said. And God finally said to Saul, saul, I'm not speaking to you anymore. Not until you get serious. Saul, I'm just not talking to you. I'm not going to talk to you by prophets. I'm not going to be talking to you by any way until you get serious and you repent. Well, Saul was told to get rid of all the spirit medians and all these channelers out of Israel because they were putting people in contact with demons, not the dead. And this was corrupting the nation, as you can appreciate. But he had one or two evidently that he knew he didn't put away and he knew where they were. So he disguised himself because he knew if I show up as King Saul, they're not going to do their thing. So he came disguised and he said to this, this medium, he said, bring me up the prophet Samuel. Now Samuel was already dead. So this woman, she does her incantations, whatever it was there was and poof, there is Samuel in front of Saul. Basically, he says, what did you wake me up for? What's the problem? Bit of a grumpy Samuel. Now, it wasn't actually Samuel. The Bible says it was a familiar spirit. It wasn't really Samuel. It was one of these spirits, these angels that impersonates people. What did this likeness to Samuel say to Saul? He said to Saul, you're going to die on the battlefield. And that's what happened. He did die. Now, the devil can't predict the future, but he can make a prediction. And if God allows him to make it come true, it will come true to suit his purposes. But think of what happened to Saul. Here he is, he goes to battle. He's told he's going to die on the battlefield. He's been to a witch, a medium, whom God said, you should have nothing to do with because they're putting you in contact with demons. And now he's gone to this lady, and now he's told he's going to die, and he goes to his grave without hope. This man is going to come up in the second resurrection, not the first resurrection. Tragically, because he clung to sin and he would not turn away from sin to God, and he plunged on recklessly to eternal destruction. What a tragedy that happened to King Saul. You see, demons can impersonate people. There's you and your husband. You are in your bedroom, you're in your kitchen, and you're talking about stuff that only you and your husband know about. It was just a conversation between you and him. And then he dies. And one day, something that looks like your husband shows up and talks about things that only you and your husband, who has died, knew about. But he's now talking about those very things. I tell you what, that's an. That's a powerful temptation to believe that this must be my husband, because he's telling me about things that only we knew. That's because you see, the demons, the good and the evil angels are everywhere. You can't see them. They're in your home right now. Good and evil. They're right here while we're making this presentation. Good and evil. And they hear what we say. They know what we look like. They got it all. And then when we lose a loved one, the devil, the evil angel, shows up masquerading as your loved one. Your child, your husband, your wife, your brother, your sister. And we think this must be them. Cause they're saying things that only we knew about. Tell you, my friend, the devil is cruel. It happened to Susan. Susan's little boy, Billy, had been killed in a car accident. The mother's heart was breaking. As you can understand. She longed to see Billy again. But he was gone. Susan standing at the kitchen, in the kitchen one day, doing her work in the kitchen, she heard the back door open. She wondered, who's that? She turned around and there, to her amazement, was what looked like Billy. Her own son. She wanted to race over and embrace him. But she knew what the Bible said about the dead. No, nothing. But there was a battle going on in her heart. Her mother longing to embrace him. But the truth of the Bible causing her to put the brakes on. Because she knew this is really not Billy. But she just wanted to embrace him. That struggle went on for a while. And finally Susan looked at that thing that looked like Billy, and she said, you are an evil angel. You are not my son. Billy. Go away. In the name of Jesus. The thing turned black and vanished. Do you see how cruel the devil can be? At our most vulnerable points in life, when we've lost a loved one and we want to see them again, he shows up masquerading as a loved one. It will not surprise me if you who are watching today, some of you have not had this sort of experience. Won't surprise me a bit because I have. People say to me after a program like this, they talk to me about this thing, but it's not the loved one. Because the dead know nothing. Not until Jesus comes will they wake up again. The Bible says what a cruel foe he is. Well, four days too late. Jesus turns up at Bethany. Remember, he turns up at Bethany. And Lazarus has been dead for four days. He takes. He says, take me to the tomb. They take him to the tomb of Lazarus. And he says, roll away the stone. Martha says, jesus, no, please, no. Jesus. He's deemed dead four days. It'll be a terrible odor, terrible smell. No, please, no. Jesus says, martha, didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? You would see the power of God, if you only believed. Roll the stone away, Martha. So they rolled the stone away, and Jesus stood out in front of the entrance of that tomb. And he called out with a loud voice, lazarus, come out. Notice he didn't say, lazarus, come down out of heaven, or lazarus, come up. He said, lazarus, come out. And Lazarus strode out of the tomb alive again. Now, you see, just here in this story, we have a replay of creation because the two ingredients are here. Where is. Where is the dust of the earth? It's in the tomb Lazarus body is decomposing. It's going back to dust. Where is the breath of life in this story here? It's in Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. He's the life giver. He's the one who created Adam and Eve at the beginning. And the breath of life of the Creator and the decomposing body of Lazarus, the dust of the earth. And Lazarus lives again. It's a replay of creation. Jesus said these words, I am the resurrection and the life. He or she who believes in me, though he or she may die, he or she shall live. What a wonderful thing that is. Two things are necessary if you're going to live again. If you die. Number one, you need the first of these two ingredients if you're going to live again. Number one, you need a resurrection. Without resurrection, there is no life according to the Bible. And it happens when Jesus comes the second time. But secondly, we need belief or trust in Jesus. We need to put our life in his hand. We need to say, oh, God, come into my life. The moment we do that, he comes, you know. Wellington had just defeated Napoleon Bonaparte in the battle of Waterloo with the Germans. And they sent a message across to the English across the Channel. When it got to the cliffs of Dover across from the ocean, they relayed the message that onto London with flags, we call it semaphore. And this was the message. Wellington defeated. Before they could finish the message, a fog settled down and they thought, this is the it. Wellington's been defeated by Napoleon. So they relayed this message on to London. When the sun rose higher in the sky and the clouds dispersed thanks to the sun, they continued the message. They were able to finish the message. And this is what it said. Wellington defeated the enemy. Big difference, right? You know, 2,000 years ago, good Friday looked like Bad Friday. Jesus defeated, it seemed. But come Sunday morning, come the first day, he is not here, he has risen. Jesus defeated. Death was the message. There is a life after death. Thank God for that. There is a hope that goes beyond the grave. Very important. A hope that goes beyond death. Now, what about this very important question? You remember Jesus was talking to the thief on the cross and he said, today you will be with me in paradise. Now it looked like Jesus was saying, you're going to be with me in heaven today. That's the way it seems to read. Notice what the text says in some Bibles. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. But there's a problem with that because three days Later, Jesus meets Mary at the tomb three days later, and this is what happens. Jesus said to her, woman, why do you weep? Why are you crying? Whom do you seek? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you've taken him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, mary must have been the way he said it. She turned herself and said to him, rabboni, which is to say, master. Jesus said to her, touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. Did you see something interesting there? Three days later, Jesus says to Mary, I have not yet gone to my Father, but tell my disciples I'm about to go, but I'm not yet gone. Now that brings us to important point about punctuation in the Bible. In the Bible, punctuation was none of it in the original Greek manuscripts. People put the commas in later on and the full stops and the verses. So we could find the places and we could read it. But in the Greek it just runs one to another. Now, you will notice this statement here. How do you like this, women? A woman without her man is nothing. Do you ladies like that? I'm sure you'd throw rocks at me if you were in here with me. It looks like a woman is nothing without a man. But let's put a couple of commas in here. A woman without her man is nothing. Now, I'm sure you ladies like that statement, right? It looks like the man is a nobody now without the lady. Commas make a difference. Now, in the Greek manuscripts, the punctuation makes a difference. We can put that comma in one of two places. Notice, we could put it here, which is where many translations have it. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise. But the problem with that is you've got a contradiction. Cause three days later Jesus said, I haven't yet been to paradise. I haven't gone to my Father's home. That's where paradise is. So it contradicts. But we can equally put the comma in another place. We can put it here. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today, meaning on this horrible day when it looks like my cause is washed up, I'm telling you, you will be with me in paradise. I'm telling you, on this horrible day, you're going to be with me one day. In other words, that's what he's saying, but not necessarily today. And then it doesn't contradict what he said three days later. I've not yet gone to my Father very clear in the Bible. Well, we're glad we could share this with you today, vital topic. But I think we should pause and thank God and talk to him about what we've talked about just in this last presentation. Father, we thank youk so much for your grace and you'd mercy and you'd kindness. Thank youk for showing us the truth about what happens after death. But thank youk that there is a hope beyond the grave. Thank youk Lord, that all we need to do is put our trust in Jesus Christ. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he will live. And then Lord, we can look forward to the resurrection morning when Jesus himself, the one who died, will come and wake us up again. Thank you for the truth of life after death. May we put our life in your hand right now if we've not yet done that. Wherever we are. In Jesus name, amen. Well, we're so glad you were with us. Don't miss our next Countdown Back to the Future presentation. We're going to be looking at the assassination of God. To hell and back. What's that all about? The assassination of God. Don't miss that presentation. Invite a friend to watch it with you or maybe send them a link. They'll be so glad because this is a vital topic. The assassination of God and to hell and back. We'll see you then.
