10/07/10

Resurrection of the dead

Mark 12: 23 - In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.


There are many things which even the most elect are deceived on and one of them is understanding resurrection.

In today's scripture Jesus answers on people getting resurrected and uses the word 'in the resurrection', He did not say when they each resurrect.

Almost all believers think they will resurrect when they die and will go to Heaven.

Firstly let me touch on resurrection and then about where they go.

We as humans are made of body, soul (inner man) and spirit. In this world when we die, we actually do not die but only our body dies; our soul and spirit still lives. If our spirit lives then what is resurrection?

People answer to this is we come back into our physical body.

Jesus says in the same text that we will be like the Angels. Angels do not have a body. Man has is his imagination made Angels in human forms like the made God the Father as an old man. God the Father is younger than any being and also older than any being is or was. God is ageless so no one can depict Him even symbolically as an old man.

Angels have come in the Bible in different forms so no one can fix them to a form. They are spirit being and dwell in a Spirit world called Heaven. They can come as any physical form they desire for they are formless physically. They have a body which is a spiritual body but not a physical body.

All through scriptures all Men of God when they died (before Jesus and even after Jesus’ death and resurrection) did not enter Heaven scriptures say they were either gathered unto their fathers, went to sleep / grave or as Jesus puts it, went to the bosom of Abraham.

Let's take the case of Stephen who died as a martyr, although being a martyr and even saying Lord receive my spirit, yet the scripture says he slept. Also taking the case of Samuel who was an anointed Man of God and scriptures show that Saul called his spirit from sleep (grave) and not from Heaven.

It is this misunderstanding of resurrection and death by which the beast has being deceiving people of God and therefore the spirit have deceived many coming spirits of dead persons, a woman who is claimed to have ascended into Heaven (this is one of the greatest plots of the beast) and people praying to and for death souls.

In very simple English resurrection is not come back to life nor anything else but just the cancellation of our sentence from hell. We all (whole mankind) as sinners were sentenced to hell; but by believing in Jesus Christ we are saved from it. It does matter how good or bad a Christian you are, you are saved from hell because you believe in Jesus Christ. Mind you, this does not mean you enter Heaven.

Entering Heaven will be judged by Jesus Christ Who will come as Son of man on the Judgment Day. Those found not keeping the Word of God will be counted among the goats and those keeping the Word among the sheep. Both the goats and the sheep will wake up from their sleep to be judged on the Judgment Day, the sheep will receive those free fruits by the Lord so that they can enter Heaven - this is called resurrection. Paul also calls it making the corrupt into incorruptible. (Even the 144000 who are the first resurrection also fall well into this understanding - I cannot get into those details in my daily mails which I try to keep short)

Goats and sheep are part of the flock and also the same physically except from the sheep have wool and the goat have horns. Wool symbolizes grace and horns as rulers or lords. Sheep have no horns for the Lord is their ruler and lord, but the goats have also made the world and their desires as their lord and therefore have horns. Those not covered by the grace of God and having lords other than the Lord are counted among the goats.

The sentence which the goats will receive is far worse than those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. You will understand this when you understand hell. Hell is not a place like a pit where fire burns eternally and where Satan rules. God rules every where even hell and there is an Angel of the Lord who is specially assigned to guard hell.

Hell is a prison to which even Jesus Christ went to because the sins of all of us were on Him. But since no sin was in Him therefore He could not be kept there and thus came back from this prison. In this prison the fire in inside the soul of the person and burns according to their doings. Jesus did not suffer in hell because there was no sin in Him. As Peter puts He preached in Hell to the souls right up to those from Noah. What about the souls before Noah? If you understand this you will know that perfect time Jesus came on earth and did all that He did and there was no other time better than that. Had Jesus come earlier or later it would have been a great catastrophe.

By this you will understand why Jesus said the sign of Joanna was sign for this wicked nation.

The place where the goats will go will be a place which is called lake of fire and in one place also called a lake of sulphur. Spirit world is not a physical place but these descriptions are symbolic. People living in garbage dumps get used to the stink and do not feel it as a person going there for the first time. Man is made in that fashion to adapt to his environment. But sulphur is the old chemical or scent which man cannot adapt to. A person going to a sulphur mine on the first day will suffer the same as a person working there since ages.

A Christians who has rejected the Word just before dying or since a long time, they will both suffer the same irrespective of what they did. You may be a Christian giving tithes regularly, doing social work, preaching the Word, healing people, doing miracles etc. but if you rejected the Word in your life you will not enter Heaven and will face the lake of sulpur as much as a Christian who did not do anything good.

It does not require you to abide by all the Laws or Commandments of God but those whose understanding has been revealed unto you. God is a just and merciful God, but also a righteous God Who hates evil.

The sheep, who are found good will enter Heaven. One does not need to be perfect to be a sheep for like I said sheep and goat in the raw are the same weak. It is only that the sheep operates under the grace of Lord Jesus Christ and has no ruler or lord other than the Lord Jesus Christ. His desire is not the world but the Kingdom of God.

You may be weak falling many a times. God never expected you to be able to overcome by yourself. Knowing it after making a door to cancel the sentence of death, He gave us His Spirit to Whom if we surrender we will become overcomers and enter into our eternal life in the Lord.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord Jesus, You came as man abiding to the rules set by You, became an eternal sacrifice for us canceling death and giving us the resurrection. After we resurrect we will be judged and will enter Heaven, this is the hope we keep in You. Open the minds of your people that they may understand your creation and not be deceived by the evil one...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Acts 7:59-60
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
1 Peter 3:18-20
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Matthew 25:31-34
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Matthew 7:21-23
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Revelation 20:10-15
10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)