Category Archives: His Story

A Cosmological World View based on Holy Scripture
A module in Life College

Eschatology, General Principles, heaven

What happens when we die?

Leave a comment

A young saint’s spirit went home last week and her body died.   According to the bible, the body without the spirit is dead….James 2:26.

Despite being in contact with her husband during Friday, when I went into the specially convened prayer meeting at Open Arms that night I had no idea what to pray or what condition she was in except that it was serious.  So I prayed in the Spirit as follows: “Lord, forgive us for not understanding your ways and for our childish prayers.  We miss our sister and we know that her husband and child will be heartbroken.  So for those reasons we are asking for her back.”  I was in tears as I prayed this.  Then I got a vision from the Lord.  Jesus was in heaven hearing our prayers and pointing them out to our sister whose spirit was also there.  He seemed to be asking her if she wanted to go back.  To which she seemed to reply: “No way!”

Now it is not that she doesn’t care about her husband and son or us for that matter.  It’s just that, from the viewpoint of heaven and eternity, their remaining time seems shorter, eternity seems longer and God’s care for them more obvious.  Its a perspective we all need to have.

On Sunday, shortly after we heard the news that the life support machines had been stopped, a group of us were meeting and discussed what death is about for a born again, committed disciple of Jesus Christ – what the bible calls a “saint”.

The bible speaks a lot about what happens to “saints” when they die (it is much less clear on what happens to people who are not saints).  In fact all the letters of the New Testament and Revelation are written for the saints (a.k.a. disciples or overcomers)  and don’t make much sense unless that is understood.

So there are several verses that we can use to describe our current status and what happens when we die. First of all we should be clear that the earthly body we are in is a vessel for something more important:  2 Cor. 4:6-7a says:

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,

Jesus said (John 11:25,26):

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Well do you?  Martha didn’t for when the test came she showed it by her response in John 11:39:

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

In Lazarus’ case (and in the case of the widow’s son at Nain) Jesus raised both the body and the spirit, thus restoring the soul as well to Lazarus.

(I believe the Scripture says the Spirit interacting with the body is what creates the soul – without both the soul doesn’t exist – but I could be wrong about that).

But in the saint’s case, when we die our bodies normally decay to the dust from whence they came and our spirits go to heaven.  Our souls are not fully saved until our spirits are reunited with our bodies on the day the Lord returns and gives us new ones.

So the old body has served its purpose, it won’t be used again and it really doesn’t matter what you do with it. Cremation is probably one of the more eco friendly options.

The fact that the saints will be resurrected in a new body is dealt with extensively by Paul in 1 Cor. 15.  In v.20 and v.23 he calls Christ the first fruits of the resurrection.  A first fruits means there is more of the same coming afterwards:

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 

When Luke wrote his gospel he went to great lengths to ensure that we understood that Jesus’ resurrection was a bodily one:

36 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” 37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. 38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

40 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. 41 But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” 42 So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. 43 And He took it and ate in their presence.

Luke 24:36-43

But so far Jesus is the only one who has resurrected in that way.  His resurrection was also different from what our bodily resurrection will be like in that His old body never decayed.  In fact God wanted to show something very specific through Jesus’ resurrection.

In the Old Testament it says this about the life of flesh:

Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’

There has been an increase of understanding these days through scientific enquiry and we know now that the life of this flesh is most certainly in the blood.  96,500 km (enough to circle the world more than twice) of capillaries, veins and arteries carry blood laden with life giving oxygen and minerals to every living cell in our bodies.  Only the dead skin cells we shed, parts of our hair and nails are lifeless.

And we know that Jesus shed His blood.    Then He was buried, His body did not decay and so He rises with flesh and bone.  Henceforth His Spirit sustains Him so that life is in the Spirit not the blood in His new body. Likewise for us, since He is the first fruits, so our new bodies will be kept alive by the spirit, not blood.  Note that Jesus ate and had flesh and bones, there is nothing insubstantial about the new bodies we will inherit.

So the saint is in heaven awaiting the Lord’s return so that she and all the other “spirits of just men (includes women) made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23) can enter their new bodies and live with Jesus in His new kingdom.

So in summary:

1) A saint who dies is in heaven with Jesus now in the spirit.

2) Jesus is the only one in heaven with a new flesh and bone body

3) Jesus will return one day and when He does He will bring the saints with Him and give them new bodies like His own.

Think about these things, they will encourage you!

Creation, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Hidden

Leave a comment

The  Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory (John 1:14).

We are creatures variously described in the bible as an earthen vessel (2 Cor. 4:7); a branch (John 15:4), a member of His body (1 Cor. 12:27) but even in those descriptions there is something more than just a creature described.  We contain God Himself in some way, just like the body of Mary did and the earthly body of Jesus did and now the heavenly body of Jesus does also.  When you are born again a connection occurs with God that is beyond a simple creature/ creator relationship.  Its the relationship of a family.

So if that is the case then why are we not all Supermen?  Surely we should be imbued with astonishing, miraculous powers and be able to conquer the world, etc.

I think that some of us will be in positions of power in the ages to come if we are found worthy of that.  The way we are found worthy is by continuing to abide in the crucified Christ for crucified is the way He has chosen to live through us in this age (Gal. 2:20, 6:14).

God is regularly misunderstood, spat at, despised and dishonoured in this world for so He has chosen that it should be.  His aim is to have a remnant that love Him not because they have to, or because there is anything to gain in this life by doing so or even just because we will have a great position in His kingdom to come but because He loves us and is lovely.  Its the great romance at the heart of a lot of films.  We are being wooed by Him who appears to us in pauper’s clothes but is in fact the prince of the realm.  He asks us to join Him and be like He is, with the glory hidden in a jar of clay for a time (2 Cor. 4:7).

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.  

Colossians 3:3,4.

He is worth waiting for and He thinks you are too.

church, Discipleship Series, General Principles

The Safeguards of the Christian Faith

Leave a comment

Faith is a gift – or so the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8 – and faith is substance and assurance (Hebrews 11:1). So those with faith might not require much else. They believe in Jesus having, like me, that assurance in their hearts where they can hear and feel the Holy Spirit. The other side of that though is that they can be deceived. So God has put in place two other things to help, the Scripture and the Church. So we have three things which keep us on the straight and narrow so to speak.

Here is a check for the church or group you are in:

Do they honour the personal in dwelling Spirit of God in you (1 John 4:2) and do they honour the Scripture ?

Some big groups do not: churches with a clergy say you cannot know God safely unless you are guided by clergy.  Some would rather you did not read the Scripture at all but let it be read and interpreted to you through the same clergy.

Sound familiar? So they remove two safeguards and leave you with only one. And what if that turns out to be corrupt?

Discipleship Series, Eschatology, General Principles, heaven

Using our imagination

Leave a comment

I think that one of the biggest problems facing evangelical Christianity in the west is a lack of imagination.  Fear seems to be the biggest obstacle.  We are afraid to let our minds go in case we get into vain imaginations and get puffed up.  So one verse in the Scripture (Colossians 2:18) prevents us from using a God given gift.  But without imagination we can get terribly confined in our thinking.

This can particularly apply to how we think about what happens when we die.  An unimaginative view puts us immediately in either heaven or hell whereas the Scripture would seem to indicate lots of events before that state is arrived at.   It is not that straight forward.  First our disembodied spirits go somewhere.  I think that somewhere is the same place they go when we worship when we are alive (see my article on the Sea).  I’m not sure where those who don’t know how to worship in the Spirit go – perhaps to some holding place like Sheol or Hades (see Luke 16).

Then there is the Lord’s return which I believe happens before His Millennium reign on earth.  At that point those who are able to look Him in the eye and those who died in Christ receive their new bodies and reign with Him for the thousand years.  Then comes the amazing period of non-time, non-eternity called the Judgement Day when everyone who is not a judge is judged.  And then after all that comes the New Heaven and the New Earth.

So it is not simply a case of heaven and hell.  Actually it is quite complex.  That is not surprising seeing as we are in time and natural 3D space and the events in the hereafter are in eternity and in who knows how many dimensions.

I was walking down by the canal near where I work at lunch time as I often do.  There are dragon flies, moorhens, teeming fish (the water was as clear as crystal and you could see every fish), swans and all sorts of plant life.  At one stage I looked across at a simple bank of bulrushes all moved by the wind into one lovely pattern.

Any God who can think up that kind of thing – let alone create it – can surely think up even more wonders that will keep us all going for eternity.

Revelation helps – not the book, the experiences- I got a revelation while walking down by the canal.  It was simply that I will feel very comfortable in my new body in the new earth and heaven.  It will feel very natural (if that makes sense).  It was a revelation that came and went again but left behind an impression.

We need revelation, without it we are groping in the dark.  Revelation and imagination are inseparable.  You can’t have one without the other.

Creation, Eschatology, General Principles, heaven, Worship & Song

The Sea

6 Comments

Many years ago a preacher pointed out the curious statement at the beginning of Revelation 21:  

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.  Also there was no more sea.”

I’ve been thinking about that ever since (among other things).

Now I am going to make some bold statements about it all and back it up with some Scriptures.

  • The sea that is referred to is the one before the throne in the “old” heaven, i.e. the heaven that is there now (Rev. 4, 5).
  • This heaven is also known as the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2) and is the place where God’s throne currently is.
  • The sea (Rev. 4:6) is the way time and events on earth look like to an observer in the third heaven (Dan. 7:2,3; Rev. 13:1).  Spirits (winds) blow upon it and things are stirred up and come up out of the sea before the throne.  However the most wonderful sight is that of the spirits of men worshipping God (Hebrews 12:22-24; Rev. 15:2).

So why is there no more sea when the new heaven comes along?

Well there is no more time nor difference between the spirit and the flesh in the new heaven.  In this life the life of this mortal body is in the blood (Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:11,14), in the new heaven the life of the immortal body will be in the spirit (Luke 24:39; 1 Cor. 15:44).  When we are seen in the existing heaven it is our spirits that are seen.  However in the new heaven we will be body and soul with the Lord forever.

There is also a very clear picture about being born again here.  What happens when we are born again?  Well, a baby moves from a place of breathing and living in water to breathing and living in air.  So we too, according to this picture of rising above the surface of the sea in heaven, move from death beneath the waves to life in the spirit above them.  The first time we do this is when we are raised together with Christ from death to life when we are born again.  I believe that walking in the spirit means walking on water (on the sea) which explains one of the main points of that miracle (Matthew 14:22-33; John 6:19).

So if it helps you, the next time you are worshipping God either on your own or at church imagine that your spirit is rising up out of the sea before God’s throne in the third heaven.  Because that may very well be what is actually happening (cf. Hebrews 4:16).

Eschatology, General Principles

A way of looking at the descriptions in the book of Revelation

1 Comment

Some people say Revelation is purely symbolic.  Some people say it is literal. Personally I consider all of Revelation open to a literal interpretation, i.e. it was literally what events on earth looked like from the vantage point of heaven to a human transported there (i.e. John).

John is in eternity looking down at events on earth occurring in time. That being the case there is bound, even for this reason alone, to be considerable differences between what he saw of the same events in comparison to someone viewing from earth in time.  Add to that that he was also more than likely looking at the spiritual rather than the corporeal bodies of each participant and the imagery in Revelation is more easily understood (perhaps).

Here are some thoughts:

Revelation is the spiritual view of events on earth through the second heaven – c.f. Daniel 7.

Animals represent creatures, corporations with no relationship with God, humans represent creatures or corporations capable of a relationship with God.  Corporations in this sense are collectives of people with one spirit, e.g. nations, empires, companies, etc.

Does that help?

church, General Principles, History of Faith

The consequences of communion

1 Comment

  or   

Paul’s observations on what happened when people didn’t discern the body of Christ during the breaking of bread or Lord’s supper or communion as it is sometimes known (1 Cor. 11:30) can be better understood if we look at the historical understanding of disease at the time and now.  Now we understand the concept of germs and contagious diseases but then such things were not understood at all.

However Paul was able to observe something happen and come to conclusions.  Communion meant sharing a common cup and bread (1 Cor. 10:16,17) then.  Nowadays we don’t normally do that, at least in large congregations.  The reason we don’t  is because we know that is how germs are spread.  But at a time when that was not understood, the connection between falling ill (or sometimes dying) and sharing a common cup would not have been so understood.  However Paul observed this happening in some churches.  And it would seem it was churches like Corinth who seemed most lax about how they observed the Lord’s supper that this happened in the most.

Now let’s take this argument one (admittedly controversial) stage further.  He says that believers in some cases were ill after communion because they did not observe the Lord’s body (1 Cor. 11:29).  In general believers will not be leading a promiscuous lifestyle.  Contagious diseases in particular are picked up by a promiscuous lifestyle.  So if the body is discerned and those who are outside the body in general are convicted enough by the self examination not to partake in the breaking of bread then that reduces the risk of the spread of contagious disease through sharing a common cup.

Of course there is not a one to one correlation between not having contagious disease and being a Christian – most everyone gets a cold at some time – but you can see how this might work out in practice even at a simply natural level.  Then if you take into account God’s divine intervention on behalf of His people …

Discipleship Series, General Principles, His Story

Lessons in Maturity: Separating knowledge from the Knower

Leave a comment

In 2011 I worked for a company of consultants.  One of the tasks I was given during that time was to come up with a way of handling knowledge.

Knowledge comes in two main forms: implicit and explicit.

Implicit knowledge is information or data or skills that people know without realising they do or, at least, without articulating it well.   Implicit knowledge can be very hard to document or explain to someone else. Explicit knowledge is the opposite, it is knowledge that is easily documented and understood in text or diagrams.  In the past and in some places today, civilisations and organisations dealt with the problem of passing on implicit knowledge by using an apprentice and master approach. This approach has gone out of favour in the West generally.

In my research I came across this paper. Its a typical Ph.D. paper with loads of big words, months of research and lots of references. But basically it says you can’t separate knowledge out from the knower and make it useful for people who are in the senior consultant category (mature if you like). The senior consultant will always need to talk to the knowledge originator to get the things (help, implicit knowledge, advice, experience, contacts, etc.) that only a conversation or interaction with the person will provide. Explicit, extracted knowledge only has limited use really only for those who are inexperienced or new to a company.

Likewise reading the Bible on its own without being a disciple of its Author is of limited use and can be quite frustrating.

church, Discipleship Series, General Principles

Lessons in Maturity: Lactose intolerance

Leave a comment

Here is an offbeat observation of real life imitating Scripture at a physical level: Lactose intolerance is standard as people mature unless it is removed by adverse conditions.

In Northern Europe over many generations the gene that normally activates lactose intolerance was removed by natural selection due to the dependence on cow’s milk in the colder climates. Hence the fact that all major races except Caucasians (and some East Africans) are lactose intolerant after breastfeeding age.

So it is natural to mature beyond milk at least in the physical.

Is the western dependence on spiritual milk among Christians with years of a Christian walk likewise evolved and unnatural?

church, General Principles, Prophetic?

Pruning Fruit Trees

Leave a comment

We only have two fruit trees in our garden.  We have had both of them for going on four years now.  Neither I nor my wife would consider ourselves horticultural experts.  Indeed about the only things I know about looking after fruit trees I learnt from reading passages in the bible.  Particularly John 15.

So inspired by John 15 I took my secateurs (just like in the picture) and set to.

I first went looking for fruit.  One of our trees is a pear tree and it has never borne us any fruit.  I don’t blame it really, it was supposed to be pruned and trained along the wall.  Nevertheless this year it is showing some signs of fruit on one branch.  Maybe I was wrong but I didn’t have the heart to prune it much since it seems quite weak.  I thought it might find the shock of severe pruning too much and die on me.  But I did get rid of some new growth.

The other tree is some kind of edible cherry – a damson but yellow.  It produced its first small crop a couple of years ago and last year it produced a much bigger crop.  This year it is looking promising, plenty of signs of fruit on many of the branches.  So I thought – strong tree – fruit on many branches – I’ll remove the branches that are not bearing fruit and prune the ones that are a la John 15.

The fruit is quite green at this stage and easy to miss among the green leaves so I was careful to make sure there was no fruit before I removed a branch.  I noticed that if a bough was not fruitful (c.f. Genesis 49:22) then neither were any of the branches on it.  If a bough was fruitful then several – though not all – of the branches on it had fruit.  The tree was not large and neither were the boughs so I removed one particularly dead looking one and all its branches went with it – not one fruit on any of them.

I also noticed a branch that had had fruit but the fruit had, even at this early stage, been eaten or removed by birds or something.  I reluctantly removed that branch too.  At this stage it is too late in the season to presume it will bear fruit again.

When it came to pruning the fruitful branches I was quite thorough.  I didn’t want the goodness of the tree to be wasted producing only leaves so I removed new unfruitful growths and twigs.

I’ve been long enough around the Christian scene at this stage to have seen in churches the things I saw today pruning the fruit trees.  If a stream or denomination is unfruitful all that it grows is ultimately unfruitful and will end up being removed from the life giving tree.  It may lie dead on the ground for some time but eventually it is gathered by men into (building) piles and burnt.  So often only the shell remains.

I’ve also seen churches that were once fruitful but now no longer are.  They can show you the remnants of the fruit but the destroyer was let in and they also are unfruitful.

The work of the vinedresser can be sudden and traumatic.  At the right time, when the fruit is showing itself, then what is happening in the tree can be seen and it is time for the Father to act.  It isn’t easy when He does.

I believe that this is such a time in Ireland.