The Wayside Pulpit No.79
The State of the Dead. Concluding Remarks.
I would like to comment on
the last three WPs. First of all one or two general remarks, which come as a
result of readers' comments received so far.
I believe there is nothing
to fear in investigating "the state of the dead." When "neither
death nor life . . can separate us from the love of God", why be fearful?
I am reminded of the story of Smith Wigglesworth, who was staying in an old
house, and was wakened by a terrible noise, which seemed to be coming from the
next room. On investigating, he said that he saw the Devil there, sitting on a
chair. "Oh, it's only you," said Smith, shutting the door and
returning to his bed. My Great Aunt Esther, who was a very active Salvationist,
took my mother, then a young woman, to a séance as an object lesson. She said,
"Maudie, I'm going to pray to the Lord Jesus when we are there." And
so she did, and the medium became more and more frustrated, until she said,
"I cannot do anything tonight. There's an antagonistic spirit here."
And of course, there was!
But lest anyone should
think I'm advocating attending séances, let me say that it couldn't be further
from my mind. I have been saddened to hear that at least one brother has
recently established contact with the dead, in this case his deceased daughter,
who has become his "spirit guide." This is not only wrong, it is very
dangerous. The Lord has forbidden any such practices in Deuteronomy 18, and
it's foolhardy to assume that in these N.T. days, such warnings no longer
apply.
Now of course there are
many Christians who believe in "soul sleep", especially those who
come from a background of Seventh Day Adventism or Dispensationalism. I used to
belong to the latter group many years ago, and because Dr Bullinger taught it
in the Companion Bible, I took it on board without giving it much thought. To
read his quote from Eccl.9:10, "There is no work, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest," was sufficient
at the time. However, in more recent years I have had to face the overwhelming
evidence that man's spirit is NOT asleep after death. A slavish acceptance of a
verse in isolation can produce a theology out of touch with reality. Solomon
was observing from THIS side of the grave. And when Paul referred to those who
"are asleep in Jesus", he was assessing their condition from an
earth-bound observer's eye, not from the state of the dead in Christ.
There are ghosts, and their
appearances are frequent enough to cause books to be written about reported
cases. When Jesus walked on the water of the
Throughout all
history there have been reported cases of people dying and coming back to life.
Some of these people had tales to tell which were gathered together in books of
wisdom from many lands, such as the Tibetan Book of the dead, the Egyptian Book
of the dead, Chinese Annals, and many others. It is interesting to note that
regardless of ethnic or religious background, there are always common features
in these tales. I do not advocate reading such books. The theologies are
grotesque, but the case histories are interesting.
I quoted a brief section
from Dr George Ritchie's book, "Return from Tomorrow" in WP76. He is
a credible witness, and has a most interesting story to tell of how the Lord
met him. More recently we have watched the Video of Ian McCormack's experience.
This
In Hebrews 11, we are given
a wonderful history lesson of men and women of faith, all of whom died not
having received the promise. Then in Chapter 12, we read, "Seeing that we
are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses . . ." Yes, they all died,
but they are in the spirit and conscious before the Lord, awaiting their
resurrection bodies. Jesus upbraided the Sadducees on one occasion, saying
that the Lord is God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "He is not the God
of the dead, but of the living." They may have died in the flesh, but they
are alive unto God. That is why Jesus said on another occasion, "Whoever
believes in me shall never die."
What happens at the moment
of death? Ps 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength
labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
The Hebrew word for
"fly away" (Guph) is used of (a) fowls of the air, (b) seraphim and
cherubim, (c) a fiery flying serpent. Moses therefore likens the moment of
death to a "flying away". Clearly this does not refer to the mortal
body, which as Solomon declared in Eccl.12, "returns to dust" in
accordance with Genesis 1-3. Hence, at death two things happen. The body is laid
to rest in the earth, and the spirit "returns to God who gave it." It
"flies away" to its "long home" (Eccl.12:5) [Hebrew Beth
Olam = Oikos Aionios in the Greek LXX]
In almost all cases of Near
Death Experience, resuscitated people speak of leaving their bodies, and either
immediately, or within a brief time, "flying away" down a long dark
tunnel into a region of light. This would seem to corroborate the wording of
Ps.90 & Ecc.12. Yes, we are told that "God alone is immortal" i.e.
undying, but as soon as man dies, that proves the point. What happens
afterwards to his spirit does not negate his mortality, or suggest that he was
immortal. He's died. Hence the use of the term "immortality of the
soul" should really have been "immortality of the spirit", which
continues to exist, simply because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
- "as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." Man's
spirit is preserved entire for purpose of the resurrection later.
There was a Moslem priest
in hospital in
In his testimony later, he
said that after his death he wandered about in the spirit trying to find
Mohammed, but without avail. Then he came face to face with Jesus. In the
moment of sudden realisation, he did a U turn, and accepted Jesus as his
Saviour. The Lord sent him back to preach to his own people, and that's what
he's doing today. This story was supplied by Rev. Dr. Clifford Hill, who had
been out to
Ian Currie's book was
crammed full of case histories covering every aspect of "life after
death," from ghosts, to astral travel, to Near Death Experiences, to
reincarnation, this latter being largely based on Hypnotic Regression
accounts. Currie does not claim to have faith in Christ. Whilst his
marshalling of facts is superb, his conclusions are not always credible from a
Biblical viewpoint. In particular, I do not believe in reincarnation. I cannot
see that a human being can have multiple lives. He is only judged on ONE life.
There are other points that should lead researchers to reject reincarnation,
but we need not elaborate them here. Hypnotic Regression, where a person is
asked to go back way before his own birth, may be explained by George Ritchie's
experience, seeing the sheath opening. Currie said that this splitting of the
aureole around the head can occur by dabbling with the ouija board. It is
my considered opinion that it is equally possible for it to occur under
hypnosis, and therefore other discarnate spirits are speaking to the person
under these unusual conditions, not reincarnated spirits. Hypnosis can be
dangerous.
Dr Kenneth McAll's work
leaves us in two minds. When we first read his book, "Healing the Family
Tree", we were very moved by it, and adopted his practice of praying for
the breaking of generational bondages coupled with Eucharist, which in our case
was simply "breaking of bread" together in our home. We don't
consider it necessary to have a "priest" to officiate. We can
honestly say that we have witnessed release in a number of cases, and therefore
recommend our readers to consider the matter for themselves.
However, there are certain
aspects which leave us with a question mark. This is because we haven't as yet
ascertained exactly what they mean when they say that departed spirits are
released into the Lord's hands and taken to heaven. In our own opinion, and in
accordance with own practice, we believe that spirits who cause problems for
the living must be prayed for to release them from an earth-bound condition, so
that they may move on, which is the Lord's will for all. The earth-bound
spirits are the ones who cause hauntings, and appear sometimes as ghosts,
possibly to cry out for help, that someone might pray for them.
This leads us to another
point. Some evangelicals might raise eyebrows at the thought of "praying
for the dead." They would say it is a left-over from the days of Roman
Catholic domination. Certainly the R.Cs used to have prayers for the dead, but
I would hasten to say that not everything in the theology of the Roman Church
is heresy! Some things need to be brought out for an airing, being part of the
teaching of the early church. In 1 Peter 3:19 we read of our Lord going to
preach to the spirits in prison, and in 4:6 we read of the gospel being preached
to the dead. Most commentators invent all manner of devices to explain away
such verses. George MacDonald, that grand old man of God's heart, writing his
novels in the 19th century, spoke about the idiocy of assuming that one may
pray for a man on his deathbed, but as soon as he has "passed on"
such prayer becomes heresy. When Princess Diana was killed in the motor
accident, I saw her in a very clear vision. She was utterly perplexed, not
knowing where she was, and was looking around for direction. I assumed I was
meant to react to this, and prayed that an angel would be sent to help
her.
Yes, when we die we become
"unclothed spirits" (to use Paul's expression), awaiting our
resurrection bodies. And we yearn to be "clothed upon with our house from
heaven." All souls are in the hands of the Lord. The Lord Jesus died for
all men, and therefore all have the opportunity of seeking Him for Life. It is
not just in this mortal life that we have a "chance" of believing.
God doesn't deal in "chances". On the cross He dealt with the problem
of sin once and for all. He gives man many opportunities to find Him. If
circumstances deny those opportunities in this life, God will provide them
afterwards. He went to preach to the "spirits in prison", and I
believe there is much preaching going on in the heavenlies all the time. God
will have His final victory in one way or another. We can rely on that.