Soul Shall Die as Pertaining to Born Again Christian
The nowadays state is where yous are now. You exist in this present state. From the moment of conception, you became a human being beingness, that is, a "soul." Your soul is eternal. Scripture teaches us that we be from formulation until death, from death until the 2d Coming of Jesus Christ and the General Resurrection from the dead, and and so, the New Heavens and the New Globe. This commodity will seek to answer what happens at death to both your body and soul.
What Happens Afterward Death?
It is important to admit that the discussion "soul" is not merely a disembodied entity. In the Bible, "soul" is who you are. Consider Genesis:
God "breathed the jiff of life" into Adam, and he became a "living soul" (Genesis two:vii; the New Revised Standard uses the discussion, "beingness"). Thus, in the biblical view, Adam does not have a soul; Adam is a soul (i.due east., a person, a living beingness). The soul is, literally, ". . . that which breathes, the breathing substance or being.[1] In his article "Soul," G.W. Moon says "In Christian theology the soul carries the farther connotation of being that part of the private that partakes of divinity and survives the death of the body."
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas rejected Platonic dualism, which saw the soul every bit good and the body equally corrupt. These two theological giants, separated past centuries, agreed the Bible teaches that the spirit is the eternal person, merely volition ane day accept an eternal trunk:
"According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, who follows Aristotle in his definition of the homo soul, the soul is an individual spiritual substance, the 'course' of the body. Both, body and soul together, constitute the homo unity, though the soul may exist severed from the body and lead a separate existence, as happens after death. The separation, however, is not final, every bit the soul, in this differing from the angels, was made for the body.[2]
The Psalmist spoke of our soul as the very inmost being of our person: "Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost beingness, praise his holy proper name" (Psalm 103:1 NIV).
Jesus spoke of the costive value of the human soul (and simultaneously taught that soul and body will exist reunited for either eternal life with or, in that case, without God):
"Practise not be agape of those who kill the trunk but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and trunk in hell" (Matthew 10:28 NIV).
Your body and soul, like all of Creation, are marred by the Fall and its consequences. Or, as John Milton titled the situation in his epic poem, Paradise Lost.The fallen soul must be redeemed. This is the plan of God, the Covenant of Grace, that constitutes the single ruby thread that binds the entire Bible together.
Therefore, we must admit:
Your Body and Soul Need Redeeming From the Fall
David wrote in Psalm 19 near the wonder of God'south globe, His creation. But in verse seven David makes a turn. The "general revelation" gives evidence of Almighty God, but "special revelation," God'southward Word, is necessary to do this one thing: "revive" the homo soul. Psalm xix:17 says "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (KJV).
Indeed, nosotros are to be born again, the soul undergoing a supernatural transition, making it "fit" for heaven. Our souls are "lost" without redemption.
The Bible teaches that there is no other redemption available except that "mode" that Almighty God has provided through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must exist saved" (Acts four:12 ESV).
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer According to the Covenant of Grace
When the Gospel is proclaimed and received by faith, the terms of the Covenant are imputed to you (the terms are expressed in "a neat exchange:" the repentant and believing sinner receives Christ'south righteousness and His atoning sacrifice on the Cantankerous; Christ received the sinner's sin and penalization for sin). Yous pass from decease and judgment to forgiveness and eternal life. "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment simply has passed from death to life" (John 5:24 ESV).Not so the unrepentant. The soul remains in a fallen state, responsible for the terms of the Covenant of Works (the soul that sins must die). It is for this reason that the Psalmist, speaking in the voice of the Messiah to come up, declares that God will not leave his soul to perish. This truth is also picked up past Peter in his first sermon at Pentecost. The soul without God will undergo unimaginable loss that is described by Jesus with the almost severe imagery (e.g., Matthew 25:46: "And these will go away into eternal penalization, merely the righteous into eternal life.").
My dear reader: your soul and mine must exist redeemed from the auction block of sin and the devil lest we — that is, our souls — face certain loss and penalty. And the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ. Apologize. Trust in the resurrected and living Christ while you are all the same reading this article. Stop what yous are doing and turn to Jesus Christ past faith.
Our study leads us, and then, to the place of the soul between death and the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.
When nosotros say, "the intermediate land," we are not speaking of "limbo" or "purgatory" or whatever such thing. We are speaking of that period in which the soul is in sky and our remains await resurrection. That is the "intermediate state" in our personal eschatology.
Where Do Bodies Go Later on Decease?
The redeemed are ushered into the eternal presence of the Lord, and those without an advocate (righteousness to run into God'southward Police and sacrifice to absolve for sin) are ushered into hell to await the New Heaven and New World.
The Bible teaches that the human spirit, upon departing the trunk, goes immediately into the presence of God for either His welcoming or His disapproval. Thus, our blessed Savior taught this truth when He gave the parable of the wicked in Hell crying out to Abraham for refreshment:
"There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor human being named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to exist fed with what brutal from the rich man'south tabular array. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man likewise died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his optics and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and transport Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, think that you lot in your lifetime received your adept things, and Lazarus in similar manner bad things; but at present he is comforted hither, and you are in anguish (Luke sixteen:19-25 ESV).
There is no more concise and thoroughly Biblical expression of faith about the soul going immediately to be with God until the resurrection than the 38th question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q. 38. What benefits practice believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory (1 Cor. xv:42-43), shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment (Matt 25:33-34), and fabricated perfectly blest in the full enjoying of God (Rom. 8:29, 1 John 3:2) to all eternity (Ps. 16:11, i John three:two).
At death, the body returns to the elements: "dust to dust . . ." Only the soul resurrects with a new heavenly trunk.
At the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ, the General Resurrection commences. The redeemed bodies are renewed with the eternal soul and rise to meet Jesus Christ, joining Him in the air, taking their place with the glorious visitor of angels, archangels, prophets, apostles, martyrs and the whole visitor of heaven. The Great White Throne Sentence has been the subject of classical Christian teaching throughout Church building history: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sabbatum on information technology, from whose face up the earth and the heaven fled abroad; and there was constitute no identify for them" (Revelation 20:xi).
The unregenerate bodies are besides resurrected. United with soul, each appears before the Dandy Terminal Judgment. Without the Advocate, our Lord Jesus Christ, these suffer the righteous sentence of God for unbelief. The redeemed also appear before the Lord. Merely Jesus Christ is their Advocate. His perfect life is accounted to theirs to meet the Divine requirement of perfect obedience (Christ fulfills the Covenant of Works). The Lord Jesus' atoning death on Calvary's Cross provides the blood sacrifice of the simply Son of God applied to their lives. The penalisation of their sins has been placed upon the 2d Person of the One true and holy God.
The redeemed are fully acquitted, by God in Christ, their Savior. The unredeemed are bandage into eternal hell with the devil and his angels (demons). Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel summarized it in their article "Eschatology" with brilliant concision and brevity:
"All who have died volition come to life. This will be a bodily resurrection, a resumption of bodily beingness of each person. For believers this will have place in connectedness with the second coming of Christ and will involve the transformation of the body of this present flesh into a new, perfected body (1 Cor 15:35-56). The Bible also indicates a resurrection of unbelievers, unto eternal death (Jn five:28, 29).
The great Dutch commentator, William Hendriksen, wrote with unsurpassed theological and Scriptural fidelity as he described this consequence in his volume "More than Than Conquerors: An Estimation of the Volume of Revelation":
"Christ's coming in judgment is vividly described. John sees a great white throne. Upon information technology is seated the Christ (Matt. 25:31; Rev. 14:fourteen). From His face the earth and the heaven flee away. Not the destruction or annihilation but the renovation of the universe is indicated here. Information technology will be a dissolution of the elements with great heat (2 Pet. 3:10); a regeneration (Mt. 19:28); a restoration of all things (Acts 3:21); and a deliverance from the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:21). No longer will this universe be subject to 'vanity'. John sees the dead, the bang-up and the pocket-sized, standing before the throne. All individuals who accept ever lived on earth are seen earlier the throne. The books are opened and the records of the life of every person consulted (Dn. vii:10). Too, the book of life, containing the names of all believers is opened (Rev. 3:five; thirteen:eight). The dead are judged in accordance with their works (Mt. 25:31 ff.; Rom. 14:ten; ii Cor. v:x). The sea gives upwardly its expressionless; and so practice Death and Hades. Here is the one, full general resurrection of all the dead. The unabridged Bible teaches but one, general resurrection (read Jn. 5:28 f.). This 1 and just and general resurrection takes identify at the terminal day (Jn. half-dozen:39 f., 44, 54)."
Fifty-fifty Afterward Death - The New Heaven and the New Earth
The universe, globe, and all things are both burned and and then renewed every bit the New Heavens and the New World is unveiled. While the souls (and bodies reunited) of the unrepentant are cast into eternal hell, believers are welcomed into the New Heaven and New Earth. One of the about remarkable passages among so many as astounding passages is found in St. Paul's first epistle to the Church at Corinth. In Chapter 15, the inspired Apostle makes the resurrection the centering signal for "eternity past" and "eternity future." Paul seeks to give words to what he sees at the uttermost reaches of the hereafter state: "When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28).
Thus, the man soul. From the breath of life at conception to the inscrutable upshot in ages to come when, torso and soul, we witness the climactic fulfillment of the ancient Covenant, this is the soul of a believer. The soul without Christ is in peril. The soul of any who calls upon the name of the Lord to exist saved will be gloriously transformed.
Answering "What happens to my soul when I die?"
As a pastor and a teaching theologian, this is ane of the most frequent questions I receive. Nonetheless, the inquiry most often comes to me, non in the grade of an abstruse question, but in the context of crisis. Indeed, this is how the question was posed past Mrs. Henley: in a defining moment of her faith on trial.
I was a young pastor. I was on assignment as a pastoral intendance intern for a congregation not my own. I was a pastor "on loan," one might say. My mission? I was dispatched by the church leadership to provide pastoral ministry building to a family I didn't know. I was told that the Henley family unit was gathered at a nearby nursing home and that they had requested a pastoral presence. The elder who telephoned me gave instructions that I would find Mr. Henley, a long-time member, in room 201. Mrs. Gladys Henley, his wife of sixty-some-odd years would be in that location to greet me. Mr. Henley'southward forty-something-year-old son and his wife would also be at that place. They had flown in from the West Declension to be with the matriarch and patriarch in this hard fourth dimension.
I apposite the coming pastoral visit in my mind every bit I pulled into the covered parking garage. I guided my trusty onetime Buick sedan into that nearly appreciated of privileges — clergy parking. I put her in park. I killed the engine. I drew in a breath of hope as I exhaled a prayer for aid: "Lord, guide me."
Before parting for the cursory stroll to the nursing home, I opened my Bible. I needed a passage that would serve every bit my "pastoral prescription" for the spiritual cure to the predictable spiritual status of this family. I continue a list of familiar Bible chapters and verses for hospital visits. The passages are arranged, in smeared fountain ink from my own paw, according to spiritual cure of common conditions — crumbling, bereavement, conflict, and then along. I came to "vigil." The family vigil is the gathering of family members (and close friends) in anticipation of a loved one's passing. My eyes found the words of Luke's Acts of the Apostles and Saint Peter's quotation of
Psalm sixteen:x, "For yous will not carelessness my soul to Hades or let your Holy 1 come across abuse. Y'all have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence" (Acts ii:27, 28 ESV).
The family greeted me at the lobby of this elegant elderly intendance facility. Formal introductions in hushed tones formed the introduction to the family unit. The Henley son, Robert, Jr., asked me to follow them to Mr. Henley's room. Mr. Robert Henley, Sr., Esq., was nearly 100 years old. The wise one-time jurist was a long-time follower of Jesus Christ. Others recognized his gift of gentle leadership and patient wisdom. He was a well-beloved elder, a lay officer, in his home church. Robert Henley had been a prominent attorney in the community where I served. The phrase "city father" comes to mind. Mr. Henley was known every bit a godly, devoted family human being, who also gave much of his life, and not a small corporeality of his fortune, to the service and needs of his neighbors.
He never had political aspirations. Yet, if you lot were a politico and wanted to increase your chances of election, you likely would pay a visit to Robert Henley before you lot even filed as a candidate. I guess one could say that Mr. Henley had gravitas. He was a big man, a smashing human, and a faithful human being. His immediate family—Mrs. Henley and her adult son, Robert, Jr., and his married woman, Katherine—were gathered in a family unit vigil. For, by then, Mr. Henley was a dying human being.
It would be a familiar scene in my ministry for years to come. A grieving family gathered around a weakened effigy. Prayers, hymns, silence, and memories converge to form a needed blanket of peace for the one almost to depart if not more so for those remaining. Existence with a family unit at such a tender time remains one of the greatest honors of my life. Ask whatever pastor. He will tell you the aforementioned.
I had been in Mr. Henley'southward room at the nursing home — for all intents and purposes, it was a hospital room — for more two hours. The family had been at that place much longer. I was thinking most the human before me, the man I didn't know, just the homo I was called to ready for a journey abode. My contemplations were pleasantly interrupted when a cheerful nurse came in to check for vital signs of her patient. As she finished her monitoring, she looked at Mrs. Henley and smiled. The kind woman leaned over and put her arm around Mrs. Henley and spoke softly: "Hon, why don't you go to our café and get y'all some java and a sandwich? They have got some good sandwiches! And you sure need a break." I certainly agreed. Poor Mrs. Henley looked then tired. The nurse encouraged Mrs. Henley with another whisper, equally she helped her upward, "Come on, at present, Mrs. Henley. At that place we get . . ."
Reluctantly, Mrs. Henley agreed and stood cock in the room. Her son, Robert, Jr., and Katherine, his wife, the younger Mrs. Henley — a demure but smartly-dressed immature lady with a pretty and seemingly permanent smile — guided the weakening wife away. I listened to the echoes of their steps in the hall. I heard the elevator ring its arrival. And so a sacred stillness seemed to descend on the scene similar someone'southward mother casting a cotton sheet on a bed in dull motion. Still. Ho-hum. Silent. Holy.
I was alone in the hospital room with Mr. Henley. The diverse medical mechanisms mimicked the beating of his middle, inhaling, and exhaling of his lungs. I listened to the rhythmic beep-beep of a monitor, and the oscillating hiss of oxygen. I had taken a seat when the family had walked out. Yet, at that moment, I felt led to stand. I likewise felt led to speak, "Mr. Henley, I am not sure if you lot can hear me, Sir. Mr. Henley, I have a Scripture for you from God'southward Discussion. It is a very elementary and powerful truth. I am certain that you know it."
The blips, beeps, and hisses were unimpressed past my announcement. The background noises connected every bit a kind of technological witness. "Mr. Henley, this is the Word of the Lord: 'Nosotros are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent-minded from the torso, and to exist nowadays with the Lord' (2 Corinthians 5:8 KJV). Did you lot hear that Mr. Henley? Jesus will never leave y'all nor abdicate you. And if He comes for you, your spirit — the real you lot! — will be with Jesus. The One you accept loved throughout all of the days of your life will receive you." He moved not. Notwithstanding, I was not deterred. I was convicted by early experience in my internship to read Scripture fifty-fifty if a patient was in a coma. I would follow for over iii decades, occasionally with memorable results. This was one of them.
I began to pray the Lord'due south Prayer audibly: "Our Father . . ." Suddenly, and quite astonishingly, Mr. Henley'southward lips began trying to move. I drew closer, still praying, "who art in heaven . . ." The old saint was seeking to pray with me. I continued. "Hallowed exist Thy Name . . ." This dear man of God was giving the final measure of strength to do what he had done for nearly five m Sundays. He began to worshipGod. It was every bit if the words to the Lord'south Prayer sparked an autonomic response of the soul. He opened his dry, cracking lips for just long enough to pray with me. He uttered the next phrase as if waiting to grab up with me. "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done . . ." Equally I continued, more confident in my ain faith considering of his, his voice went silent. The modest move of his lips ceased in mid-sentence. And as suddenly as he had begun, he stopped praying. Mr. Henley had stopped breathing. At merely about "Thy Kingdom come . . ." Mr. Henley'due south prayer was answered. Mr. Henley was in the presence of the Lord.
I stood without movement. I was transfixed past the sight. There was fifty-fifty a kind of beauty, though I was belongings the hand of a dead man. I thought of the Psalmist'southward words, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15 KJV). My fixed gaze of wonder was interrupted by the necessary practicality of nurses, residents, and orderlies hastening to the scene. In witnessing this miracle of the migration of the human soul, I didn't even notice the alarms. The mechanical sentries had sounded their call. The compassionate health intendance professionals answered in a 2d. But as I watched them, the scene was less of an emergency and more of, well, more than of a tender moment of confirming what all were anticipating.
Soon enough, the family returned. Robert Jr. and Katherine both put their arms around Mrs. Henley. It was a holy moment. Soft sobs replaced the electronic sounds of the medical machinery. I knew the ability of the ministry building of presence every bit Mrs. Henley moved from her son to look at me. This new widow needed the promises of God, the assurance of the love of God, and the promise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this reason, I was at that place. I embraced her — mayhap, improve put, she embraced me — and she wept, ever then softly. This elderly woman of God, smaller than I, nestled her gray head on my breast. I was beingness inaugurated into the ministry by Mrs. Henley.
And so information technology happened. Right after I spoke these words, it happened: "Mrs. Henley, the Bible says that your honey hubby is in the presence of our Lord Jesus at this very 2d. He passed from this life into the loving arms of Jesus. I was with him every bit his soul departed this room. He is more alive than ever."
She confirmed my words by nodding her head equally I held her. But something happened that I will never forget. The still, quiet sobs were cleaved by a rather stern word from her son. "Mother, I am distressing, but that is not right. Daddy is not here. And Daddy is not anywhere else. He is, well, for all practical purposes, just asleep." He spoke the words for his female parent, but he aimed his arrows at me. I was stunned, not by the theological error as much as the inappropriateness and even callousness of his words. "Mother, come out here and permit me talk to you." Mrs. Henley followed obediently. Scolded as her husband had died, she had, in the opinion of her son, succumbed to "nonsense." She followed obediently. What else could she practise? I stood motionless equally both the family departed, and the medical professionals began procedures for removal of the torso.
Information technology could not have been more than about 3 minutes when Mrs. Henley returned. By this time, her late husband's remains had been removed from the room. I extended my hands to welcome Mrs. Henley dorsum. She took my hands without e'er moving her eyes from mine. I smiled every bit if, perhaps, a warm gesture could erase the contempo unpleasant words. Mrs. Henley bankrupt down in heaving tears. I could barely hear her words: "Oh Pastor, my son says that my husband's soul is but comatose! He is non with the Lord! Oh Pastor, everything I accept ever known, ever believed, must be incorrect!" I held Mrs. Henley and felt the deep grief rising through her sobs. "He is gone, Pastor. But where? Where is my husband?
I shared that intimate story with you considering I believe that it illustrates the deep emotions that are involved with the question, "What happens to the soul at the time of death?" The question is not an esoteric research into the unknowable. God has revealed to united states in his give-and-take what happens to the human soul at the moment of death. In club to sympathize the answer to this question according to the Scriptures, nosotros would do well to employ a systematic theological written reportof the Christian faith apropos the question of the soul. To do so, let u.s.a. arrange the biblical material according to the Bible's caption about the soul and the soul's destiny. We will come across that in that location is a present country, an intermediate state, and a terminal land. Theologians call this a personal eschatology. Eschatology speaks about the last things. Nosotros often think of eschatology in more than cosmic terms, for instance, what happens to the heavens and the globe in the hereafter. That is a cosmic eschatology. But a personal eschatology is concerned with what happens to yous. So let the states brainstorm.
As I opened my Bible and asked his grieving widow to read the Scriptures, she wiped her eyes, sought to etch herself, and adapted her 1960s-framed-spectacle before leaning in to read: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be nowadays with the Lord" (2 Corinthians five:8 KJV). Mrs. Henley looked up again, her silver-haired, intelligent head raising, her eyes coming together mine. "Pastor, I read that according to the Bible my Robert — my hubby, Mr. Henley — is with the Lord. Every bit soon equally his spirit left his body he went to be with Jesus. That is what I had always been taught. But my son . . . Oh, pastor, is this the truth?"
I put my right hand on her shoulder seeking to agree. "Yes, Mrs. Henley. I watched as the soul of your husband departed his body. According to the Word of the Lord, in that location is no dubiousness that he is in the presence of the Lord Jesus." I gently placed my left hand to a shoulder, now looking at her intently, holding her shoulders, directing my gaze with the strongest possible position of attention: "My beloved Mrs. Henley," I paused to prepare for an unequivocal annunciation to this grieving woman: "Ma'am: According to the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ I say to you lot that in the proper noun of God, you volitionencounter your husband again."And she rested in the promises of God.
Just have you? I say to anyone reading: God created you as a person: soul and body.The soul lives forever in ane of two places: with your Creator or without Him. The arbitrament of your eternal life rests with the Male monarch of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And He welcomes whatsoever and all who will plough from all other persons and plans and turn unto Him. For Jesus our Lord says, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you remainder." Balance from the frantic search for answers. Trust in Christ Jesus the resurrected and living Lord of life. His Covenant of Grace — Christ'south righteousness accounted for what you lack, and Christ's cede applied for your sins — has secured your destiny. And you lot will never walk solitary.
God's promises are your destiny: when you die, your soul goes immediately to the Lord. Your earthly remains are precious to God. "If the farmer knows where the corn is in the befouled, and so our Father knows where His precious seed is in the world." And in Christ, God will raise those remains to eternal life. If you take received Jesus Christ as Lord, yous will be acquitted of all sins by the righteousness and the sacrifice on the cross by your Savior. And safe in the arms of Jesus. Why not pray with me?
Lord, our Heavenly Father: I am in awe of Your mighty creative power demonstrated not only in the wonder of the stars in a higher place or in the microscopic invisible world, but, especially, in the coming of Your Son Jesus our Lord; and in Him, in His perfect life lived for me and His sacrificial decease offered for me on the cross, I do repent — turn away from — my sin of unbelief, self-sufficiency, and trusting in anyone and matter other than Your Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth; I know that I am a soul and trunk, and I ask that You lot transform my soul according to Your promises and Your power; I ask that you forgive me and receive me as Your kid; and I believe that when I depart from this life I volition go immediately to You, O dearest Lord; So, take me and use me for Your celebrity. In Jesus' proper noun I pray. Amen.
Notes:
[1] Richard Whitaker, Francis Chocolate-brown, et al., The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament: From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, Based on the Lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius (Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906).
[2] F. L. Cantankerous and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1531.
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/ipopba
Source: https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/where-does-our-soul-go-when-we-die.html
0 Response to "Soul Shall Die as Pertaining to Born Again Christian"
Post a Comment