LIES
ABOUT THE OUTCOME OF LIFE
A study by
Glen Marshall
Some
of the most horrible and trying times in a persons life happen when they attend
the funeral of a friend or dear loved one. They feel the relationship has ended
forever and people wonder what will happen to the person. Will they go to
heaven, hell or purgatory based on their life, or be reborn as some lesser being
based on their karma. The worlds religions expound, teach and bolster these
concepts about an afterlife. I went to my friends uncles funeral in my youth,
the officiating Catholic Priest told everyone that we should donate money to the
church to buy his uncles way out of
purgatory, because he was not a totally good man in his life. I was also eating
dinner one night a few years ago with a suppliers engineering manager next to
the swimming pool at a hotel in Bombay, India. Cockroaches were running all over
the table and I asked him why we did not swat them? He replied that his uncle
had just died, and because of his life and karma he felt that he was probably
running around the table with the group.
When
God created man He tried to develop a close and personal relationship
(Gen3:8-11), and like a good parent He taught Adam and Eve how to live a good
physical life (Gen2:15-25). God also imparted His family values to them and
wanted them to decide if they wanted to embrace them (Gen2:9) or else they could
decide on their own, to invoke their own moral decisions. If they did this, then
God would change the timeframe for mankind to become His spiritual family one
day. Satan in the form of a serpent told the first lie (Gen3:1-5) to Eve and
inferred that God did something that He cannot do (Titus1:2). Based on Adam and
Eve’s decision death entered the world for mankind (Rom5:12-13). We are
physical beings and when we die we get added back (Gen3:17-19) to the ground
again. One day in the future people will come back to life when God performs a
resurrection (I Cor15:12-58), until that happens everyone who dies is gone
(Heb9:27, Matt22:32). There will be two resurrections in the future. The first
will be for some people to a spiritual life to help Jesus rule the world and for
some people back to a physical life to see if they want to embrace God’s ways
or else they will die a second permanent death (Rev20:4-15).
So all of us should understand want is going on now and what will happen in the future. When somebody you know dies, the relationship will be on hold for awhile until the resurrections happen. Then the relationship will continue and this continuation can go on and be forever (Rev21:1-7) together. Because of this process, things that are a mystery or a secret in this human life will one day be known when the participants are alive again (Luke8:17). So one day Uriah the Hittite will know how and why he died and will talk with David about it (II Sam11:1-17). Another mystery that will be solved is when the ladies of the night and Jack the Ripper meet together again, plus many others that happened all through the history of mankind. So don’t let Satan’s lie that is carried on by man’s religions make you unhappy when somebody you know dies or keep you from developing relationships with other people that will be able to last indefinitely.