The Return of The Lord, Part 4 (#898)
Today we’re going to continue our series on the Return of the Lord.  Last time we got part way through the “difficult verses,” the verses where if you wanted to and you exaggerated a little bit you could say that you could prove the dead are alive.  But so far we’ve found in none of those verses that is really the case.  Today we’ll cover three more of these verses; they are a little involved, but I think you’ll find them interesting.  We’ll start in Luke chapter 20… Now the thing to keep in mind is as we’ve seen in other verses it is very clearly stated that that dead are not alive, that their bodies have turned to dust, and they have no consciousness until sometime in the future.  So we are starting from a basis where there are very, very clear verses; the verses we’re going to look at today are a little vague and you really have to push it even the way it reads in the King James to read that the dead are alive now, but then we find that when we get into the details we see that it doesn’t say that at all.  So Luke 20:27 is the first verse we’ll look at today…
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160521.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Some Difficult Verses, cont.

Luke 20:27-38           He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him (vs. 38) [Context: at the resurrection. Vs. 37 – now: but. Cf. Romans 4:17]
Luke 23:43                 Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise [Hebrew idiom – I say unto you this day thou shalt (sometime in the future) be with me in paradise. cf. Deut. 4:26, 39, 40; 5:1; 6:6; 7:11; 8:1, 11, 19, etc.]
Heb. 11:5                   Enoch was translated that he should not see death [translated – conveyed to another place.  cf. Ps. 89:48; Luke 2:25-32 (same Greek words as Heb. 11:5); John 8:59; Acts 8:39-40; Heb. 11:13]
Teaching
898- The Return of The Lord – Part 4

The Return of the Lord, Part 3 (#897)
We’ll continue with Part 3 of our Sunday series on The Return of the Lord.
In the first two sessions, we’ve talked about these topics:

• Where are the Dead?
  • Answer: They have returned to dust.
• Are the dead conscious?
  • Answer: No, they have no consciousness
• Will they always be there?
  • Answer: No.  It says in Hebrews that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement” ; everyone does get up at various times and we cover this in later the class.
• Do Christians die or perish?
  • Answer: To die is simply to take your last breath, lose consciousness, and turn to dust, but in the future you come back to life.  Whereas to perish, is to be obliterated for ever.  Christians do not perish, if the Lord tarries, we’ll all die, but we’ll simply be sleeping waiting on the return of the Lord.  The perishing part is for those that don’t go on to eternal life, but rather go on to what is referred to in Revelation as the second death.

Today we’re going to look at some what I call difficult verses.  The reason I call them difficult verses is because if you take them by themselves and put your own spin on them, you could argue that the dead are alive or that people go straight to heaven.  As we hear in popular culture  and in much of Christianity that when you die that you do not lose consciousness that you are floating around somewhere and can talk to people, and that sort of thing.  There are some difficult verses which taken by themselves can look that way, but we try to very hard to look at what the whole Bible says about a topic .  And we’ve seen many verses that are very clear, that show when you die, you lose consciousness, you turn to dust, and that you stay there awhile, but aren’t there forever.  So the idea that after you die you would continue to stay alive or remain conscious, is simply not Biblical.   Today we’ll look at a few of these difficult verses, but we won’t cover them all; we’ll take our time and look at a few each week.  Let’s first look at a record in 2 Kings Chapter 2…

Taught by Bruce Mahone on 20160508.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Some Difficult Verses
II Kings 2:9-12        Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven (sky – vs. 11) [No indication he died at that time or stayed in the sky]
Eccl. 12:1-7             The spirit shall return unto God who gave it [Note the administration – spirit was upon certain individuals, not born within]  Orientalisms: keepers of the house: feet; strong men: knees; grinders: teeth; those that look out of the windows: eyes; doors: ears; daughters of music brought low: voice no longer strong; almond tree: in bloom looks like a white head of hair; long home: grave; silver cord: the wife loosens the silver cord she received as a bride and places it with her husband’s body; golden bowl filled with coals: broken to symbolize the soul departing the body.
Mat. 17:1-9              There appeared unto them Moses and Elijah talking with him [Note vs. 9 – vision]
Mat. 27:51-53         The bodies of the saints which slept arose [vss. 52-53 do not appear in the earliest patristic quotations of this section]
Luke 16:19-31         Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom [cf. Judges 9:7-16; Mat. 5:13-16. Some early Greek and Aramaic sources add, ?nd he said also another parable – to the beginning of Luke 16:19. Pharisees:They also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life, and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again –  Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVIII, i, 3.  See also Luke 16:14-15; Acts 23:6-11.]
Teaching
897-The-Return-of-the-Lord-Part-3

The Return of the Lord, Part 2 (#896)
Today we are going to continue our series on The Return of the Lord.
Last week, in part 1 we talked about:

• Where are the dead now? They simply have returned to dust.
• Are they conscious? No, they have no consciousness.
• Will they always be dead? No, they will be raised in the future.

Then we started into the topic: do Christians die or perish? and we’ll pick that up again today in John 3:16…
Taught by Bruce Mahone on 20160501.  All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Do Christians die or perish?
John 3:16                     Whosoever believeth in him should not perish (Greek apollumi: be              destroyed, abolished, put to an end), but have everlasting life
John 6:47-51               A man may eat thereof and not die – subjunctive (conditional)
John 8:51                     never see death – absolutely not see death forever (but perhaps
temporarily)
John 10:25-30             I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish (apollumi)
John 11:1-26               vs. 4: unto death – towards death (he was raised to life)                                     vs. 26: never die – absolutely not die forever (but perhaps temporarily)
Rom 14:8                    Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto      the Lord
I Cor 1:18                    For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish (apollumi) foolishness
I Cor. 15:12-23           Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished (apollumi – vs. 18)
Heb. 2:14-15               Deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to     bondage (He himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil – NASB, vs. 14)
Teaching
896 – The Return of the Lord, Part 2