Trusting God, Part 1 (#904) We’ll continue today with a number of sessions on trusting god. This is something we do every year at various times of the year, I just thought it was very appropriate as we come into the fall season. We’ll talk about thanksgiving, we’ll talk about God’s reliability, we’ll talk about prayer, we’ll talk about God’s loving kindness, and the importance of loving God and praying with believing. It will be a great series looking at these things. Some of these things we’ve read many times, others maybe a little new to you, but well just have a great time looking into some positive simple truths about trusting God and loving God. So it should be a great number of sessions over the next few months. Let’s start be looking at Ruth. A wonderful women, as we know. We have read that Ruth was a woman of Moab and she met some Judeans when they went from Judea to Moab because there was a famine in Judea. And while there, one of the Judeans met and married Ruth…
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160925. All rights reserved. Verse Listing and Notes Trust God
Ruth 2:11-12 The Lord, under whose wings thou art come to trust
2 Sam 22:1-7,18-20 The God of my rock, in him will I trust
2 Kings 18:1-8 Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel
2 Kings 18:19-30 Rabshakeh tried to turn them from trusting God
Psalms 5:1-12 Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice
Psalms 9:9-10 Thou hast not forsaken them that seek thee
Psalms 18:2 The Lord is my rock, in whom I will trust Still Trust God
Psalms 28:6-7 My heart trusted in the Lord, and I am helped Teaching Trusting God, Part 1 (#904)
The Return of the Lord, Part 8 (#902) So here we are in part 8 of “The Return of the Lord,” we’ll finish that up today. Then in the coming weeks we’ll have a series on prayer and vision. Just going to God to get a vision for your life and then praying that God will help bring it all to pass. It should be a really fun number of sessions with some wonderful doctrinal verses, which are the ones where God tells us how to pray and what He’ll do for us. And then very inspirational records of men and women in the Bible records who actually do pray and do believe, and God does give them their vision and they accomplish great things not only to help their own lives, but to help so many others as well. So that will be a real fun series on prayer and vision. So, what we are going to do today in “The Return of The Lord, Part 8” is go over the final page of the notes, which you can get on the web site, which is the chronology of the final administrations. Everything we’ll read today we’ll have covered at one point or another in the class. But this will kind of pull together, not every detail of the class, but the chronological order of what occurs in the final administrations together. First of all, we are now in the administration of the Grace of God. Let’s go to Ephesians 3:2.
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160828. All rights reserved. Verse Listing and Notes Chronology – Final Administrations 1.Administration of the Grace of God (Eph. 3:2)
– People can become born again (Rom. 10:9-10), obtaining eternal life (Rom. 6:23), never to perish (I Cor. 15:18), and are thus saved from the wrath to come (I Thes. 1:10)
– Ends with the gathering together – those born again (whether they wake or sleep) meet the lord in the air (I Cor. 15:51-58; I Thes. 4:13-18; II Thes. 2:1) 2.Appearing/Revelation Administration
– Starts with the gathering together, when Jesus Christ comes for his saints. Later, he comes with his saints to do battle, to judge, and to reign.
– Referred to as the “day of Christ” (Phil. 1:10, 2:16; II Thes. 2:2), “day of the Lord” (Acts 2:20; I Thes. 5:2; II Peter 3:10), “day of the Lord Jesus” (I Cor. 5:5; II Cor. 1:14), “Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10) “day of God” (II Peter 3:12), and “day of God Almighty” (Rev. 16:14).
– Wrath, tribulation, antichrist, beast, false prophet – those who do not accept the mark of the beast are beheaded for the witness of Jesus (Rev. 1-19)
– Satan is bound and shut up in the bottomless pit for one thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3)
– First resurrection: those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus in Rev. 1-19 are raised to life. They live and reign with Christ and the previously gathered born-again ones during the thousand years that Satan is bound (Rev. 20:1-6).
– Satan is loosed for a season (Rev. 20:7-9)
– The devil (Satan) is cast into the lake of fire, joining the beast and the false prophet (Rev. 20:10). No one else is said to be tormented day and night forever.
– Ends with the second resurrection: the rest of the dead come to life and are judged according to their works at the great white throne judgment. Those whose names are written in the book of life go on to eternal life. Those whose names are not found written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. Death and hell (hades, the grave) are cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15; Rev. 21:7-8). 3. Final Glory Administration
– Former (second) heaven and earth melting with fervent heat (II Peter 3:10), being destroyed by fire (II Peter 3:12), passes away (Rev. 21:1)
– New (third) heaven and earth established (Rev. 21:1). New Jerusalem comes down from heaven – no tears, death, sorrow, crying or pain (Rev. 21:4).
– Paradise reestablished in the new Jerusalem with the tree of life (Rev. 2:7; 22:1-2, 14). So shall we ever be with the Lord! (I Thes. 4:17) Teaching The Return of the Lord, Part 8 (#902)
New Focus: Look to God (#903) Today we are going to continue a series we started before we took a break to look at “The Return of the Lord” for a number of sessions. We’re going to get back to a series I called “A New Focus” where you have to change your entire focus in life. We’ll start back with one on focus, called “Look to God.” And the point of every verse we’ll read today will be simply to not look at the circumstances around you — I mean, obviously you have to be aware of them and if you are crossing the street you have to be aware to know if there is a truck barreling down the road, but it is not your main focus in life, it is not the main thing you are concerned about, it is not the main thing that defines your life — the circumstances and the people around you is not your main focus. God is the one who is our strength, He is the one that is our deliverance, He is the one that gives us peace and supplies our needs and directs our paths. So our primary focus is on Him and all the other things in life: the people, the circumstances, the vehicles, the machines, the bank accounts, the hundreds of other things we all deal with; they are important, but they’re not the number one thing, The number one thing is to look to God. And then as we do, God will help all those other parts of life smooth out. And even if they all fall apart and from time to time those other aspects of our life do fall apart. God will still be there to take care of you; and whatever it is that you’ve lost, or missed or has gone wrong, or a tragedy, or a difficulty God will be there to provide and supply what you need. So let’s go to II Kings 6:8…
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160911, All rights reserved. Verse Listing and Notes
II Kings 6:8-23 Chariots of fire – Raise your vision for your life
Ps. 60:11-12 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he shall tread down our enemies
Ps. 71:1-15 Thou art my hope (vs. 5), I will hope continually (vs. 14)
Psalm 91 1000, 10,000 shall fall, but it shall not come nigh thee (vs. 7)
Ps. 146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God
Ps. 147:11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy
Prov 16:3 Commit(roll) your works unto the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established
Prov. 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion
Prov 29:18 Where there is no vision (divine communication), the people perish (wander): but he that keepeth the law, happy is he
Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope [4009 – mibtach – trust, confidence, refuge] the LORD is
Dan. 11:32 The people that do know their God shall be strong (stand firm) and do exploits (take action)
II Cor. 4:(1-)18 Look not at those things which are seen
Phil 3:3 Worship God in the spirit, rejoice in CJ, have no confidence in the flesh
Col 3:1-3 Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth (vs. 1)
II Tim 4:16-18 At my first answer [defense] no man stood with me.
The Lord stood with me … shall deliver me from every evil work. Teaching New Focus – Look To God (#903)
The Return of the Lord, Part 7 (#901) We’ll continue today with our series on The Return of the Lord, we are on part seven, where we’re are going to talk about the word paradise. A lot of people talk about going to paradise. In previous sessions we saw that there weren’t any indications of anybody being raised from the dead and going directly to heaven. People were raised from the dead, but they didn’t come back from paradise or heaven. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven later on, after his resurrection. And he’s the only one that has done that. But there is a paradise talked about in the Bible, but it has nothing to do with going to heaven today after you die. If you have a friend or family member who is a Christian and if they were to die today they would not ascended to heaven — that won’t come until the return of the Lord and they would not go to paradise, that’s not going happen either. And there isn’t any hot place called hell except for two things: one there’s the parable of Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom which as we talked about the previous session was really explaining something in terms of Pharisees’ believed because that’s what they thought it was a parable or a fable wasn’t true. And then later on the end of the book of Revelation there is a lake of fire read about last time and will read a little bit below but more about today we read about last time where there is a lake of fire where the devil and the beast and others go at the end, but that’s not some place where you hang around, like in the movies and fiction it’s just a place for people that don’t want to eternal life go to the second death. But paradise does exist in the Bible, it’s not mythical. There are many things that are mythical about it in fiction about it and many things in church tradition that aren’t biblical, but there is a paradise. The thing it’s different from much Christian theology is that paradise will only exist in the future paradise is used for two things the original paradise in the Garden of Eden which of course is gone long long ago and I doesn’t exist anymore. And then there will be a new paradise at the very end of the book of Revelation. So let’s start here in Genesis Chapter two verse eight and read about the original paradise…
Taught by Bruce Mahone, 20160814. All rights reserved. Verse Listing and Notes Paradise
Gen. 2:8-10 God planted a garden (Greek: paradise) eastward in Eden
(The word “paradise” appears in the Greek Septuagint version in Gen. 2:8, 9, 10, 15, 16; 3:1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 23, 24; 13:10; Num. 24:6; II Chron. 33:20; Neh. 2:8; Eccl. 2:5; Song of Solomon 4:13; Isa. 1:30; 51:3; Jer 36:5; Ezek. 28:13; 31:8, 9; Joel 2:3)
Gen. 3:22-24 He placed at the east of the garden (Greek: paradise) of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword…to keep the way of the tree of life
II Cor. 12:1-4 How that he was caught up (caught away – by a vision) into paradise (third heaven: cf. II Peter 3:5-13)
Rev. 2:7 I will give to eat of the tree of life…in the midst of the paradise of God
Rev. 22:1-2 On either side of the river, was there the tree of life
Rev. 22:14 That they may have right to the tree of life There is no record in scripture of anyone dying and going directly to heaven or paradise. Summary
Acts 26:22-23 That he should be the first that should rise from the dead
I Cor. 15:51-52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump
I Tim 1:1 Lord Jesus Christ our hope
Col 1:3-5 For the hope which is laid up (NIV: stored up) for you in heaven – vs. 5
I Pet 1:3-5 Begotten us again unto a lively hope be the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – vs. 3 Teaching The Return of the Lord, Part 7 (#901)
The Return of the Lord, Part 5 (#899) Here we are continuing in our class today on the return of the Lord, which we covered in several sessions already; four previous sessions on Sundays and we’ll have the fifth today. All the recordings are on the website and you can also go back in hear the whole class in a continuous unit on the website that I taught several years ago. So the class starts with the question: Where are the dead? And the answer is simple, they have returned to dust. And are the dead conscious? and the answer is no, when they die, their thoughts perish. Will they always be there? No, everybody who has died will getup in the future. The next topic was do Christians die or perish? Because Jesus Christ said in John 3:16 whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, that was said about Jesus Christ. And to die means simply to fall asleep as it said, breathe your last breath; there many terms used for in the Bible and in modern society. And when you die, your body returns to dust, your thoughts perish. But then in the future you get up again, but some who get up again will go on to eternal life and some will go on to what is called the second death and they will literally be abolished, they will cease to exist in any way. And that’s what the word of the Scriptures means when it says perish. So if the Lord tarries and does not return in our lifetimes, we will all die. But none of us will perish, we’ll get up with new bodies and live eternally. Are bodies will be changed. So Christians do not perish. Then we looked at some difficult verses, which people have used to claim that the dead are alive today and we found that in every case when you study the better translations in the context you find out that nobody whose died is alive today. so now get into the next topic which is Jesus Christ first coming and the it’s important to know this because his first coming had many aspects to it not just one, of his second coming will have many aspects to it as well. People often confuse the gathering together with the first resurrection with the second resurrection on but they’re distinct occurrences where different groups of people get up, and it’s very clear and simple once we read it in the Scriptures. So we’ll get started today and see how far we get . Jesus Christ first coming we start here in Matthew chapter 1 verse 18.
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160711. All rights reserved. Verse Listing and Notes Jesus Christ’s First Coming
Mat. 1:18-20 Conceived by the Holy Ghost
Luke 2:6-7 Born of Mary
Luke 2:21 Circumcision, Taken to the Temple
Mat. 2:23 Dwelt in Nazareth
Luke 2:42 Taken to Jerusalem
Luke 4:14-21 Opened his Ministry in Nazareth
Luke 7:22-23 Brought Deliverance to God’s People
John 19:30 Died on the Cross
Luke 24:1-9 Raised from the Dead
Acts 1:9-11 Ascended into Heaven Jesus Christ’s Second Coming
Mat 24:3, 6 What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world [age]
For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet The Gathering Together (Jesus Christ coming for his saints)
I Cor. 15:51-54 The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed
I Thes. 1:1-10 To wait for his son from heaven
I Thes. 4:13-18 The dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds (vss. 16-17)
II Thes. 2:1-4 vs. 1: our gathering together unto him
2: day of Christ – cf. I Cor. 1:4-8; Phil. 1:1-10; 2:14-16; I Thes. 5:1-5; II Peter 3:9-10 (willing – wishing, perish – apollumi); Rev. 1:9-10.
Man=s Day – I Cor. 4:1-5 (by myself – against myself)
The Return of the Lord, Part 6 (#900) Today, we’re going to continue and our series on the Return of the Lord, and as we previously announced you can get all the notes for this as well as audio from a more succinct class from the the website. Although this is was taught a few years ago as a weekend class, today we’ll continue through the material in a little more detail, one part at a time. To recap, in previous sessions we learned that the dead truly are dead. When they die, they return to dust and have no consciousness until a later date when the dead live again. And we dealt with several confusing verses which seem to imply to some that the dead are alive, but we found out as we looked at them, that this is really not the case. Then last time we met on this subject, we covered the gathering together, which shows how Christian believers will get up first. And how the first thing to happen at the return of the Lord, the very first part of it, is when Jesus Christ comes for his Saints. There he gathers together those that are born again and we meet the Lord in the air, and at that point, our bodies are changed so they become immortal and incorruptible. So that will be the first thing that happens, and until that day we will be here on earth. Now it seems that every year, or less, you will hear some group tell you that they know when the Lord is coming back or they will see some great current event, a big earthquake, or as it used to be back in the Middle Ages a solar eclipse was all it took. It could be some terrorist attack, the fall of government, the crash of an economy, or again a big earthquake they point to and say that the end of the world is here. Well the end of the world, as we’ll see, is not going to happen until sometime in the future – after the return of the Lord. And we’ll get into this some today and some in the next two sessions in August; that the world as we know it will exist until the end of what we read about in the book of Revelation. So before this world can be destroyed, first of all Jesus Christ has got to come back and we Christians have to be gathered together. Then all the stuff in the first part of the book Revelation: including the beast and the false prophet, the mark of the beast; all those things have to happen. Then there’s the thousand year period where the devil is basically in chains and then there’s the battle of Armageddon. After that there’s the final judgment, and after that this world is destroyed; so yes, this world will be destroyed and there will be a new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth all righteousness. But this isn’t for a very long time. For an absolute minimum of a thousand years, but that is if Jesus Christ came back today and if all that stuff with the beast and the false prophet happened quickly. And I think, based on the chronology, that takes awhile; I’m not sure if it is several months or several years, but that takes a while. Then there’s the thousand years, then after that we have the battle of Armageddon, then after that you have the great White throne judgment, and then this Earth is destroyed. So yes this earth will be destroyed, but there will be people living on it until that time. One of the things I think I mentioned you in my work with space policy is that there are a lot of treky groups who are convinced we’re going to destroy this planet, so we need new place to move to. Well I to think we need new place to move to, it is called the new heaven and Earth, and God’s got it figured out. And the idea of us destroying this planet making it uninhabitable and having to move, doesn’t doesn’t seem to fit with Biblical chronology. But there will be a new heaven and Earth. So, as usual, I digress a little bit, but I sort of wanted to bring you a little bit up to speed where we are. So last time we talked about the Christians that are gathered together – that’s us were all going to be there. So as long as you are sitting at the table with someone who is born again and speaking in tongues, Jesus Christ has not returned yet. We know this because the day that he returns, all Christians will be gathered together. Now let’s get to the resurrection where Jesus Christ comes back to earth with his Saints. He comes for his Saints at the gathering together and we’re gathered together to meet the Lord in the air. Then he returns and it talks about it here. So let’s get started in Luke chapter 14. We’ll take a Luke at it. Starting here in verse 12…
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160730. All rights reserved. Verse Listing and Notes The Resurrections (Jesus Christ coming with his saints)
Luke 14:12-14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just
John 5:25-29 Resurrection of life…resurrection of damnation
Acts 24:14-15 A resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust
I Thes. 3:13 At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints
II Thes. 2:8 The Lord … shall destroy with the brightness of his coming
Rev. 20:1-6 First Resurrection (Death hath no more power, dieth no more)
Rev. 20:7-15 Second Resurrection (Some to second death)
Rev. 21:1-8, 23 New Jerusalem (first: former)
Paradise or Heaven – When?
Jesus Christ died, was buried, and was raised from the dead (not from heaven or paradise)
Mat. 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale=s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth
Luke 24:1-8 He is not here, but is risen
Acts 13:28-30 God raised him from the dead
I Cor. 15:3-4 Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again (vss. 20-28 – death an enemy) Jesus Christ ascended into heaven (after the resurrection)
Luke 24:50-51 He was parted from them and carried up into heaven
Acts 1:6-11 A cloud received him out of their sight Teaching The Return of the Lord, part 6
Living God’s Word – An Introduction to the Scriptures – Session 1
God bless you, this is Bruce, and I’m happy to inform you all in case you have not heard, I’ll be teaching the first session of Living God’s Word – An Introduction to the Scripture today. The entire class, including the syllabus, or the notes, for the class is available on the website, http://www.speakwordsofgrace.org.
Then in two weeks, on June 25 and 26th, 2016 I’ll be teaching the last six sessions, sessions seven to twelve at our out of town fellowship event at the Dundon’s home in Ebony, VA. So anyone who would like to attend that event, is welcome, just listen today and listen to sessions 2 to 6 from the website independently and then show up in person in two weeks in Ebony, VA. If you would like to join us in Ebony, just contact Brian Dundon on the website. Brian and Mary-Rose Dundon will be hosting this event.
Again, sessions two to six are available from the website. you’ll need to listen and work these sessions independently.
If anyone would like to call in for the live teaching of sessions seven to twelve, please let us know and we’ll make arrangements for that since we won’t have an exact schedule for when we’ll start. We just know we’ll have two sessions Saturday morning, two sessions Saturday night and two sessions Sunday morning. So if anyone is interested in calling in, just let us know by calling or texting us and we can call or text you and give you a 30 minute warning and then you can call in.
So let’s get started with Living God’s Word – An Introduction to the Scriptures. For those of you that may be familiar with the ministry of Dr. Victor Paul Weirville, who taught many of us God’s Word, this class is based on his, but in no means is identical to it. I’d say 80 to 90% of it is based on his class, but 10 to 20% is from some refinements I’ve made based on my work over the years. So if you’ve taken his class you’ll recognize lots of it, but not all of it.
So here we go… an Introduction to the Scriptures, and Living Gods word is important — there are many academic things about the scriptures, many tremendous things one can learn by studying the languages, the history, and the geography; and to certain amounts we’ve all done that. I spent time in graduate school studying these things and we’ve all learned many things in these areas, but this won’t be the focus of this class. I will mention a few Greek and Hebrew words, I’ll mention a few oriental customs, and I’ll mention a few things on the geography, but the vast majority of this class will focus on how to live God’s Word. How to apply it in your daily life; because if we can’t live God’s Word and have it help us be more effective Christians, and more effective people, and happier and more joyful people, and peaceful people and we can’t live God’s Word, then what’s the point? It is just another academic exercise, like a Rubrics Cube, a Sudoku puzzle, or a crossword puzzle; and those are all fun, mental pursuits. But God’s Word is much more than a mental pursuit, it is showing you how to live Gods Word and how to get help from God in your daily life. So when you face the challenges which we all face, your not doing it alone but with God’s help.
That will be the focus of the entire class. We’ll start with how to pray and how to believe God and we’ll end with how to actually manifest, or operate, the power of God in your daily life. And in between we’ll learn allot of other details about how to read the Bible, how to understand it when you read it, how to deal with difficult verses which are confusing, and just how to make God’s Word a real, living part of your daily life. So your life can be more successful, more peaceful, happier, more prosperous, healthier, and so you can help others with these things as well. So, let’s start in John chapter 10 verse 10…
Taught by Bruce Mahone 20160612. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
INTRODUCTION
John 10:10
Jer. 2:13
Mat. 22:37, 38
Hosea 4:6a
HOW TO RECEIVE FROM GOD What’s Available
III John 2
Philippians 4:19
II Corinthians 9:8
Romans 8:37
Ephesians 3:16-20 Why so many promises?God’s love for us
Deut. 7:8
Jer. 31:3
Romans 2:4
John 3:16 Hundreds of other promises in God’s Word. How to Receive
Matthew 21:22 – ask in prayer, believing
Hebrews 11:6 – must believe
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