Lesson #11 --
Section #1 -- MAN - HERE AND HEREAFTER
p 54 -- Genesis 1:27 -- God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.
Note - In studying the nature of man in this life, and the life to come, we must first determine what man received from God in the beginning. Did man receive an immortal soul or spirit? What did this likeness to God mean?
Genesis 2:7 -- The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Note - The component parts of a living soul are the dust of the ground and the "breath of life." The first question to be resolved is simply - Did this "breath of life" give to man an immortal soul or spirit?
Genesis 2:17 -- Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Note - If God had given to man an immortal soul or spirit, then it would have been absurd to tell him that if he transgressed, he would die; for he could not have died. Also, because of transgression, if man had been created with an immortal soul, sin would have become immortalized with no way for it to be eradicated. But we find that God took all precautions to confine sin after it entered this world, and then to plan for its final extinction.
Genesis 3:22-23 -- And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us ... and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live, forever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.
Note - Driven from Eden, our first parents entered a world outside without an immortal soul or spirit, or access to the tree of life. Thus when man would be called to yield up the "breath of life," he would return to the original component - dust. This is exactly what God told man - "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:19)
Section #2 -- THE OLD TESTAMENT TESTIMONY
Job 14:12-14 -- So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more ... . 0 that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave ... if a man die shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come.
Job 19:25-27 -- For I know that my Redeemer liveth and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold.
Psalm 17:15 -- As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.
p 55 -- Psalm 146:4 -- His [man's] breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish.
Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 -- For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything ... There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.
Note - To these texts, other Scriptures could be added. (Isaiah 28:18-19; Daniel 12:13) The picture of man in the Old Testament is that he dies, his thoughts cease, he goes to the grave, back to dust to await a day when he shall again awaken. There is no concept of something immortal, eternal, leaving man at death to continue in another sphere of existence. The dead know not anything.
Section #3 -- THE NEW TESTAMENT TESTIMONY
Hebrews 2:14 -- Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He [Jesus] also Himself took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death.
Note - The New Testament presents Jesus on a mission to destroy death. Now, if at death, we do not die, but live on, then Jesus is placed in a position of destroying not death, but life. But He came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
John 11 :25 -- I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
John 11:11-14 -- Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep ... Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
Note - To Jesus who is the resurrection and the life, death is only a sleep. He destroyed the stranglehold of death: and changed it from an endless sleep to a temporary sleep, which He alone can break. He demonstrated that power in the case of Lazarus. When He came to the tomb, He called, "Lazarus come forth. And he that was dead came forth." (John 11:43-44) This is what Jesus plans to do at the end of the age on a wider and grander scale.
John 5:28-29 -- Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.
Note - In that coming day, the grave, the resting place of the dead, shall no longer hold her captives. He who destroyed the power of death will call them forth, "they that have done good unto the resurrection of life."
I Corinthians 15:51-54 -- Behold I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trump shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible ... So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then ... Death is swallowed up in victory.
Note - Only when the last trumpet shall sound will men experience victory over death. Not until then will men receive immortality. This gift is for the righteous only. A man, not spiritually born again, never shares in this gift of eternal life. John declares, "Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." (I John 3:15) Hence the wicked, when they are resurrected - the resurrection of damnation - possess the same type of life they had when alive on the earth in their first existence.
p 56 -- Section #4 -- THE REWARDS OF LIFE
Matthew 25:45-46 -- Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto Me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
Romans 6:23 -- The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Note - The wicked receive a reward that is the opposite to the reward of the righteous. Since they do not have eternal life, they receive death - eternal or everlasting death. This death results from the direct judgment of God.
Revelation 20:9 -- And they [the wicked] went up on the breadth of the earth ... and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Note - In Lesson #10, we learned that this event occurred at the end of the 1000 years, when Christ and His saints have returned to earth to abide in the Holy City. The wicked dead, coming up in the second resurrection, are marshaled by the devil before the New Jerusalem. At that point, God sends fire to devour them. Since they do not possess an immortal spirit, or eternal life, they are consumed. They have no power to resist the fire of God. It is the end for them. They are then visited with "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." (II Thess. 1:9)
Section #5 -- THE TESTIMONY OF THE BIBLE ON THE REWARD OF THE WICKED
Matthew 13:38-40 -- The field is the world; ... the tares are the children of the wicked one; ... as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
Malachi 4:1, 3 -- For behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch ... they shall be ashes ... in the day that I do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
Psalm 37:20, 10 -- The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be.
Isaiah 47:14 -- Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
Note - The testimony of Jesus, and the prophets, are agreed that the wicked shall burn up; they shall be as ashes upon the earth. When the devouring fire has completed its work, there shall not be left a coal to warm before. Before man is a choice. Live as you desire, and the end will be death - total extinction. But to choose the way of Christ is to have life - real living now - and life everlasting hereafter.
p 57 -- QUIZ SHEET - Lesson 11 -- True and False. If the statement is true, circle the "T"; but if any part of the statement is false, circle the letter, "F".
1. -- When God created man in His own image, He gave to man the very substance
of Himself ... ... ... ... T -- F
2. -- The formula for the creation of man could be written: Dust + Breath
of life = Living soul ... ... ... ... T -- F
3. -- This formula transposed reveals the nature of death: Living soul -
Breath of life = Dust ... ... ... T -- F
4. -- Adam left the garden of Eden not as an immortal sinner but as a mortal man ... ... T -- F
5. -- Solomon declared that the living know that they shall die, but the
dead do not know anything ... ... ... ... .T -- F
6. -- David asked the question - "If a man die, shall he live again?" ... ... ... T -- F
7. -- We develop immortal -life by living a life like Jesus lived ... ... ... ... T -- F
8. -- Jesus Christ changed an endless sleep into a temporary sleep, so that
death need cause no fear for His followers ... ... ... ... T -- F
9. -- Corruption and mortality have the same meaning in I Cor. 15:51-54,
and apply to the same groups of people ... ... ... ...T -- F
10. -- Immortality is the state which those who do not taste death put on at the second
coming of Christ ... ... ... ... T -- F
11. -- The rewards of life are the same for both the righteous and the wicked,
the only difference is that they are in different places ... ... ... ... T -- F
12. -- After the 1000 years when the wicked are gathered before the Holy
City, the fire of God comes down and devours them ... ... ... ... T -- F
13. -- There is a fiery hell now into which God consigns the wicked until
the day of judgment ... ... ... ... T -- F
14. -- The root of wickedness is the devil, and the branches are his followers, so when
God completes the payment of the wages for sin, all sin and sinners will be no more . . T -- F
15. -- We have a voice in our hereafter, and that decision is made here ... ... ... ... T -- F
SUPPLEMENT
p 58 -- Section #1 -- What Is the "Spirit"?
Ecclesiastes 12:7 -- Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Note - What is the "spirit" which returns to God who gave it? Many assume that this "spirit" has life and being, and in the "spirit world" to which it goes, there will be a continued conscious existence. This verse says simply that it will "return unto God who gave it." If there is a conscious existence after death, then there must have been the same conscious pre-existence. To draw this conclusion is to adopt the teachings of Mormonism and the Hindu doctrine of the transmigration of the soul. But how are we to understand the word, "spirit," in this text?
Job 34:12-15 -- Yea, surely God will not do wickedly ... If He set His heart upon men, if He gather unto Himself His spirit, and His breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Note - The spirit that returns to God is God's spirit, God's breath. Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63) He demonstrated the power of that word by calling to the dead Lazarus, "Come forth." The record is - "He that was dead came forth." (John 11:43-44) The words formed by the breath of God's mouth are spirit, and they give life. This is the very way that man was created in the beginning. (Ps. 33:6, 9)
Section #2 -- The Thief on the Cross
Luke 23:39-43 -- And he [the thief] said unto Jesus, Lord remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Note - In the text quoted above the answer of Jesus is left unpunctuated. The punctuation as given in the KJV is that of the translators. To correctly punctuate what Jesus really said, we must find the answer to three questions: 1) What and where is paradise? 2) Did Jesus go to paradise that day? And 3) What did the thief ask?
1) -- What and where is paradise? This is where the throne of God is. We are told that the tree of life is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7) That tree arches the river of life which flows from the throne of God. (Revelation 22:1-2)
2) -- Did Jesus go to paradise the day He died? Jesus did not go to paradise the day of the crucifixion. He died on Friday, the preparation day. (Luke 23:52-54) On the first day of the week after He arose, He said to Mary, "I have not yet ascended to My Father." (John 20:17) To make this text infer that Jesus went to paradise with the thief the day of the crucifixion is to make Jesus contradict Himself.
3) -- For what did the thief ask? The thief merely wanted to be remembered when Christ set up His kingdom. Jesus had declared that His kingdom would be inaugurated when He returns the second time in His glory accompanied by the angelic hosts. (Matthew 25:31) The thief needed the assurance of hope and pardon before he died. It was such a hope that Jesus extended to him. He declared - and now we punctuate the verse in harmony with the facts of Scripture - "Verily I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with Me in paradise." We, too, need hope. We can come to Jesus and say, . "Lord, remember me." He will respond that very moment, that very day, with the assurance that He will remember us.
p 59 -- Section #3 -- Preaching to Spirits in Prison
I Peter 3:18-20 -- For Christ also hath suffered for sins ... being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.
Note - Those who believe in a conscious existence after death refer to this verse to indicate that Christ conducted a "revival" among the "disobedient spirits" while His body was confined to Joseph's tomb. Careful reading of this verse indicates that the same Spirit which brought life - quickened - Christ, is the One who preached to the "spirits in prison." Such it was in the days of Noah. (Gen. 6:3) The phrase itself - "spirits in prison" - is a figure of speech. Jesus used the expression in His sermon at Nazareth, quoting from Isaiah. (Luke 4:18) Observe - "Preach deliverance to the captives." It is sin that makes one a prisoner, but Jesus through the Holy Spirit seeks to set us free. If that Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead abides in us, then we, too, can be freed from the bondage of sin. (Romans 8:11)
Section #4 -- The Expression - "Forever and Ever"
Revelation 20:10 -- And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire ... and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Note - Our concept of the phrase - "forever and ever" - is based on present day usage. But we must think in Bible usage. In the Bible, the law concerning voluntary servitude reads - "And he shall serve him forever." (Exodus 21:6) Now long could such a servitude be? Only as long as the individual lived! Then how long will the lake of fire burn? Only so long as the life of those consigned there lasts. Since the wicked never receive immortality, and since they do not possess it, they shall be tormented only so long as their life shall continue. The fire of that lake is a devouring fire. (Revelation 20:9) This fire "eats" into their bodies, until they are consumed. (Zechariah 14:12)
Section #5 -- The Unquenchable Fire
Mark 9: 43-48 -- Cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Note - The term translated "hell" in these verses is the Greek word, Ghehenna which refers to the Valley of Hinnom. In this valley in Old Testament times, living sacrifices were made to the god, Molech. (Jeremiah 7:31; 32:35) As a deterrent against this gross idolatry, the valley was turned into the city dump of Jerusalem. Here the "worms" and the "fire" continually consumed the garbage. The garbage did not put out the fire, nor kill the worms. Christ used this valley as an illustration of the end of all sinners, for outside of the New Jerusalem will be consigned the "garbage" of earth. The wicked will not be able to put out the fire of God's judgment.
Sodom is pictured in the Bible as "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (Jude 7) Is Sodom here today? Was the city able to escape the fire? Just so, the fire of God is eternal in consequences, and no man can alter the objective for which it is intended - to cleanse and purity the earth from sin and sinners.
p 60 -- Section #6 -- Absent from the Body, Present with the Lord
II Corinthians 5:1-8 -- For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God ... eternal in the heavens. For this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven ... For we ... do groan ... that mortality might be swallowed up of life ... knowing that, whilst we are home in the body, we are absent from the Lord ... We are ... willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Note - These verses are interpreted to mean that as soon as one dies, he, if in a "saved" condition, will be transported into the presence of God. However, the phraseology used by Paul in these verses is also to be found in other epistles. Here he speaks of groaning for a change from the earthly to the heavenly body. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain, adding - "and not only they, but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (8:22-23) This expectation of change, this hope of deliverance from the bondage of sin, not only spiritually, but also physically is the echo of the Scriptures. Job expressed this expectation in the hope that his Redeemer liveth, and though there would be a dissolution of the body, yet he would see God with his own eyes. (Job 19:25-27) David indicated he would be satisfied when he awoke with the likeness of God, . a restored image. (Ps. 17:15) But in all of the expectation, there is a sense of a waiting period.Paul in writing the above verses indicated that the objective of the groaning was "that mortality be swallowed up of life." In his first epistle to the Corinthians, he had told them when this would be - "at the last trump." When "this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality," then death would be swallowed up in victory. (I Corinthians 15:5154). What then is Paul trying to say in these verses? He is illustrating what he had just written at the close of the previous chapter. There is "for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" because we look not at what is seen, but the unseen, for "the things which are not seen are eternal." (II Corinthians 4:17-18) That new body which will be ours is "eternal in the heavens." (5:1) We do not see it - "we walk by faith, not by sight." (5:7) This then becomes an elaboration of what Paul wrote in the previous letter to the church at Corinth. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." ( I Corinthians 15:19) There is hope - though unseen by mortal eye - beyond death and the grave. While we must wait till "the last trump.", The sensation of that waiting is not realized.
Quiz Answers --
F. T. T. T. T. F. F. T. F. T. F. T. F. T. T.