WE WILL CONTINUE LIVING!
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: Ons gaan bly lewe!
I just want to start this letter by saying that what I am about to write is not a reflection on the person who sent me the question.
Sometimes I get it that people write to me and then, as I personally understand it, use a passage from the Word out of context to, in my opinion, refute something I've written.
The strange phenomenon of this kind of action on what I write is, so far without exception, that people will use passages from the Word to contradict what I have written but never explain to me how I, according to them, misunderstood and should actually understand it.
For example, I wrote a letter to show that when we step out of this life we immediately enter to be with Jesus, or we immediately enter into hell.
More writings about this if you want to read it, are:
“What happens to me after the grave” and the one that goes along with it:
What happens to us during judgement on that great day? – Which I can gladly send to you on request.
Three of the passages from the Word that I used in my writing that I mentioned above are:
MAT 17:3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.
MAT 17:4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
What now follows is a conversation that took place that Jesus tells us:
LUK 16:24-31
24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'
25 But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'
27 And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house–
28 for I have five brothers–so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'
29 But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'
30 And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
31 He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"
What now follows is a conversation between Jesus and the one murderer that was crucified with Him:
LUK 23:40-43
40 But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong."
42 And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Someone then wrote to me more or less as follows: "that it is all well and good but what about now for example .." – and then the person quotes two parts and I would now like to share with you how I understand these two parts – and also in my opinion, how wonderfully in harmony they end up being with the other passages I already mentioned.
The first part of the Word that I want to say something about, which the person sent me was:
ACT 2:34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, "'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,
I think it's just wise to mention here that it can be very dangerous if you quote a verse from the Word to prove a statement without considering what was written before, or after.
Peter speak here, as you will notice, for example, when you begin to read from ACTS 2:22, with David in mind, that he, that is Peter, was one of those who, to put it this way, physical saw Jesus ascending into heaven and David did not. David's bones are still lying in the earth.
Just read what Jesus himself says about whether our Lord's followers, after their physical death on this earth, are dead or even only temporarily dead:
MAT 22:31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:
MAT 22:32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."
What Jesus here very clearly says to me is this:
MAT 22:32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."
I AM (not I was)
(This is because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are very much alive right at this very moment)
Here then is how I personally understand the second section that was sent to me:
We read:
1 COR 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
Jesus Christ was the First whose dead human body went into a grave and who then aroused with a glorified body out of the grave – but Jesus Himself was not dead.
GOD cannot die. I share as an example the following from the Word:
1PE 3:18-20
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Not only have you read that Jesus, while His body lay dead in the tomb, He was busy preaching and that He was preaching to the spirits in prison. These are the people who did not want to listen in Noah's time and then perished in the flood, yet were still alive and able to listen to Jesus centuries later.
According to how I understand the Word, you and I and all other people were created into our Lord's image; that part of the qualities we have – because we were created in God's image – is the reason why we, like Him, cannot die.
We will surely go out of this body into eternity, either we will enter Heaven or Hell – but we can never but never die. Not even temporarily, as some proclaim.
How wonderful to know this:
All who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour has this wonderful assurance:
JOH 5:24 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, but has passed from death to life.
Just like Jesus, who was the first who did it on this earth – we will also one day walk in our new glorified bodies on the new earth.
I conclude with my great hero Paul’s words when he also wrote about these things:
1THS 4:18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Greetings,
Sakkie