UNCLE CLARENCE’S DAY TRIP TO HEAVEN!
Every professing Christian needs to ever keep in mind that we Christians living in the 21st Century are living two thousand years past the time of Jesus’ appearance on earth and the time of His apostles. Since that point in time Christianity has been split into dozens and dozens and dozens of differing denominations teaching and believing widely different doctrines and beliefs. Two thousand years is a long, long time. Satan, the master of deceit has had many centuries to color and confuse the truth. A Roman Catholic priest is as sincere and dedicated to his beliefs as is a Jehovah’s Witness, a Baptist evangelist, or an Amish elder. They all differ widely in what they believe the Bible reveals. Preconceived ideas and beliefs lodge in the mind and memory and present a formidable obstacle to the acceptance of any opposing belief. Folks don’t naturally assume they are wrong, but they sure naturally assume they are right.
When Uncle Clarence is revived after having been clinically dead for 18 minutes and states that he went to heaven and talked with Jesus and saw Aunt Hilda picking flowers from one of heaven’s many gardens, are we to believe him? Or are we to believe Cousin Ernie, who was clinically dead for 23 minutes, but states he saw or remembers nothing during that time? Or are we to believe King Solomon, who wrote, “The dead know not anything”? (See Ecclesiastes 9:5). And how about the Psalmist, who wrote, “Put not your trust in princes (or Uncle Clarence or Cousin Ernie), nor in the son of man (any human being, even Billy Graham or Donald Wiley), in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth, IN THAT VERY DAY HIS THOUGHTS PERISH” (See Psalm 146:3-4).
Over and over again Jesus cautioned the Jewish people to pay heed to what God had said through Moses and the prophets, warning them that they erred greatly due to the fact they failed to pay heed to these scriptures. The Hebrew scriptures, commonly called the Old Testament, contain foundational truth. We are to build our belief system on that scripture foundation. The first foundational truth God ever uttered was to tell Adam and Eve point blank, “Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.” We are physical human beings. We ARE souls. We do not possess a “soul.” The word soul in Hebrew merely means a living breathing creature. We have a spirit, but in the Hebrew the spirit means we have breath, we live. When scripture says our spirit returns to God who gave it, all that scripture implies is that our breath, or our prospects of ever living and breathing again, is in God’s hands. Unless He resurrects us, brings us back to life at some future time, then this life we now experience is all there is.
George Washington is not tripping the light fantastic in heaven right now. Neither is Adolf Hitler screaming in the fires of hell right now. They are dead. They know nothing as their brains disintegrated long ago.
Jesus Christ, the prophets of the Old Testament, and Jesus’ apostles whenever speaking of death or the dead use but one of two terms calling them dead or asleep. No other terminology is ever used in all the Bible. “Now with the Lord, passed on to glory, gone to be with Jesus, etc.,” no such language is ever found in the Bible. It’s just preacher talk. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” That is NOT what Paul wrote. (See 2 Corinthians 5:6-8_.
Jesus said, ‘Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming (yes, it is future), in the which all THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES shall hear His voice, and shall come forth (from their graves, not from heaven or hell), they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (or judgment)” (See John 5:28-29). Where did Jesus place the dead? In their graves, NOT in heaven or hell.
The truth can be known, but first God has to sweep from our minds all the error that has accumulated there down through the years. Much that we have come to accept as fact is actually gross error. Until we come to realize that fact, we will be unable to grasp and retain the truth in our minds. We will have scriptures that we think support us in our beliefs when, in actuality, those scriptures do not support us at all. Something to think about, folks.
Christ’s Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley