Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. The funeral practices of a culture
will indicate whether or not it is a pagan culture. These
practices become ingrained in a society, and one points out
these errors at his own peril. The idea of keeping a body unburied
for a few days after death arose during a time when men became
enlightened to the fact that death may only be apparent. and
lacking scientific ability to determine death, the practice
was adopted of keeping a body unburied in case he might wake
up. This has morphed into a ceremony
now where a man's body is put on display for folks to parade
by and look at. How different such a notion is
to the practice of the early believers. And the young men
arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him. They
didn't even give folks an opportunity to comment on how natural he
looked. Of course, the rising cost of our funeral pomp and
display have caused many to resort to the pagan practice of burning
bodies in order to save a few dollars. Only the heathen ever
burned the bodies of their dead in the scriptures, and most pagan
societies carry on the practice in the present time. The scriptures
only record one instance of the Lord's disposal of a body. And
there we read, So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there
in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And
he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against
Beth Peor. But no man knoweth of his sepulcher
unto this day. What other example do we need?
It has become commonplace in our society to speak of the dead
as being better off or in a better place. It is also very commonplace
for men to consider that men possess some sort of immortal
soul which can never die. While it fits well with the common
philosophy of men, who still embrace the same life which Satan
foisted upon Eve, saying, Ye shall not surely die, this teaching
cannot be found in the Scriptures. This father of lies continues
to weave his web of deception in the thinking of men, and that
causes them to think that they cannot ultimately be destroyed,
and that they must somehow continue to live somewhere. The popular
religion of our society is a quasi-Christianity, which is a mixture of common
folklore, natural philosophy, and biblical principles. Some
ideas which it entertains are quite sacrosanct, and woe be
to the man who might point out the errors of them. One of these
errors is the consideration that all men will live somewhere in
some form forever, and that the resurrection is just an outgrowth
of that fact. Job clearly states the impossibility
that the flesh or spirit of man can live again according to any
natural or spiritual process which has its root in that nature.
A tree might be cut down and for all appearances be dead,
but there is a root still alive and even a stump might spring
to life. Yet when a man's body is dead, it soon becomes lifeless
dust, and cannot in any wise regenerate itself unto life in
a future time, any more than the same flesh and blood can
be regenerated into a spiritual creature in the present time.
That which is flesh is flesh. By nature all men are dead in
trespasses and sins, and can in no wise live, hear, or see
the kingdom of God, apart from the miraculous work of the Spirit
of God, to quicken or give life to them. Even as Paul said, And
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
And as John points out, those who believe are born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. Adam died the day that he ate the forbidden fruit and passed
that death to his offspring. Yet his body continued to function
for nine hundred and thirty years. Man can no more quicken himself
to spiritual life than he can cause his natural body to awake
from the dead. Apart from the power of Christ
to awaken them, both body and spirit shall remain in the tomb.
There is a general resurrection of the bodies of all men. Some
are raised unto eternal life, and some are merely reanimated
to face judgment and eternal death. The power which causes
them to come out of the grave is the same, but the purpose
and result is startlingly different. Those whom the Lord has caused
to die in the hope of Christ's resurrection shall be brought
forth into the realms of endless bliss, as they are brought face
to face with Him who has been their desire and delight. Gone
shall be all of their darkness, swallowed up in the light of
Him who shines brighter than 10,000 noonday suns. If a man
dies, shall he live again? Only if that man is found in
Christ, who purchased him with his own blood, and has now redeemed
his possession which was his before the foundation of the
world. These shall not be ashamed at his coming, for they look
for him as those who long to behold their King and Redeemer
through undimmed eyes. This is the epitome of eternal
life. They live because their champion has triumphed gloriously
in their behalf and forever removed the sting of death and the victory
of the grave. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you have life in Christ? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.