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From The President’s Desk Iss 5 1996 by David Burge

April 27, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

The Old Testament celebrates life. Life is an unqualified good, a gift from God ( Gen 2:7). Wisdom holds in her left hand wealth and honour, but in her right hand long life ( Proverbs 3:16). All that one has one will give for one’s life ( Job 2:4). “Anyone who is among the living has hope – even a live dog is better than a dead lion” (Ecc 9:4)

This strong profile attitude can not be divorced from the biblical view of death. Only in extreme circumstances would a Hebrew person extol death (Job 3:17-26). The dead are not able to praise the Lord ( Psalm 115:16-18). They neither remember him or give him thanks (Psalm 6:5). They are cut off from his hand (Psalm 88:5).

Our culture with its materialistic view of death as the natural end of life ( and paradoxically a flourishing belief in the immortality of the soul, “out-of-body” and ”near-death” experiences) many times sees death as a friend. Whereas life for the aged, the unborn, and the severely disabled is regarded as a burden. Our culture has increasingly become a ” culture of death”.

The conditionalist view of death is seen as harsh. Not much to look forward to in comparison to “going to Jesus”. But death is a sobering reality. Death whenever it comes is still as enemy (1 Cor 15:26). We look forward to Christ’s coming to vanquish death. But in the meanwhile let us celebrate THIS LIFE whatever else it brings, as a God given opportunity to praise him ( Isa 38:18-19) and to share Jesus who is the life ( John 14:6) with those who do not know the true meaning of life (John 17:3)

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Does God Lie? No!

January 24, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

{from Death to Life Issue 18 October 2000}
Does God lie? No!
Does the Bible lie? No!
Does Satan lie? Yes!
He was a liar from the beginning. Jesus told the Pharisees, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).
What was his first lie?
God told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Gen. 2:17).
Satan told Eve, “You will not surely die” (Gen. 3:4).
Did Adam and Eve die? Yes!
Genesis 5 is testimony to the truthfulness of God’s Word: “Adam lived 930 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:5). “Seth lived 912 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:8). “Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:11). “Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died” (Gen. 5:14) and so on.
Yet many people teach that when you die you don’t really die. You just get “recycled”. Even many Christians believe you go on living in another place. Isn’t that what Satan told Eve, “You shall not surely die”?
Paul says, “According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1Thess. 4:14-17).

Whose word will you believe?

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Book Review- Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue

January 24, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

{From “From Death To Life” Issue 18}

Two Views of Hell: A Biblical and Theological Dialogue

By Edward William Fudge and Robert A. Peterson.

Reviewed by Carl Josephson

This book was published by InterVarsity Press this year not long before Edward Fudge came to New Zealand. By giving equal space to the conditionalist and traditionalist understandings of hell IVP have granted ‘our’ interpretation long overdue recognition as at least a viable, biblical alternative. We congratulate the publishers and authors for this significant step.

As the subtitle suggests the book takes the format of a dialogue, with Edward Fudge presenting the conditionalist case first, followed by a response by Robert Peterson, then the traditionalist case is presented with the book concluding with a response by Fudge.

This book will serve the conditionalist cause well not only because of the strength of the biblical arguments but also because of the grace and humility with which Fudge writes. Sadly this cannot always be said for Peterson who begins his response to Fudge with an emotive description of his students reacting to The Fire That Consumes with “physical symptoms including headaches and churning stomachs.” On occasion he gets perilously close to a personal attack as much as discussing the doctrines involved. He does concede however that in many ‘other’ matters of biblical interpretation Fudge is competent and sound.

[Read more...]

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The “Spirits in Prison”

September 9, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

Who are the “spirits in prison” to whom Christ preached? (1Pet. 3:18-20).

This passage links up with 2Pet. 2:4 and Jude 6. Note the following:

1. Human beings are never referred to in the Bible as “spirits” without qualification (e.g. “the spirits of just men made perfect”).Â
2. Angels and demons are referred to as “spirits” without qualification.Â
3. Those to whom Christ preached “disobeyed … while the ark was being built.”Â
4. The Bible speaks of angels who sinned in the days of Noah saying that they were imprisoned in Tartarus (2Peter 2:4,5) – not the usual words for hell (Hades, or Gehenna).Â
5. Jude gives similar testimony (Jude 6).Â
6. Perhaps these rebellious angels were the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 (Genesis 6:1-4 c.f. Job 38:4-7).Â
7. The word used here for preaching is not the Greek word that specifically means, “to preach the gospel”. It simply means, “to proclaim.” The content of the proclamation is not stated.Â
8. The flow of the passage moves from Christ’s death, to his resurrection, to his proclamation to the spirits.Â
9. The subject of his proclamation was, most likely, his resurrection victory over sin and Satan’s forces.
The meaning is thus made clear: While Noah was building the Ark evil angels appeared in the likeness of men and took to themselves human women. These evil angels were arrested and placed in suitable confinement to await their final judgment. To these spirits in prison, immediately after his resurrection, Christ went and proclaimed his victory!

Such an interpretation fits well with the immediate context that links the resurrection of Christ with his exaltation and ascension into heaven to be at God’s right hand. It says nothing about the state of human beings in death.

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The Witch at Endor

September 9, 2008 By admin 2 Comments

What does Saul’s visit to the witch at Endor teach us about the state of the dead? (1 Samuel 28:1-20, 1 Chronicles 10:13, 14).

King Saul, rejected by God, asked a “medium” to raise up the prophet Samuel for him. This passage is often taken as evidence that the “soul” survives the death of the body. But note the following:

1. Neither the word “soul” nor the word “spirit” appears in the passage.
2. Solomon, despite being familiar with this incident, could write (only 80 years later) “the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).
3. Samuel came “up from the ground”, not “down from Heaven.”
4. Samuel appeared as he had died, as “an old man in a robe.” (Do “disembodied souls” appear old? Do “immortal spirits” wear robes?).
5. Samuel asked Saul, “Why have you disturbed me?” as if he had been asleep not consciously alive in Paradise or Heaven.
6. Samuel told Saul, “Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.” Saul did not go to heaven. At death, good and bad alike go to one place, the grave.

God would not suffer his holy prophet to be at the beck and call of one under sentence of death according to Divine Law (Ex. 22:18, Isa. 8:19). Rather, God himself caused Samuel to rise bodily from the dead and to appear there, then to return to the grave immediately afterwards.

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Sheol and the King of Babylon

September 9, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

Does Isaiah’s “taunt” against the King of Babylon imply that the souls of the departed are conscious in Sheol?

Isaiah’s “taunt” against the King of Babylon (Isa. 14:3-23) uses pictorial language to describe God’s judgment upon the oppressor. Figuratively speaking, the spirits of kings long gone are raised to meet the great King of Babylon, who has, despite all his pretensions, become like one of them (9-11a). He has come down to the grave, a place of “maggots” and “worms” (11b). The description of the kings in Sheol being raised up to meet the fallen foe is no more to be taken literally than his mention of talking fields and pine trees (14:8). Ezekiel chapters 31 and 32 contain dirges of a similar nature.

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