It is my goal to stay with the Word of God and help it make sense to you. And it's my purpose for you to make sense out of your life, to understand that God does love and care about you, and to know that He has an answer to life's questions.

A NEW TWIST TO AN OLD LIE

Dad likes to tease his dog, Sniffy. Sniffy's dog-dish holds both food and water. Underneath the dog-dish, in a hollow place between the bowls, Dad hides the earphones of my new portable radio. He will tease Sniffy.

Dad is training Sniffy to sit. Coming to the dish--full of his favorite dog food--Sniffy sits. Then, at Dad's "OK," he excitedly begins to eat. But Dad turns up the radio volume and a strange voice comes out of the food; Sniffy barks and backs away. Dad turns down the volume. Again, Sniffy sits. At Dad's "OK," he excitedly starts eating. Dad increases the volume again and the strange voice comes from the food. Once more, Sniffy barks and backs away. Now he refuses to eat.

God, neither desiring you to mourn the dead as one who has no hope, nor wishing you to be deceived by believing that you return to life through incarnation, nor wanting you to hear words of confusion in Christianity about where you go when you die, wants you to hear His voice. Strange voices, filling the world with lies, make you want to back away. Tonight, I want to study the topic--a new twist to an old lie.

In the Bible, Jesus, Who loves ALL people, has a special friendship with a family from Bethany.

"Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, `Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'

"When Jesus heard that, He said, `This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.'

"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus." John 11:1-5 NKJV

At that time, people want to harm Jesus. The disciples, who can also be hurt, do not want trouble by passing Jerusalem to go to Bethany. So, they believe that Lazarus does well.

"These things He said, and after that He said to them, `Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.'

"Then His disciples said, `Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.' However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.

"Then Jesus said to them plainly, `Lazarus is dead.'" John 11:11-14 NKJV

Jesus' closest followers, knowing and believing in Him, perceive that the dead will rise at the last day.

"Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, `Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You as of God, God will give You.'

"Jesus said to her, `Your brother will rise again.'

"Martha said to Him, `I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'" John 11:20-24 NKJV

Martha believes in a last day resurrection. But Lazarus, in the sleep that Jesus calls death, will be awakened before the last day.

"Jesus said to her, `I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me though he may die, he shall live.'" John 11:25 NKJV

Jesus effects a miracle, raising Lazarus to life.

"Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, `Take away the stone.'"

"Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, `Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.'

Jesus said to her, `Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?'

"Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, `Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.' Now when He had said these things, He cried forth with a loud voice, `Lazarus come forth!'" John 11: 38-44 NKJV

Raising Lazarus to life from a sleep that He calls death, Jesus does him a favor. It would not be a favor if Lazarus, living four days in heaven, has to again face hunger, anguish, sickness, and death. But, he never alludes to heaven. He was not there!

In the Bible, the second coming of Jesus is called "the last day." Jesus raises people to everlasting life at the last day. Notice the use of the phrase in the texts below.

"`This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.'" John 6:39-40 NKJV

"`No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.'" John 6:44 NKJV

"`Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.'" John 6:54 NKJV

"For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God And the dead in Christ will rise first." 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16 NKJV

The devil, uniting the world with two lies--that there are no Ten Commandments and that when you die you go to heaven (or hell)--deceives you about what happens after death. In the 1800's, two innocent girls in New York state, receiving contact from the spirits, hear rappings on their bedroom wall. They knock back. The incident with the mysterious rappers, receiving notice, launches the world into the modern spiritist movement.

Getting information from the dead--called in the Bible going to the "secret chambers" or "inner rooms"--is known as having a seance.

"`Therefore if they say to you, "Look, He is in the desert!" do not go out; or "Look, He is in the inner rooms!" do not believe it.'" Matthew 24:26 NKJV (Inner rooms = NKJV; secret chambers = KJV.)

Then, the Christian world was offended by the rappings; now the whole world is unaffected by spiritism. It begins with a lie in the Garden of Eden. God warns that, eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve will die.

"`. . . but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" Genesis 2:17 NKJV

Satan, the serpent, speaks the Bible's first recorded lie: you will NOT die.

"Then the serpent said to the woman, `You will not surely die.'" Genesis 3:4 NKJV

Satan adapts that lie to every generation. That's why it is important to know what the Bible teaches about death. Let the Bible be the speaker.

Do you know that you are a living soul?

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7 KJV

The soul is not a part of you that separates when you die. You become a living soul (being) when the body and breath are combined. God forms man from dust and gives him breath; in death, it is reversed--the body goes back to dust and the breath returns to God.

"The dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7 NKJV (Notice that the word is "spirit" rather than "soul".)

The breath and the spirit are the same; "spirit" is simply another word for "breath" in the Bible.

"All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils. . ." Job 27:3 KJV

When you lie in state, you do not breathe. When the breath (spirit) goes back to God, life ends. When the breath goes back to God and the body to the dust, you make no plans.

"Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.

"His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish." Psalm 146:3-4 NKJV

If you had always hugged your loved ones, but due to an accident, lost both your arms, you would feel restrained. If you die and go to heaven, you see and hear the problems of your loved ones, but having no way to help them, you feel contained. You watch the state police inform your wife that you will not be coming home and view her as she tells the children. You so much want to comfort them. It is terrible that you can't even touch them. But, it is merciful to not know anything when you die. Your next thought will be that you are being resurrected--days, months, years, or even centuries later.

"For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten." Ecclesiastes 9:5 NKJV

In some beliefs there are way-stations where you, neither good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell, live until you move up. During the Dark Ages, one church developed a system of charging fees to both relieve your suffering in the way-station and move you up the line. They made money!

You go to the grave when you die. King David, living a life of repentance after he sins, dies in the Lord, is buried, and sleeps in the grave.

"`Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. . . For David did not ascend into the heavens. . .'" Acts 2:29 and 34 NKJV

In heaven you WILL praise God!

"The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence." Psalm 115:17 NKJV

Paul, the apostle, predicts the that the happenings at the last trumpet call will be awesome.

"Behold, I tell 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 trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: `Death is swallowed up in victory.'" 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 NKJV

There is a new twist to an old lie: the old lie is that you will NOT die and the new twist is to use meditation to converse with Jesus.

The human brain contains two spheres. The left hemisphere--the center of logic--concerns rationality, cognitive skills, and understanding. The right hemisphere--the center of emotion--develops the senses focusing on how you feel. Through the left hemisphere, meditation on scripture enhances the knowledge of the divine attributes. Centered in the right hemisphere, non-scriptural meditation restates hypnotizing short phrases. Repeating mantras like "Hare Krishna" (that is, short phrases like "My sweet lord"), reduces your ability to think logically. The goal of the New Age is to separate you from the logical part of the brain to be caught up in your feelings. By eliminating logic, focusing on emotion, and calling on your spirit guide (one of the third of the angels cast out of heaven with Satan) Satan makes you believe that you are communicating with the spirits of the dead.

When presenting the truths of the Bible, you often get right-brained responses from the New Age generation.

"The Bible sounds OK but I have to talk to the spirit," says a New Ager.

"The Holy Spirit writes the Bible!" you reply.

"But, I have to know what I FEEL about it," the New Ager replies.

Coming to Christianity, the principle of repeating a simple phrase can be encouraged with an innocent chorus. Some churches uphold a form of dancing which reduces logic by drawing the enhanced feelings into the music.

Brothers and sisters, are you hearing deceptions about dying? Do you listen when the devil speaks lies? Are you right-brained? Like Sniffy, who hears unknown speech from his dog-dish, you can back away from strange voices.

"Father in Heaven, Thank You that we need not be deceived by strange voices but that we can hear your voice and follow You. In Jesus' name, Amen."