Has anyone noticed a rise in the number of TV shows featuring a peek into other-worldly scenarios.  We are learning as a result a great deal about people who can see the future, people who cannot die, and people who straddle the world of being alive and dead.  This trend is not merely entertainment.  While we are accustomed to blurring the lines of creativity and reality the lines of human existence do not have that much room.  Merging the poles of human existence is far more disturbing than one sees at first.  If you have never thought about some of the realities of life and death now is a good time to begin, because an unprecedented campaign of deception is underway, and it is no less damaging than the onslaught in the Garden of Eden. The proposition was that humans can disobey God, because humans are not really going to die as God had threatened.   Today the lie is that God cannot put humans to death, because humans are immortal. Even if we thought that God was our respect for the stability of what our ancestors passed on to us as “get a grip and hang on” we have to admit that an immortal that cannot hang on traditions is neither immortal nor wise.

Same lie, different perspective.  Death and life are opposites; they do not meet.  God made man a living being (a nephesh hayyah), an earthy entity, not spiritual, and confirmed mortal. At best humans keep in tow the vision that we have the capacity to emulate soaring eagles.   And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.  1 Cor. 15:45

Man is not a spiritual being, and he will not be anything different from what he was made in Eden until the day when Christ transforms the mortal and corruptible. Perhaps we do not see a certain crumbling foothold in believing that immortals were deceived and died in consequence.

⁴⁷ The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49

There are different types of bodies: celestial, terrestrial, stellar, lunar, etc. Difference can be discerned in the resurrection.

⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: ⁴³ It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44

Hear what Paul says about this trail of our present into the future.  It even rebukes the “born-again” propaganda, for we see here that adoption is achieved when the body is redeemed, at the time when the creature is delivered from the bondage of corruption

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)  or the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)  or the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, (Romans 8:20)  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of ourbody. (Romans 8:23)

Games we play with reality

Who is it that has died, that is, was declared lifeless?  Who was not gathered to his ancestors, and who was not buried in the ground or the ancestral or traditional place and manner?  Even our Lord was confirmed dead and was buried so that his generation would have no sign but the sign of his resurrection.

Chasing miracles to go mega

But we have to ask “Which part of from the dead do people not get? When we realize that healing a few sick, exorcising demons, and prophesying are not big deals all that is left is the resurrection. Any story we can come up with to show the measure of our fellowship with God is likely to be eclipsed by the resurrection of the dead.

All the people who have died are in their graves.

The dead await resurrection.  Did someone hold a pistol to the heads of Christians and tell them that they have to believe that the dead fly off either to be with Christ or start burning forever?   Well you might not realize it but it is a cardinal belief of evangelical Christianity that believers die-and-go-to-heaven. They drill it into the convert as part of of the life-giving gospel. A person is not likely to be baptized if they do not subscribe to that belief. Is it not setting a poor example for God to conduct his greatest act by overriding the elements of procreation, pinning salvation to an act of stepping outside of his personal attributes? The Lord vindicates himself by taking those steps to make our transformation attractive and possible.

Gone for broke, death from life

Exactly what is being transformed in the present age?   Minds and attitudes

Exactly what will be transformed at the end of age?  Bodies.

They’re not all the same, and neither in heaven nor hell

^5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, John 5:28 
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. John 5:29

Once they come back from the dead, run. We should expect a person who has seen the two pages of human experience to be in possession of the ripest discernment of the meaning of our journey. There is not, in any reputable journal, a single ancient Israelite hero who has seen Sheol and has given Israel a transforming commandment, statute, or judgment. It seems that seeking clarity from the dead, clarity about the dead, and life without death is a doomed venture.