0:03
to the uh the concept of canonical Theology and that we would continue to learn how to read your word as one book though it contains many as we read each one we would remember there is but one
0:15
author of the entire book and so that we can begin to see more clearly the connections between the old and new and between the old and old and the new and
0:26
the new and even within books that we see the holy spirit is the author of the entire volume so guide us and lead us into the truth we ask in Jesus name
0:46
amen so we do uh come to the end of this particular session and I think we're we're we're dealing with uh what I think is the most important theme or Arc in
0:58
Revelation and that is the concept of life and death and how it's treated in scripture and I want to talk some more about the way the uh Bible does does not
1:13
launch in Genesis 3 for example into the doctrine of the Resurrection um and you don't even get it for quite a while as you read through
1:24
the Old the Old Testament um you don't you don't start to see to see um the the formation of of this Doctrine excuse me till
1:38
Isaiah um we talked about job and and yet even job 7 compared to job 19 are are are are are two difficult passages to to harmonize
1:49
but we're not going to do that we're not going to try to do that so I think we have Beyond a doubt we have sufficient information in the Old Testament to establish the doctrine of the
2:02
Resurrection as it was in the inter testamental period so that by the time of Jesus in the second temple era there was a strong belief in the
2:13
resurrection but we are also reminded that it wasn't a universal belief the Sadducees for example who we like to write off as Mainline liberal denominations of the of the first
2:26
century were actually quite conservative uh Torah followers Pento followers um and because the the doctrine of the Resurrection is essentially absent in
2:39
the Torah in the Pento um they rejected it as an innovation U they also rejected the Book of Daniel which of course contains
2:50
perhaps the the most explicit uh passage on the resurrection in the entire Old Testament in Daniel I think it's Daniel 12 um so so you know I
3:01
want to I know it's it can be disturbing for believers to to hear what I've said about shol and the seeming lack of hope
3:11
that the writers of the Old Testament have toward themselves going down into the pit this this is not you know most
3:22
of this is the uh for example David speaking of his own life not the life of the wicked but his own as a as a man whose heart was
3:32
seeking after God in spite of his many faults the the writers of the Psalms were were considering shol to be a place that the righteous
3:43
don't want to go and and that's just that's just the text okay and and the one thing about canonical theology is that if if you if you uh
3:54
weave this type of hermeneutic into your reading of the Bible it will go a long way in preventing you from just ignoring texts
4:04
that don't fit into your Doctrine see Systematic Theology actually tends in the other direction the proof texts that you can read um reinforce the idea of
4:17
just reading along the line of your particular doctrinal B and anything that doesn't um fit along that line you just don't read it you don't and you don't
4:29
deal with it and you see this in commentaries you hear this in sermons where people just don't deal with it because it doesn't fit well canonical theology doesn't allow you to do that
4:40
you have to you have to trace the revelation of God from beginning to end so that you can see where the particular
4:50
passage or book that you're currently reading fits in that Arc or trajectory of Revelation so I hope um I know it's been at some time a difficult uh Journey
5:02
but I'm I'm hopeful that um what we've done and where we've been will will make each of us better readers of scripture so continuing on this discussion then
5:14
about shol I want to approach it now um from both um a philosophical but also uh a Pauline eschatological
5:26
perspective Paul writes in Corinthian 1 Corinthians 15 that we have hoped in Christ in this life only we are of all men most to be pied and I want to focus
5:53
tremendous apologetic power to what we're discussing right discussing right now because what we're talking about is of all things the most
6:04
universal uh institution in in the entire human race death and every society throughout time
6:14
has to deal with the reality of death and its impact on that society's life and future now I I found an
6:25
interesting um book uh published in the midnight 1960s by a very well-known uh sociologist who's also I think he was a
6:36
presbyterian Theologian uh Peter burer whom I had heard of before probably through just his quotes in other books um but he wrote a book I don't know that
6:52
I the sacred canopy um published as I said in 19 1966 um in this book he talks about the impact of um the sac the sacred in
7:06
the life of human society and uh the book really does impinge on what we've been talking about concerning death shol but it does so in
7:17
a way that that raises the question uh to all human societies what about death and it becomes a question by which
7:27
all human religion rels or religions practiced by practiced by humans can be measured the the answer that this religion gives to the question of
7:40
death and it also challenges the biblical or the the Christian answer as to um examining self-examining our own view what what
7:52
what do we believe concerning death what do we teach our children what do we teach in our churches concerning this this this most universal of events in um
8:04
mankind so Peter berer deals with this and and I think he does a very good job uh I do recommend the book but it you know it's it's I don't know that it's coming from a truly
8:15
Evangelical um perspective but let's think of it this
8:30
way the idea of legacy the idea of legacy is that we are we we live on our immortality is in what we leave
8:40
behind and at the very basic of that level that means what we leave in in the lives of our children okay um years ago
8:51
just in in U in in thinking about raising children you know I and thinking of my of my grandfather my my mother's father and his impact on um my mother and then of
9:06
course his his myself his grandson and you know the thought occurred to me and I've really never not developed it so much but in thinking of a man's life
9:16
that when when a father dies he he takes part of his daughter's heart with him but leaves part of his heart with his son you you you think about and my my
9:31
mom is 90 almost 99 and she still misses her father now she was the apple of his eye she was his
9:42
unfailing Angelic princess which is not necessarily a good way to raise a daughter um but he he definitely showered her with love and affection and
9:54
um in in that respect she he has never um there's a part of her heart that went with him that was never never um filled by anyone else Legacy so
10:06
that's kind of the most basic of course that goes up from there um you you you you see names on the sides of buildings I remember going to um University of Pittsburgh and the Campus
10:18
Library was Hilman Library nobody could tell me who Hilman was and back then we couldn't google it either okay but Hilman had a li Library okay and Old
10:31
McDonald had a farm and which of the two was more famous for longer
10:43
okay oh yes yeah oh yeah um you know and we're now raming things right because we're finding out these were not nice people okay um yeah but naming there's Legacy but but the point that fits so
10:53
you know when you talk about Legacy Legacy only takes one book of the Bible for its total Destruction and that is the Book of Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes just wipes out the whole concept of of Legacy so the
11:22
consist of this of your name on the side of a library okay or a dining hall you know and that's probably how we Finance the
11:32
dining don't ask where the money came from um you know the the bottom line is with several points you're
11:44
gone right you're not reading in that Library you're not even buried under it Hillman as far as I know um you're gone and the this the second thing is it
11:56
won't take long before nobody remembers who you were and after a while they get tired of of wondering and answering the question who was hmet and they just rename the
12:07
building you know somebody donates another section of first editions or primary sources and they get the building named after the helman's gone Boo's gone and bonsor shows up okay you
12:20
just change the name so what what is this Legacy that we're talking about even even our own legacy with our children you know spoke of my grandfather I I remember my grandfather
12:32
I never knew my grandfa great-grandfather and know very little about him he's there's no Legacy in that generation that's so two generations up
12:43
beyond that I don't know you know he might have been a great man he might have been a brute I don't know okay and and I may have characteristics that that were very much
12:55
present in his life I don't know that so the the reality is Legacy doesn't last very long even among the greatest there's you know if you think about it as I said last week there are only a
13:08
handful of names that have really stood the test of time okay yeah you can continue to say Napoleon or Caesar or Alexander they they've lasted a long long time but there are a lot of others
13:20
that um were very very very famous in their day you know Socrates and Plato and Aristotle were not the only only
13:30
Greek philosophers there were quite a bunch of them and many of them very impactful but you have to study philosophy or the history of philosophy to read their names their names are not uh or or their
13:43
names might be there so you have the word epicurian but who Associates that with the Greek philosopher epicurus no we associate it with fine
13:54
dining or good wine right you know so um you know the idea of where life's meaning comes from but then that leads
14:19
question in the light of the reality of death and the undeniable historical reality of reality of forgetfulness Ecclesiastes says that his place remembers him no more okay even
14:31
our tombstones after a few hundred years or less are illegible you can't even read the name on the on the stone anymore so I know this is very depressing I don't
14:41
don't mean for it to be right before Christmas um it ends well okay hang in there uh but why do we seek meaning
14:52
anyhow you know why does there why you know in in scripture we we are told to to seek after after wisdom because the gaining of wisdom is the gaining of life and length of days well you still die at
15:05
the end of it Ecclesiastes again the wise man dies no differently than the fool so what benefit and yet he he concludes that there's great benefit in being wise but what is the great
15:43
yes that's gone the the physical Legacy is gone I think it tied in with that is another real historical fact and that is the body of Moses was never found okay so that you couldn't make a mosum in a
15:55
in a place of idolatry with his body um but but I guess my question is why do we have such a sense of Legacy when it
16:06
seems so uh counterproductive it it truly if you stop and think about it a desire for a legacy um Can can only be very
16:17
shortsighted if it's honest you know the the the reality is in Ecclesiastes and and so I don't feel bad saying this because scripture says
16:28
it which means the holy spirit is saying this and challenging us with this concept of why are you concerned about your legacy when at best it will only last a
17:14
know right but but that that evades the actual question as does evolution the idea of an invisible um you know obviously I do have genetic Heritage for my great-grandfather and I did find it fascinating to do the 23 in me and find
17:27
out where my genetic you know um Heritage comes from I thought it was quite it wasn't surprising but um it was very interesting but that's and I I find
17:39
genealogies interesting the one that that Angela's brother did many years ago tracing back to Peter Cook who came over in in in in 1703 and lost an e at the end of his
17:50
name somewhere in the ocean um he came he started as cookie and he came as just cook um cook um but I you know I thought it was interesting I thought it was very
18:01
interesting that that one of her ancestors Mar they they they settled in central Pennsylvania and they moved around the Pennsylvania Dutch area but one of her ancestors married and moved
18:13
with her husband to Greenville Town South Carolina okay I think that's neat you know one of her ancestors is probably down at uh what's that spring spring
18:26
Well's the church um anyhow whatever down or or some you know it's I think that's all interesting but the idea of an invisible Legacy the invisible that's not what we have though we have a
18:37
conscious see that's what it's denying it's denying the reality that we have a conscious idea of Legacy e even even the poorest person we have a human wide or
18:50
Humanity wide Humanity wide conscious Legacy Obsession so to to just turn that into the unconscious and genetic is just evading the question and not answering it at
19:18
all but that's not what we're talking I know that I've read that I've heard that that is not at all what is manifested in in in universally in human nature okay we're we're not we we have a conscious
19:31
desire for a legacy right we we have a desire and if you don't even talk about Legacy we do have a conscious desire for meaning in life
19:41
meaninglessness is a a known mental condition and a very dire one at that and the question is why I've never seen
19:52
one of my cats exhibits signs of woeful meaninglessness though they may be the most meaningless most meaningless creatures okay there no no other animal
20:04
is is possesses this self- examinator sense of what is the meaning you know midlife crisis that type of thing why do we think about meaning and
20:16
all of this is um I'm not going to try to psychoanalyze human nature I'm just saying these are real questions that uh Peter berer points out Society needs to
20:29
answer okay because he points out in his book he starts out so if we look
20:48
at the sacred canopy um he's really addressing human society and he starts out the book in chapter one by saying that all human
21:17
historical fact as well as sociological and psychological truth and it's also biblical because almost immediately after the fall what what do we have we
21:27
have the sons of Cain doing what building cities right establishing industry but also art and music and Agriculture and then what do we do when
21:38
we we look at history we we don't you know I I know that Evolution tries to tell us that that the human race evolved out of East Central
21:49
Africa but the only reason they do that is the necessity of putting us where there are a lot of Apes the fact of the matter is there are no ancient civilization Nations to be found in East Central Africa they're all
22:02
in Mesopotamia the area that everybody used to think was the origin of the human race until we' we enlightened generation have said no we're from the the Savannah of East Central Africa we're not when we
22:15
do our history when we Trace Our Heritage it is a Heritage of World building but Peter Burger is his point is this that we do this in the light of
22:27
the most destructive Society destroying reality and that is death no matter what mankind does and no
22:38
matter what nations do they all meet the same end the greatest most powerful and effective leaders die the most effective rulers and Military generals die the
22:50
most enlightened monarchs die the most effective republics all of their Founders die Founders die this is again a very negative but a very
23:13
impact of death and it is unavoidable um you know Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying that the only two things that are sure in this life are death and
23:24
taxes he was actually not the first person to say that he may have been the first American to to say that um but even that is not exactly true because if
23:34
you have a good tax accountant you know but it doesn't matter who you have in terms of avoiding death but it it is quite possible to avoid death taxes if
23:46
you have a good accountant so I mean what we're really dealing with here I mean he was being funny he was being s the only thing we're all assured of is death I understand Second Coming Return
23:56
of the Lord is is the um deal breaker on all of that that's fine but what we're talking about is in the in between time generation after generation Society
24:07
after Society even within a society societies do completely change over into completely new members who are not like
24:20
the old ones and so the stability of Any Given worldbuilding program in a society is massive impact by the generation to
24:31
generation transfer that is brought about by death um I we were talking I was talking with somebody on Sunday um and I don't remember what the context
24:41
was but it had the idea of of communing in the resurrection with you know people from the past and you know from our
24:52
historical past in this country or the biblical past you know these different characters and the thought occurred to me that you know that if I met some of my ancestors one of the first things
25:03
they would say is what are you wearing okay just the the fact that we don't dress at all like our even near ancestors in fact most of our ancestral
25:15
Generations would consider us immodestly or inappropriately dressed okay so we are not like you know and we we can't say you know we're holding fast to the
25:26
traditions of our fathers if we asked our fathers they'd say no you're not because culture because culture changes and culture actually changes itself and and so there there's a a real
25:38
a dynamic there that um James Davidson Hunter goes in with his book to change the world I think is is really uh phenomenal what he's done in that book
25:49
but it berer is saying that what we try to do to do then is we develop in
26:19
death it becomes now a solemn and somber part of our living becomes a part of life that part that transition we're told is just a part of life but if we if we what we're really doing is that we're um
26:31
we're we're cloaking the real impact of death it's not a part of life it's the end of end of life it's the end of a life it's the end of a society it's the end of a
26:42
generation it's the yes it's the passing of the torch it just natural but it's not it's the ending of an era that will
26:53
not return the ending of a life that will not come back and that's the idea of shol in the Old Testament is you're not coming back now I know that sounds
27:03
like no Resurrection but that's not what it meant and I want to try to explain that this evening and and he points out that among these institutions the most important is
27:21
religion because what religion does is it legitimates that's the word he uses I would say legitimizes but he uses legitimates that's fine I guess um it
27:32
legitimizes our institutions by tying them to the sacred and again it comes from this Universal understanding within the human mind that there is something Beyond us
27:46
something bigger than us I know there are a lot of people who try to deny that but they'll never deny it universally they'll never deny it in a in a sense that um that it become
27:59
atheism will never become a a a truly societal view there's always going to be because God has created eternity or set
28:10
eternity in the heart of every man it would be dehumanizing to the nth degree if Mankind and maybe they can pull it off by slaughtering their their
28:20
conscience far enough but even in the Soviet Union when the Soviet Union fell people flocked back to the churches they were still there they may have been
28:31
denying it as part of their day-to-day lives out of fear of the government reprisals but it was still there because it's it's built into our our being the the image of God so religion and the
28:43
reason is because it it ties or as I as he uses it
29:18
sacred Berger's point of course that this is the essential nature of religion not just Christianity um but the it it uh it it stimulates the
29:30
question then uh what do these various religions how do they legitimate their societies dealing with death and every society in in human
29:44
history deals with death in in two ways the treatment of the body and the afterlife that's that's a uniform picture throughout not not that each
29:56
society's view is uniform but that these two categories of death become um the the the essential parts of our
30:06
institutions that deal with death what what do we do with the body and where does where does that person go okay because there's there is this again
30:17
consistent uniform sense that death is not elimination it's not Extinction so we we have the
30:28
I think overwhelming evidence of a common human belief in some form of afterlife that has now been Incorporated so consistently into various human
30:41
societies that differ in language and religion as well as of course time when they existed but I I think it's frankly undeniable uh that there that that this
30:53
is a a real issue in human society and in human Minds we don't think about it much because one of the ways we institutionalize death is
31:03
by compartmentalizing it not only into a period of life in other words old age right but also a process or transition
31:14
of life you know it's it's natural it's just the passing on of of things from generation to generation but think about that supposedly the more you live the
31:25
wiser you get so somehow Society is improving by loing off all the wise people progressively right so we're we're all marching uphill in wisdom and
31:36
advancement and knowledge and at the top of the hill is a cliff We All Fall Off and this is good so we're passing on how are we passing on our wisdom we're
31:48
dying you know it's it it's we're not passing along if we haven't already passed it along it ain't going to get passed on you're passing on
31:58
okay so this whole idea of transition and natural is really count is counterintuitive if you think about it no I don't see where removing the wisest
32:09
and most experienc is like retirement okay we're g to we're going to make this company better by getting rid of all the people who know what they're doing okay yeah we're going to make it
32:20
better by getting rid of people who are getting paid more we want to pay them that's what it boils down to but frankly we're getting rid of the people who know what they're doing and turning it over to the people who don't that's what we're doing in
32:30
life that's what our human society has been doing countless generations for 6,000 years is turning over the running of society to the people who don't know what they're doing because the people
32:40
who do know what they're doing are dead okay there's something wrong with this picture and that's kind of what berer is highlighting in his book that I I find so so fascinating um uh one one
32:52
arthor who's actually commenting on the article John Collins he says that um in short death is a threat to the meaningfulness not only of the individual life but of
33:03
the common Enterprise of society and indeed of any attempt social religious or philosophical to perceive reality as a coherent and purposeful order we need
33:19
understand death before we can understand life we need to get beyond the idea that death is simply a natural process or even that death is is is even
33:32
um how do I say this in a large degree the physical cessation of life or the cessation of physical life that's not biblical death at all shol presents us
33:46
if we're if we're reading canonically it presents us with the real meaning of death before the Canon though goes on to show us the real solution
33:59
which is an indestructible life we can't really get to the second without going through the first but we like to start with the second but because we do that that's why so many
34:11
Christians have developed false Notions of where people go when they die and what the afterlife is like to the point that very few people give much thought at all to the resurrection except as a
34:24
doctrinal point but very thought little thought at all of the the new Earth and if you think about the new Earth you you've got to realize that it's going to have to be
34:38
conceptually very conceptually very different than what we have experienced I don't think Paul coming back to my
34:49
world would be pleasant for Paul and I know me going to his would not fly okay we we are all from we're all been
35:00
raised up for just such a time as this and yet we know that in the new Earth there's there there's timelessness that timelessness that there's there there are passages in the
35:11
scripture that give us a glimpse and and when we read them that we know is we will be known we will be like him okay okay which means I'm not going to be a
35:22
21st century American in the new Earth I'm not going to be a Jew with Roman citizenship in the new Earth okay
35:33
I I'm and we know that that we're neither marrying or giving in marriage I mean what we do glimpse of it if we if we've read canonically we we understand
35:45
that it it's vastly different than anything that we could come up with by piecing together the knowledge of our own experience or even the knowledge of historical experience what we've read of
35:57
other cult cultures sometimes we like to to say okay this particular ERA this one got it right I mean I imagine there are some people we were talking about this the other evening at home who think that
36:09
the um the new Earth will be essentially Puritan England no no it won't it won't be any of those eras it and it won't be odd or
36:23
uncomfortable for anyone from those eras so it's going to be something just un
36:33
really incomprehensible and that's what we're trying to get at because that's the power of an indestructible life that is the life that we have been introduced to
36:44
In Christ it's the life that undergirds the complete lack of any social political economic ethnic or racial distinction
36:56
within the church because all such distinctions are temporal and therefore they cannot uh pertain to the new Earth of which we are
37:07
the forerunners and Christ of course is the first fruit so it all ties together I can't do it all of course in in one evening but I want to I hope wet your appetite um that what we're what we're
37:21
dealing with here is you know one of the reasons that religion is so incredibly durable is that it it lends a sacred
37:32
validity to the traditions and mores of human society I don't think that'll ever change now those Traditions change but within human nature if we are
37:45
not able to tie our traditions and our institutions to something bigger than ourselves we soon recognize how hollow they are if you want historical
37:58
examples study the directorate of the French Revolution study the the the statist philosophy of the Soviet Union okay or just watch China you know the the idea
38:11
of a purely materialistic man-based uh philosophical system or worldview is worldview is untenable and runs up against the inner
38:23
demand for demand for meaningfulness in the human heart and then you know what we're talking about here is it runs smack up against the fact that everybody's going to die this
38:34
whole generation will die our leaders will die there will be new leaders we won't even remember how many of us can can how many are there now 47 presidents I mean yeah I I I have my uh
38:47
US government class memorize the presidents from George Washington actually I give them George Washington sometimes I give them Abraham Lincoln and they can fill in the blank thanks um there's certainly two periods
39:01
U between Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln and then and then after Lincoln up until maybe Theodore Roosevelt that we had some of the most nondescript Pillsbury dmen That Ever Walked this
39:12
planet they are they are so incredibly unmemorable that you know students always get them back and I don't take off points if you get Franklin Pierce and Millard Filmore in the wrong order
39:25
they were in the wrong order anyhow so um we don't you know we don't remember all of that and and it it shows the yet that we we do have um that that inner
39:36
desire for meaning in life that seems to be um threatened if not destroyed by the reality of death I want to read a quote from Peter burer before moving on to um
39:48
to the solution which which I do want to make sure we have plenty of time for uh this evening he evening he writes in so far as the knowledge of
39:58
death cannot be avoided in any society legitimations of the reality of the social world in the face of death are decisive requirements in any society the
40:12
interpretation of religion in such legitimation is obvious we you know every society has to somehow justify and legitimate its
40:25
own institutions and that they should go on you know the concept of the British Empire or of americanism the ideas that we hold dear that we say not only should
40:36
they you know that these are things that need to be preserved we think they should also be exported um a broad study of history shows how arrogant that that
40:47
view is but even just a reading of Acts 17 shows howal it is God has made from one blood Every Nation to inhab inabit
40:57
the whole face of the Earth having set their times and their boundaries okay you know just one verse will show you how feudal all of that is and yet it it's just so important to us to to um to
41:10
have a sense of meaning in our society but death removes all of that and I do think that is the essential message of
41:21
message of Ecclesiastes I don't think Ecclesiastes was meant to end on a happy note but it was also never meant to be the sole book of the Canon of scripture it's part of
41:34
the Canon and it's a part that highlights many other parts that deal with this issue of sh all right so um if
41:46
we look at then a Biblical solution okay what is the solution to this conundrum where do we find meaning
42:13
we can say with confidence that the solution the biblical solution is not sheld as much as we read about the pit the grave shol that's not the answer
42:34
which means we need to dig deeper because we're presented with the reality of shol and with the the negative portrayal of this inate sub existence that we know cannot answer to
42:47
the desires of the the human life before death and and Homer wo this into his
42:58
works okay to live was What mattered right to die might bring honor and glory to your memory but what about you even in the Greek myths you were then
43:11
transmitted into a again inate sub existence of of um diminished awareness
43:23
and capabilities who could who could ever say that that one of the dead heroes of the Trojan War was as he was as a man was there any
43:35
comparison between the floating Shadows across the river sticks and the men who fought one another on the fields of Troy there was never meant to be right
43:49
so even in the even in the ancient mythology that parallels the time of of the biblical shol this is a sub existence it it cannot answer okay so
44:25
coate it by no means answers to the desire that the living possess and the Bible never presents it that way you you never have anyone saying I can't wait to die it'll be so
44:37
much better now we do read it because of Christ and the cross and the empty Tom but in terms of shol you don't find now
44:48
correct me if I'm wrong but I haven't found anybody embracing it and saying I can't wait to get there I mean it's like the the cosmic New Jersey you know nobody wants want to go there all right
45:03
um so we we read about shol and and and the writers who address it make it sound like it's a place of permanence okay so when we look at um
45:36
it seems to be inescapable and permanent David says of his deceased son I will go to him but he will not come to me several of the psalmist talk about you know and and job
45:46
as well talks about I'm not coming back you know when the when the when the man descends into the pit he does not rise again he does not come back so the two things that are character istic of shol
46:17
back and we can't say that these are false there is no coming back those who have been raised from the dead like dead like Lazarus then died
46:28
later it was a reviv revivification but it was not a resurrection so and and what I'm I'm hoping to lead to is that this also
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teaches us that the resurrection is far more than just coming back okay you know try to raise the questions of scripture in your mind
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using scripture and realizing and taking it as it's written that sh is a place that we don't want to go to because no one Praises God there and there's no coming back and I think there's a sense in
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which even the death of a Believer today is just is described that way there is Praise of God now because our soul will
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go to be with the Lord we have that from the revelation of the New Testament but there's no coming back to what we left
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and and that is what we know and so even when you meditate upon death one of the most painful and poignant aspects of the whole concept is that we leave what we know and we're not
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coming back to it but the point of thinking that is to point us toward what we are
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coming going to come back to which is not not what we left so it's not false when shol is described as it
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is in the Old Testament as a place of silence and the lack of Praise of God and a place of seeming uh inescapable permanence that's not
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false okay David did not come back to 10th Century BC Jerusalem right he did not come back to that life and he
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will not come back to that life and none of us should the Lord Terry will come back to what we left behind but that's where that the most
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powerful question is is this it and biblically the answer is no that's not it and the logic of scripture
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canonically read is inexurable because on top of this we're
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life now this second one is perverted by the Prosperity the Prosperity Gospel absolutely perverted but but it they they're moving they're they're perverting what is a Biblical truth if if you look at the blessings and the
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cursings of Deuteronomy 28:29 you know you see obedience leads to blessing right and Disobedience leads to curse the blessings of the Old
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Testament are all associated with living and with the the institutions of living not only will you have life your your wife will will be fertile and she'll be
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um happy your children will be wise and bring you honor your cattle will not miscarry your crops will have great harvest you see all of the institutions
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of Life hinge on your choosing wisdom but the emphasis of literature both in the petuk and the
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wisdom literature is to actively pursue the things that make for life knowing that you're going to die again there's that big question why why
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was Boaz such an honorable man he did die you die you know okay he was honored by everyone because he followed the ordinances of God's law and he was compassionate
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toward his workers and toward the poor he was a living example of of biblical wisdom and wisdom and righteousness but he died
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what do we draw from that well I I think what we draw from it at least one thing I do think it's well worth meditating is again you read through scripture and you see all these admin I set before you
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today death and life choose life well no actually Adam set before us death and death choose death we didn't really get
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this Choice after I mean a lot of people argue you know why you know if I had the choice I wouldn't have yes you would have but um but you know Genesis 3 basically sets
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before Adam life and death right two trees and he chooses death for all of us Romans 5 and yet we're still told I set
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before you life when when the Commandments are given and obedience to the Commandments are is admonished I set before you today life and death choose life okay so there's this there's this
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command to choose and some people have have corrupted that and said okay well that means that we work for our Salvation well we still die no man has
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ever worked his way to immortality it doesn't work that way so you can't you can't conclude that the Old Testament was a work salvation because it wasn't the the thing that you
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can conclude however is that the purpose of humanity is to live on earth and to to inculcate that even within a Humanity that now must die
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because of its corruption you emphasize the Commandment to live and to choose all those things that are conducive to life wisdom righteousness Justice
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righteousness Justice humility because life is what matters now it may seem like okay that that's just Blind Faith but we have to keep going with the
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logic so the logic starts with the reality of death it expand BS by by explaining the the hopelessness and depressing nature of the grave and how
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that is clearly a sub existence and in the meantime parallel to that we have all of this biblical literature exhorting us to choose life
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to choose wisdom to choose to obey to choose righteousness because you will live and have Length of days you follow where I'm going okay we can't stop there
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though because now all we're doing is pulling us ourselves up by our own bootstraps we're going to Buck up and and we're going to do this in the strength of our own will even though we're going to die anyhow okay we still
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have the reality even as we're choosing life of death physical death okay so it's not a matter of a life well lived or as they also say a
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life well died a good death what is a good death good death okay it is these these Notions that we have as kind
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of collective human dealing with the reality of death we come up with these Notions that are that are not biblical and if you if you think them through they're also not very helpful okay he
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had a good death okay I I don't know how you categorize death as good or any man's death is better than another he died
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heroically okay that's fine you know um Billy don't be a hero don't be a fool with your life okay um I won't sing
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it all right so um so death then is separation from life and life is God
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himself so following that um syllogism death is separation from God so we have we have two paradigms
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have it's never said of the Dead that they walk with God it's not said of many of the living but it is said of some okay and to some degree the living as as before the fall
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walk with God as Adam did in the garden the dead don't walk with God okay again I'm I'm I'm speaking in terms of the Old Testament before Christ so
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God what ties these two together excuse me is this concept
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Life to Live is to be open to the presence and the blessing and the communion of communion of God to die is to leave that sphere now all I'm trying to do is
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represent the Biblical teaching of sheld okay even for the righteous okay but we we can't stop there because
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the overwhelming logic of a life pursuing a living being pursuing the things that make for life in the face of
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inevitable death shows that either it's all an absolute farce with no meaning at all or there's something beyond all of
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this that we cannot logically biblically escape and that is of course bodily resurrection and the scripture takes us
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there okay so the biblical solution is by no means sh even the psalmist David in psalm 16 when he is speaking of of
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the Messiah he says you will not let your Holy One see Decay now that's a statement that I wonder if David understood what he meant when he wrote it was he referring to
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himself I don't think so I don't think so because everywhere else he refers to death in shol it it's it's not in such terms I think he's is
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one of the earliest views Beyond this the the shroud of death and and it's it's what the eyes of
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Faith understanding what underlies our being alive those eyes of faith can look through the Shadows to the light on the
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other side okay again I think there is an inexorable logic in Scripture that demands the demands the resurrection fortunately the Bible gives
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us the resurrection so when we when we move on
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s we see and I won't get into all the passages Isaiah passages Isaiah 25 um Daniel
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12 we we do get in you know some actual passages in the Old Testament that are meaningless and un interpretable apart from the doctrine of
