Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Jesus' Teachings about Life and Death part nine

In John 11:26, Jesus taught that those who had received spiritual life from Him through faith would never die. Jesus simply ignored physical death when He said this. Jesus also ignored physical death by His statements in John 6:50 and John 5:24. Jesus had to have meant that because Lazarus was a believer, his physical death meant nothing eternal to Jesus. Christ proved that He had power over spiritual death by raising Lazarus from physical death.

But according to verse 25, Jesus also taught that He held power over spiritual death. Jesus taught that He can raise those who are spiritually dead while alive in the flesh to spiritual life again if they simply believe in Him.

But God has put His life and goodness into every human He has ever created. Genesis 1:27. God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14. Every human retains some of that life and goodness no matter how evil and spiritually dead he may become. The Word of God prophesies that there will come a time when "every knee should bow....and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11. True worship without faith is impossible. The life and goodness which God has put into every human will awaken to faith and worship in that great event prophesied in Revelation 5:11-14. Every human confined within the three regions of spiritual death which are the sea, death, and hell will worship God and display faith on that day. Revelation 20:13 proves that these are three separate places. Jesus also proved that hell and death are separate places by His statement in Revelation 1:18. Jesus had one key for hell and another for death which can only be true if these are separate places. All of this means that Jesus' prophecy in John 11:25 has a double meaning. Christ will raise to life those who believe in Him while still alive in the flesh to the highest level of salvation and a home with Him in heaven. John 5:24; I Peter 1:3-4. But Christ will also raise those within the regions of the dead to a lower level of life by recreating them to live on His recreated earth. Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:3-5.

I John 3:8 teaches that Christ came "to destroy the works of the Devil." Everything God does, He does thoroughly and completely. God will absolutely destroy every work of the Devil including every spiritual death. The project of Satan has always been to so thoroughly corrupt the creations of God with sin and evil that God will lose them forever. Should the Devil succeed, he will prove that God is not Almighty and thus begin the destruction of God. The Devil means to hold the spiritually dead within the regions of death forever and thus also forever ruin God's spiritual life and goodness that He has put into every man. God must rescue all of His life and goodness that He has put into every human within the regions of spiritual death in order to completely destroy all of the works of the Devil. Revelation 20:5. Christ gained this complete victory over the Devil through His death, burial, and resurrection. John 12:31-32. Jesus had to have meant by His teaching in John 11:25 that He can raise to spiritual life all who will believe in Him while still in the flesh, but also that He can raise the life and goodness that still remains within those within the regions of the dead to be recreated to live on His recreated earth. This means God will rescue the whole human race from spiritual death. Revelation 21:5; Colossians 1:15-20.

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