 | Dr. John Click, has been the Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church for 27 years now he is the pastor emeritus. He’s a graduate of Baylor University with a BA and Southwestern Seminary with a BD. He received his DMin at Midwestern Seminary. He has served in numerous positions in the Southern Baptist Convention, including: President of the Kansas/Nebraska Convention, Executive Committee of SBC, North American Mission Board, International Mission Board, and Houston Baptist University Board. He has traveled to preach in Europe, Central and South America and the Far East. Dr. Click is the founder and first President of Harvest Communications, which is a TV production company specializing in producing teaching materials for Para- Church organizations. You may contact him for comments or questions by e-mail at: Jcclick99@aol.com. |
Religion
2006-12-01 09:28:00
Is the soul AND the body in Heaven or Hell before the end of time?
In Luke 16:19, Jesus speaks a parable about the rich man and the poor man Lazarus. At the end of this parable, after both die, the rich man sees Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, and begs Abraham to allow Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool the rich man’s tongue. I know that at death, the soul separates from the body. The soul is judged and goes to eternity. The body goes to the grave. At the end of time, both the body and soul will be reunited and spend eternity together, either in eternal bliss or in eternal torment. Since the end of time has yet to arrive, how could the rich man want his tongue to be cooled, when the only part of his being in hell is his soul?
ANSWER: This is a parable; an illustrative story that makes a single point. It is similar to Aesop's "fables". We understand that the point of the story of the tortoise and the hare is that the serious, plodding worker often wins over the self-confident star. We would not think that it taught us that animals participate in athletic contests!
Similarly, Jesus often told parables in which there was a single main point and the details were not to be taken as special teachings or revelations. The Lazarus-and-Rich-Man story had a clear message: A person's attitude and actions are an indication of where he is headed for in eternity, and our "stations-in-life" may be reversed after death. The details which bother you are many. The parable is NOT teaching such things as: (1) People in heaven and hell can see and communicate with each other. (2) Abraham is the administrator of heaven. (3) Those in heaven or hell can influence what happens back on earth.
To learn what the Bible teaches about life after death, concentrate on the passages which deal directly with that subject: I Cor. 15:35-56, II Cor. 5:1-9, Matt. 25:31-46, Mark 13:5-37, Luke 18: 22-37, Luke 21: 5-29, II Peter 3:3-13, I John 3:1-3, Revelation 19-21.
While these do not give us the ability to pre-write history, they do give a basic understanding of God's plan for our future.
It is clear that our situation for eternity depends on the decisions we make now regarding Jesus Christ. He is God's loving provision for forgiveness of our sins and curing of our sinfulness...and for our being capable of living in His presence in Heaven. Jesus' death and resurrection from the dead gives us eternal hope if we repent of our sins and accept Him as our personal master and Savior. To fail to act in faith is a decision to reject Him and His sacrifice. This much about the future is certain.....Do not make that mistake!
