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The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies |
THE COMING WORLD KRISIS
By L. Narrows
All Scripture references are to the New International
Version, UK Edition of 1984, unless stated otherwise.
‘Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned [judged].’
— John 5: 28, 29 —
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THE doctrine of the resurrection is a prominent theme of the Bible,
principally in the New Testament. See Job 19: 26 ‘. . . in my flesh
[person] I will see God’; Isa. 26: 19 ‘. . . your dead will
live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for
joy . . . the earth will give birth to her dead’; John 11: 23-25 ‘Jesus
said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will
rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies
. . .” ; Phil. 2: 10 ‘. . . at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth . . .’
Dying Is Not Living!
It seems obvious to say that when one is dead, one is not alive. Most people are devastated by grief when a beloved family member or friend dies, and feel that they have lost someone forever. At the same time, they draw consolation from the belief that the deceased ‘lives on’ in heaven, based on the idea of an immortal soul ascending to a ‘better place’. In this view, no one ever really dies. The Bible’s teaching on this point is quite clear: there is no soul to live on after death, either in heaven or in a torture of hell.
Life and Immortality
Man was created by God a ‘living soul’; he was not given a soul (Gen. 2: 15). When he ceases to live he ceases to be, and until the resurrection he is out of existence, though held in God’s memory. In 2 Tim. 1: 10 we are told that Christ Jesus brought ‘life and immortality to light through the gospel’, that is, He made known that which was not known before. The life referred to is abounding, everlasting, perfect life, in contrast to the weak imitation we now have. It is true that Jesus in His earthly ministry raised some people from death, but they eventually died in the normal course of events, because the dying process continued in them. Jesus did not give them the life referred to in 2 Tim. 1: 10, for the promised time of restoration had not yet come. The Saviour performed these and other miracles to foreshadow the day of resurrection and the healings to come, when He would return in His Second Advent and establish a kingdom on earth.
The Fallacy of Immortality For All
Immortality is an eternal existence which is self-sustaining, one independent of outside sources. It is also known as the divine nature, and is awarded to a select few, the Very Elect of the Gospel Age (1 Pet. 1: 3, 4; 2 Pet. 1: 3, 4). Also called in Rev. 2: 10 the ‘crown of life’, this is the exalted resurrection which Jesus said the Father had promised Him (John 5: 26 [which suggests He did not already have it]). By the power of His own resurrection, Christ Jesus guarantees a resurrection to immortal life for the Very Elect and a resurrection to eternal human life for mankind in general. As the Apostle Paul tells us (1 Cor. 15: 13, 19), ‘If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. . . . If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.’
Preservation Of Identity In The Resurrection: An
Analogy
In John 5: 28, 29 Jesus refers to those in the grave or tomb a memorial vault, suggesting a place in which one is remembered not only by family, but remembered also by God. Death destroys the human body, so the promised resurrection on earth must involve an accurate re-creation of the deceased person, with his or her identity or self-awareness intact, the restored body adapted to a familiar, natural habitat. Humanity will remain human, but by degrees the effects of Adam’s curse will be lifted from them, and they will progress towards a perfect physical, mental and moral condition as they learn to conform to the righteous requirements of Christ’s kingdom.
Nineteenth-century picture-goers oohed and aahed when the Lumiere Brothers of France first projected moving images on a screen in 1895, and audiences have been captivated ever since. We take such things for granted today; our lives are awash in sound and pictures at the cinema, on the television, on computer screens and on the ubiquitous hand-held devices. But the early technology was a novelty that provided for Bible Students a useful illustration of how one’s identity is preserved in the resurrection, deriving lessons from the stylus and groove of the wax cylinder and gramophone record, and later on from the magnetic tape recorder. [See endnote] All analogies are imperfect and limp more than a little, and since the Scriptures do not supply detailed information on the mechanics of the resurrection we may not speculate wildly. Nonetheless, in the spirit of such illustrations, we suggest that modern digital technology offers a more useful analogy.
Simply put, the computer must convert human language typed on a keyboard into a computer-readable language known as binary, which is a digital code composed of zeros and ones (01). Thus, Jesus Christ translates into binary code as, 01001010 01100101 01110011 01110101 01110011 00100000 01000011 01101000 01110010 01101001 01110011 01110100. The words Preservation of Identity are expressed in the sequence, 01010000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01001001 01100100 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01110100 01111001. (Note: You can try your own conversions at binarytranslator.com)
With a camera and a microphone connected to the computer we can stream high-quality motion pictures of ourselves to another computer across the world in fractions of a second. The signal which contains all this information about us is transmitted from our computer in discrete ‘packets’ of data and re-assembled at the other end, in the receiving computer, enabling someone to see and hear us. The expressions on our face, the tone in our voice even the patterns on our wallpaper are all accurately reconstructed in a distant place. We may even choose to store all this data on a digital disc, so that long after we are dead our family and friends can watch us come alive once again in the machine.
Continuing with the analogy, we liken our mind or essential personality, with its memories, eccentricities, and so on to the software, the script or program which makes the literal computer do its work. The software corresponds to the DNA coding which dictates our overall makeup. The hardware of the computer its wires, silicon chips and discs which obey the computer’s instructions correspond to the nerves, sinews and muscles of our body, all under the control of our mind. So, in some way unknown, the resurrection will restore all our functions, and we will be ‘re-assembled’ with the same personality, character and memory we had before we died. Like the computer transmission of ourselves in picture and sound to another place, the resurrection process will in effect ‘transfer’ the essential ‘me’ from a world of woe and dying a valley of death to Christ’s kingdom of eternal life and peace. Of course, this ‘reconstruction’ of oneself on a computer chip cannot compare to the reconstruction of an entire human being, but it shows how science-based technologies can shed light on God’s creative power and details hidden from the view of earlier generations.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD;
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him . . .
— Psa. 22: 27 —
Krisis At The Bar Of Justice
It is essential that one’s memory be reconstructed accurately in the resurrection, or one could not benefit from the experiences of the present life. The whole point of God’s permitting trouble and evil throughout history is to teach humanity about the exceeding sinfulness of sin, preparing the race for the lessons in righteousness which lie ahead. The natural calamities, wars, famines, pestilences, and innumerable tragedies which have afflicted the human family for so long are a result of this permission of evil, and when Christ’s kingdom is in charge there will be no more of these.
But it is the redemption of the person which is the principal focus of the Gospel. Without faith in Christ and a thorough reformation of the heart and mind, one cannot have a proper relationship with heaven, and the abolition of death and dying would be only a half-measure. It is at the personal level that the most important changes must take place. Only when it can be said ‘they will all know [God], from the least of them to the greatest’ can humanity receive the full measure of blessings which God has in store (Jer. 31: 34).
No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him.
— 1 Cor. 2: 9
And so one must remember how it was to live in the present world to recall the choices one made for better or worse, the sins, the mistakes, the yearnings and regrets, and so on. There will be many things to repent of or to make amends for, and this would be impossible without a realistic memory, self-awareness, and a character formed by the trials and tribulations of the present.
John 5: 29, quoted at the head of this article, is sometimes translated in such a way as to imply ‘condemnation’ or ‘damnation’, as if those resurrected are to be summarily castigated and rejected. The operative Greek word krisis can have this meaning, but in John 5: 29 it refers to the learning and corrective process of positive judgement, by which mankind is guided away from unrighteousness and towards life. For the more positive application of krisis, see Matt. 10: 15; 2 Thes. 1: 5.
Those who have ‘done good’ refers to those who were faithful believers in the present life and who have demonstrated their sympathy with the cause of Christ, and so have already made considerable progress towards eternal life. Those who have ‘done evil’ refers not to the perversely wicked but to unbelievers in general almost everyone. The kingdom of Christ is intended especially to help those who are now alienated from God (Isa. 35: 8).
God’s attitude towards the human family will not be petty, censorious or vengeful. Christ will officiate as a benign mediator during the long period of resurrection and recovery, with the aim of reconciling God and Man. The process may be likened to a trial in which the court is skewed in favour of the defendant (humanity). It will consist of education in truth and righteousness, followed up with corrections and reprimands as necessary. The ultimate goal is to enlighten all with the knowledge of God’s plan, especially as it centres in Christ Jesus, who will be God’s royal agent over earth in that day. It is God’s intention that all who can be saved, will be saved (1 Tim. 2: 3, 4; 4: 10). The only ones who will not get eternal life will be those who wilfully, stubbornly and repeatedly refuse to align themselves with the righteous laws and principles of that Millennial kingdom. After a generous period of time and indulgence, these intractable ones will be destroyed, with no prospect of life on any level. Those who meet such a fate will most likely be a small minority.
The outcome of this period of krisis will be righteousness, peace, health and eternal life for all. The human family will have been fully resurrected and reconciled with their heavenly Father, restored to His image and likeness as at the original Creation. Paradise Lost will have been restored and a blissful future secured.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom. —
Psa. 90: 12
Note: The best-known treatment of this subject was
The Preservation of Identity in the Resurrection,
by Dr. John Edgar.
A rough scan of this article, along with other Edgar works, in pdf, can be found at the following URL:
<http://www.ukbiblestudents.co.uk/johnedgar/johnedgarindex.htm>
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January 2015. The author asserts the usual rights,
except that you are free to reproduce this article without express permission, but please acknowledge the source.
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