Stephen
Terry, Director
The
Old Testament Hope
Commentary
for the October 22, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"But your dead will live,
Lord; their bodies will rise--let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout
for joy--your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to
her dead."
Isaiah
26:19, NIV
Have you ever enjoyed a favorite
fast-food restaurant for years only to be disappointed when it is no longer
around? Some that come to mind that are gone or nearly gone from the area where
I live are Old Country Buffet, Skipper's Fish and Chips, Farrell's Ice Cream
Parlor, Big Boy Burgers, and Godfather's Pizza. Some began to disappear when
those who created them either retired or died. Those who owned the corporations
later could not seem to muster the same magic the original owners had. They
live on in our memories, often replaced by newer, more popular franchises that
we develop new relationships with, only to eventually repeat the cycle. New entrepreneurs
sometimes try to resurrect old brands, but often those brands are tied to a
particular cultural moment that itself cannot be repeated. Life moves on,
styles and tastes change. Rather than remain locked in a golden moment in time
when the franchise was booming before the bust, those that survive change with
the times by adapting their menu choices, remodeling the restaurants, and
keeping their finger on society's pulse. Who would have thought even a few
years ago that Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches, would be offering Greek Gyros
filled with tasty Shawarma and Tzatziki?
Big Box warehouse style stores
like Costco are constantly responding to change as well. This is so much a part
of the Costco culture that some say if you see something good on sale at
Costco, buy it right away because it will be gone the next time you visit. This
can be a nightmare for the indecisive or those who want to comparison shop for
better values. Coincidentally, this is a metaphor for life. Here today, gone
tomorrow. When we are young. life seems to run on forever. For someone who just
turned twenty, life extends several such twenty-year lifetimes into the future,
but for those in their seventies or eighties, they know that there is only one
lifetime that is far too short.
Approaching the end of that
lifetime can cause one to ponder what lies beyond. I have heard many different
ideas. Some believe they die and immediately fly to paradise. One person told
me he expected to be reincarnated as a blade of grass that a cow would eat,
completing the cycle of life and death. Others think we become disembodied
spirits, haunting the land of the living, often with malevolent intent. Still
others think that we become angels, earning wings, like Clarence in the movie "It's
A Wonderful Life." But the death of a loved one is an emotional time, and rather
than consider a biblical perspective on death, it is far more pleasant to hear friends
and family telling us, "They are in heaven now." But if we think about it more
carefully, is that really such a comforting thought?
How much comfort would heaven be
if we were able to witness the sufferings of those who remained behind when we
died? How many husbands or wives could find comfort in seeing their
broken-hearted spouse trying to go on without the love of their life who has
always been there for comfort and support? How comforted would young parents be
to look down from heaven to see their children unable to fulfill the dreams
mother and father had for them before a tragic accident? There are many similar
scenarios that would be just as heart breaking. Paradise cannot be paradise if
it means we must endure the suffering of others we love.
The Bible paints a much more compassionate
picture of death. Mankind was created from the dust of the ground.[i]
When he dies, he returns to that state, dust.[ii]
The breath of life that God gave him returns to God.[iii] An
interesting anomaly has occurred in English versions of the Bible in that they
have translated the Hebrew word ר֣וּחַ as "spirit," though it can also
mean wind or breath. This is a result of the Roman Catholic teaching
influencing the translation based on their acceptance of the idea of unconditional
immortality of the soul, defining that immortal soul as a conscious entity that
exists despite the degradation of the body. This discrepancy is not resolved with
the Hebrew translation into the Greek Septuagint done by the Hebrews themselves
where it is rendered as πνεῦμα which may also be
translated as "spirit," but like the Hebrew can also mean "breath." This Greek
word is where we get the English word "pneumatic," meaning filled with or
operated by air or gas. How does one resolve the meaning of the word in the
Bible? Unfortunately, the Bible writers themselves have added to the ambiguity
by using it in contexts that support the translation "spirit" or πνεῦμα
meaning a disembodied conscious entity such as the Holy Spirit (το
πνευμα το
αγιον (John 14:26)) However, this does not give us
license to translate an ambiguous word with eisegesis. Our dogma should not force
a translation in lieu of admitting ambiguity. There is a principle that is
helpful in this instance. We can translate the text based on the original
incident that informs it. In this case, Ecclesiastes is referring to the
Genesis creation account where the body is created from dust and God breathes
life into it. The entity thus created then becomes a conscious being, a "soul"
as King James translators said, who chose to make man a soul instead of
possessing a soul.
Why does any of this matter? It
is because how one deals with the ambiguity informs dogma, and dogma is critical
in determining heresy as opposed to orthodoxy. It is a tool for exclusion of
those who do not adhere to the dogma established by the institutional church.
It is why we have the First Amendment in the United States Constitution.[iv]
Unlike the Old World where Catholic and Orthodox churches used the power of the
civil government to enforce dogma, the United States government is prohibited
from such enforcement. While there are powerful cabals who would see us unite
government and Christianity, when we have such ambiguities creating conflicting
understandings, I am glad we have such First Amendment protections.
What difference then does
conditional versus unconditional immortality make in what happens when we die? Unconditional
immortality of a conscious soul means the soul must go somewhere since it is
not present in the body. Most like to believe their loved one, no matter the
state of their faith, went to a place called "heaven" immediately upon death.
Other places possible include purgatory and hell. Some might be willing to concede
that their loved one's irreligious life resulted in them making a stopover in
purgatory, where, if the living perform enough penance, they can eventually
find their way to heaven. Hell is another story. Although it may have occurred,
I have never heard a minister at a funeral say, "This one went straight to
hell." So other than a tool to instill fearful obedience to dogma, I am not
sure of the purpose of hell being an immediate option at death since no one
appears to go there.
Conditional immortality resolves
the problem of what to do with a disembodied, conscious spirit upon death. When
we die, we die. Consciousness ends.[v] Our
bodies do become dust, or in the case of cremation, ashes. The breath given to
us returns to God, and we await re-creation at the Parousia. God is well able
to create our consciousness and personality once again just as he gives us new
bodies. He does not need to keep our consciousness alive to accomplish that. We
may need to maintain a data file to avoid losing info, but we should not anthropomorphize
God in that way. He is not faced with our limitations. We might even ask, "Why
would he?" We are told that he will give us bodies that are far advanced over
the feeble forms we carry through life today.[vi] If
that is the case, why would he preserve the defects and flaws we carry in our
conscious thoughts for all eternity. Instead, our characters will be cleansed
of those painful thoughts and memories.[vii]
As we lay awake nights, anxious
over the thoughts that will not let us rest, we dredge up things from the past
that should have gone differently. We worry about threats we feel are
bedeviling our future happiness. We also worry about things that are imminent
and how we can manage them. Despite our anxieties, we crave sleep because it
will mean rest from those anxieties. The sleep of death is rest as well. Untroubled
by what is going on in the world, we can go to sleep confident that Jesus will
return as promised and everything will finally be made right. That will be a
heaven I can look forward to, and in the interim, a blessed rest from the burdens
of life, a rest where I can leave all that in God's capable and compassionate hands.