Stephen
Terry, Director
End-Time
Deceptions
Commentary
for the June 2, 2018 Sabbath School Lesson
“They are demonic spirits that perform
signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the
battle on the great day of God Almighty.” Revelation 16:14, NIV
Many years ago, while working for the Department of
Social and Health Services, I was surprised when a co-worker asked me upon meeting
me in a hallway if I believed in the Devil. I replied in the affirmative, and
she promptly laughed me to scorn for believing in such childish fairy tales.
This surprised me even more, for she was a devout practitioner of Native
American Shamanism. How can one assert faith in intangibles yet deny the
practice of faith to another? It seemed incongruous to me then and still does
today. But perhaps her accusations were based on the incompatibility between Shamanism
and Christianity, and she felt she had to deny the one in order to maintain the
other. In this, she may be right, for much of Christian dogma makes the same
assertion. It was Jesus who said that those who were not with him were against
him.[i] Therefore, while bigotry
can play a role in religious intolerance, there does seem to be an element of
black and white to the practice of faith. In spite of that, many feel that
religion should only be warm and fuzzy with any offending edges smoothed over
to prevent accidental offense. But if one is in danger of drowning, maybe
taking the time to search for a leopard print lifejacket that will harmonize
with the rest of one’s outfit may be less desirable than simply obtaining a
floatation device that works, even a plain, scratchy one. Spiritually that floatation
device is the Bible.
One of those areas where some might prefer fuzziness is
in regards to what death is all about. When I was a child, my mother read to me
from a book called “The Littlest Angel.” The book had been recommended on
television by Dale Evans, wife of Roy Rogers. They were a cowboy couple who had
become famous for their acting and singing in film and as characters in
adventure books for young people. They were greatly bereaved when they lost a
child, and Dale said that the book was a comfort to her in her bereavement as
it taught that her child was now an angel in heaven. Many people seem to
believe this because it is often said as an encouragement to the bereaved at
funerals that their loved ones are now in heaven, as angels, blissfully looking
down on everyone. I once believed this, too, for as a child I had yet to learn
much about the Bible and what it had to say on the matter, and since pretty
much everyone I knew believed this, how would I know differently?
Coupled with this belief regarding the dead becoming
angels was the belief that the dead could communicate with the living. This was
perhaps even more troubling because it is more than a little creepy to think
that the distant uncle who was never very nice to you might show up beside your
bed some evening, ready to remind you of everything about you that he
disapproved of. Besides heaven must not be so blissful for those newly-minted
angels if they are so upset about what they see us going through here on earth
that they feel compelled to intervene. Perhaps this element has become popular
through an attempt to engender accountability among the living in order to keep
everyone on the right track. If so, sending legions of disembodied spirits in pursuit
of miscreants is hardly more comforting than the idea of an angry God eagerly
tossing as many souls as he can into hell[ii] whenever he can
legitimately make a case for doing so. But is that how it really is?
Thankfully it does not appear to be the case, popular opinion
notwithstanding. Instead it appears that the dead enjoy a peaceful rest and the
living are able to live without ghostly apparitions following them about, at
least not genuine apparitions of the dead. So what happens when we die?
Apparently we just die. Life is over. We go down into the grave, are cremated,
buried at sea or dealt with in any of a number of other dispositions of our
deceased remains. Nothing happens when we die other than that. Some might ask
though about all the things they heard about the dead going to be with God. According
to the Bible that is true. However, that does not take place at the time of
death. Rather it happens when Jesus returns at the Parousia. Paul goes into
some detail about what happens at that point in his first letter to the
assembled saints at Corinth. He says when Jesus comes again the dead rise from
their graves, and only then do they receive their spiritual bodies.[iii] This raises a lot of
challenging questions for those more inclined to popular opinion rather than seeking
for answers from the Bible. For instance, if the dead go to heaven when they
die and become angels, why do they need a new body when Jesus comes again? And
if they are in heaven enjoying eternal bliss, why would they be in the graves
when Jesus returns? And if everyone goes to heaven when they die, why does
Jesus need to return at all? Would he be coming to deliver from death those who
are living at his return? Why would that even be necessary if death is really
only an immediate translation to a state of bliss?
Perhaps the idea that we do not immediately become holy
angels at death may be troubling. But others may be thankful for the rest,
freed from the troubles of this world. They do not have to witness the struggles
of those they love who strive to go on without them. They do not have to
witness the heartache of seeing their families deal with loss due to disease,
war, oppression, or any number of other even more horrific fates. Instead they
can die in faith, trusting that God will care for their families and extend to
them every opportunity to also rest in the hope of that coming resurrection
when the last trump will sound and Jesus will appear in the heavens.
Some might ask about apparitions they have seen and what
they are seeing when they appear. The Bible tells us that the Devil fought a
war in heaven and lost. He was cast out with all of the angels that sided with
him in the war against God.[iv] They were cast down to
the earth. Since a third of the angels followed him, Satan, also called the
Devil or the Dragon, heads a vast host of millions of angels who have by now
infiltrated every level of society and every cultural milieu. As such they are
well able to manipulate popular sentiment in directions other than biblical
ones. We might think that going to church and trusting to a popular preacher
will make us immune from that kind of manipulation, but it doesn’t. The Devil
is able to control even the churches for his ends. His angelic host can even
appear as ministers of righteousness to deceive the saints.[v] But the Bible tells us the
truth of the matter. It tells us that when we die our thoughts and actions come
to an end.[vi] (This verse is particularly
informative about the level of consciousness enjoyed by the dead. Because it
does not harmonize with popular sentiment, recent translations have favored the
reading that “plans” come to an end rather than the older “thoughts” perishing.
But the original Hebrew word (עֶשְׁתֹּנֹתָֽי),
translated as “thoughts” or “plans,” carries the implication that the plans do
not come to an end irrespective of the state of rational thought but because
the thoughts themselves are incapable of carrying them forward. In this
instance, the King James Version (NOT the New King James) more closely reflects
the Hebrew.) Our death though has nothing to do with the angels or spirits who
follow Satan. They have been around for our entire lives and are well ab le to
impersonate our deceased loved ones, complete with knowledge of things in their
lives that those angels could witness unobserved. Such knowledge allows them to
perpetrate a near impenetrable hoax if we are unfamiliar with what the Bible
actually says about the dead.
This idea of our thoughts coming to an end also harmonizes with other biblical
texts. If the dead are in a state of glory somewhere, perhaps hovering about
heaven, we might expect them to be praising God for all the bliss they are
experiencing, but apparently it is not so. The Bible says plainly that the dead
do not praise God.[vii]
It even refers to death as a place of silence. Apparently the dead cannot even
say “Boo!” That should come as a relief to viewers of countless horror movies
intended to make them fear the dead. However, the Bible does warn us to be
aware of and resist other spirits, the spirits of the fallen angels. They will
play a major role in the events prior to the return of Jesus. But we are
advised we are to resist them, for when we resist the Devil, he will flee.[viii] But in order to resist,
we must appeal to God for proper armor for the battle, armor which he will
gladly give us.[ix]
As Paul assured the believers in Ephesus two thousand years ago, then we will
be able to stand.
