OUT OF TIME

Perspective is important.  

You've got to look at things from all angles 

before making a decision on what you think 

you are seeing,  hearing, or what you believe.   

In a conversation, speaking from two different perspectives 

on the same subject, can be confusing. It can sometimes lead to arguments; and other times  it can be down right funny.

A man walked into the lumber company and told the clerk he needed about 80 two by four's. 

" How long do you do you want them?", the clerk asked.

Looking up perplexed, the man answered, "A long time!  I'm going to build a house out of them."

Obviously, both were not wrong in their thinking. It's just that they were not on the same page.

Check out the following short video, then we'll move on. Please adjust your volume to hear the narrator.

We need to not be in a hurry when deciding what, and what not, to believe; or, for that matter, what we think it is that others believe.   

Consider this. The majority of Christians have heard of, and believe in, the resurrection of the dead. Most of that majority also believe that when a person dies, they go to heaven, or hell.  Duh!

Where are they then?  Are they in the cemetery  or in heaven, or in hell?  Do they need to be resurrected from the cemetery or not?

Because of the incongruous relationship of the above two ideas, some have come to see that a person does not go to heaven when they die. They do not look to any other alternatives except the opposite of the one stated above.

They think, that the only way anyone can believe a passed-on person can retain their consciousness after death (and, possibly go to heaven), is through believing in the erroneous concept of the "immortality of the soul" doctrine. Even though they are too quick to jump to conclusions, their understanding of the error of the immortality of the soul is based on solid evidence.  Here is some of it:

"Behold, all souls are mine; 

as the soul of the father, 

so also the soul of the son is mine: 

the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

 (Ezekiel 18:4 - note, a soul can "die")

Consider further.  The scripture calls David, "a man after God's own heart." Surely such a man would go to heaven when he died if anyone ever would.  Yet, the apostle Peter said these words hundreds of years after David had been long dead and buried: (Acts 2:29 , 34)

"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day."

And, just in case we didn't get it, or didn't believe it,  Peter repeats the idea rephrased thus:

" For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,  until I make thy foes thy footstool."

The doctrine of the "immortal soul" is a Satan inspired doctrine of the Pagans, we are told.

Well,  there is good evidence to believe just that.  In fact, that was the very first lie told to mankind in the Garden of Eden:  

"And the serpent said unto the woman, 

Ye shall not surely die"

And ... people have been believing it ever since.  If you get hit with a Mack truck, you don't die. You just go to heaven. (wrong).  

What happens is: You do die.  And, you need a resurrection.

But wait!  I'm not done yet. Are these the only two choices for one to believe?  Here's the scripture that got me thinking there must be another. I didn't know where it would lead, but I began looking into it.

Jesus had delayed coming to Lazarus long enough that Lazarus had died.  Martha, Lazarus' sister, remarked to Christ, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died."

Jesus assured her that Lazarus would rise again. "oh, yes", she said, "I know he will in the resurrection at the last day". Jesus then turned to her, and .....

"Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, 
and the life: he that believeth in me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live:

And whosoever liveth and believeth in 
me shall never die. Believest thou this?"

(John 11: 25-26)

Roll those words of Jesus around in your mind a while.   

"Whomever is alive (not dead yet), 

and believes in Jesus,  shall never die."  

Did He say NEVER die?  Unbelievable!  

Maybe that's why He asked Martha, "Do you believe this?"

If you want to understand this, you have to be ready to shift gears. 

You may need to review the article: YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE.

Are you back? Got the concept of dimensions fresh in your mind?  Good.

Physicists have been looking into the existence of different dimensions for a long time now. Some think there may be ten different dimensions, some think eleven or more.  But all will tell you that the math does not prohibit the existence of other dimensions; and that TIME is the universally accepted fourth dimension regardless of how many others exist.  

Personally, I'm only interested in the first four.  The others all exist on the sub-atomic scale. The first four exist on our scale. 

To correctly measure the position of anything, you must specify length + width + height + when.  Two ice cubes, for instance, can be identical in length, width, and height, but they cannot occupy the same space at the same time. However, they can occupy the same space at different times. 

Therefore, if time is the unseen, unreachable dimension that exists all around us, how do we travel through it? Can we travel through it? 

If there were a real place, that existed all around us, but it was just one step out of time with us, we would never see it, nor bump into it. To travel in the needed direction to catch up to it, we (or our vibrating molecules) would have to move as fast as light just to get started to move.

To the observer, we would simply disappear.

Now listen closely,  our lot is to travel down the space / time continuum in a serial fashion one step after another.   That road is a long one.  Behind us on the road lays all earth history.  Alexander the Great is back there.  Billions of human beings we never met are back there. Friends and family that recently passed on, are back there.  Or, are they?  Hold that thought.

Let's look ahead now. The road leads off into the distant future. Down there is the glorious prophesied events of the first and second resurrections.  It would be great to just look way down there and see what is happening.  But alas, we cannot see that far. It is beyond our sight.

Stuck with only being able to travel in three dimensions, we are destined to plod along, one step after another, in a serial fashion until we get there.

I hope you get this. Listen closely.  Those who have died have had their spirits go back to God.

(Ecclesiastes 12:7)

"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: 

and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

And, I believe that occurs FASTER than the speed of light (which initiates travel through time - the 4th, and unperceived dimension that is all around us). 

Since Jesus said those who believe in Him will NEVER die,  how could they die even for a second, let alone years.  It seems most likely to me that at the time of death a person is projected down our timeline to the appropriate place.  Which for some will be the first resurrection, while others will instantly go on to the second resurrection.

Those of us who are still living see their fate from our perspective. 

Forced to proceed through time in a serial fashion, we can still walk over to their graves, just as Peter referred to David's grave;  and no one has "seen" any resurrection yet.  But, from their perspective, with their spirits now released from their bodies, things may be a whole lot different.  

If they were projected to the future,  they would be alive without having to have been an "immortal soul." They would have already reached what also lies ahead for all of us. They would just have passed into the same dimension that Jesus himself  stepped out of when He startled the disciples gathered together after His resurrection.

God created matter, and He created and manipulates time.  Check out these verses of scripture:

Joshua 10:12-14

"Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day 
when the LORD delivered up the Amorites 
before the children of Israel, and he said in 
the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon 
Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, 
until the people had avenged themselves
 upon their enemies. 

Is not this written in the book of Jasher? 
So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, 
and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

And there was no day like that before it or after it,
 that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: 
for the LORD fought for Israel."

Here's another one:

God told Abraham that he should call his wife Sarah, instead of Sarai, from that time on because she was to become the "mother of nations" through a yet-to-be born son that she would call Isaac.

When Abraham heard this he couldn't believe what he was hearing,  for Sarah was 90 years old!

(Genesis 17:16-17)
"And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: 

yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of 

nations; kings of people shall be of her.

Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, 

and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto 

him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, 

hat is ninety years old, bear?"  

The story continues in chapter 18.  Look at what the Lord told Sarah:

(verses 12 - 14)

"Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, 

saying, After I am waxed old shall I have 

pleasure, my lord being old also?

And the LORD said unto Abraham, 
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, 
Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?

Is any thing too hard for the LORD? 

At the time appointed I will return unto thee, 
according to the time of life, 
and Sarah shall have a son." 

Sarah's internal organs were returned to the "time of life" when they were "fresh, alive", and able to go through the child-bearing process. Maybe, Sarah was completely returned to her youthful condition. The Bible just doesn't specify.

Here's another example:

Christ's disciples were caught at sea in a terrible storm that threatened to capsize them when they saw Jesus coming to them over the water:

(John 6: 18-21)

"And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.

So when they had rowed about five and 
twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking 
on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: 
and they were afraid.

But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.

Then they willingly received him into the ship: 
and immediately the ship was at the 
land whither they went." 

The Greek word "eutheos" was the original word used in the above verse translated as "immediately"; and that is exactly what it means - immediately.  The Greek Thesaurus gives another choice that means the same thing - "at once".

Finally, we need to consider the nature of God Himself.  He is not merely "loving",  He IS love (I John 4:8). Would God make a person wait, when through the inspired sayings of Solomon, he taught:

"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, 

when it is in the power of thine hand to do it."  

(Proverbs 3: 27)

Think on this:

 (Hebrews 2:9)

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower 

than the angels for the suffering of death, 

crowned with glory and honour; that he by the 

grace of God should taste death for every man."

Did Jesus also "taste death" for every man [mankind] so we don't have to?  

Notice, He tasted (Gr. - geuomai - "experienced" Strongs # 1089) it FOR (Gr. huper - "instead of" Strongs # 5228) us.  

He experienced it for us. 

And it implies He experienced it instead of us.

Before I close this article, think on this verse one last time:

"And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Believest thou this?"