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REVISED THIRD EDITION
POSTED
01 MARCH, 2009
To
Be Absent From the Body
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
revised and expanded third edition
Death is one of the most difficult topics that any human being ever
has to deal with.
None of us likes dealing with the death of a family member, a
close friend, or even people we do not know but still admire.
Many people regularly visit the gravesite of a loved one,
whereas others have their remains cremated and scattered into
the wind. Even if you do not regularly visit a cemetery where
your loved one may be buried, thoughts and memories of the
deceased will undoubtedly still come to your mind from time to
time, and the last memory you may have of such a person—that of
your loved one’s funeral—is perhaps what you remember.
The Holy Scriptures give us as Believers a great deal of comfort,
as we know that we will see those who die in the faith again.
Those of us who believe in the doctrine of resurrection know
that a gravesite is not the final destination. The Apostle Paul,
writing to the Thessalonicans who had not largely originally
grown up in a culture of resurrection, corrected them with this
instruction:
“For
the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and
remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to
meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the
Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (1
Thessalonians 4:16-18).
The doctrine of resurrection is comforting, because the process
of decomposition will be reversed. No matter how hard the
funeral industry may try to retard decay via embalming, the
placement of a body in an hermetically sealed casket, and then
the placement of a casket in a heavy airtight vault—a corpse
will still decay. But as the Scriptures so properly put it, “I
will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you
with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you
shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 37:6). Isaiah 26:19 likewise says, “Your
dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the
dust, awake and shout for joy.” The resurrection of our Lord
Yeshua should assure us that those who have died in faith will
also be resurrected, with bodies that will live and breathe
again: “Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits
of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
The doctrine of resurrection is something very important for
each of us to believe, especially as it concerns salvation and
what Yeshua has accomplished for us (Hebrews 9:28). Yet
undeniably connected to the doctrine of resurrection is what
happens to the deceased in the interim. What is the intermediate
condition of those who have died? Are our friends and loved
ones, who knew the Lord during their lives and were saved,
simply waiting in the ground for that day of resurrection, their
bodies decaying? Or, are our friends and loved ones, who knew
the Lord during their lives and were saved, in the presence
of the Lord, awaiting to be reunited with their bodies on
that day of resurrection?
Belief in a post-mortem afterlife, where deceased Believers wait in
Heaven in the presence of the Lord until the time of
resurrection, has come under considerable attack in the past
century, primarily from theological liberals, but now even from
some purported theological conservatives.[1]
Even in our own Messianic movement, the idea that “going to
Heaven with you die” is not a Biblical teaching, has gained much
ground in various sectors, even though there has been little
detailed engagement with the ramifications of such a view. The
words of the Maccabean martyrs, “For
if we so die, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob will welcome us, and
all the fathers will praise us” (4 Maccabees 13:17; cf. 9:8-9),
are not heard. Ignored are the countless testimonies of faithful
Believers who have lived their lives knowing that once they die,
they will meet their Savior, having glimpses of Him in their
twilight moments. And what of the conviction of those who know
that when they worship the Lord, they join in with a company of
angels and saints who are in Heaven right now worshipping the
Lord (Hebrews 12:22-23)?
While he firmly held to the doctrine of resurrection, Paul’s own
words “My
desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better”
(Philippians 1:23, RSV), or perhaps more significantly,
“I
say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at
home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), get quickly left
out of the discussion. Frequently, it is not until one is facing
death—either the death of a loved one, or one’s own personal
death—that the subject comes up. Many, because of all of the
rhetoric that has been floating around, are confused and do not
know what to believe about the time between death and
resurrection. They do not know what to think between hearing
things about Hellenistic philosophy, the different dimensions of
life and death, Sheol and the grave, and whether or not the
human being is unique among God’s creatures in comparison to the
animals.
It is easy to say that this is a topic worthy of our discussion,
lest we be confused any longer. An evaluation of the subject
matter, and an impetus not to oversimplify things, is needed.
The subject of death and resurrection is supposed to be
something elementary (Hebrews 6:1-2), meaning that it is
to
already be understood by mature men and women of God. Is our
inability to understand this properly as Messianic Believers an
indication that we are not as mature as we should be? What are
the motives of Believers who are convicted that when they die
they will be immediately transported into the presence of their
Savior, and the motives of those who think that they will just
fall asleep into sheer unconsciousness and be buried?
J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
In my experience at Asbury Theological Seminary
(2005-2008), at least one prominent faculty member, Joel
Green, was an open psychopannychist, although this would
largely only be known from his various writings. I doubt
if many of the average students knew of his position on
the intermediate state, and I do know that if some of my
friends at seminary knew of this—they would be shocked
and horrified.
In my own personal assessment, Green, especially given
the various statements he makes in his book
Body, Soul, and Human Life,
is basically a liberal theologian in evangelical garb.
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