By Jim Mettenbrink
All of us will die. We have been considering what happens at death. Many think man becomes non-existent at death. However, in brief, God tells us that beginning at conception, we will exist forever. Where will we go when we die?
God candidly tells us either to heaven or hell. We can not see either of these places. All we see is what happens at death. The life force (soul) leaves and the body becomes 7-8 lbs of minerals and dirt. Is that the end of a person?
By Jim Mettenbrink
If anything, man is about his selfish pleasures. Why would he make a radical change(s) (1) By giving up selfishness (translated – me first after all I am my own god); (2) Submit himself to God and His rule; (3) Radically change his behavior. In one word, the radical change is to whom you submit yourself – Give up self to obey God, to be His slave. Such change rails against the desire to be one’s own sovereign. So why change?
By Jim Mettenbrink
The most important moment in your life is when you draw your last breath. Your eternal destiny is sealed. Whether you were living faithfully as a Christian or not is the determinant of where you will spend eternity. Heaven or hell! 40% of Americans do not believe hell exists, but 73% believe heaven exists. The obituaries usually acknowledge heaven with statements such as “He went to heaven” or she went to be with the Lord. This reveals the biblical heritage in the USA, and at the least reflects the hope that there is a blissful afterlife.
By Jim Mettenbrink
We are born into this world, then have youthful optimism, and as the decades we face the stark reality. Our gravest problem is the grave! Man admits this by calling death the Grim Reaper who simply cuts off a person’s life. Yet, man in his desire to live on, and in his feeble wisdom, came up with the notion of reincarnation (Buddhism & Hinduism). The Egyptian pyramids reveal the hope of another life by putting items in the tomb for the trip to wherever. Many folks believe death, the lifeless body, is the end of man. The ancient Greeks believe man’s spirit went back to the creator god called Demiurge, and his body became several pounds of dirt and minerals. In short, the person went out of existence.
By Jim Mettenbrink
Several months ago when we embarked on this aspect of restoring the foundation of a stable people, a righteous nation, we considered Jesus as the radical King and then began considering “The Radical Entrance into His kingdom.” The beginning of this entrance was Jesus’ announcement that He would give the keys to His kingdom to Peter (Matthew 16:19). He said that to Peter because he had acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God. Note, in this conversation, Jesus also called His Kingdom “My church” (Mat 16:18). Implicitly, Jesus is the founder and owner of His church. And He declared death would not prevail against His church. At length we explored how He could make such an audacious claim. Overcoming death? He did so by His own resurrection!
By Jim Mettenbrink
As we have repeatedly proclaimed, Christianity is the most unique religion that ever existed. It does not depend upon what the founder(s) said, but rather upon what the founder did – Jesus of Nazareth rose from the grave alive. According to lawyers who have analyzed, the testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John via the rules of evidence, the claim of Jesus’ resurrection is irrefutable. The most recent and prominent author/lawyer published his investigation in Jesus on Trial: A Lawyer Affirms the Truth of the Gospel by David Limbaugh.
By Jim Mettenbrink
Every religion, except one depends upon what someone says. In stark, yea most stark, contrast, Christianity rests solely upon what one person did – Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, following three years claiming that He is God, the promised Messiah sent to mankind, and the guarantor of eternal life to those who submit to Him according to the New Testament. Rise from the dead? Preposterous!, many will screech. Regarding anyone rising from the dead, the apostle Paul wrote, “… we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise” (1Corinthians 15:15). Paul ended that segment with, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable” (v19).
By Jim Mettenbrink
Christianity, unlike literally all other religions, rests not on what Jesus said, but on what He did – rise alive from the dead. We have considered the testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John regarding Jesus’ crucifixion, i.e., that He died in His human body and that He was buried. But did He rise from the grave?
By Jim Mettenbrink
Last week, we saw that Jesus resurrected Lazarus after being dead for four days. He did so just shortly before His own death and resurrection. In short, Jesus revealed His Divine power over life and death. Some six decades later, the apostle John wrote that Jesus is “…the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). In the same epistle he declared, “…God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 Jn 5:11). In short, Jesus is the source of eternal life to those who come to Him on His terms alone.
By Jim Mettenbrink
Since no one has seen eternal life, does such really exist? This is a reasonable question. That there is another realm where people can live eternally is first and foremost proposed in the Bible. This is first set forth in the opening pages. After Adam and Eve sinned, eating of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, God banned them from the garden “lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever….and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22, 24). Such doom!