Preaching from Beyond the Grave




Written by Christopher Mentzer and Ben Franklin

Introduction

There are times when I wonder what it will take to convert people to the Lord.  We preach the gospel every week, show them book, chapter, and verse of where it can be found in scripture; warn them that they might not have tomorrow; and yet, no one goes forward to answer the invitation of our Lord.

 Sometimes I believe certain people expect Jesus himself should come down and get people’s attention.  Of course, if that were to happen, we’d get more that we’d expect; as that would be the end of all things (1 Pet. 4:7; 1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Other people might want their deceased relatives to come back from the dead and tell them to change their lives before it’s too late. A perfect example of this is found in Jesus’ discussion of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:20-31). Let’s picks up the story in verse 27,

"Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, 'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' "But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"  (NKJV)




A word from the 19th Century

Gospel preacher Ben Franklin discussed this very subject back when he was preaching in 1869. Here’s what he had this to say in regards to people returning from the grave:

“The very idea of our returning from the dead and converting persons who could not be converted by all the divine testimonies of Moses and the prophets, Jesus and the apostles, is supremely ridiculous. It is taking the position that departed human spirits could achieve more in turning sinners to God and saving them, than Moses and the prophets, and Jesus and the apostles. This is clothed with an affrontery, an arrogance, and absurdity almost unequaled. A few "table-tippers," "spirit-rappers," "spirit-mediums," or, in other words, persons possessed by unclean spirits, assuming to convince people who could not be convinced by either the mediator of the first, or the Mediator of the second covenant, Moses or Jesus, the prophets or apostles, is certainly the climax of absurdity! Then the convinced people, under this new system of mediation, spirit-mediation, human spirit-meditation, who could not be convinced by the divine mediation of him who was with God, and who was God; in whom dwells all the fullness of the Deity bodily, what a set of convinced people they are! What do they believe, now that they are convinced? They believe nothing, and are nothing but wandering stars, raging waves of the sea, clouds without rain, unstable souls--mere subjects of duplicity. They have not a redeeming quality, not an element to commend them or their teaching to a soul of our race. They have despised, rejected, and turned away from the Mediator of the New Testament, and are now seeking the mediation of human spirits of the dead! How transcendently ridiculous and absurd! This is only equaled by King Saul, turning away from the commandment of God, and seeking light from "the woman of Endor."

      Paul says: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Who is this "we" that has our earthly house of the tabernacle"--or of the body, which is the meaning of it--and who has "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens?" See 2 Cor. 5 v: 1. Is not this the being, the personality? "For," says the apostle, "in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: seeing that we should be found clothed, not naked." The person or the "we" in the tabernacle, is not the tabernacle or the body, but the tenant in the body. He proceeds: "Now he who has wrought us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the earnest of the Spirit. Being, therefore, always confident, and knowing that while at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, (for we walk by faith, not by sight,) we are confident, and are well pleased rather to leave our home in the body, and to be at home with the Lord." "We," the person, the being, may be "at home in the body," or "may leave our home in the body, and be at home with the Lord;" or, as it is in the common version, present with the Lord. When we die, we leave home in the body; are absent from the body, and at home, or present with the Lord.”

“THE THREE STATES OF MAN”

~The Gospel Preacher, Vol. 1 (1869)





Conclusion 

            In Mt. 12:39 Jesus said, “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’” (NKJV)

Waiting for God or Jesus to come down and tell you to obey won’t work as many people wouldn’t believe assuming that it’s an illusion or some promotional stunt by a local church. If they truly want to become a Christian, then God’s word is the only proof they need to understand what must be done to go to heaven. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

09. Number Your Days

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 2   Introduction In Psalms 90:10-12, Moses prayed, The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. We’re only give so much time here on Earth and it is up to us to make everyday count. Each day breaks down into just 1440 minutes and when you subtract to amount for school/work and sleep, it’s even less. We should appreciate the amount we have daily.   I’ve Got Plenty of Time How often have we said, or heard someone say, that they have plenty of years ahead of them to do this or that? Most young people believe that religion is for the older people; those headed into their twilight years that are “closer to death” than they were in their youth. Yet, they don’t account fo
Read more

06. Realize Your Self-worth

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 5  Introduction to the series, click here Introduction One of the problems I suffer from, as do a lot of people, is a low self-esteem. We often make the mistake of basing our self-esteem on our family, friends, occupation, area we live in, and our home. Although all of that factor into our lives, they don’t have to be the main basis of our self-esteem. As part of His bucket list for us, God wants us to realize our self-worth by examining our lives according to His scriptures. If we are not following His word, as written, then we need to change and build up our self-esteem.   Moses’ lack of Self-worth In our previous article , we looked at Moses and the excuses he made to God as he didn’t want to lead his people out of Egypt. One of his excuses was a lack of eloquent speech. Here’s what he said in Exodus 4:10, Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow
Read more

IMMORTAL (I’m Mortal)

Image
(from 2013) Introduction “Do No Try This at Home” is a phrase generally seen as a disclaimer on certain television shows that feature dangerous stunts or other things in which professionals have been training to do for many years. Teenagers and young adults will attempt to imitate these very same stunts themselves. Why? Because it’s the thrill of the stunt and an opportunity to gain approval of their peers. To them failure is not an option as well as death. It’s a certain level of immortality that young people feel because, to them, their whole life is ahead of them and death only happens to old people. But as a preacher once said, “The Old must die and the young do die.” Definitions of Immortal The dictionary definition for immortal is ‘Exempt from Death’ or ‘Imperishable’.   In other words, you can never die or you live forever. But this is not true and we all, eventually, will die. In addition, the dictionary also defines immortal on the basis of a noun in tha
Read more