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 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.
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