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. 


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