Matters of Life and Death II

Larry Siegle
09/01/24 - Sun AM

Link to sermon video: Matters of Life and Death II - L Siegle

Matters of Life and Death II

(Psalm 119:160)

Series:  Matters of Life and Death

Thesis:  Learning to understand and appreciate what God has set before each of us.

INTRODUCTION

1.    The title of this series is Matters of Life and Death II

2.    This is the second installment in the series, and I would encourage you to go back and review what we studied

        together last week.

        a.     We are going to explore what happens to a person when he dies?

        b.    What does the Bible teach about life after death?

        c.     What does the Bible teach about Hell?

THE BIBLE--WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THIS BOOK?

1.    The Bible is the inspired Word of God (II Tim. 3:16, 17).

2.    The Bible is an ancient text:   One author puts it this way…

        The biblical text was produced by people living in the ancient Near East and around the Mediterranean between the

        second millennium bc and the first century ad. To understand how biblical writers thought, we need to tap into that

        context. We need to get the worldview of the ancient world, shared by the biblical writers, into our heads.  As certain

        as this observation is, there is a pervasive tendency in the believing Church to filter the Bible through creeds,

        confessions, and denominational preferences.^[1]

3.    Suppose 500 years from now, someone discovered something that was written in 2024.

4.    How could they accurately understand what had been written 500 years in the past?

        a.     Many aspects of their understanding would differ in the future from the original meaning of what was common

               for someone living in 2024:

               1)    “What’s up?”

               2)    “My girlfriend is hot…”

               3)    “Vibe-check”

               4)    “Woke”

               5)    They may never have heard of a “cell phone” TikTok, Instagram, or social media on an “internet”

        b.    These are things common to life right now, but 500 years from now, not so much!

5.    The only way one could understand the meaning of something written in the distant past is to place themselves in the

        mind of what the people during that time would have understood.

6.    This is the very challenge that each of us has in reading and understanding the Scriptures that were written over a

        period of 1500 years, by about 40 different writers, and completed in the first century.--OUR context today is NOT the

        original context that God used at the time, place, people, and circumstances when the Scriptures were completed.

        a.     This is why we here at the Cortland Church of Christ emphasize what is known as “audience relevance” in our

               understanding of the Scriptures.

IN MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH TODAY WE ARE GOING TO BEGIN WITH THE BIG PICTURE

1.    In order to understand a puzzle you start the process with the “framework” the pieces around the edges of the puzzle

        before you try to put together the details of the middle pieces.

2.    We have to understand the inspired usage and definitions of how the Bible uses the terms at it relates to matters of

        life and death--What did the original writers understand, and what did the original readers understand the message

        of mean?

3.    The Bible was not written to us, it was written for us.

        1)    We cannot grasp the meaning through the “Early Church Fathers”

        2)    The Roman Catholic Church

        3)    The Protestant Reformation

        4)    The Restoration Movement

        5)    What did the ancient Israelites understand as it pertain to matters of life and death?

NATIONAL JUDGMENT AND THE END OF THE WICKED

1.    There are at least 70 metaphorical or symbolic expressions in the OT that are used to describe what happens to the

        wicked--We are not going to examine all 70 of them during the course of our study, but will look at the some

        examples in the case of judgment accounts.

2.    The basis proposition is that the Bible teaches that death is the penalty (Rom. 6:23).

        a.     The wicked would “fade like the grass” (Psa. 37:1, 2)

        b.    The wicked would be “cut off” from the “land” (Psalm 37:9, 10).

        c.     The wicked will “perish” and “vanish away” (Psalm 37:20)--Heb word abad : vanish, go astray, be destroyed, die,

               be exterminated” The Heb word kalah means “cease, consume, determine, end, fail, finish”

        d.    Others verses that describe the destiny of the wicked (Psa. 37:35, 36; 68:2; John 3:16).--the wicked “perish”

3.    In all of the 2^nd Jewish literature, there is just one reference to the concept of ‘eternal conscious torment’ (Judith

        16:17) in reference to judgment on nations.  Otherwise there is nothing in the ancient Jewish writings (Apocrypha,

        Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, or other writings to suggest the notion).

THE JUDGMENT OF ISRAEL FORETOLD

1.    More than 400 years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Malachi foretold the arrival of John the Baptizer and the

        impending judgment upon the nation of Israel (Mal. 3:1-5; 4:1, 3; Matt. 3:7-12).

2.    The judgment upon ancient Israel by the Babylonians (II Kings 25:8, 9; Jer. 17:27)--Is that fire that “shall not be

        quenched” still burning from 586 BC when the armies of Babylon destroyed the city and the temple?

SODOM AND GOMORRAH

1.    The OT account of God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:23, 24).

        a.     Jude writes that the cities experienced “a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 7)

        b.    In the context of this passage the writer describes what happened to those who “did not believe” having been

               “destroyed” (not tormented).

        c.     The angels that had sinned (Gen. 6:1-4) kept in “gloomy darkness” until the day of judgment came (Jude 6)

2.    The Biblical description used language to describe the extent and the result of God’s wrath on wickedness.

3.    In the course of our studies we will talk about the words associated with “punishment” and those passages that speak

        of the place known as Gehenna (often translated as Hell in many translations of the Bible).

CONCLUSION

1.    In this excellent article, “The Error of Eisegesis” (1994) the writer, our own Terry Siverd writes:

        “As modern students who are hopefully engaged in the frequent and systematic study of the Word of God, special

        care must be taken to insure that the inspired text is being handled accurately.  For present-day searchers the process

        of paying attention to one’s teaching demands a return to the first century”

2.    In this series of studies our heartfelt desire to is to discover what the Scriptures teach--nothing more, nothing less,

        nothing else.

3.    In our approach to reaching out to people all around us with the “everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6) may we ever be

        guided with hearts that minister to others about God’s love, mercy, and forgiveness--“The Gospel is for All”

4.    Let’s not become confused by passages that speak to national judgment without the realization that God’s desire is

        that “all should come to repentance” (II Pet. 3:9)

5.    It is God’s will that we come to Jesus to experience the peace and rest that come through Christ (Matt. 11:28, 29)