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Biblical Stories of Being Raised from the Dead

On Easter we celebrate Jesus being raised from the dead, but the Easter story is not the only story about being raised from the dead. The Easter story is unique, however, because Jesus isn’t just raised, He is resurrected. This is a very different thing. Perhaps in the course of your lifetime you might be clinically dead. You may even experience leaving your body. But modern medicine will bring…

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Biblical Out of Body Experiences

Because of modern medicine, more and more people are having Near Death Experiences. Some, eager to repeat the experience, experiment dangerously with psychedelics, Transcendental Meditation, and occultic methodology. Out-of-body and Near-Death Experiences are not something new. They are just more frequent. The Bible records a couple of these experiences that I would like to explore in this…

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The Human Soul

From a scientific standpoint, we speak of such things as consciousness as being the mysterious part of the human experience. Is consciousness an illusion? Is it just the chemical and electrical activity among our neurons or is there something more? The Bible talks about our spirit, soul and body. Natural materialism wants to reduce us to one thing–a body. The Bible speaks of three. The body is…

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Does Anything from This World Carry Over into Eternity?

The conditions of this world, relative to Heaven or the New Earth, are pretty grim. Everything is tainted by either sin or the curse. That includes more than humanity. It includes the whole of this universe. The citizens of Heaven refer to this life as “The Great Tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). That is hardly a complement. It is also true that God will tear it all down and start over. 7 But by…

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The Necessity of Illness and Death

I am getting older. The number of years that I have lived doesn’t really bother me. Age is just a number they say. I would also say that I look pretty good for my age. I wish I didn’t need the qualifier at the end of that sentence though. The real problem is that things don’t work like they used to. Parts of me are very much acting their age. That can be very discouraging. There is a stream of…

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Will Judgment Day Recount All Our Deeds?

It feels very good to know that you are forgiven by God. Many of our common, day-to-day type sins don’t bother us nearly as much as they should. Big mistakes that alter our lives and the lives of others can remain a millstone around our necks for the rest of our lives. Feeling forgiven is nice. Not having an eternal judgment on us is much better. We receive forgiveness from eternal judgement in…

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Pondering the Properties of Our Resurrected Body

One of the reasons that I have written this blog since 2016 is because the topic of eternal life is a little confusing. It is confusing enough that good theologians have merged some things that I believe should not be merged. For example, they merge Heaven with the New Earth or Sheol with the Lake of Fire/Gehenna/Hell. These mergers are easily shown to be mistaken. Another merger is the Heavenly…

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Encountering Jesus in Heaven

Sometimes I am very jealous of the original disciples. They got to see what I only read about. The probably saw more than what is recorded. Their relationship with Jesus was much more tangible than mine. But Jesus said right before He ascended, “Behold, I am with you always to the very end of the age.” That message was clearly not just for them. It was for us too. Jesus is with us. He is not…

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Embracing Your Continuous Existence

If it were based on my memory (and it shouldn’t be), I didn’t begin to exist until 1967 when I magically appeared in kindergarten. I have some memories of pre-school years, but I think they are false memories created more by pictures than direct memory. I fully trust those who swear I was born in April of 1962, as much as I would like to deny it. I also trust both Scripture and science that tells…

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Whoever Believes Has Eternal Life

I went to Israel about 10 years ago. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (shown above), which houses the traditional place of Jesus’ crucifixion and His burial tomb, I overheard a priest say to his tour group, “I don’t know what eternal life is, but I would like to think that it has something to do with being remembered.” This admission and glaring error shocked me. I want you to know very…

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And I Will Raise Him Up on the Last Day

Recently, on my other blog (GivingChrist.com), I discussed a very controversial passage–John 6. You can see that discussion here:https://givingchrist.com/2024/09/17/the-mystical-union-lords-supper-and-john-6/. In John 6, Jesus uses a phrase twice. It the title of this article. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44…

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What Is the Purpose of the Lord's Supper?

It probably goes without saying, but it is a rather rare occasion that I attend worship at a church that is not my own or not from my church body. Still, though I am Lutheran, I have observed Catholic mass many times, attended once as a Baptist congregation observing the Lord’s Supper, and twice at an Evangelical Church. The differences were significant. While attending a large Evangelical…

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When Did Heaven Enter the Plan?

I recently watched a show of the documentary series Frontline about President Biden. It shared how, as a first term Senator, Joe Biden’s world was rocked by the tragic death of his wife and daughter in a car accident. The show interviewed the Catholic priest who ministered to the family at the time. He said something that stunned my wife and me. He started a sentence by saying, “If there is a…

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Why Has So Much of Humanity Never Heard of Christ?

I did get a few good questions from my last post. Thanks to those who submitted them. One is in the title above. If Jesus is the only solution for sin and consequently the only way of salvation, then why hasn’t everybody throughout history heard of Jesus? Bringing a person to the place where they can be connected to Jesus normally requires our (the Church’s) spreading the Word. Without a doubt,…

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Satan and the Afterlife

In the classic 14th century poem, Dante’s Inferno, “Hell” is pictured as nine descending rings of torment. At the very bottom, Satan is seen frozen in ice and chewing on the worst traitors in history. So, I guess there is a “cold day in Hell”. Ancient poetry and renaissance paintings have influenced our ideas of Hell and Satan in eternity. Understandably, since the Bible was not available to most…

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Questions Atheists and Others Want Answered

Lately, the algorithm that runs my homepage has pushed articles/blogs that involve questions atheists (and possibly atheist authors) hold against Christianity. The questions are reasonable. Lots of people wonder about these things and a few are bold enough to ask their pastor, if they have one. It has to be very frustrating to get brushed off or told to just believe. If pastors don’t know how to…

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A Hard Proportion to Accept

I trust the Bible. That is different than saying that I like or want everything that it tells me. Life is predictably like that. It is often not the way I want. Specifically, the Bible shares that the proportion of humanity that will be saved will be small. This is especially tragic and confusing when you consider that the sacrifice that Jesus made for us is big enough to forgive any sin but…