Sleep as a Euphemism for Death; Resuscitation; the Afterlife; and More

Lazarus and Jairus’ Daughter - Are They Sleeping or Dead?

Video

Summary

When Jesus says that Jairus’ daughter is “sleeping”, and says that Lazarus (the brother of Mary and Martha) is “sleeping”, well, why? Were they sleeping, or were they dead? Why would Jesus put things like this?

Timestamps

0:00 0:00 - Intro and outline
02:01 02:01 - Q: If Jesus said they were sleeping, but they were dead, isn’t there a contradiction?
04:05 04:05 - Answering point by point
04:30 04:30 - First of all, the Lazarus of Luke 16 is not the same Lazarus as John 11
09:28 09:28 - Jesus’ describing Lazarus as “sleeping” in John 11
19:03 19:03 - Jesus’ describing Jairus’ daughter as “sleeping” in Matthew 9
23:13 23:13 - It is not a euphemism this time, but something completely different
42:30 42:30 - What of Hebrews 9:27?
01:00:57 01:00:57 - Summary and outro

Content (click to show)

Content

Q: If Jesus said they were sleeping, but they were dead, isn’t there a contradiction?

Hebrews 9:27 says that each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, but:

In John 11:11 Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus is sleeping, but then when they say that he will soon get better, then Jesus clarifies that he is dead.
Also, in Matthew 9:24, Jesus says that the girl isn’t dead, she’s only asleep, but in this case he doesn’t further clarify that she’s actually dead.

My question is why does he say that they’re sleeping instead of saying that they’re dead, and why does he clarify that Lazarus is dead but not the girl?

Also, in Luke 16 when Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus, he doesn’t mention sleeping: he says that they died.

Don’t Hebrews 9:27 and Luke 16 go against the idea that they’re sleeping?

Answering point by point

There is a lot to unpack here! Some good questions.

I’m going to go piece by piece. This got rather long, but hopefully it will hit all the facets.

First of all, the Lazarus of Luke 16 is not the same Lazarus as John 11

Interpretation > Challenges > Different people in the Bible can have the same name Parables > How do you know if something is a parable or actually happened?

Let’s start with one of the easier things to address. Just like today, in antiquity, plenty of people shared names. So it is that we have:

Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene (among other Mary’s mentioned in the NT)
John the Baptist (the Son of Elizabeth and Zechariah) and John the brother of James (who was one of the 12 Apostles)
James the brother of Jesus (who wrote the book of James), James the brother of John (who was also one of the 12 Apostles, alongside his brother), and James the son of Alphaeus (yet another of the 12 Apostles)

One might go on. The point is, just like today, it was not all that uncommon for different people to have the same name. This can get confusing rather quickly.

And so, of course, while it is completely reasonable to line up the two people named Lazarus, the shared name alone is not proof of them being the same person. In fact, there is some evidence to the contrary:

In John 12:3, we are told that Lazarus’ sister Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with nard, an expensive type of perfume. Additionally, John 11:19 says “many Jews” came to comfort the sisters in the loss of their brother. From these verses and others, it is apparent that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were relatively affluent and well-connected.
But the Lazarus of Luke 16 is a beggar—perhaps the lowest social station possible.

So quite simply, from the Bible itself, it seems unlikely that these two men are the same person.

Sidenote

I should also note that some people think the account of Abraham and Lazarus in Luke 16 is just a parable (rather than a recounting of something that actually happened). It’s a bit tangential, but I believe this to be decidedly wrong, as we are given no indication that this is merely a parable.

Here’s what my mentor has to say on the subject:

Quote from Ichthys

Jesus most certainly does not say that it is a parable, although that is His practice when engaging in parables. Also, what other parable of our Lord’s can you cite where historical people with definite names are employed? When Jesus is using a parable, the gospels generally say so. On the other hand, parables do not attribute definite historical actions to definite and precise historical people whom we know from elsewhere in the Bible as having done things they actually did not do. Finally, even were it a parable, that would still have to mean that the circumstances of the parable could not and would not teach theological error (cf. Mark 3:23-27 where Jesus’ speaking “in parables” recounts an actual historical situation; Satan is certainly real and not a myth, nor is any of the information given there about the devil to be explained away).

Jesus’ describing Lazarus as “sleeping” in John 11

Sleep > As a euphimism for death Interpretation > Challenges > Different cultures use different idioms, metaphors, and so on Interpretation > Sensitivity to the cultural context of the audience to whom the text was written Euphimism > Use in scripture

It is very clear from John 11 that Lazarus was dead; unlike in the Matthew 9 passage (which we will get to in a moment), there can be no doubt whatsoever here on the part of anyone. For in John 11:17, we hear that Lazarus had already been entombed for four days before Jesus arrived in Bethany.

So why then did Jesus employ the language of sleeping instead of death? Quite simply, he was speaking euphemistically. We still do this nowadays as well. For example, in English we might say someone “passed away” or “is no longer with us” or “went to be with Jesus” rather than bluntly saying that they died. But all of these things clearly are getting at the concept of death.

An on-topic quote from my mentor:

Quote from Ichthys

Now, to address the specifics of your question [about the false doctrine of so-called “soul sleep”], I believe that the major part of the issue (and indeed the essential grounds for the origin of it historically) is the use of the euphemism “sleep” for those who have died. A euphemism, of course, is a circumlocution or certain phraseology that is “more pleasant” or “less offensive” than giving something its most direct and abrupt name. This is why the veterinarian says, “I sorry to have to tell you that your cat ‘has passed’”, instead of saying “Your cat is dead”. And if we feel compunctions about being direct in the case of the death of somebody’s pet, how much more inappropriate would it be for us to say of someone’s family member “He’s dead.” In fact, the use of euphemism is a Spirit-inspired device. Note for example the avoidance of direct terms for sexual and other biological functions in the Pentateuch. And in terms of death, our Lord’s example will stand as one which cannot be denied. For He told the disciples, “Lazarus is sleeping”, whereas He was being appropriately kind in using this standard biblical euphemism for death (Jn.11:11-15).

All this is a long way of saying that when people in the Bible say “he/she is asleep”, they often mean “he/she is dead”, without there being any conclusion to be drawn from the nature of the euphemism about the current state of the individual – and rightly too, since we cannot actually see the person in heaven (or torments as the case may be). The problem of course is that in English we do not use the same idiom. Our euphemisms for death are numerous, but it is not our practice to say that a person is “asleep”. In our cultural view, that would seem cruel (rather than kind) because it would seem to imply that they could be “awakened” when in fact of course they can no longer be (viewing things from our secular and materialistic perspective, at any rate). However, here we do see the superiority of the biblical idiom, for Jesus does say He is going to “wake up” Lazarus – and so He does! That, of course, was a miracle that has rarely been reproduced in the history of the world. But it does show that behind the word “sleep” used in the biblical euphemism for death, there lies the possibility of awakening – not of this physical body in its present corrupt state (aside from uncommon miracles as in the case of Lazarus), but of the body transformed in resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ. We see the promise latent in the euphemism “sleep” in Martha’s words to the Lord: “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day”, in response to Jesus’ words “Your brother will rise again” (Jn.11:23-24). But please note that the word “rise”, Greek anistemi, while it is the standard word for resurrection is also the standard word for getting up and waking up from sleep. So whether we are talking about genuine sleep, or miraculous resuscitation of the body as with Lazarus, or the actual resurrection and transformation of the body at our Lord’s return, in all of these cases we have “sleep” followed by “rising”. That is to say, unquestionably it is the body which sleeps and then rises. But when we die we are “out of [this] body and face to face with the Lord” (1Cor.5:6; cf. Phil.1:20-24). The euphemism of sleep is thus clearly and entirely directed to the body, not the spirit (the “soul”, an unfortunate translation of the Hebrew nephesh and the Greek pscyhe is really where the two meet at present, “the heart”; see the link: “The dichotomy of man”).

Because we in our culture do not use sleep as a euphemism for death in the same way their culture did, it can be harder for us to pick up on this when we read English translations and “think from the English worldview”, so to speak. But in fact, to properly grasp the meaning of the Bible, sometimes we must endeavor to put ourselves in the shoes of a first-century Hebrew-speaking person from Judea (for example), and then read the Bible from that perspective. You may hear this termed “culture-sensitive interpretation” or something of the sort. It’s not that the truth ever changes or anything of the sort; rather, it is simply that we must “do our homework” when it comes to interpreting the Bible according to the audience to whom it was written.

And when we do that, hopefully it becomes clear why Jesus’ words here are no contradiction. For we can see from John 11:13 that in saying “Lazarus sleeps” he had in fact very much meant in saying this that Lazarus was dead. That is quite literally what John 11:13 says!

Jesus’ describing Jairus’ daughter as “sleeping” in Matthew 9

Interpretation > Sensitivity to the cultural context of the audience to whom the text was written

This passage appears across the Synoptic gospels: Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56. It can often be helpful to read all the gospels in parallel to see how the same events are described by the different writers.

Nonetheless, we’ll limit ourselves to the Matthew account here, since with respect to this question of why Jesus said the girl was “sleeping”, there isn’t much difference.

First of all, some context:

The people forming the crowd at Jairus’ house were, in all likelihood, “professional mourners”. The concept may seem a bit foreign to us in our time, but the idea is similar to hiring a pianist to play hymns at a loved one’s funeral, or something of the sort.
These people were, to put it somewhat crudely, “there for the money”. They would have been hired to perform the culturally-expected funerary proceedings, which meant a lack of decorum on their part ought not shock us as if they were family members proper, sad as that is to say.

This is why these people mock Jesus’ statement in Matthew 9:24. They would be thinking something along the lines of:

We were just hired to do the funeral things for this girl, and now this joker shows up and says she’s not even dead, but only asleep?! Puh-lease mister, gimme a break (*eye roll*). Just let us get back to work so we can collect our payment.

So this is the “setting of the scene” for this passage here in Matthew.

It is not a euphemism this time, but something completely different

Interpretation > NT Principles > "Jesus' time had not yet come" Jesus > Intentionally avoided celebrity Interpretation > Inferences have their place when they only go so far as the evidence allows

It might be tempting to think Jesus was merely using sleep as a euphemism for death here too (just like in John 11), but there are some issues with taking that approach:

First, as you are quite right in pointing out, Jesus never clarifies to say the girl was in fact dead. That would have been a very natural thing to do when the crowd began to mock him in verse 24. After all, if he really did mean in saying that the girl was sleeping that she was dead, why would he hide it then?
Second, note that Jesus shoos the people away. He kicks them out of the house, and makes them wait outside. If there were nothing else going on here—and he were merely speaking euphemistically—then why would he do this?

So what was going on here, then?

In my opinion, the best best way to interpret this passage is that Jesus knew full well that the girl was dead, but yet He said she was sleeping, and very intentionally never clarified whether it was a euphemism or not. (Culturally, as we have said, it was in fact a euphemism in common use, but people here would still have wondered if He was being literal or not, especially when the girl actually came walking out in short order). There are two reasons for this that I can see:

Jesus (well, more specifically, his miracles) drew immense crowds. But people drawn in in by the “shiny things” and spectacle of it all would merely make it harder for Jesus to accomplish his ministry (culminating in the cross, where he paid for the sins of us all). The phenomenon can be clearly seen in, for example, Mark 1:40-45. You might also compare Matthew 9:30, Matthew 12:16, and so on. The basic idea is that Jesus, as a general rule, wanted to keep his miracles veiled and something decidedly less than shouted from the rooftops to avoid the celebrity of it all, since it interfered with the Father’s Will for Him.
Even aside from his own celebrity, consider the life this poor girl would lead if Jesus raised her from the dead in an unambiguous sort of way in front of a large crowd. Himself aside, it is quite likely that He avoided doing this to spare her and her family the sheer amount of interference this would cause in the rest of their lives.

If Jesus insisted she was sleeping, sends everyone out, and then she appears a few minutes later, rumors take over and do the rest of the work. No doubt the girl and her family would receive some attention if people thought Jesus had miraculously healed her from very serious illness, but on the other hand, Jesus did that reasonably often with plenty of other people too. So after a time, the nosiness of others would die down, and they could live in peace. But if He unambiguously raised her from the dead in front of all? That’s a wee bit more of a thing.

There are only two other instances of Jesus raising people from the dead aside from Jairus’ daughter (this passage). One we’ve already talked about: the raising of Lazarus in John 11. The other is the widow of Nain’s son in Luke 7:11-17. One might fairly ask why then, if He might wish to avoid fame for himself and others as a matter of practicality (as I just argued for), did Jesus not try to play off these two as well (that is imply in some way that He was not actually raising people from the dead)? Some points:

In the case of the widow of Nain’s son, Jesus raised him during the funeral procession. No plausible deniability there, right? And so too with Lazarus, who had already been entombed for four days before Jesus got to Bethany, like we discussed above. So one obvious reason why Jesus didn’t do some “they’re only sleeping” business in these cases is because it would simply be impossible.
Aside from that, there is also the fact that these were both adult men. Even with interfering busybodies (or worse) bothering them on account of the miracle, they would be capable of warding off anything problematic from them and their families (cf. John 12:10—this is no mere speculation on my part). But a young girl? Not so much. Especially given the relatively higher degree of vulnerability women were forced to contend with in antiquity.

I will acknowledge that much of what I have just said is based on inference and a degree of speculation on my part (that is, it is not as if the Bible says these things very explicitly). However, I do believe this is more than just an opinion—I believe this is the actual truth of it, indirect as it may be. For I see little other explanation that satisfies all the elements at once without having other problems. Jesus sending the people out especially makes little sense under most other possible interpretations.

I should note that some people might be offended that this line of thinking suggests that Jesus intentionally misdirected the beliefs of others (critics would call it lying). To that I would ask what they think of the actions of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1:15-22 (and also what God thought about the actions of the midwives in that context), and also the actions of Rahab in Joshua 2 (and cf. the New Testament praise of Rahab’s actions in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25). No doubt this teaching will ruffle some feathers, but part of growing up spiritually is learning to distinguish moral virtue from legalistic rules that have the appearance of holiness, but are in fact incompatible with true righteousness.

Sidenote

If you want to read additional support for the interpretation I put forth, you might see here or here.

(Those links will take you to specific locations if you use a Chromium based browser, like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Otherwise, search those webpages for the word “sleep”, and you’ll find the relevant sections).

What of Hebrews 9:27?

Interpretation > Apparent contradictions > Hebrews 9:27 says people can only die once, but resuscitated people die twice Resuscitation > Is different from resurrection

If Hebrews 9:27 says that people die once, then what of Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter? Aren’t they dying twice?

Let me say, it gets even worse than just these two. What about the people mentioned in Matthew 27:50-53? Even more, if you take the two witnesses of Revelation (cf. Revelation 11:3-10) to be Moses and Elijah like I do (and there is a strong case for this, although that is ultimately a topic for a different time), then they will be walking around smiting bad guys with style some few thousand years after they last walked the Earth. Yet they are certainly said to be dead after the beast kills them (Revelation 11:7). So what gives?

It will probably make skeptics scoff, but there is death, and then there is death. Biblically speaking, there is a difference between “resuscitation” (as was the case for Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter, and all the other examples also mentioned above), and “resurrection” (in the manner of 1 Corinthians 15). Dead people are resuscitated. Dead people are resurrected into their eternal bodies.

I’m sure that sounds all sorts of hand-wavy, but there it is. Put simply, all those who are resuscitated are not dead in the eternal sense of never again walking the earth in mortal bodies of fleshly corruption. From the human perspective, dead people are dead people. But with God’s perfect foreknowledge and foreordination of all things, only those whom He does not foreknow as being resuscitated are positionally dead in the sense of being in the state they shall be in until Judgement Day. The two “types of dead” really are quite different, then, even if human beings can never tell the difference.

If you’d like to read some additional Q&As on the same general question:

Quote from Ichthys

Question #4:

Someone had asked if Lazarus (whom Jesus raised from the dead) had died twice, and if so, how does one reconcile that with this verse?

Hebrews 9:27 | KJV

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Response #4:

Lazarus really was an unusual case - but not unprecedented: Jesus also raised the widow’s son and the rich ruler’s daughter, and Elijah and Elisha also will have what I would call a “resuscitation” to their credit during the Tribulation (Rev.11). Hebrews 9:27 was of course written in full knowledge of all these cases as Hebrews 11:35 makes clear: “[by faith] Women received back their dead, raised to life again” (and indeed, Paul himself resuscitated a young man who had fallen out of a window in Ephesus).

The way I would look at Hebrews 9:27, which does not contradict these miracles and is not ignorant of them, is that in all of these cases there was indeed still a final physical death. Therefore nothing can or could ever stand in the way of the coming “judgment” - save Christ being judged in our place. Thus the examples of those who were temporarily brought back to life actually confirm Hebrews 9:27, because even those who benefitted from the most amazing miracle of resuscitation from the dead could not even so avoid the appointment we all have with a final, ultimate end to the physical life of this corrupt body we now inhabit. Only through the resurrection by virtue of our faith in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life do we avoid the last judgment which leads to the second death and instead pass on to life eternal in Jesus Christ.

In Him with whom we shall live forever, the One who was judged for us, our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Bob L.

Quote from Ichthys

Question #3:

Concerning those who were raised momentarily in Matthew 27:53, how do we reconcile that with this Hebrews 9:27? How was it that these people had to die a 2nd death on this earth, although the Bible teaches us we die once.

Hebrews 9:27 | KJV

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Response #3:

This verse is certainly true for the vast majority of mankind. These very few people constitute an exception – although it’s not much of an exception since, following resuscitation, they again fell into the same category of us all in regard to Hebrews 9:27, eventually facing a physical death from which there would be no more reprieve – and that is the real point of Hebrews 9:27, not that we don’t have to die more than once, but that we are going to exit these corrupt physical bodies eventually and then face God’s judgment – either the judgment of the righteous or the judgment of the unrighteous, depending on our attitude towards Jesus Christ in this life – and there is absolutely nothing we can do about these facts (so we best draw the right conclusions).

Certainly, the widow’s son whom Elijah brought back, the Shunammite’s son whom Elisha brought back, Tabitha, whom Peter brought back, and the boy who fell from the window in Ephesus whom Paul brought back are surely not around any more. By all indications they went on to live normal lives after being brought back from the dead, and then died physically as it is appointed. Whereas those who are resurrected can never die again (and there was nothing in any of these or similar cases to indicate that the physical, earthly body of these so resuscitated was changed in any way other than the miracle of resuscitation). There is also the even rarer case of transmutation. Enoch (and so far Elijah) did not meet with physical death in the normal way, yet they will be resurrected and appear before the judgment seat of Christ the same as we all will. Finally, Paul’s statement in Hebrews 9:27 was made after all of the events discussed above, and from that point forward was, has been, and will continue to be true without further exceptions so far as we can tell from scripture.

In Jesus with who we shall live forever in the glory of eternal bodies that can never die.

Bob L.

Transcript (click to show)

Video/audio transcript

00:00 00:00 - hey guys this evening I’m going to be talking about Lazarus in John chapter 11 and gyrus his daughter in Matthew
00:09 00:09 - chapter 9 uh as well as a few other topics as we go through Jesus’s use of sleeping as a metaphor or a euphemism
00:18 00:18 - for death and kind of what the differences in these two situations are so here’s the outline of the points that
00:25 00:25 - I will be going over here so first we’re going to kind of start with some questions that I got from a person I
00:31 00:31 - know I kind of sparked my research into this topic and then we’re going to kind of go through those Point by Point first
00:37 00:37 - we’re going to talk about how the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 so this is the story with
00:43 00:43 - Lazarus Lazarus and the rich man and Abraham uh is not actually the same as the Lazarus who Jesus raises from the
00:50 00:50 - dead in John chapter 11 then we’re going to be talking about how uh when Jesus describes Lazarus as sleeping in John 11
00:58 00:58 - he is using a euphemism there um that is he’s kind of rather than coming right out and saying he’s dead uh he’s using a
01:06 01:06 - turn of speech kind of similar to how we would say someone has passed away or is no longer with us or something um and
01:13 01:13 - then in Matthew chapter 9 uh when Jesus says the gyrus daughter is sleeping I’m going to argue that it’s actually a
01:20 01:20 - little bit different he’s not using it quite so euphemistically in this case but he has a little bit more of a
01:26 01:26 - different purpose there and we’ll get to that once we get to this part of uh the video today um and then finally
01:33 01:33 - um I’m going to be talking about Hebrews 9:27 which talks about how it is appointed once for man to die and after
01:40 01:40 - that comes the judgment and so well in these cases where Lazarus and gyrus his daughter were raised from the dead and
01:47 01:47 - there are some other examples in the Bible too well what of this when we think about uh it is appointed once for
01:54 01:54 - man to die well aren’t these people dying twice so we’re going to kind of examine that question as it pertains to
02:00 02:00 - all of this as well so first off we’re going to be going over the questions that my friend
02:09 02:09 - had so uh Hebrews 9:27 as we just talked about at the end of that intro bit there says that each person is destined to die
02:17 02:17 - once and after that comes judgment but in John 11:1 Jesus tells his disciples that
02:25 02:25 - Lazarus is sleeping but then when they say well then he’ll soon get better you know as people sleep when they get sick
02:31 02:31 - do Jesus then actually clarifies that he’s dead so that’s verse 13 that Jesus well that says that that’s what Jesus
02:38 02:38 - meant um also in Matthew chapter 9 verse 24 Jesus says that the girl um who is gyrus his daughter if you compare in the
02:48 02:48 - other synoptic gospels isn’t dead but she’s only asleep but in this case he actually doesn’t further clarify like no
02:55 02:55 - one asks him and he doesn’t insist that she’s dead um and so this is actually probably more complicated of the two as
03:01 03:01 - we’ll get to um but the question that my friend had here was well why does he say that they’re sleeping instead of just
03:07 03:07 - saying that they’re dead and why does he clarify that Lazarus is dead but not the girl so why is there a difference there
03:14 03:14 - in his actions and then also um was asked here in Luke chapter 16 uh when Jesus tells about the rich man in
03:24 03:24 - Lazarus he doesn’t mention sleeping at all he says that they died and so there is a man named Lazarus in Luke chapter
03:30 03:30 - 16 um and there’s a man named Lazarus in John 11 and so I’m going to be arguing uh when we get there in a sec those
03:36 03:36 - actually aren’t the same person and so that’s kind of how we handle this one and then finally I’m just going to talk
03:42 03:42 - a little bit you know this this idea in Hebrews chapter nine uh that well when people die they die once doesn’t that
03:49 03:49 - kind of go against the idea that they’re sleeping here so um you know that both of these passages Lazarus in John chap
03:56 03:56 - 11 and gyrus his daughter in Matthew chapter n kind of the passages we’re going to be looking at this evening as
04:02 04:02 - we consider this question here so I’m going to kind of split the response here down Point by Point um
04:13 04:13 - kind of a lot to unpack so there’s some some good questions in fact quite a few of them here but they’re kind of on
04:18 04:18 - different tracks and so I’m going to try to tackle it section by section here piece by piece um so this did get kind
04:25 04:25 - of long but hopefully I will manage to hit all of the questions that we just went over there
04:33 04:33 - so first thing that I’m going to be starting with is that the Lazarus of Luke 16 is not the same as the Lazarus
04:40 04:40 - of John chap 11 just like today in Antiquity plenty of people shared names so it is that we have Mary the mother of
04:50 04:50 - Jesus and Mary Magdalene among all the other Marys mentioned in the New Testament of which there are several
04:56 04:56 - others John the Baptist the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah and John the brother of James who was one of the 12
05:04 05:04 - apostles and then James the brother of Jesus uh he’s the one who wrote the book of James also James the brother of John
05:12 05:12 - who was also one of the TW Apostles alongside his brother and James the son of alaus who’s yet another of the twel
05:19 05:19 - Apostles so two of the twel apostles were named James and then Jesus’s brother was also named James one might
05:26 05:26 - go on these are not the only examples of people sharing names in the New Testament but the point here is just
05:32 05:32 - like today it was not all that uncommon for different people to have the same name this means things can get confusing
05:39 05:39 - rather quickly and so kind of the upshot of this is that while it’s completely reasonable to line up the two people
05:46 05:46 - named Lazarus the shared name alone is not proof of them being the same person in fact we kind of have some evidence to
05:54 05:54 - the contrary in John 12:3 we are told that lazarus’s Sister Mary anointed Jesus’s feet with nard an expensive type
06:02 06:02 - of perfume additionally John 11: 19 says that many Jews came to comfort the sisters that is Mary and Martha in the
06:12 06:12 - loss of their brother from these verses and others it’s apparent that Mary Martha and Lazarus were relatively
06:17 06:17 - affluent and well connected but the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 in the story with the rich
06:23 06:23 - man and Abraham well he’s a beggar perhaps the lowest social station possible
06:30 06:30 - so quite simply from the Bible itself it seems unlikely that these two men are the same person and that’s again kind of
06:36 06:36 - just because of all the context clues we have in John chapter 11 John chapter 12 and everywhere else that Mary and Martha
06:43 06:43 - and Lazarus are mentioned uh they kind of seem to present as coming from a relatively wealthy and well-connected
06:50 06:50 - family in Jewish Society but the beggar of John chapter 16 or sorry of Luke chapter 16 just doesn’t seem to fit that
06:58 06:58 - mold um and so among other things of the beggar of Luke chapter 16 we have no mention of sisters there either I and
07:06 07:06 - it’s apparent that the siblings were rather close so you know that’s kind of another lacking uh point in context in
07:12 07:12 - favor of viewing the two lazarus’s as being too different and so uh before we close out you know that is what I think
07:19 07:19 - on this subject just also say here that some people actually think that the account of Abraham and Lazarus in Luke
07:26 07:26 - chapter 16 is just a parable rather than counting something that actually happened uh it’s a little bit tangential
07:33 07:33 - but I actually believe this to be decidedly wrong is we’re given no indication that this is merely a parable
07:39 07:39 - um as if Jesus was just using this as an illustration but it wasn’t actually you know something that was like a
07:44 07:44 - historical reality or something that actually happened uh so um here’s what my mentor has to say on the subject so
07:51 07:51 - this is from ich this.com which is an online Bible Teaching Ministry um but he says that Jesus most certainly does not
07:59 07:59 - say that it is a parable although that’s his practice when engaging in Parables also what other parable of our
08:06 08:06 - Lords can you site where historical people with definite names are employed when Jesus is using a parable the
08:12 08:12 - gospels generally say so on the other hand Parables do not attribute definite historical actions to definite and
08:20 08:20 - precise historical people whom we know from elsewhere in the Bible is having done things they actually did not do so
08:26 08:26 - that would kind of be Abraham in this example um Abraham obviously is someone who we know quite a bit about from the
08:33 08:33 - Old Testament but if you were to argue that this is just a parable you’d have to be arguing that Jesus was using
08:39 08:39 - Abraham who was a real historical figure and whom we have a good bit of information about to illustrate a point
08:45 08:45 - that wasn’t actually true just kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense and then finally even if you were to argue that
08:51 08:51 - this was just a parable you still have to kind of take this to mean that the circumstances of the parable could not
08:57 08:57 - and would not teach theological error and so this kind of comes up when talking about a false teaching called
09:04 09:04 - Soul sleep which is kind of the idea that when people die they they kind of go to sleep until Resurrection Day like
09:10 09:10 - they they cease to have conscious existence so we’re not going to get into that in our video tonight because it’s
09:15 09:15 - kind of off topic for what we’re talking about but that’s kind of why even if you argue that this was just a parable it
09:22 09:22 - kind of doesn’t get you out of the theological implications of what is being talked about here
09:31 09:31 - so next we’re going to be talking about when Jesus describes Lazarus as sleeping in John chap 11 it’s very clear from
09:40 09:40 - John chapter 11 that Lazarus was dead unlike in the Matthew chapter 9 passage which we’ll get to in a moment there can
09:47 09:47 - be absolutely no doubt whatsoever on the part of anyone this is because in John 11:1 17 we hear that Lazarus had already
09:56 09:56 - been in tuned for 4 days before Jesus arrived arrived in Bethany where Mary and Martha and Lazarus live so why then
10:04 10:04 - did Jesus employ the language of sleeping instead of death quite simply the explanation here is that he was just
10:10 10:10 - speaking euphemistically we still do this nowadays as well for example in English
10:15 10:15 - we might say someone passed away or is no longer with us or went to be with Jesus rather than bluntly saying that
10:22 10:22 - they died but in all of these things we kind of clearly get that the thing being spoken of is death
10:29 10:29 - here’s another on-topic quote from my mentor who I mentioned before so he’s sort of starting out in his response
10:37 10:37 - here addressing a question about that false Doctrine I mentioned before called Soul sleep and he says that a major part
10:44 10:44 - of the issue why people have kind of gotten this false idea in the past is because of this euphemism sleep for
10:50 10:50 - those who have died now in terms of what exactly euphemisms are a euphemism is a circumlocution or certain phraseology
11:00 11:00 - that is more pleasant or less offensive than giving something it’s most direct and abrupt name and so this is why a
11:07 11:07 - veterinarian might say to you I’m sorry to have to tell you that your cat has passed instead of saying straight out
11:13 11:13 - your cat is dead and if we humans kind of feel compunctions about being too Direct in the case of the death of
11:21 11:21 - someone’s pet well how much more inappropriate would it be for us to say if someone’s family member straight out
11:27 11:27 - he’s dead you know as if uh you know in the shocking in the most shocking way possible rather than trying to be gentle
11:33 11:33 - for the sake of those who are left behind and in fact the use of euphemism is something that is also present other
11:41 11:41 - places in scripture um so we would say that it’s part of inspiration uh if we believe the Bible is true and inspired
11:48 11:48 - by the Holy Spirit then the fact that the writers of the Bible use euphemism is something that is inspired by the
11:55 11:55 - spirit so for example uh there’s sort of avoiding of direct terms for sexual and other biological functions in the pentat
12:04 12:04 - so those are the first five books of the Old Testament and then in terms of death um on point to our current discussion
12:10 12:10 - topic uh Jesus uses this euphemism in John chapter 11 which is kind of what we’re talking about in context here and
12:19 12:19 - so sort of the point here is that when people in the bible say that uh he or she is asleep they often mean that that
12:27 12:27 - person is dead without there being any conclusion to be drawn from the nature of the euphemism about the current state
12:33 12:33 - of the individual since we can’t really tell you know if someone has died whether they have gone to heaven or to
12:39 12:39 - hell to await judgment because you know obviously we can’t see into human hearts now the problem in this is that
12:47 12:47 - in English we really don’t use the same idiom and so this is something that kind of varies across cultures and languages
12:54 12:54 - so death is something that is very commonly euphemistically spoken of so it is something that’s common for people to
13:00 13:00 - not say quite so uh straight out so we have plenty of euphemisms for death in English I I mentioned several before but
13:07 13:07 - they’re not the same as in Hebrew here so we really don’t have in our common practice saying that someone is dead is
13:15 13:15 - asleep it’s just not something that we have culturally in fact in our cultural view
13:21 13:21 - you could kind of see how some people might think that using this particular euphemism might seem kind of cruel
13:26 13:26 - rather than kind because it might seem to imply that someone could just be awakened when in fact if they’re
13:32 13:32 - actually dead you know viewing things from a secular materialistic perspective at any rate you know they that wouldn’t
13:39 13:39 - be the case they would be actually gone so that sort of sense of false hope here might might seem to even be kind of
13:45 13:45 - cruel but in the context of our story here and more to the point in the Hebrew idiom and and kind of the ties it has
13:51 13:51 - with their views of the Resurrection from the dead we kind of do see the superiority of the biblical idiom for
13:58 13:58 - death here uh because when Jesus says he’s going to wake up Lazarus he actually does so um and so this was a
14:06 14:06 - miracle obviously that has rarely been repeated in the history of the world because obviously you know it’s not like
14:13 14:13 - people just go around raising others from the dead on a regular basis but it does show that behind the world sorry
14:22 14:22 - behind the word sleep used in the biblical euphemism for death there does lie the possibility of a Awakening not
14:29 14:29 - of this physical body in its corrupt state uh you know that is aside from these uncommon Miracles as in the case
14:36 14:36 - of a Lazarus but of the body transformed in Resurrection at the return of Jesus Christ so we would think of passages
14:44 14:44 - like First Corinthians chapter 15 in this and so we actually get this directly in the passage when you
14:50 14:50 - consider Martha’s word to Jesus I know he he being Lazarus will rise again in the resurrection at the last day in
14:59 14:59 - response to when Jesus had said your brother will rise again but diving into the Greek vocabulary here for just a
15:05 15:05 - second uh the verb here on E while it is the standard word for Resurrection used in the New Testament is actually also
15:14 15:14 - the standard word for getting up and waking up from sleep so kind of to pull it all together whether we’re talking
15:21 15:21 - about genuine sleep or miraculous resuscitation of the body as with Lazarus or the actual Resurrection ction
15:28 15:28 - and transformation of the body that will happen at our Lord’s return in all of these cases we have quote unquote sleep
15:35 15:35 - followed by rising and kind of what we mean by that is that it’s unquestionably the body
15:42 15:42 - which sleeps and then Rises but when we die we kind of become out of this body and we go face to face with the Lord um
15:50 15:50 - so this body meaning like our present mortal bodies that we have in this life and so I’ll kind of turn back to this a
15:58 15:58 - little bit later in our video tonight but uh basically the takeaway here is that the euphemism of sleep for death is
16:06 16:06 - clearly and entirely directed at the body not the spirit and so a lot of versions sometimes translate a soul here
16:15 16:15 - um and so that’s translating a Hebrew word nephesh and the Greek word is psuk and uh the soul is biblically speaking
16:23 16:23 - you know what that word means in Greek and Hebrew is kind of the combination of our bodies and our spirit
16:29 16:29 - so the spirits given by God at the point of birth for us as humans and together those things compose the soul um so uh
16:37 16:37 - just taking a step back as I say the takeaway here is that sleep is uh getting at the physical sense of death
16:46 16:46 - rather than sort of what we’d call the spiritual or Eternal sense of it and so kind of to pull us a little bit back
16:52 16:52 - more into John chap 11 uh because we in our culture do not use sleep as a euphemism for death in the same way that
16:59 16:59 - the Hebrew culture did at least at the time that Christ was around it can kind of be harder for us to pick up on this
17:06 17:06 - when we read English translations and kind of look at the situation from the quote unquote English
17:12 17:12 - worldview but in fact to properly grasp the meaning of the Bible sometimes we must Endeavor to put ourselves in the
17:19 17:19 - shoes of a first century Hebrew speaking person from Judea just for example you know that’s kind of us in this situation
17:26 17:26 - in John 11 and then read the Bible from that perspective rather than our own perspective uh you may sort of sometimes
17:33 17:33 - hear this term quote unquote culture sensitive interpretation or something along those lines and in this it’s not
17:40 17:40 - that the truth ever really changes or or anything like that it’s simply that we must do our homework when it comes to
17:46 17:46 - interpreting the Bible according to the audience To Whom It Was Written like we need to care about that it’s part of
17:53 17:53 - doing interpretation correctly and when we do do that hopefully it kind of becomes clear why
17:59 17:59 - Jesus’s words here are no contradiction for we can see from John 11:3 that Jesus actually did mean that
18:08 18:08 - Lazarus was dead when he said he was sleeping um in fact if you if you look at this verse that is very much what it
18:14 18:14 - says almost like word for word literally um Jesus had spoken of his death the only thing that Jesus said before this
18:21 18:21 - verse in John 11 was that Lazarus was asleep and then all the apostles were like well well he’ll wake up you know
18:27 18:27 - he’ll be he’ll be F but Jesus had actually meant in that as this verse says that Lazarus was dead um so that’s
18:33 18:33 - how he was using the word it’s very clear uh John 11:13 um you can’t get out of it says
18:40 18:40 - that Jesus used it as a euphemism that’s what this verse kind of forces us to say um so we’ve just gone through uh that is
18:48 18:48 - kind of what um Jesus meant when he used sleeping here in John chapter 11 um just this verse and you know everything we’ve
18:55 18:55 - gone through here helps us understand that in this particular particular passage Jesus was using sleeping as a
19:01 19:01 - euphemism for death all right so now we’re going to be talking about gyrus his daughter in
19:10 19:10 - Matthew chapter 9 this passage actually appears across all synoptic gospels so that’s Matthew
19:17 19:17 - Mark and Luke and uh it can kind of often be helpful to read all the gospels in parallel for these parallel passages
19:24 19:24 - to see how the same events are described by the different writers now we can kind of actually limit ourselves to Matthew
19:30 19:30 - here since kind of with respect to the question that we’re addressing of why Jesus said the girl was sleeping uh that
19:37 19:37 - detail is pretty consistent across all three accounts so we’ll just limit ourselves to looking at the Matthew
19:42 19:42 - account I just thought I’d mention the fact that it is a good habit to get into of comparing uh parallel passages when
19:49 19:49 - we study the gospels so first of all we’re going to talk about some of the context here so the people in the crowd
19:57 19:57 - um that was at Gus’s house when Jesus got there were in all likelihood sort of professional mourners uh that concept
20:05 20:05 - may seem a little bit forign to us in our time like you pay people to go do uh the morning rituals that are part of you
20:12 20:12 - know the funeral rights of your culture uh but it’s kind of similar in our day to maybe hiring a Pianist to play hymns
20:19 20:19 - at a loved one’s funeral or something like that you know the the people whose job it is to kind of um you know provide
20:26 20:26 - music at the event or or set the atmosphere and things like that now kind of why I’m bringing this up is because
20:34 20:34 - the people here were to put it somewhat crudely there for money they were kind of there to get paid it was their job um
20:40 20:40 - and so they would have been hired to perform the culturally expected funerary proceedings uh you know so if if someone
20:47 20:47 - dies this is the the steps that their culture takes to have a funeral in an orderly manner you know these are just
20:54 20:54 - sort of the things that are expected um but because they’re kind of paid help it does kind of explain why a lack of
21:01 21:01 - decorum on their part probably ought not Shock us as if they were family members of the person deceased sort of sad as
21:08 21:08 - that is to say um that is you kind of want people to be respectful at funerals you know have some respect for the dead
21:15 21:15 - and things like that but because they might be people just being paid um that is why it ought not Shock us if we don’t
21:24 21:24 - see that respect from them and so this is kind of why these people mock Jesus’s statement in Matthew chapter 9: 24 when
21:32 21:32 - he says that the girl is not dead but just sleeping um so obviously mocking Jesus and under this set of
21:39 21:39 - circumstances is kind of disrespectful um but these people aren’t necessarily the family here they would be people who
21:45 21:45 - were hired uh for the the funeral rights and so that’s kind of why um in context these are the people mocking Jesus not
21:53 21:53 - so much gyrus who went to get Jesus out of Faith trusting that Jesus could actually heal his daughter but the
21:59 21:59 - people who would be present there at the home who were not part of the family and so those people they kind of might be
22:05 22:05 - thinking something along these lines now I should say we don’t have anything in the Bible like this I’m just sort of
22:11 22:11 - trying to get us to think about what might have been going through these people’s heads so they might be thinking
22:16 22:16 - something like this we were just hired to do the funeral things for this girl and now this Joker shows up and says
22:22 22:22 - she’s not even dead but only asleep please Mister give me a break just let us go back to work so we can collect our
22:29 22:29 - payment right so if I was one of these people who’ been paid to do these things and then someone shows up and says oh
22:36 22:36 - hold on we’re canceling this she’s not even dead you know when everyone thinks she’s dead the parents hired these
22:42 22:42 - people because she’s dead you know people would obviously be skeptical and um the the response that Jesus gets is
22:49 22:49 - kind of conditioned on account of these things and so kind of the point of going through all this is just to sort of set
22:56 22:56 - the scene here for this passage in Matthew this is kind of what’s going on when Jesus arrives at gyrus house um
23:03 23:03 - having been taken there uh you know told that his daughter is either dead or on the point of death um Jesus is arriving
23:11 23:11 - uh to this set of circumstances all right so having kind of set the uh set the scene here we’re
23:21 23:21 - going to be talking now about how Jesus actually isn’t using sleeping as a euphemism this time but he’s kind of
23:27 23:27 - doing something completely different with it so because we argued there that Jesus was definitely using it as a
23:34 23:34 - euphemism in John chapter 11 it can be kind of tempting to think that maybe we should just do the same thing here but
23:41 23:41 - there are kind of some issues with doing that now first as my friend pointed out Jesus never clarifies to say that the
23:49 23:49 - girl was in fact dead um so that would have been a really natural thing for him to do when the crowd began to mock him
23:56 23:56 - in Matthew chapter 9: 24 so after all if he really did mean in saying that the girl was sleeping that she was dead why
24:04 24:04 - would he hide it then why would he not say no really you know like when they think they’re laughing at him for saying
24:11 24:11 - that you know because they think he’s saying you know like she’s asleep as and not dead why wouldn’t he set the record
24:17 24:17 - straight with them if that’s actually what he meant so that’s kind of that’s kind of one reason against this but then
24:24 24:24 - sort of the second thing is that we can note that Jesus actually shoes the people away he kicks the crowd out of
24:31 24:31 - the house and makes them wait outside and so if there were nothing else going on here in the situation and he were
24:37 24:37 - just merely speaking euphemistically and he was actually planning on raising her from the dead and being kind of open
24:42 24:42 - about it then why would he do this why would he kick the people out and then so it’s really natural to ask well if he’s
24:49 24:49 - not doing that and that’s you know so far that’s what we’ve talked about when Jesus uses the word sleeping in the
24:54 24:54 - context of death well if he’s not doing that well what is he doing what is going on here then so in my opinion the best
25:02 25:02 - way to interpret this passage in Matthew chapter 9 and in the other parallel passages in the other synoptic gospels
25:09 25:09 - that are talking about the same thing is that Jesus knew full well that gyrus his daughter was dead but yet she he said
25:15 25:15 - that she was sleeping and very intentionally never clarified whether it was a euphemism or not like it’s not
25:21 25:21 - just something that the gospel writers just omitted or something he actually never did clarify so culturally kind of
25:29 25:29 - as we argued in the John chap 11 section of this video we did say that this was a euphemism in common use in their culture
25:36 25:36 - you know even if it’s not in ours this was something that people of the time would understand but even so people here
25:43 25:43 - would still have wondered if he was being literal as in she’s actually asleep not dead um especially when the
25:50 25:50 - girl comes walking out of the house in relatively short order here um so uh you know when Jesus said this it was a
25:57 25:57 - euphemism people could interpret it as meaning that she was dead but they could also interpret it as meaning she was
26:03 26:03 - alive so the sort of two reasons for why I Think Jesus would do this that is uh you know saying this which some people
26:11 26:11 - could take to be a euphemism for death but some people could also take literally and then uh two reasons why he
26:17 26:17 - wouldn’t clarify to sort of set the record straight about what was actually happening so the first reason would be
26:24 26:24 - kind of for his own sake specifically so whenever Jesus did Miracles those Miracles Drew immense crowds I mean and
26:32 26:32 - especially for the time thousands of people back then I mean we have thousands of people nowadays regularly
26:37 26:37 - at concerts and so on but back then this many people was immense you know and and the amount of pressure that that puts or
26:46 26:46 - just you know Jesus not being able to get alone to pray and things like that um all these people drawn in by the
26:53 26:53 - shiny things and the spectacle of it all so the pyrot Technics if you will of Jesus’s Miracles you know they didn’t
26:59 26:59 - care about what he had to say so much is that they wanted to see these miraculous things the signs and wonders well these
27:06 27:06 - people would make it really hard for Jesus to accomplish his ministry so uh God the Father sent Jesus into the world
27:14 27:14 - in the Incarnation for a specific purpose culminating in the cross where he paid for the sins of us all and so he
27:21 27:21 - had a mission and having all of these people follow him around because they wanted to see him do wondrous things
27:28 27:28 - kind of gets in the way of that mission and so we can kind of see this phenomenon pretty clearly in Mark 1
27:35 27:35 - verses 40- 45 so I’m going to go ahead and open this up and then read it so in mark 1:
27:42 27:42 - 40-45 it says this and a leper came to Jesus beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying if you are
27:50 27:50 - willing you can make me clean moved with compassion Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him I am
27:57 27:57 - willing be cleansed immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed and he sternly warned him and immediately
28:04 28:04 - sent him away and he said to him see that you say nothing to anyone but go show yourself to the priest and offer
28:11 28:11 - for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them but he being the leper went out and began to Proclaim it
28:18 28:18 - freely and to spread the news around to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city but stayed
28:25 28:25 - out in unpopulated areas and they were coming to him from everywhere so sort of the point of
28:31 28:31 - bringing this up is that you can see that whenever Jesus did Miracles and people spread the fame of these Miracles
28:38 28:38 - it made it hard for him to move about or just do anything to be honest because he had all these people excited in the
28:45 28:45 - spectacle of it and there are some other passages here to you know I quoted a couple just
28:51 28:51 - right after this in Matthew chapter 9 actually Jesus heals some Blind Men and then tells them to not spread it about
28:57 28:57 - and then another case in Matthew chap 12 when he’s healing people but the basic idea here is that Jesus as a general
29:05 29:05 - rule wanted to keep his miracles veiled and something that was decidedly less than shouted from the rooftops and
29:12 29:12 - that’s to avoid the celebrity of it all since it interfered with the plan that God the father had for him and carrying
29:19 29:19 - out his ministry here in the world and so we kind of just talked about you know maybe why Jesus would want to avoid the
29:26 29:26 - fame and the spectacle of this but even aside from his own celebrity consider for a moment the life that this poor
29:33 29:33 - girl would lead if Jesus raised her from the dead in an unambiguous sort of way in front of a large crowd of people so
29:40 29:40 - himself aside it’s quite likely that Jesus avoided doing this to spare her and her family the sheer amount of
29:46 29:46 - interference this would cause in the rest of their lives and so you can kind of compare famous people today who have
29:54 29:54 - stalkers and they have fans and you know they can never go go anywhere without you know having large groups of people
30:00 30:00 - acost them um well imagine if you were the person who everyone saw with their own eyes get raised from the dead um now
30:09 30:09 - of course this happened with Lazarus we we’ll get there in a second but for a young girl in that time and place that
30:15 30:15 - sort of pressure and attention was something that you can kind of see why Jesus would want to spare her from that
30:21 30:21 - and her family it it wouldn’t just be her it be be the entire uh the entire family would have all these people come
30:26 30:26 - and say well are you the people who Jesus raised from the dead you know like what happened show us talk to us tell us
30:33 30:33 - about it for you know months or years or even her entire life she might face that sort of thing and so you can kind of see
30:40 30:40 - that you could make an argument here that Jesus would want to have that that outcome avoided for this family you know
30:46 30:46 - he wouldn’t want to put them in the spotlight due to all the negative pressure that comes with that and you
30:51 30:51 - know I’ll get to this when we talk about Lazarus but it’s not just you know the interfering Busy Bodies if you will the
30:57 30:57 - Pharisees to attempt to Stamp Out The credibility of Jesus um actually considered putting to death the people
31:04 31:04 - that he raised from the dead because if if Jesus raised him from the dead and people believe in him because of it well
31:10 31:10 - then one solution to that problem from the Pharisees perspective is to kill the people that he raised from the dead and
31:15 31:15 - say well you see he’s not actually raised from the dead and so Jesus would want to spare the young girl and her
31:21 31:21 - family from this and so just to elaborate on this idea a little bit more if Jes Jesus insisted that she was
31:28 31:28 - sleeping sends everyone out like he did and then she appears a few minutes later rumors sort of take over and do the rest
31:35 31:35 - of the work here so no doubt the girl and her family even in this case would receive some attention if people thought
31:41 31:41 - that Jesus had miraculously healed her from very s very serious illness but on the other hand Jesus did do that
31:49 31:49 - reasonably often with plenty of other people too like this would not be the only time that you know he kind of you
31:54 31:54 - know miraculously healed someone that was on the brink of death or very serious ailment you know he made the
32:00 32:00 - blind sea for example so she would hardly be unique in this capacity so in this case after a while the nosiness of
32:07 32:07 - others would die down they’d probably forget about her as Jesus you know healed the next person and then the
32:13 32:13 - family could live in peace but if Jesus unambiguously raised her from the dead in front of everyone well that’s a wee
32:20 32:20 - bit more of a thing you know people would remember that that would have this huge impact and so just to highlight
32:27 32:27 - this point a bit there’s actually only two other instances of Jesus raising people from the dead in scripture aside
32:33 32:33 - from this passage here which is gyrus daughter one we’ve already talked about that’s the raising of Lazarus in John
32:41 32:41 - chapter 11 the other is the Widow of nson in Luke 7: 11-1 17 now based on the argument that I’ve
32:51 32:51 - been making here one could kind of Fairly ask if Jesus might wish to avoid Fame for himself and others as a matter
32:58 32:58 - of practicality as I’ve just been arguing for well why did Jesus not try to play off these two instances as well
33:05 33:05 - that is imply in some way that he was not actually raising these people from the
33:09 33:09 - dead so that is Lazarus in John chapter 11 and the Widow of nine son in Luke chapter 7 and so kind of a couple points
33:19 33:19 - here in the case of the Widow of ninon in Luke chapter 7 well Jesus actually raised him from the dead during the
33:27 33:27 - funeral procession you like touch the coffin and he comes out uh you kind of don’t have a lot of plausible
33:33 33:33 - deniability there right and so in the Matthew chapter 9 passage Jesus actually sends them all out of the house and then
33:40 33:40 - he makes the girl come to life and so uh you know there’s this sense that that well was she actually really dead you
33:47 33:47 - know because people who weren’t in there you know that’s where the rumors start to spread there’s this this sense of no
33:51 33:51 - one can refute it or contradict it but not so much when you you take the guy out of the coffin in the funeral
33:58 33:58 - procession and this is true of Lazarus as well who as we kind of already mentioned when we were talking about uh
34:05 34:05 - his case in John 11 well he’d already been in the Tomb for four days before Jesus even got to Bethany and so you
34:12 34:12 - know one obvious reason why Jesus didn’t do some of this their only sleeping business and and sort of try to downplay
34:20 34:20 - the celebrity and the fame and the spectacle here is because in these cases it just simply wouldn’t be possible to
34:25 34:25 - do that but even aside from that uh there’s actually another thing here as well and that’s the fact that both of
34:32 34:32 - these people were adult men and so even with interfering Busy Bodies or Worse bothering them on account of the miracle
34:41 34:41 - they would be capable of warding off anything problematic from them and their families and so I kind of kind of hinted
34:46 34:46 - at this earlier in John 12:1 the chief priest plan to put Lazarus to death also because of the people who were believing
34:54 34:54 - because of him so Jesus raises his raises him from the dead and then people based on the witness of that Miracle
35:02 35:02 - believe that he’s the son of God that he has the authority over life and death and then the fair well they don’t like
35:07 35:07 - this right Jesus is he’s not conforming to their power structure they want to get rid of him and one way to get rid of
35:13 35:13 - his influence is to just kill Lazarus because if all these people say well Lazarus who was sick and died we know he
35:19 35:19 - died well if he’s actually dead then suddenly you can quote unquote disprove the miracle right at least that’s how
35:26 35:26 - the Pharisees would see it and so we don’t have anything else mentioned in this in scripture um we do know that
35:32 35:32 - Jesus was close to Lazarus and his sisters you know he openly wept when Lazarus died and Mary and Martha show up
35:39 35:39 - elsewhere in the Bible you know this was a family uh whom Jesus loved who were kind of close to him but you know
35:47 35:47 - Lazarus would get Flack from this and again we don’t we don’t know a great deal more about this in the Bible like
35:52 35:52 - what happened you know were they successful in putting him to death eventually we really don’t know but the
35:57 35:57 - point is is that he would have heat and pressure from uh the Pharisees and the other leaders of the Jews at this point
36:03 36:03 - who resented the authority that Jesus had and that people were following him because of this and so Lazarus as an
36:10 36:10 - adult man he could kind of handle this but the point here in context is that a young girl who was raised from the dead
36:17 36:17 - you know throwing her into that den of vipers if you will is a completely different thing and I should just note
36:23 36:23 - here that this is especially true given the relatively higher degree of vulnerability women were forced to
36:29 36:29 - contend with in Antiquity and so nowadays uh there is not perhaps quite so much I I I would still argue that
36:36 36:36 - this is true but uh in Antiquity when someone like this uh you know a woman in their society um especially a young
36:44 36:44 - woman you know we don’t know exactly how young Gus’s daughter was but not old um the the amount of power that she would
36:52 36:52 - have to fight against things like this would be very limited relative to the these men that Jesus raised from the
36:58 36:58 - dead and so these two things kind of together this is kind of why we’re arguing well Jesus might try to minimize
37:04 37:04 - the fame and the amount that this miracle spreads here in Matthew chapter 9 but that doesn’t contradict these
37:10 37:10 - other cases because there’s these other factors in play as well now I’ll kind of close this part out by acknowledging
37:16 37:16 - that a lot of what I’ve just said here is based on inference and degree of speculation on my part so it’s not as if
37:22 37:22 - the Bible actually directly says these things very explicitly but I actually do believe
37:28 37:28 - that this is more than just an opinion so there are certain matters of scripture where we kind of say well it
37:33 37:33 - could be this it could be this you know I I this is just what I think but you know other people who think something
37:38 37:38 - different well you know we’re just kind of taking position on something we can’t be sure on I’m actually pretty black and
37:43 37:43 - white on this even though I think we get there a bit indirectly and that’s because I see little other explanation
37:49 37:49 - that satisfies all the elements in this passage in Matthew chapter 9 without having other problems at the same time
37:56 37:56 - and so one bit that causes special trouble for people is Jesus sending the people out um most other interpretations
38:03 38:03 - don’t really have a good reason for that you know like why wouldn’t Jesus just raise her like he did Lazarus um and the
38:09 38:09 - other the other man in front of witnesses like why would he do those that way but this one is different um
38:15 38:15 - that’s why I say this point of view that I’ve articulated I think is the only one that really captures it all that
38:21 38:21 - explains it all and makes good sense because other interpretations do exist for this it’s just I don’t think they
38:27 38:27 - reconcile all the evidence and they kind of wave their hand at the things that don’t fit in a way that I don’t think is
38:32 38:32 - proper for us when we do try to interpret the Bible as the inspired word of God now I should also say that some
38:40 38:40 - people might be offended at the line of thinking that I’ve suggested here uh because you know they would say that it
38:46 38:46 - suggests that Jesus intentionally misdirected the beliefs of others so if you were being uncharitable you would
38:52 38:52 - call this lying and I don’t want to get off on a big tangent here but I would ask these
38:58 38:58 - people what they think of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1: 15-22 as well as Rahab in Joshua chapter
39:07 39:07 - 2 so in The Exodus passage which I mean you can you can read it um but I’m just going to summarize it here um the Hebrew
39:14 39:14 - midwives were you know ordered to search the children and and then kill you know like uh uh basically report to Pharaoh
39:21 39:21 - for the ones and they they didn’t do it they saved the children uh they disobeyed direct order and they lied to
39:27 39:27 - Pharaoh’s face basically about it uh you know Hebrew children are I don’t want to butcher the paraphrase here but um you
39:35 39:35 - know like basically put to death the sons and uh you know the Hebrew midwives are like well you know they give birth
39:43 39:43 - so fast you know we can’t get there in time and um this is not true um but God commends them for it they’re blessed
39:49 39:49 - they’re given families of their own on account of what they do the actions they take here you know they could be they
39:54 39:54 - could be put to death by Pharaoh for this right but it is most certainly a lie you can’t get out of it in that
39:59 39:59 - situation and in Joshua chapter 2 when Rahab is hiding the hiding the Hebrew spies um when they are going to take
40:08 40:08 - Jericho um she again direct Li she’s praised for it in the New Testament in Hebrews chap 11 and James chapter 2 so
40:15 40:15 - Hebrews 11:31 and James chapter 2 verse 25 people do try to argue against what I’m saying here they try to explain it
40:23 40:23 - all away somehow but the clearest sense is that actually in both of these cases the people in question are praised for
40:30 40:30 - the actions they took I.E being dishonest to someone um now this will no doubt ruffle feathers I’m quite sure
40:36 40:36 - people will not like this but my contention is that part of growing up spiritually is learning to distinguish
40:43 40:43 - actual moral virtue from legalistic rules that have the appearance of Holiness but are in fact compatible with
40:50 40:50 - true righteousness and so the point here is that you know if you want to say well Jesus shouldn’t have said she was
40:56 40:56 - sleeping she should have just said he was dead and then raised her from the dead in front of everyone well what say
41:01 41:01 - you then to the harm that could befall that family and if Jesus couldn’t do his ministry after that because of all these
41:07 41:07 - people following him around in this case is that actually what is right you might also compare the idea of Sabbath
41:14 41:14 - observance in the New Testament um so what is the actual sense behind the law you know what is the law what purpose
41:21 41:21 - does it serve that sort of thinking is kind of what I’m trying to get at here and so I don’t think we need to be
41:26 41:26 - concerned about this because if there was ever one person in the history of the world who is capable of discerning
41:32 41:32 - what is actually righteous from that which is not it’s going to be Jesus right now I am not the only person in
41:39 41:39 - the world who thinks what I put forth U my mentor who I’ve already quoted from several times he has some stuff up on
41:45 41:45 - this so I me I’ll just show you um if you click these links this is kind of cool if you use a Chromium browser I
41:51 41:51 - think some other browsers May implement the same specification it will actually like take you directly to the text on
41:56 41:56 - the page like you can link to specific paragraphs and stuff so he has a couple questions and answers things up on the
42:02 42:02 - site that talk about this you know the same thing about trying to preserve uh the consider out of consideration for
42:09 42:09 - the girl and her family L they get all this Fame and they become targets because of it um he thinks the same
42:15 42:15 - thing in this regard um so you know two two links there talking about similar things now if you don’t use a browser
42:24 42:24 - like that like maybe Safari or something you can still search for the word sleep on those pages and you’ll find those
42:28 42:28 - sections as well okay that finally brings us to Hebrews 9:27 so we’ve kind of gone over
42:38 42:38 - Lazarus now we’ve gone over gyrus his daughter and now we’re getting to this verse in Hebrews chapter 9 so the
42:46 42:46 - question is kind of this if Hebrews 9:27 says that it is appointed for man to die once and after that in judgment well
42:54 42:54 - then what about Lazarus and gyrus daughter aren’t they dying twice not once and I will say it’s not just these
43:01 43:01 - two it gets even worse than this so there’s this passage in Matthew chapter 27 that talks about when Jesus was on
43:09 43:09 - the cross he cried out the veil of the temple was torn into two from top to bottom the Earth shook the Rocks were
43:15 43:15 - split and then the tombs were opened and many bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep came out and many people saw them
43:21 43:21 - right so all these people came out from the grave and and you know they were about you know people
43:26 43:26 - actually go show the passage here um you know they appeared to many um by all accounts these were people who had been
43:33 43:33 - dead you know they came out of their tombs and they were walking around Jerusalem um and so this isn’t just like
43:40 43:40 - a person or two there’s a group of people there but even more than that an even more striking example I don’t want
43:46 43:46 - to get off topic here but if you take the two witnesses of Revelation and so you can see this in uh Revelation 11
43:55 43:55 - here I’m not going to get too far into this but um the two witnesses um you know God will grant them Authority they
44:01 44:01 - will prophecy for 1260 days all these things happen um well these people um you can make a pretty strong case for
44:12 44:12 - these two actually being Moses and Elijah and so there’s a good reason for this although that’s ultimately kind of
44:18 44:18 - a topic for different time I’m not really going to get into it here but when these guys go around smiting bad
44:24 44:24 - guys with style you know calling down plagues and fire and things like that well this will be like a few thousand
44:31 44:31 - years after Moses and Elijah had last walk the earth you know some thousands of years BC um and yet they’re certainly
44:40 44:40 - said to be dead after the Beast kills them in Revelation 11 chapter sorry chapter 11 verse 7 um you know the Beast
44:48 44:48 - you know overcame them and killed them um so what gives right you know if I’m saying that these people are Moses and
44:55 44:55 - El and Moses and Elijah died thousands of years ago yet they are going to be
45:00 45:00 - walking around in the end times smiting bad guys how does that work you know like how does that not mean that they
45:08 45:08 - are dying twice right um and so doesn’t that mean that they’re contradicting Hebrews chapter 9 as well so not just
45:14 45:14 - Lazarus not just Gus’s daughter there’s all these other examples in the Bible too so why I said it gets worse so if
45:19 45:19 - you’re troubled by this question it’s a good question you know it’s something that’s fair for us to ask how does this
45:24 45:24 - work so so we’ll see kind of how convincing you find this but in my opinion the best way to answer this in
45:32 45:32 - the short way is at least saying that there’s death and then there’s death so biblically speaking there’s kind of a
45:38 45:38 - difference between resuscitation as was the case for Lazarus and gyrus his daughter and all
45:43 45:43 - the other examples we mentioned above even the two witnesses um so if you remember back to the Old Testament
45:49 45:49 - Elijah actually rote a chariot up to heaven uh he didn’t die physically in the way most people do and there’s
45:55 45:55 - actually this other interesting passage that talk about um kind of a scuffle between uh you know elect angels and
46:01 46:01 - Fallen Angels over Moses’s body well why did they need to get Moses’s body you know these are some of the reasons why
46:07 46:07 - we make these identifications of Moses and Elijah but their physical bodies are going to be brought back to life like
46:14 46:14 - the bodies that they had back then you know Lazarus didn’t get a new body when Jesus called him out of the Grave same
46:21 46:21 - thing with Gus’s daughter well that’s different here than resurrect in the manner of 1 Corinthians 15 like
46:29 46:29 - the trumpet sounds the dead will rise that passage is resurrection proper dead people are resuscitated dead people are
46:38 46:38 - resurrected right and so that maybe seems a little bit handwavy here but resuscitation and Resurrection is the
46:45 46:45 - answer to this question here in Hebrews chapter nine and kind of just to emphasize here it’s the Eternal bodies
46:52 46:52 - bit that’s the big difference here so when someone is resuscitated they are put back in their mortal body um where
46:59 46:59 - they were to begin with right they don’t have a new body like Jesus did after his resurrection where they can like go
47:05 47:05 - through walls and and you know fly and that sort of thing um and uh they still have their bodies just
47:13 47:13 - like they were when they were alive before so I’m sure that all sounds kind of handwavy you know unfortunately I
47:20 47:20 - don’t want to spend too much time over this I’m just trying to give the short answer here but there it is so put
47:26 47:26 - simply all those who are resuscitated are not dead in the Eternal sense of never again walking the Earth in Mortal
47:33 47:33 - bodies of fleshly corruption I don’t know why I wrote it quite like that but basically they’re they’re not going to
47:38 47:38 - have these mortal bodies um that turn us against God you know it’s like Galatians 5 right our desires from the flesh are
47:46 47:46 - not spiritual um they’re not going to have these bodies anymore um those or sorry they will those who are
47:53 47:53 - resuscitated um will will have these bodies again but those who are resurrected will not and so the
47:59 47:59 - difference is here for us as humans we can’t really tell dead people are dead people we don’t know if they’re ever
48:06 48:06 - going to come back to life again or if they won’t until the last day but with God’s perfect forn knowledge and for
48:11 48:11 - ordination of all things only Those whom he does not Forno as being resuscitated are positionally dead in the sense of
48:20 48:20 - being in the state that they’ll be in until Judgment Day so worth all that a little bit more simply God knows who
48:27 48:27 - would be resuscitated so when Lazarus died it’s not like God was like okay Jesus is not going to get there for
48:34 48:34 - three days hm I wonder what’s going to happen God is in complete control of all events in human history this is part of
48:39 48:39 - what his forn knowledge and for ordination of all things means so in the eyes of God people who are resuscitated
48:46 48:46 - aren’t actually dead in the Eternal sense here and that is they are not phally waiting for judgment because they
48:53 48:53 - have unfinished business back in in the world right and so we could say in this way that the two types of dead you want
49:00 49:00 - to call it that are actually pretty different here and this is in the eyes of God just to emphasize that not for us
49:07 49:07 - as humans because when Lazarus was dead it’s not like people around him saw I don’t know like like sparkly shimmers or
49:14 49:14 - something above him it’s like oh he’s going to come back to life you know there isn’t a trace of it for us as
49:19 49:19 - humans it is indistinguishable we don’t know if God will ever resuscitate someone um so there’s examples in the
49:26 49:26 - Bible when a young man fell out of a window when Paul was teaching Paul brings him back from the dead as well
49:33 49:33 - but there’s no way for the people at that time to know well that that one he’s going to come back to life and that
49:38 49:38 - one’s not you know like there’s no way but God knows this and that’s what we’re kind of emphasizing here um in this
49:44 49:44 - progression I don’t want to get off topic in Hebrews chapter n um the writer of Hebrews is kind of you emphasizing
49:52 49:52 - this idea of the finality of once for all right Jesus doesn’t have to be put to death over and over again because his
49:58 49:58 - one sacrifice was sufficient to pay for sin unlike the temple sacrifices which you know again more of us I tangent but
50:06 50:06 - never had power themselves but were just kind of foreshadowing Jesus’s sacrifice well he put um he put our sin to death
50:13 50:13 - once for all on the cross and so that’s where this like you know it is appointed for man to die once sort of fits into
50:20 50:20 - that progression but what we’re talking about here the death in context there is to be eternally in the position of right
50:29 50:29 - before judgment right and that’s different than being in a state of resuscitation even if we as human beings
50:35 50:35 - can’t ever really tell the difference between them so I’m not sure if that’s completely convincing I hope it is um
50:42 50:42 - but that’s kind of the short answer here to well how can these people be resuscitated and yet not die twice it’s
50:49 50:49 - that they’re not in this state of um of Eternal waiting for judgment like they’re not there yet basically because
50:57 50:57 - God four knows that they’re going to be returned to their mortal bodies for a time before they actually do die in that
51:04 51:04 - Eternal sense and so just to give you a little bit more background on this I’m going to quote from my mentor site again
51:11 51:11 - here um other people have asked this question before you know it is is reasonably common one in apologetics um
51:17 51:17 - so someone asked whom Lazarus if he’d been raised from the dead twice and how do you reconcile that with this verse
51:23 51:23 - here from Hebrews that’s basically exactly what we’re asking right um so here’s what my mentor had to say so
51:30 51:30 - lazarus’s Resurrection really was an unusual case but it was not unprecedented so Jesus also raised the
51:37 51:37 - Widow’s son it’s that passage from Luke chapter 7 we already talked about um as well as Gus’s daughter it’s Matthew
51:44 51:44 - chapter 9 and then Elijah and Elisha so these are uh Old Testament prophets you know you might compare the book of Kings
51:52 51:52 - also have what I would call have a res resuscitation to their credit um but Hebrews 9: 27 was of course written in
52:02 52:02 - full knowledge of all these cases you know there are no mistakes in the Bible that’s what we believe in terms of
52:07 52:07 - inspiration and so um when people receive back their dead raised to life again um you know this is
52:17 52:17 - quoting Hebrews chapter 11:35 um you know this sort of thing you know in the book of Hebrews even you
52:26 52:26 - know in the same book that Hebrews chapter 9 shows up is not unprecedented this idea of resuscitation of people
52:32 52:32 - being returned back to their mortal bodies uh kind of after having left them if you will um in from the perspective
52:39 52:39 - of this world well it’s there right in the book of Hebrews as well and so where my mentor goes with this is that he says
52:46 52:46 - he would look at Hebrews 9:27 like this it doesn’t contradict these Miracles and it’s not ignorant of them because in all
52:53 52:53 - these cases there was still a final physical death right so people might be resuscitated for a time but in the end
53:00 53:00 - mortality catches up with them all just like all of us as humans so for that reason nothing can or ever could stand
53:08 53:08 - in the way of coming judgment that’s kind of positionally imminent for us all except for Christ being judged in our
53:15 53:15 - place that’s what saves us as Christians that’s what we put our faith in and so the examples of those who were
53:21 53:21 - temporarily brought back to life and that’s what we’re calling resuscitation here temporarily being brought back to
53:27 53:27 - life physical life in the Mortal body that’s different than Resurrection to be clear these actually confirm Hebrews
53:33 53:33 - 9:27 because even those who benefited the most from this amazing Miracle of resuscitation from the dead even those
53:41 53:41 - people could not avoid the appointment we all have with a final ultimate end to the physical life in these corrupt
53:48 53:48 - bodies we now inhabit you may have heard it phrase like this right being born is a death sentence no one from Adam to the
53:56 53:56 - last human being that ever lives will avoid physical death it is the lot of humanity that is what Hebrews 9:27 says
54:03 54:03 - we can’t escape it because eventually we will die and after that point we will be waiting for judgment right God will will
54:12 54:12 - pronounce judgment on what we do in this life um it just so happens that there’s these folks like gyrus his daughter and
54:19 54:19 - Lazarus and some other people in the Bible who who they have you know kind of a blip in their radar before they get
54:26 54:26 - there right so they are taken out of this life and then they temporarily are not in their bodies but then they get
54:33 54:33 - put back in their mortal bodies on their way to that final appointment to where they will be then positionally awaiting
54:41 54:41 - judgment right they died just like everyone else they just kind of had this this detour in the middle if you will
54:47 54:47 - and so the upshot for us is that only through the resurrection by virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ who is the
54:54 54:54 - resurrection in the life do we avoid that last judgment which leads to the second death you that’s sort of a poetic
55:01 55:01 - metaphorical way for talking about hell it is very literally the second death um and instead pass on to life eternal in
55:08 55:08 - Jesus Christ so this is what we believe this is what we have our faith in all right so kind of looking at another Q&A
55:15 55:15 - from ichus here um this one is on that passage I mentioned in Matthew chap 27: 53 which is when you know the veil is
55:23 55:23 - torn Jesus lets about this cry and then the dead rise in Jerusalem so again similar idea of these people who were
55:31 55:31 - very obviously in their tombs you know there’s no ambiguity for them um coming out and being seen by people in
55:36 55:36 - Jerusalem how do we reconcile that with Hebrews chapter 9: 27 um how was it that these people had to die a second death
55:43 55:43 - even though the Bible teaches that we die once same sort of question I’ll be you know using a different verse to
55:48 55:48 - phrase the question here so very similar to the last Q&A we just read my mentor kind of handles it like this the very
55:57 55:57 - few people that constitute an exception to the normal rule of well when you die you stay Dead uh this really isn’t even
56:03 56:03 - much of an exception even so because after these people were resuscitated eventually they fell into the same
56:10 56:10 - category as everyone else and that means um that eventually they faced a physical death from which there would be no more
56:16 56:16 - reprieve eventually they died and they stayed dead in other words and that is the real point of Hebrews 9:27 for every
56:23 56:23 - single person there will come a point in time from which they leave this Mortal this Mortal realm which TR come with a
56:32 56:32 - word that isn’t so like out there they’ll leave this Mortal realm never to return um that’s what Hebrews 9:27 says
56:38 56:38 - and then once they’ve left the next thing in line after that if you will in the narrative is uh the Judgment for
56:46 56:46 - them um and so we will all die physically we are all Mortal it’s what it means to be human that’s what Hebrews
56:52 56:52 - 9:27 is saying and so resusitation is kind of neither here nor there for that um and so it’s not so much about the
56:59 56:59 - physical death but we’re going to exit our mortal bodies once people who are resuscitated they haven’t yet made that
57:07 57:07 - final leap they haven’t been uh you know completely eternally severed from their mortal bodies because they come back in
57:14 57:14 - them um and so that’s why there is no contradiction here um so we will face God’s judgment after this either the
57:22 57:22 - Judgment of the righteous and so that’s standing before the Throne of God and receiving reward for what we do in the
57:27 57:27 - power of Christ or the Judgment of the unrighteous so-called great white Throne judgment when people are sentenced to
57:34 57:34 - hell for their unbelief not because of their sin but because of their unbelief and so that’s why everything in this
57:39 57:39 - life depends upon what we think of Jesus Christ and the point here is that for All Humans no one can do absolutely
57:46 57:46 - anything about this every single person will die and we will all face the Judgment that comes after this that’s
57:54 57:54 - what Hebrews 9:20 s is everyone will have this point after which they die they stay dead they are severed from
58:01 58:01 - their mortal bodies until we Face Eternal judgment and so just to use some more examples from scripture here um
58:08 58:08 - Elijah again this is in book of Kings I think it’s First Kings maybe um brought back a Widow’s son as well kind of
58:15 58:15 - similar to Jesus in Luke chapter 7 um the shunamite son whom Elisha brought back Tabitha is a person who Peter
58:24 58:24 - brought back and the New Testament and then the boy who I mentioned who fell from the window in Ephesus whom Paul
58:29 58:29 - brought back all those people were resuscitated in the same way but all of them died again just like Lazarus just
58:36 58:36 - like gyrus his daughter just like those people from this passage in Matthew chapter 27 that we’re kind of talking
58:42 58:42 - about in this Q&A all of these people once they had been resuscitated eventually they died physically again
58:50 58:50 - and so the contrast here is that all these people who went to live quote what normal lives after being resuscitated
58:57 58:57 - and then died again physically as it is appointed for Hebrews chap 9: 27 well that’s very different than those people
59:05 59:05 - who are resurrected because those people who are resurrected um you know their bodies are fundamentally different they
59:12 59:12 - cannot die again at least not in that sense and so there’s nothing to indicate in any of these cases that the physical
59:20 59:20 - Earthly body of those who were resuscitated was changed in any way other than the miracle of resuscitation
59:26 59:26 - itself that is that they were dead but now they’re alive again it’s not like they were alive in different bodies they
59:31 59:31 - have the same bodies and so there’s actually like another category of people here not to get too far off topic but um
59:38 59:38 - there’s Enoch who’s mentioned in the Book of Genesis here and then Elijah too who I mentioned just rode that Chariot
59:44 59:44 - on up to heaven well those guys didn’t actually die physically they just went straight there but then they’re going to
59:49 59:49 - be resurrected and appear before the the Judgment seat of Christ just the same as everyone else right so they didn’t even
59:55 59:55 - face physical death in the same way that we do kind of a special case here but in the end they’re still going to stand
01:00:01 01:00:01 - before Christ on Judgment Day um not in a negative sense but you know to to be evaluated as we all will be as human
01:00:09 01:00:09 - beings finally it’s not like anything we’ve said rests on this point but it’s also true that um the chronology of when
01:00:15 01:00:15 - we write this you know the the gospels and acts and when Paul um well actually I take Paul to write Hebrews not
01:00:21 01:00:21 - everyone agrees but the writer of Hebrews puts this in Hebrews chapter nine um depending on when you date the
01:00:25 01:00:25 - book quite likely that it postdates all the gospels in Acts which is where we have these accounts of resuscitation is
01:00:32 01:00:32 - that actually probably past this point there wasn’t anyone else who had this done I mean depends on how much you view
01:00:39 01:00:39 - modern day Miracles and stuff but um you know it’s another topic for a different time but basically it’s true from this
01:00:45 01:00:45 - point forward in Scripture that really there weren’t any other resuscitations but I think we don’t need to really care
01:00:50 01:00:50 - about that the main point that we’ve already been going over here is that resuscitation is different than
01:00:59 01:00:59 - Resurrection all right well this was probably quite a bit longer than you were expecting but um I just wanted to
01:01:06 01:01:06 - be thorough try to get to all facets of this so I’m just going to recap kind of what we’ve gone over here in this video
01:01:12 01:01:12 - um so the initial questions we were asking about uh John chapter 11 uh Matthew chapter n you know Lazarus and
01:01:21 01:01:21 - gyrus daughter well are they dead or are they asleep why did Jesus talk about it like that why did he kind of confirm
01:01:27 01:01:27 - that Lazarus was dead but he didn’t confirm that Gus’s daughter was dead you know he didn’t explain it um was this
01:01:33 01:01:33 - the same Lazarus as the Lazarus in Luke chapter 16 you know does that contradict Lazarus being asleep versus being dead
01:01:40 01:01:40 - um so those were some of the questions we went and so kind of in order of what we talked about we kind of first went
01:01:45 01:01:45 - over that the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 is not the same as the Lazarus of John chap 11 you know there’s some reasons
01:01:51 01:01:51 - for thinking that because Lazarus the brother of Mary and Martha they seem to have been from a relatively affluent
01:01:57 01:01:57 - well-connected family near Jerusalem whereas the Lazarus of Luke chapter 16 is a beggar among the lowest social
01:02:05 01:02:05 - classes that there is um so just not seeming likely that those are the same person then we talked about um Jesus
01:02:12 01:02:12 - describing Lazarus as sleeping in John 11 um due to verse 13 more or less directly stating it this has to be Jesus
01:02:19 01:02:19 - speaking euphemistically that is what is meant In this passage that’s really the only way you can responsibly interpret
01:02:24 01:02:24 - it and we talked about gyrus his daughter in Matthew chapter 9 being something kind of different than that um
01:02:30 01:02:30 - so in my interpretation and again it’s not just an opinion so far as I would say is I think this is an actual
01:02:35 01:02:35 - interpretation like I’m I’m black and white on it not that everyone will agree with me is that um Jesus did what he did
01:02:42 01:02:42 - with gyrus his daughter you know said that she was just sleeping sends out the whole crowd all these people who would
01:02:47 01:02:47 - otherwise be Witnesses and then raises her from the dead so she was actually dead not sleeping but he says that she
01:02:53 01:02:53 - was sleeping since the people out and that’s to protect both um this this young woman and her family from the
01:03:00 01:03:00 - attention both from busy bodies and even the rulers who would you know not appreciate this person being a living
01:03:07 01:03:07 - proof of Jesus’s uh Power to do Miracles I me just as they were threatening uh Lazarus as we have in John 12:10 well
01:03:15 01:03:15 - Jesus protects them from that and he also tries not to draw attention to himself before his time and that is you
01:03:21 01:03:21 - know spoken of in other places we went over one such passage Mark 1: 40-45 talks about that phenomenon and
01:03:30 01:03:30 - finally uh we talked about Hebrews 9:27 this idea of it’s appointed once for man to die and after that the judgment and
01:03:38 01:03:38 - well what does that have to do with these folks who were resuscitated who were you know dead as in no longer
01:03:44 01:03:44 - breathing in the Tomb and then uh suddenly they come back to life in the bodies that they had before you know not
01:03:50 01:03:50 - resurrected with new Eternal bodies but uh you know resus itated coming back as they were before but then living a life
01:03:57 01:03:57 - but eventually facing that death that we all face as humans um so we we talked about how there’s a difference between
01:04:03 01:04:03 - resuscitation and resurrection and how that explains that Hebrews 9:27 here you know talking about when we Face the end
01:04:11 01:04:11 - of our lives where we don’t come back anymore even these folks who had that detour where they can’t they came back
01:04:17 01:04:17 - once eventually they will die and that will be it and then they will face God that’s what Hebrews 9:27 is getting at
01:04:24 01:04:24 - every every single person will face that that point of time from which there is no more uh time in this mortal world we
01:04:31 01:04:31 - run out of time we are there positionally in eternity after that um that’s what Hebrews 9:27 is getting at
01:04:37 01:04:37 - and only by trusting in Jesus Christ can we be on the right side of that judgment so I hope this was helpful I hope this
01:04:43 01:04:43 - has answered most of the questions and that’s where we’ll cut this one

Does Jesus’ Use of the Sleeping Terminology Have Anything to Do with Resuscitation?

Sleep > As a euphemism for death > Does not necessarily point to eventual resuscitation

Video

Link to wider playlist View slides

Summary

Does it mean anything that both Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter came back to life after Jesus said they were “sleeping?” Does “sleeping” necessarily predict eventual resuscitation? The answer to this question is no. Sleep as a metaphor/euphemism is more linked with death than resuscitation, and other evidence from the Bible helps us show that the normal way to take things is actually that those who are “sleeping” are dead. That these two specific individuals happened to be resuscitated does not change the fact that the metaphorical/euphemistic usage of sleep is linked to death, not resuscitation.

Timestamps

0:00 0:00 - Intro and outline
01:26 01:26 - Q: Does Jesus’ use of the sleeping terminology have anything to to do with resuscitation?
02:45 02:45 - Comments on our specific cases
03:38 03:38 - Lazarus’ case
07:04 07:04 - Jairus’ daughter’s case
10:29 10:29 - The basic concept: sleeping is primarily associated with death, not resuscitation
13:26 13:26 - More explanation about how sleeping and death are tightly linguistically coupled
21:57 21:57 - Summary and outro

Content (click to show)

Content

Q: Does Jesus’ use of the sleeping terminology have anything to to do with resuscitation?

Could the reason that Jesus used the sleeping terminology in John 11:11 and Matthew 9:24 have anything to do with the fact that these individuals would be resuscitated and wake up again? (As opposed to people who die but are not resuscitated)?

Comments on our specific cases

I think Jesus’ use of the sleeping terminology in John 11 and Matthew 9 is completely separate from his foreknowledge that these folks would be resuscitated rather than staying dead.

Lazarus’ case

In the case of Lazarus, the euphemism would be just as true in their culture if Lazarus never was resuscitated and stayed dead. That would be how the euphemism was mostly used in practice, after all, since it would be far more normal for people to stay dead than to be raised back to life.

Jairus’ daughter’s case

And in the case of Jairus’ daughter, like I argued, even though she was actually dead and Jesus knew so, He said what he did (that is, took advantage of the euphemism people clearly knew culturally) to make things purposefully ambiguous to others, so that neither He nor the girl and her family would receive as much negative attention from it.

The basic concept: sleeping is primarily associated with death, not resuscitation

In neither case was his usage of this terminology really directly tied to the resuscitation, even though it turned up in both of these places. That is, I see the association of sleeping as being primarily with death, not resuscitation.

We also ought to note that there are places where sleeping is mentioned alongside death but not resuscitation (e.g., 1 Kings 2:10—“Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David”), and also places where resuscitation is mentioned but not sleeping (e.g., Paul’s raising of Eutychus in Acts 20:7-12). These observations mean that we ought to understand the sleep references as being primarily associated with death, not resuscitation.

More explanation about how sleeping and death are tightly linguistically coupled

Interpretation > Semantic overloading - words with unique connotations stemming from multiple meanings

The verb for raising someone from death is the same as awakening/rousing someone from sleep in both Hebrew and Greek—see Hebrew’s qutz (קוּץ) and Greek’s egeiro (ἐγείρω), and the relevant concordance entries for this type of usage (that is, when the verbs are being used of death not sleep).

You might especially compare passages that clearly describe death as a perpetual sleep from which one does not awaken. For example:

Jeremiah 51:39, 57;
Job 14:12

Or passages that describe those that have been buried as sleeping in the ground:

Daniel 12:2

So it’s not just by accident that the verbs overlap in usage, but because of an enduring semantic relationship between the concepts, present in English as well (perhaps most commonly in poetic phrasing—cf. John Donne’s famous Sonnet “Death, be not proud”), and actually most other languages too I’d reckon. Not that I’ve done a formal study of it, but it just makes sense for us humans to associate these two concepts that have similar surface appearances.

Transcript (click to show)

Video/audio transcript

00:00 00:00 - hey guys so tonight we’re going to be doing a follow-on video to a previous one we did talking about Jesus’s use of
00:07 00:07 - sleeping terminology in John chapter 11 and Matthew chapter 9 and now we’re just going to be looking at a couple things
00:13 00:13 - in a bit more detail so here are the topics that we’re going to be going over here uh the
00:19 00:19 - follow on question that we’re going to be talking about is does Jesus’s use of the sleeping terminology have anything
00:26 00:26 - to do with resuscitation so basically is he using uh the word sleep rather than death simply because we know that these
00:34 00:34 - people will be resuscitated and we’re going to talk about the two cases that we’ve already been focusing on so
00:39 00:39 - lazarus’s case in John chapter 11 and gyrus daughter’s case in Matthew chapter 9 and uh we’re going to argue that
00:47 00:47 - sleeping is actually primarily associated with death not resuscitation so the answer to this particular
00:53 00:53 - question is no not really um Jesus is using sleep as a euphemism for death and then taking advantage of the
01:00 01:00 - associations there rather than really it having very much to do with resuscitation directly and then we’re
01:05 01:05 - just going to talk a little bit about that linguistic connection between death and sleep and so this isn’t just Greek
01:11 01:11 - and Hebrew this is sort of most languages in fact kind of have a tie between these two concepts and that kind
01:17 01:17 - of explains why Jesus uses death for or sorry sleep for death in these cases as well so it’s kind of nothing out of the
01:24 01:24 - ordinary we would say okay so first thing just going over that question again in a little bit more
01:34 01:34 - detail here um we’re just going to pose it as this could the reason that Jesus used sleeping terminology in John
01:43 01:43 - chapter 11 and Matthew chapter 9 so that is with Lazarus and gyrus his daughter have anything to do with the fact that
01:50 01:50 - these individuals would be resuscitated and wake up again as opposed to people who die but are not resuscitated and so
01:57 01:57 - the idea here behind this question is sort of of if Jesus knew that these people would wake up and we know that
02:05 02:05 - people from sleep wake up then maybe that’s why he would use the word sleep here instead of death like it could be
02:11 02:11 - sort of foreshadowing if you will the idea that these people would uh be raised from the dead resuscitated come
02:18 02:18 - back to life in a way that most people who die are not and so could Jesus have been using this uh sort of to say that
02:26 02:26 - no these people aren’t Dead uh they are going to come back to life as sort of a a like a word choice to reflect that for
02:35 02:35 - knowledge um and so could that be why Jesus used this terminology of sleeping rather than just coming right out and
02:43 02:43 - saying directly that they were dead and so the short answer to this question is I really don’t think this is
02:52 02:52 - the case I think Jesus’s use of the sleeping terminology in John 11 and Matthew chapter 9 is actually completely
03:00 03:00 - separate from his foreign knowledge that these folks would be resuscitated rather than staying dead so Jesus obviously
03:06 03:06 - knew that he was going to raise them from the dead but I don’t think that he was using this terminology of sleep
03:12 03:12 - rather than death uh just because he knew that they would be resuscitated I think he’s using it as we shall see just
03:20 03:20 - because that is such a a common Association uh between these words between sleep and death so in Greek and
03:27 03:27 - Hebrew and English in most other languages too presumably that he’s using this because sleep is so tightly coupled
03:33 03:33 - with death and it really doesn’t have very much to do with resuscitation on the whole of
03:41 03:41 - it so in the case of Lazarus in John chapter 11 the euphemism uh that is using sleep as a euphemism for death
03:51 03:51 - well it would actually be just as true in their culture if Lazarus was never resuscitated and stayed dead that is as
03:58 03:58 - we went over in the previous video we know that um perhaps in the Hebrew culture at the time in which Jesus was
04:05 04:05 - around they had this association between sleep and death kind of in a way that we don’t so much in English it’s not that
04:12 04:12 - that is never used as an association but it’s just probably not as common in our everyday speech as it was for them as a
04:19 04:19 - a euphemism so you know we say things like someone passed away um and things like that but for them this was a pretty
04:26 04:26 - common euphemism for death and so the point I’m making here is that most of the time when people use this euphemism
04:34 04:34 - the person who they were using it of they they didn’t come back to life so in fact this is kind of an atypical case
04:42 04:42 - because mostly when people said that they meant that someone is dead like is in very dead and not coming back and so
04:48 04:48 - it would kind of almost undercut the exact question we’re asking here of would Jesus used this specifically to
04:55 04:55 - foreshadow or uh kind of make it clear that these people were going to be awakened from their quote unquote sleep
05:02 05:02 - the answer is kind of no because the very fact that he uses this the very fact that it’s a thing in their culture
05:08 05:08 - that Association like 99.9% of the time doesn’t refer to people who are resuscitated because you know across the
05:17 05:17 - entire biblical narrative there aren’t very many people who are ever raised from the dead um so Jesus it wasn’t just
05:22 05:22 - Lazarus and Gus’s daughter there was the Widow’s son um a widow of of nine in in uh forget where exactly that is I think
05:32 05:32 - it’s in Luke Luke chapter 7 I want to say um we went over that in the previous video but there really aren’t very many
05:37 05:37 - instances of this so for the most part culturally they would use this expecting the person who they say is quote unquote
05:46 05:46 - sleeping to stay dead um that is the euphemism that they would be using most commonly applied in the case of people
05:54 05:54 - who wouldn’t be resurrected and so you can kind of see how that that means that this question I mean it’s a it’s a
05:59 05:59 - reasonable question because people do wake up from sleep and people don’t come back from death and so you can kind of
06:05 06:05 - see well maybe the word choice would be special because of that but actually just because of how this this euphemism
06:10 06:10 - would be used culturally that kind of isn’t the right way to think about it um and so all this to say this particular
06:19 06:19 - case with Lazarus um it would be more normal for people to expect Lazarus not to come back and so when Jesus says this
06:27 06:27 - everyone would know that he was using it as a euphemism because as we discussed previously by the time Jesus got to
06:34 06:34 - Bethany where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived uh Lazarus had already been in tuned for four days and so
06:42 06:42 - everyone clearly knows that Lazarus is dead um and so that’s why when Jesus says this they would know that he’s
06:47 06:47 - using this as a euphemism for death and it wouldn’t have any significance like they wouldn’t look at him and be like
06:54 06:54 - well he said he’s sleeping so that must mean that it’s something different like oh what’s Jesus going to do do now they
07:00 07:00 - would understand this as a clear reference to Lazarus actually being dead now when it comes to the case of
07:09 07:09 - gyrus daughter it’s basically the same thing that we talked about before so I argued in the previous video that even
07:17 07:17 - though Jesus knew that she was actually dead he said what he did that is he took advantage of this association between
07:26 07:26 - sleeping and death that was this common euphemism especially in their culture to kind of make things purposely ambiguous
07:32 07:32 - to others so that neither he nor the girl and her family would receive as much negative attention from it and we
07:39 07:39 - went into the reasons for that in the last video but the point is here that Jesus used the Sleep
07:47 07:47 - terminology not because you know he was making the point that she was going to be awakened as opposed to most other
07:54 07:54 - people but he was using it in association with the euphemism that we’ve gone over um specifically to make
08:01 08:01 - it unclear in this particular case whether she actually was dead or not um playing off this idea that um there is
08:10 08:10 - this association between these Concepts well people who weren’t in the room with them when Jesus raised her from the dead
08:16 08:16 - would hear this well you know people thought she was dead her family had called the professional mourners there
08:23 08:23 - was there they were mocking him saying no she’s actually dead silly why are you going in there and then Jesus does this
08:30 08:30 - and says no she’s just asleep purposefully to kind of Muddy the water so that it would kind of run this
08:37 08:37 - interference uh between his ministry and these people who would be wowed by the celebrity of it and the same thing with
08:45 08:45 - the girl and her family like we argued in that other video uh to kind of keep all of the attention and the pressure
08:51 08:51 - and even the uh you know potential for the rulers of the Jewish people at the time to Target them specifically because
09:00 09:00 - um as we learn in John 12 they were seeking to kill Lazarus because his testimony basically of well I was dead
09:09 09:09 - and Jesus raised me was causing people to believe and so obviously these folks had uh a personal stake in making people
09:19 09:19 - not believe um you know Jesus’s uh uh the gospel was not it wasn’t subversive politically but it turned people away
09:28 09:28 - from the ruling powers that be basically they couldn’t control people if people were believing the truth and so they
09:36 09:36 - would seek to actually put Lazarus to death like we talked about in last video and so to spare this family that Jesus
09:43 09:43 - would use this Association to make things less than clear right so people might say well uh you know people don’t
09:50 09:50 - rise from the dead there’s no way he did that so she must actually only been sleeping and you know they just made a
09:55 09:55 - mistake she wasn’t actually dead she just looked dead people would kind of start that rumor because of this and so
10:03 10:03 - as we’ve said that’s kind of my take on why Jesus did this why he used that terminology in this case in Matthew
10:09 10:09 - chapter 9 but the point is it’s still not specifically because Jesus fornew that she would be raised um as in he
10:18 10:18 - would have said this you know regardless it wasn’t to foreshadow the fact that she’d be resuscitated so much as it was
10:25 10:25 - to play into this whole purpose that we talked about previously all right so to finish off this video
10:34 10:34 - we’re just going to talk a little bit more about the associations between sleeping and death and how that’s kind
10:40 10:40 - of the relationship here not so much between sleeping and resuscitation so kind of what we just
10:47 10:47 - talked about in these two cases was how in neither in John chapter 11 or Matthew chapter 9 was Jesus’s use of the
10:55 10:55 - terminology kind of directly tied to the resuscitation even though it ended up turning up in both of these cases where
11:02 11:02 - resuscitation was present and so that kind of what that means is that I see the association of sleeping as being
11:10 11:10 - primarily with death not with resuscitation so kind of the sleeping terminology showed up here because these
11:17 11:17 - people were dead in the case of Lazarus or because Jesus was trying to make it purposely ambiguous for practical
11:24 11:24 - reasons in the case of Gus’s daughter not because these people were going to be
11:30 11:30 - resuscitated and so further evidence that this is kind of the case that is that the association goes that direction
11:37 11:37 - is that there’s actually places where sleeping is mentioned alongside death but not resuscitation so in First Kings
11:45 11:45 - chapter 2 verse1 uh this reads then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David and so that
11:52 11:52 - is a way of saying well David died and then was you know buried in the city of David um so this is a clear reference to
11:59 11:59 - sleep being used for death as a euphemism but there is no Resurrection after this David was not one of the
12:05 12:05 - people in the Bible that was raised from the dead so this is an example of sleeping being mentioned alongside death
12:12 12:12 - in a case that has absolutely nothing to do with resusitation and there’s also kind of the reverse
12:18 12:18 - case here there’s also places where resuscitation is mentioned but no mention of sleeping at all and so an
12:25 12:25 - example of this comes in Acts chap 20 when Paul raises a young man named udus from the dead after he falls out of a
12:33 12:33 - window when Paul was teaching late at night um so this particular story I’m not really going to pull it up but you
12:39 12:39 - can check the references here acts chap 20: 7-2 uh gives this account of Paul
12:45 12:45 - raising this this young man from the dead and nowhere in that account is sleeping mentioned and so uh kind of the
12:53 12:53 - thesis of the question here was well could the sleeping related language be related to this idea of resuscitation
13:01 13:01 - well if that were the case you know maybe we’d expect it to show up here as well so kind of runs counter to that
13:06 13:06 - idea and so these observations are just kind of pointing out how the evidence here uh really does show that the Sleep
13:15 13:15 - references are primarily associated with death not resuscitation and so that’s kind of how we should think about this
13:22 13:22 - topic that’s where the evidence of scripture points
13:29 13:29 - finally we’re just going to go into a little bit more detail about this Association here that we just introduced
13:35 13:35 - between sleeping and death so first off uh kind of speaking in terms of linguistic associations the verb for
13:44 13:44 - raising someone from Death so someone who has died raising them from the dead is actually the same verb as Awakening
13:52 13:52 - or rousing someone from sleep in both Hebrew and Greek so this verb here C in Hebrew and a in Greek um these are the
14:03 14:03 - verbs in question here and the relevant concordance entries uh for this particular type of usage that is uh when
14:11 14:11 - the verbs are being used to raise people from the dead rather than waking them up from sleep um you’ll see that it’s the
14:16 14:16 - same verb for both of these cases actually and so kind of why this is relevant is then you can see how closely
14:25 14:25 - the concepts of sleep and death are related to each other in both Hebrew and Greek then and so that is sort of
14:32 14:32 - indirect evidence we can actually see s sort of some direct references to this that kind of pushed the metaphor or push
14:40 14:40 - the euphemism even further here so we’re going to look at some passages here from Jeremiah and job and just kind of show
14:46 14:46 - how this association between sleeping and death is it’s mentioned right there in the Bible you know very
14:52 14:52 - unambiguously so here’s one of those verses from Jeremiah Jeremiah 51:39 says this when they become heated up I will
15:02 15:02 - serve them their banquet and make them drunk that they may become jubilant and may sleep a Perpetual sleep and not wake
15:10 15:10 - up declares the Lord so this Perpetual sleep that they don’t wake up from that is what death would be and then another
15:19 15:19 - verse same chapter a few verses later Jeremiah chapter 51: 57 says I will make her princes and her wise men drunk her
15:28 15:28 - Governors her prefects and her mighty men that they may sleep a Perpetual sleep and not wake up declares the king
15:35 15:35 - whose name is the Lord of hosts and so again we see this reference to a Perpetual sleep that people won’t wake
15:41 15:41 - up from and this is how we clearly see that sleep is being used to refer to death and that there’s this strong
15:48 15:48 - association between the concepts finally this passage here from Job chapter 14 job
15:55 15:55 - 14:12 says so man lies down and does not not rise until the heavens are no longer he will not awake nor be aroused out of
16:03 16:03 - his sleep so again this idea that people who are dead are sleeping until the resurrection actually um you know shows
16:12 16:12 - up elsewhere um but this concept again just showing that this idea of sleeping is used of people who are dead and then
16:21 16:21 - sort of similar concept here we have some passages that talk about how people who are buried uh you know as was the
16:30 16:30 - funerary custom of the ancient Hebrew people as in they buried their dead rather than cremating them for example
16:37 16:37 - um well it describes people who are buried as actually sleeping in the ground so Daniel chapter 12: 2 says many
16:46 16:46 - of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life but the others to disgrace and
16:53 16:53 - everlasting contempt so actually sort of a side note here this is a reference to the resurrection here in the Book of
17:00 17:00 - Daniel so not even new testament old testament here but you can see clearly that this verse is referencing those who
17:06 17:06 - sleep in the dust of the ground I.E people who are dead and so again just strengthening that association between
17:13 17:13 - the two concepts and so sort of where we’re going with all this is that it’s not
17:18 17:18 - just by accident that these verbs overlap in usage but because of an enduring semantic relationship between
17:25 17:25 - the concepts of sleeping and death that’s actually present in English as well and so to talk about this uh we’re
17:32 17:32 - going to be looking at AET here from a guy named John dun um so this one’s pretty famous poem you may have heard of
17:40 17:40 - it before it’s called Death be not proud so I’m gonna just going to go ahead and read through this briefly here and then
17:47 17:47 - we’ll talk about several of the lines that are kind of related to uh this conceptual Association that we’re
17:53 17:53 - talking about so death be not proud by John dun death be not proud though some have
18:00 18:00 - called thee Mighty and dreadful for thou art not so For Those whom thou thinkest thou Dost overthrow die not for death
18:09 18:09 - nor yet C thou kill me from rest and sleep which by thy pictures be much pleasure then from thee much more must
18:17 18:17 - flow and soonest our best men with thee do go rest of their bones and souls delivery Thou Art slave to fate chance
18:27 18:27 - Kings and desper men and dos with poison war and sickness dwell and Poppy or charms can make us sleep as well and
18:36 18:36 - better than thy stroke why swellest thou then one short sleep past we wake eternally and Death Shall be more no
18:44 18:44 - more death thou shalt die okay so obviously poetic language here but some of these lines that we are
18:53 18:53 - going to talk about uh this line here from rest and sleep which which by th pictures be so not so much a metaphor
19:01 19:01 - there but clearly linking the concepts of rest and sleep with death and then uh you know rest of their bones in this
19:10 19:10 - line uh that is definitely poetic language here but you know laying someone to rest we have that turn a
19:17 19:17 - phrase just in kind of normal English parlance laying someone to rest I.E burying them well that is an association
19:24 19:24 - there um but perhaps most clearly we have this Poppy or charms can make us sleep as well well this is actually
19:32 19:32 - directly associating sleep with death right if we’re saying that um as well here you know that is poppies and charms
19:40 19:40 - can make us sleep just like how death can make us sleep that’s the association here um and then of course final line
19:47 19:47 - one short sleep past we wake eternally um to the resurrection like J like Daniel chapter 12 talked about actually
19:56 19:56 - um but you can kind kind of clearly see that this is an English poem um and clearly has this association between
20:03 20:03 - sleep and death here in English so not that we’re going to build our theology um off of John dun sonnet but you can
20:10 20:10 - kind of get the idea that the association is there even in English as well now just to close I would actually
20:18 20:18 - probably think that this association between sleep and death is present in most human languages I haven’t done a
20:24 20:24 - formal study of it but it kind of just makes sense for us humans to to associate these two concepts because
20:30 20:30 - they do have similar surface appearances so if someone is kind of looking at someone lying on a bed from a distance
20:38 20:38 - can be kind of hard to tell if the person is living or dead or if they’re just asleep um so I mean obviously
20:45 20:45 - people’s chest rising and falling from breathing that’s one sign you know do they have breath because as we talked
20:50 20:50 - about in our last video uh breath is actually synonymous with life um so people are alive when they have breath
20:57 20:57 - that uh signifies the presence of the human spirit and when people die physically they no longer have breath
21:04 21:04 - and that’s because the word for spirit and breath are synonyms in both Greek and Hebrew it’s the same word you use
21:10 21:10 - the same word in Greek and Hebrew to denote uh uh breath and spirit the presence of the spirit so that’s where
21:18 21:18 - we’re going to close this one um again not such a revolutionary Point here we’ve just gone through and shown that
21:24 21:24 - there is a clear association between sleep and death in both Greek in Hebrew gave some examples um how the verbs are
21:32 21:32 - actually the verb to wake people up is actually the same as the verb to raise them from the dead and some of these
21:37 21:37 - textual examples that just show that the concepts are clearly associated in how they think about them as well as in
21:43 21:43 - English and presumably in most other languages but this is all why we say that the associations are between sleep
21:49 21:49 - and death much more than they are between sleep and resuscitation which was kind of the main thrust of the
21:56 21:56 - initial question here all right so just to briefly recap what we’ve gone over in this video we kind of
22:05 22:05 - raised the question upfront of could Jesus have been using this this language of sleep because he fornew that these
22:12 22:12 - people would be resuscitated and sleep is less permanent than death um so that was kind of the question we started with
22:18 22:18 - here we talked about lazarus’s case how he’d already been dead for four days between Jesus got there so when he used
22:25 22:25 - that word uh people would have obviously taken it they would have known that he was referring to death in Gus’s
22:30 22:30 - daughter’s case which as we talked about previously in the other video um Jesus did this primarily to kind of leave
22:37 22:37 - strategic ambiguity in that situation to kind of run interference both for himself and his own ministry as well as
22:45 22:45 - uh this girl and her family um so those are Jesus’s purposes in using the terminology like we argued in the last
22:52 22:52 - video um but kind of more to answer the point of the question we said that sleeping is primarily associated with
22:59 22:59 - death and not resuscitation so we talked about how the verbs in Greek and Hebrew for waking someone up are actually used
23:07 23:07 - uh to signify raising someone from the dead the same verb is used for both things um and then we actually talked
23:12 23:12 - about how that Association is present in English as well um so this is kind of closing off that question to say that
23:21 23:21 - actually it’s much more likely in fact it is the case that the Sleep references here that Jesus uses uh have much more
23:28 23:28 - to do with death that is the relationship that’s why he’s using these words than they did with the fact that
23:35 23:35 - these particular people would be Resurrected

How Does the Concept of Resuscitation Affect the Afterlife?

Video

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Summary

Answering the question “what happens after a human being dies physically—where do they go, and what is their experience like?” is deceptively complex. Are we talking about a believer, or an unbeliever? Are we talking before Christ’s ascension, or after Christ’s ascension? Are we talking in the short term, or what the eternal state will be? We’ll get into some of the specifics of all this in this lesson, with the ultimate goal of showing that people who are resuscitated do not ultimately end up in the final state any different than people who die once and stay dead. Both sorts of people (those who are resuscitated, those who are not) ultimately die once for all in the end, and in that unavoidable conclusion to every mortal’s time upon this Earth, all humanity faces much the same afterlife. Those who are resuscitated back into their mortal bodies (in a demonstration of God’s miraculous power over life and death) will face death again all the same, and end up in the same places as those who were not so raised. Only final resurrection (contrast resuscitation) will render us truly impervious to death’s sting.

Timestamps

0:00 0:00 - Intro and outline
03:07 03:07 - Q: How does the concept of resuscitation affect the afterlife?
04:03 04:03 - On the nature and composition of human beings
10:17 10:17 - Types of death
14:00 14:00 - Defining terms: physical death means someone’s human spirit departs their physical body
18:12 18:12 - What happens after that?
19:18 19:18 - Before Christ’s ascension vs. after Christ’s ascension vs. in eternity proper
21:31 21:31 - “Heavenly geography”
33:18 33:18 - Before Christ’s ascension
37:28 37:28 - After Christ’s ascension
40:23 40:23 - In eternity proper
44:11 44:11 - Wait, is it just human spirits in these places? But what about resurrection bodies?
53:02 53:02 - Interim bodies
01:08:38 01:08:38 - So answering that question of “what happens after physical death, in the normal case?”
01:11:12 01:11:12 - And what about for those who are resuscitated?
01:17:14 01:17:14 - Summary and outro

Content (click to show)

Content

Q: How does the concept of resuscitation affect the afterlife?

Since I’m unfamiliar with the concept of resuscitation vs. resurrection, I’d be happy to hear more about it generally, but I also have a specific question:

How does the concept of resuscitation affect the afterlife? Like where did Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter go when they died (considering that they were resuscitated and not resurrected)?

On the nature and composition of human beings

Human beings > Are dichtomous, composed of flesh and spirit Human beings > Are not trichotomous (we do not *have* souls, but *are* souls) Soul > Is the combination of flesh and spirit

Human beings are “dichotomous”—composed of two distinct parts. Those two parts are the body, and the spirit. There is no “third thing” (what they call in Latin tertium quid), even though this point is widely misunderstood, such that people often think that the concept of “soul” is distinct from body and spirit.

Biblically speaking, we do not “have” souls, but we ourselves are souls. That is to say, a soul is the combination of body and spirit together that makes us “us”. The word translated as soul in Hebrew is nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ), and in Greek it is psukhe (ψυχή; cf. the English word psyche).

I am not a big fan at all of translating these Greek and Hebrew words with the English word “soul” due to all the problematic connotative baggage that term has picked up over the centuries. These Greek and Hebrew words can be better translated (as appropriate based upon context) with, for example, these other English words:

Heart
Mind
Person
Life (in the sense of “a human life”/“a living being”)

You might compare hearing something along the lines of “When the ship went down, 200 souls were lost.” What is meant in that statement is that 200 human beings/living persons drowned. Also, think about a statement like “He felt the sting of her words deep down in his soul.” Couldn’t we replace soul with heart there, and have exactly the same sense?

At any rate, the point is that humans are made up of body and spirit (two things), not body, spirit, and soul (three things).

Types of death

Death > Types of

There are three “types of death” that human beings can experience:

Physical death
Spiritual death (spiritual separation from God)
Eternal death (also called the “second death”)—spending eternity in the Lake of Fire, eternally separated from God

When Satan told Eve that she would “surely not die” in Genesis 3:4, he spoke a half-truth. While disobeying God did not cause immediate physical death for Adam and Eve, their actions caused immediate spiritual death (spiritual separation from God), and in fact would cause eventual physical death… even if not instantaneously. Further, if God had not provided a gracious means of escape for us in the blood of Jesus Christ (symbolized and foreshadowed by God’s gifting of the animal skins in Genesis 3:21, which is often called the protoevangelium), all of us—Adam and Eve included—would necessarily face certain eternal death as well.

Our present topic is focused upon the first type of death: physical death.

Defining terms: physical death means someone’s human spirit departs their physical body

Death > Physical death is when someone's human spirit departs their physical body Interpretation > Semantic overloading - words with unique connotations stemming from multiple meanings

When someone dies physically, their human spirit leaves their physical body; they cease breathing. Wording things that way is in fact precisely the proper way to think about it since in both Hebrew (ruach, רוּחַ) and Greek (pneuma, πνεῦμα), the exact same word is used for both spirit and breath. That is to say, the human spirit is present when breath is present, and not when not.

I should note that the fact that this identical duality in meaning is present across both languages is at least somewhat noteworthy. Hebrew and Greek are not at all linguistically related (Hebrew being a Semitic language, and Greek being an Indo-European language), so the fact that both languages have this same exact concept points to a universal spiritual truth. (One might also compare Latin’s spiritus, which also has the same dual meanings, but contrast the two separate German nouns geist and atem, and the fact that we have two separate words in English too).

Regardless, the key takeaway point is that physical death is the removal of someone’s human spirit from their physical body.

What happens after that?

Death > What happens after physical death

Finally, after all that groundwork, we are ready to start addressing the main thrust of the question. Put simply, what happens after physical death, and are things any different in the case of a person who will be resuscitated?

Let’s start with the “normal” case, and explain the general mechanics of things.

Before Christ’s ascension vs. after Christ’s ascension vs. in eternity proper

Death > Locations of believers and unbelievers after physical death

Discussing what happens after physical death for humans is complicated by the fact that it has not been constant throughout human history, and where/how we will spend eternity with God in the New Heavens and New Earth is yet again different.

Since some of these topics are ultimately a bit tangential to the present matter, I’m not going to spend too much time here, but a brief summary of the basics is in order.

“Heavenly geography”

Heavenly geography

My mentor created a picture to describe what can be termed “heavenly geography”:

Heavenly Geography

Some brief notes:

The “Waters Above” and “Waters Below” separate the three main divisions from each other. Compare the “sea of glass” mentioned in Revelation 4:6 and Revelation 15:2.
The Third Heaven is where the Father currently resides, separated from the world due to the tainting presence of sin in this current creation. This will no longer be the case (i.e., the Father will no longer be separated from us, but will dwell alongside us) when this current creation is destroyed and replaced with the New Heavens and New Earth at the end of history.
The Kosmos (composed of the Earth and the shamayim = “heavens” plural = Earth’s atmosphere and the wider universe) is where we currently dwell.
Hades (or “Sheol” or “the Grave”) is composed of further subdivisions:
- “Abraham’s Bosom”, or paradise: the “good part” of Hades where pre-cross believers used to be located. (We’ll talk more about that in a moment).
- “Torments”: the “bad part” of Hades where unbelievers go to await the Great White Throne Judgement at the end of history.
- “The Abyss” or “Tartarus”: where certain fallen angels are currently incarcerated on account of transgressing God’s limitations put upon them (see 2 Peter 2:4, and cf. Jude 1:6).
- “The Lake of Fire”: where all unbelieving humans and angels will be cast for all eternity (although it is presently uninhabited, and will remain as such until that future point of irreversible judgement).

I should note that in English, we tend to be a bit loose with how we use the word “hell”. In practice, sometimes people mean by it Torments (where unbelievers are before the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of history), and sometimes they mean the Lake of Fire (the final resting place of unbelievers in eternity). Those two places are technically distinct from one another, although neither is pleasant in the least.

Before Christ’s ascension

Death > Locations of believers and unbelievers after physical death > Changed after Christ's ascension

Before the events described in Ephesians 4:7-10 (Christ’s ascension), pre-cross believers went to Hades, into the part of it known as “Abraham’s Bosom”. This is where Lazarus and Abraham are in Luke 16:19-31. As we mentioned before, Hades contains multiple subdivisions, including Abraham’s Bosom and another section (called “Torments”) where unbelieving humans go after death. The two sections are separated by a great chasm, such that nobody can cross between the two sections. (This is what Luke 16:26 is getting at).

Abraham’s Bosom, though separate from the presence of the Father, was not some neutral or negative holding space or prison, but was a form of paradise (cf. Eden).

After Christ’s ascension

Death > Locations of believers and unbelievers after physical death > Changed after Christ's ascension

After the events described in Ephesians 4:7-10 (Christ’s ascension), all of those who were previously in Abraham’s Bosom were led by Christ into the presence of the Father in the Third Heaven. This is the victory Christ won for us on the cross: the veil of separation between us and God was completely and utterly split. When the Father accepted Christ’s payment for our sins, death was defeated, and God now sees believing humans only through the blood of Christ. Therefore, since then, when believers die, they join all of our previously-departed brothers and sisters in the Third Heaven, where our ancient forebears were led after Christ’s ascension.

Unbelievers still go to Torments in Hades, however. That part has stayed consistent.

In eternity proper

Death > Locations of believers and unbelievers after physical death > Are different in eternity

There is described in Revelation a period of 1,000 literal years known as the Millennium, wherein Christ will rule from Jerusalem in this present creation. It will be a time of overflowing peace and prosperity like no other time before.

But eternity proper is different from the Millennium. At the end of history, this current creation will be destroyed (Cf. Psalm 102:26; Isaiah 13:13; Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 51:6; Matthew 24:35; Revelation 6:14; Revelation 20:11). Then God will create the New Heavens and New Earth, the New Jerusalem will descend, and we will dwell there in perfect bliss for all eternity (with no more tears, no more pain, and perfect fellowship with not only each other, but also elect angels and God).

That is the eternal state of believers and elect angels. By way of contrast, unbelievers will find themselves thrown into the Lake of Fire for all eternity, alongside Satan and the other fallen angels.

Wait, is it just human spirits in these places? But what about resurrection bodies?

Heaven > Is upon the surface of the Earth in eternity, not up in the clouds Resurrection > Bodies obtained after resurrection

Unfortunately, a lot of “pop culture” representations of heaven involve pearly gates, clouds, floating gold streets, and what have you—things that make it seem somehow floaty and ephemeral rather than physical. This is not compatible with the Bible’s descriptions of the afterlife.

The Bible is clear that in final resurrection we will be “like” Christ (1 John 3:2, and cf. 1 Corinthians 15:35-58), and will dwell upon the remade Earth (now free from sin and death) rather than up in the clouds somewhere. We will have bodies that are incorruptible, “spiritual bodies” that will be ruled over by spiritual impulses rather than the sinful fleshly ones like we have at present. We can only grasp the barest outlines of exactly what this means, but the key point is that our spirits will still be housed in bodies, even if they are different than the ones we are now in.

So what about before the resurrection, we might ask? Did the people in Abraham’s Bosom have bodies of some form? What about those in the Third Heaven now?

Interim bodies

Interim bodies > Bodies obtained after physical death but before resurrection Interpretation > Inferences have their place when they only go so far as the evidence allows Textual criticism > Places where it matters > 1 Corinthians 5:3

The answer to these questions is yes—people in the afterlife (even before the resurrection) have bodies too. Recall at the beginning of today’s video how we talked about the composition of humans—how we are composed of body and spirit. How could humans exist as only spirit? It is simply not how God has made us, ontologically speaking.

Clothing is a metaphor employed in the Bible for the concept of human spirits being joined with physical bodies (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1-4; Revelation 6:11, 7:9). For a human to be, well, a human, a human spirit must be embodied and joined with some form of “vessel” = a physical body.

Scripture therefore indirectly teaches a concept that my mentor has termed “interim bodies”. This is the idea that after we die physically but before the resurrection, human spirits of departed believers (in Abraham’s Bosom before, and now in the Third Heaven) are clothed by God in temporary bodies. Bodies of this sort are both distinct from the sort of body we possess in this life (that is, a fleshly body infested with sin), and the sort of resurrection body (like Christ’s) we shall eventually possess (the so-called “spiritual body”, or soma pneumatikon, of 1 Corinthians 15:44).

One of the reasons why this teaching is often missed or misunderstood is because of a complex textual issue relating to 2 Corinthians 5:3. Textual criticism is the art and science of figuring out what the original text of the Bible said; since the Bible was copied and recopied many times over the decades and centuries, changes could creep in and corrupt the text. The exact specifics of this particular textual matter are a bit beyond what I want to get into here (although see the link if interested in the gory technical details), but suffice it to say that the proper way to translate 2 Corinthians 5:3 is actually along the lines of “when we are un-clothed (i.e., because we have died, and our spirits have left our physical bodies), we will not be found naked (i.e., God will clothe our spirits with some new body)” rather than “when we are clothed (i.e., joined with a body of some form), we will not be found naked (i.e., we will not end up being disembodied)”. Note that the meaning is entirely flipped between those two options, and also note the nearly tautological sense of the second (incorrect) option.

To put that into a bit plainer English: 2 Corinthians 5:3—when translated using the correct textual base—says that when we put off our present bodies when we die physically, we will not be found naked in the sense of being without a body for our human spirit. Ergo, interim bodies.

There is other evidence too:

In Luke 16:19-31, do disembodied spirits have tongues that experience heat (Luke 16:24)? How could one recognize Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man if they were merely disembodied spirits when in Hades?
Compare again those verses from Revelation that mention the white robes: Revelation 6:11, 7:9. Do disembodied spirits have robes? But they couldn’t be resurrection bodies there either, since the resurrection hasn’t yet occurred.
Etc.

I should be clear that there is very much here we do not know. For example, a quote from my mentor:

Quote from Ichthys

We have very little to go on when it comes to the constitution of the interim body (just the passages I have cited previously [that is, 2 Corinthians 5:3; Revelation 6:11, 7:9]). Revelation calls it a “white sheet to wear”; 2nd Corinthians also uses the clothing analogy saying that we “won’t be found naked”; and in Luke 16 both those in paradise and those in torments are recognizable, can speak, reason, and seemingly function in most important ways just as we presently can. Were I to speculate, I would say that the materiality or physicality of the interim body is less pronounced than for either of the other two. We know that we can eat in both the natural and resurrection bodies (cf. Lk.24:40-43), but there is neither need nor (probably) opportunity to eat in the interim state (whether it be the paradise of the past or the third heaven of the present), and I would imagine that this is true of much of the physical interaction which is commonplace now and will be after the resurrection again. Then again, the rich man asks Abraham to have Lazarus dip the tip of his finger into water to cool his tongue - it doesn’t happen, of course, but it may be that he was observing eating in drinking across the “great fixed gulf” (I can’t say for sure).

So answering that question of “what happens after physical death, in the normal case?”

Death > What happens after physical death > Believers

Assuming we are talking about a believer:

Before Christ’s ascension, they would have ended up in Abraham’s Bosom in Hades, in an interim body.
After Christ’s ascension, they will end up in the Third Heaven, in an interim body.

And then after the resurrection, each person shall possess a resurrection body, just like Christ’s body after he was resurrected. The soma pneumatikon of 1 Corinthians 15:44.

And what about for those who are resuscitated?

Death > What happens after physical death > For those who were resuscitated

Put simply, matters of the afterlife are no different when it comes to those people who are resuscitated, except they go backwards from the interim body state to the physical world in addition to the normal forward version of that passage, whereas others only ever make that transition in the forwards direction alone. Once they make the transition the second time (i.e., die for the second time after being resuscitated), it is as if there were nothing irregular about their afterlife experience at all.

That is to say, when Jairus’ daughter died the first time (assuming for the sake of argument she met the standards of belief necessary for salvation at the time of Matthew 9), she would have found herself in Abraham’s Bosom in an interim body, until her human spirit was called back to her physical body here in the world, at which point the interim body in Abraham’s Bosom would have no longer been necessary. But then, after she lived out the remainder of her days, she would once again have died physically, and if she was still a believer, she would have again found herself in an interim body (although probably now in the Third Heaven, since she would have likely died long after Jesus had ascended, since she was so young at the time of His ministry).

Transcript (click to show)

Video/audio transcript

00:00 00:00 - hey guys so right now in this lesson we’re going to be talking about how the concept of resuscitation affects the
00:08 00:08 - afterlife so to kind of be able to properly explain this one we’re going to have to talk about what the afterlife is
00:15 00:15 - normally like for us as Christians so where do Believers go where do unbelievers go what will happen at the
00:21 00:21 - end of History before the resurrection things like this so we kind of have a lot of stuff to get out of the way first
00:28 00:28 - before we can sort of prop address the question as such so first we’re going to talk about the nature and composition of
00:35 00:35 - human beings how we are made of body and spirit and what that means exactly we’re going to talk about types of death so
00:43 00:43 - there is physical death there is spiritual death which is separation from God and then there is uh Eternal death
00:50 00:50 - also sometimes called the second death and uh specifically here we’re going to be talking about physical death and then
00:56 00:56 - we’re going to be defining what exactly that means and so physical death is when someone’s human Spirit departs their
01:01 01:01 - physical body and then what happens after someone dies physically well we have to spend some time talking about
01:08 01:08 - where people go after they die and so to do that we’re going to have to talk about um so-called Heavenly geography
01:14 01:14 - here uh so the third heaven versus Hades versus this world and there’s some subdivisions in what we term Hades also
01:24 01:24 - known as sheld or the grave so Abraham’s bosom or Paradise torments the abyss the Lake of Fire we’re going to be going
01:32 01:32 - over some terms like this and then we’re going to talk about how things are a little bit different uh before Christ
01:38 01:38 - descends which is described in Hebrews chapter 4: 7-10 and how things change after that um and then we’re also going
01:46 01:46 - to talk about well where are we going to be in eternity all of this describes quote unquote where people go when they
01:52 01:52 - die and so this is all like the normal uh the normal thing um how how things work for people people who die normally
02:00 02:00 - and there is no resuscitation that’s a part of their uh afterlife experience and uh before we can even get
02:07 02:07 - to that we also still have to talk about how people experience these places before the resurrection so we’re going
02:14 02:14 - to introduce uh something called intern bodies uh a teaching that that holds that even before the resurrection uh
02:21 02:21 - human beings that have died are not just floating around disembodied as spirits but have these temporary intern bodies
02:28 02:28 - uh until they reive their Resurrection bodies like 1 Corinthians chapter 15 talks about and so that will all
02:35 02:35 - describe how life after death works in the case that there is no resuscitation and so that’s kind of like all that to
02:43 02:43 - lead up to that and then finally we’re just going to have one slide actually that’s going to talk about well what
02:49 02:49 - about people who are resuscitated what is different for them and we’re basically going to argue that well
02:54 02:54 - nothing is really different for them other than they go backwards once rather than everyone else who only goes
03:00 03:00 - forwards in this uh the state transition if you will and so that is what we’re going to be examining here in this
03:10 03:10 - lesson so first of all kind of restating this question of what we’re kind of setting out to
03:16 03:16 - address we are going to be talking here about how the concept of resuscitation affects the afterlife or the experience
03:25 03:25 - that we as Believers might have after we die and so the idea is kind of like where did Lazarus and gyrus daughter go
03:32 03:32 - when they died considering they were resuscitated and not resurrected like we will be uh at the end of history but
03:40 03:40 - they also kind of didn’t have the normal afterlife experience and so we’re going to be talking about well are things
03:44 03:44 - different for people who were resuscitated like this like where did they go in between when they were dead
03:50 03:50 - physically and then they came back to life like what happened there and so to do all of that like we just went over in
03:56 03:56 - the outline we have to kind of do a lot of things first before we can get there to talk about that situation
04:05 04:05 - specifically so as you can see lots of text on this slide this is the first of the background topics we kind of have to
04:14 04:14 - talk about to be able to properly discuss the matters at play here so we’re going to be talking about the
04:19 04:19 - nature and composition of human beings so human beings are what we are going to term dichotomus that is they are
04:27 04:27 - composed of two distinct parts emphasis on two rather than for example one or three and so those two parts that
04:36 04:36 - compose human beings are body and spirit there is no third thing and so you might hear that termed in Latin a tertium quid
04:47 04:47 - um it’s just a Latin for third thing um but you know that has been used in philosophical discussions about such
04:54 04:54 - things um so there is no third thing it is just body and spirit but I should should say that this point is actually
05:01 05:01 - pretty widely misunderstood uh because a lot of people think that there is another thing and we would call that
05:08 05:08 - Soul people think that it’s Body Spirit and soul not just body and spirit but biblically speaking we don’t have souls
05:17 05:17 - we are souls and so that is to say a soul is the combination of body and spirit together that makes us us and so
05:25 05:25 - the word that we translate as soul in Hebrew is neph and in Greek it is psuk and so you might
05:33 05:33 - compare the English word psyche there which is actually basically transliteration of that Greek word um
05:39 05:39 - and so both of these languages um have you know these other words that we translate or rather that uh the
05:47 05:47 - translators the Bible versions often translate as soul but it’s actually not the only thing that those words can mean
05:55 05:55 - and so as I say because I think there’s kind of a lot of misunder standing on this particular Point um especially over
06:02 06:02 - all the centuries that people have written about this I’m not the biggest fan of translating these Greek and
06:07 06:07 - Hebrew words with the word Soul just because of all the quotative baggage that that term has picked up over time
06:15 06:15 - so these two Greek and Hebrew words so nephesh in Hebrew and psuk in Greek can be better translated in my opinion um as
06:23 06:23 - appropriate based on context so you kind of have to make sure you’re picking the an appropriate word in what ever
06:29 06:29 - circumstances you need to translate with with these other words so like I said these these words in Greek and Hebrew
06:35 06:35 - can also be translated as heart or mind or person or life in the sense of a human life or a living being um and so
06:48 06:48 - all of these things now if you think about it for a sec you will notice that when you think about exactly what the
06:54 06:54 - definition of soul is in English you can kind of see how these other things uh become equivalent to it in the
07:01 07:01 - circumstances in which we use them and so uh in our particular discussion here you might think of hearing something
07:09 07:09 - like when the ship went down 200 Souls were lost um and so what someone means if they say something like that
07:17 07:17 - unfortunate occurrence would be that 200 human beings or living persons drowned when the ship you know crashed or
07:25 07:25 - capsized or whatever um and then you could also think of a statement like he felt the sting of her words deep down in
07:32 07:32 - his soul couldn’t we replace soul with heart there and have exactly the same sense and so you can kind of see how you
07:40 07:40 - can substitute these other words uh for circumstances in which we would use this word in English and you don’t lose
07:47 07:47 - meaning um but those are both mapping back to these same words in Hebrew and Greek so nephesh and psuk that we
07:55 07:55 - translate as soul you can also translate with these other words and so so the core point that we are making here is
08:02 08:02 - that actually humans are only made up of these two things we’re made up of body and spirit and there is no third thing
08:09 08:09 - there is no tertium quid we are dichotomus not trotus and so we only have body and spirit not Body Spirit and
08:17 08:17 - soul and so uh we have to do a little bit of thinking when we translate here to make sure we’re using the right word
08:25 08:25 - um so for example if we’re referring to a life as in you know a human life or we are referring to you know something
08:34 08:34 - going on the battle for human hearts and Minds you could say the battle for human Souls um so you kind of have to figure
08:41 08:41 - out you know what’s the appropriate word to replace it with in Translation but the reason why we might want to avoid
08:49 08:49 - using the word Soul when we translate is because of all of the connotative baggage that word has people tend to uh
08:58 08:58 - think that soul is something different than body and spirit that it’s some third thing that we are made up of when
09:05 09:05 - that’s just not the case and so to kind of sidestep problems there in my opinion and in the opinion of other people I’m
09:11 09:11 - not the only one who feels this way um it it kind of makes sense to avoid using it just because it kind of makes things
09:18 09:18 - unclear or ambiguous because different people use the word differently and so it’s not wrong like as I say if we
09:26 09:26 - understand properly that Souls are the composition of body and spirit together you know the thing that makes us us uh
09:34 09:34 - we have this battle going on in our hearts and our minds like galatian chapter 5 talks about well that is our
09:41 09:41 - soul that is who we are um so if you understand that definition it’s not like it’s a a bad word or anything it’s just
09:49 09:49 - that a lot of people take it to mean different things and so it can be kind of unclear if we use it exactly what we
09:55 09:55 - mean by it and so for that reason kind of makes sense when we’re having these conversations about what human beings
10:01 10:01 - are composed of to only stick with flesh and spirit and just if we need to translate these words from Greek or
10:08 10:08 - Hebrew nephesh or PUK to use heart or mind or person or life or one of these other translations just so that it
10:15 10:15 - doesn’t trip other people up all right so that was the first of the background topics we need to cover
10:25 10:25 - next we’re going to be talking about types of death so there are actually three types of death that human beings
10:32 10:32 - can experience and so we would say that when we think of death as a concept we can actually kind of be referring to
10:39 10:39 - different things here so first of all there is physical death then there’s spiritual death which by that we would
10:47 10:47 - mean spiritual separation from God and then finally there’s Eternal death which you might also hear called the second
10:55 10:55 - death and that is spending eternity in the Lake of Fire etern eternally separated from God and so this is not
11:02 11:02 - what we want to experience and un and believers do not face this this is the fate of unbelievers of those who are
11:08 11:08 - unwilling to submit to God and so a passage that is kind of related to this distinctions between death uh concept if
11:17 11:17 - you will is Genesis chter 3:4 when Satan told Eve that she would surely not die if she ate of the fruit and so when he
11:26 11:26 - said that he spoke a half truth while disobeying God did not cause immediate physical death for Adam and Eve and so
11:33 11:33 - this would kind of be Satan’s Hal truuth here is that when Eve ate of the fruit she didn’t immediately Keel over dead so
11:41 11:41 - she did not die physically instantaneously but nonetheless this action caused immediate spiritual death
11:49 11:49 - that spiritual separation from God Adam and Eve hid from the Lord God once they’d eaten of the fruit they knew they
11:55 11:55 - were naked it caused this barrier of separation between man and God that was not previously there that’s spiritual
12:02 12:02 - death and in fact eating of this fruit would cause eventual physical death even if not instantaneously um so because of
12:10 12:10 - this Adam and Eve would die eventually previously they were Immortal they were undying they did not experience death in
12:17 12:17 - any sense of the word but now because of this they were separated from God they faced spiritual death and now they would
12:25 12:25 - eventually face physical death as well and even more than that if God had not provided a gracious means of Escape for
12:34 12:34 - us in the blood of Jesus Christ which is actually symbolized and foreshadowed in Genesis chter 3 verse 21 when God made
12:43 12:43 - garments of skin for Adam and his wife um that is animals were killed their blood was shed to clothe Adam and Eve um
12:52 12:52 - this is often called the Proto evangelium or First Gospel this represents um symb symbolizes and
12:59 12:59 - foreshadows the blood of Christ covering us and reconciling us to God all the way back in the very beginning of the Bible
13:06 13:06 - in Genesis chapter 3 we already see God’s Redemptive plan for Humanity uh being played out and of course that
13:12 13:12 - comes up in the prophecy uh just a few verses before this as well but in any case if God hadn’t clothed Us in the
13:21 13:21 - blood of Jesus Christ all of us Adam and Eve included would necessarily face certain Eternal death from God as well
13:28 13:28 - or sorry Eternal death separation from God as well so that is you know being separated from God in the Lake of Fire
13:35 13:35 - for all eternity a horrible fate that would be where we would all end up if God hadn’t out of his grace and mercy
13:43 13:43 - sent Jesus Christ to die for us so these are the three types of death now in our present study where we’re talking about
13:51 13:51 - the idea of the afterlife and how resuscitation might be related to it we’re going to be focusing on the first
13:56 13:56 - type of death specifically and so that is physical death and so if we say we’re going to be
14:05 14:05 - focusing on physical death here well that kind of means we should Define the term what does physical death mean
14:12 14:12 - exactly and so we’re going to be saying that physical death means that someone’s human Spirit departs their physical body
14:20 14:20 - and so we would actually probably term this that someone dies when they cease breathing um now the reason why this
14:28 14:28 - assoc is uh kind of the right way to think about it it’s good and proper for us to
14:33 14:33 - say this is because the words in both Hebrew and Greek for breath and spirit are the same word that is this Hebrew
14:44 14:44 - word here ruak and this Greek word Numa uh these both mean both breath and spirit the same word is used for both
14:53 14:53 - Concepts and so that’s why this is how we should talk about it it’s how the Bible talks about it just implicitly
15:00 15:00 - through the languages the human Spirit again spirit being defined by these words is present when breath is present
15:09 15:09 - and not when not and so we don’t need to go get down on I don’t know all the specifics of well what happens if
15:15 15:15 - someone’s heart stops beating because they have a heart attack and and but then they come back a couple minutes
15:20 15:20 - later uh the point here is that the association between these words is such that breath and life are very closely
15:28 15:28 - related linguistically speaking um and so in their languages these words are related so jumping down a little bit
15:37 15:37 - this paragraph here this is actually also true in Latin so the word for spirit and breath in Latin is spir to
15:45 15:45 - and so that is a third language here where you can kind of clearly see this Association um it’s not all languages
15:52 15:52 - though interestingly so German has two separate words for spirit and breath gist and ATM and we have have two
15:58 15:58 - separate words in English too that is spirit and breath right we don’t use the same word for both of them but you can
16:04 16:04 - see here in Hebrew and Greek and Latin there is this association between breathing and having a spirit that is
16:12 16:12 - being physically alive because when people die their Spirit leaves their physical body alongside their breath
16:19 16:19 - they no longer breathe they’re no longer alive and so this identical duality in meaning the fact that it’s there in both
16:27 16:27 - Greek and Hebrew and actually Latin and some other languages as well um this is actually kind of noteworthy um because
16:33 16:33 - Hebrew and Greek are not related linguistically speaking um so Greek and Latin are both Greek and Latin are what
16:41 16:41 - are known as Indo-European languages they kind of share a family tree if you will but Hebrew is not completely
16:48 16:48 - different language tree Hebrew is a Semitic language and so the fact that both of these languages have the same
16:55 16:55 - exact concept kind of points to a universal spiritual truth that is this is the way the world is this is a a
17:04 17:04 - spiritual reality because all these languages have the same concept and so this is kind of similar to this other
17:11 17:11 - video in the series here talking about death and sleep it’s another case where that Association crosses languages will
17:19 17:19 - so to here with this idea of breath and spirit being one and the same thing so all that technical discussion aside the
17:30 17:30 - key takeaway Point here is that physical death is the removal of someone’s human Spirit from their physical body and if
17:37 17:37 - you remember uh just before we had talked about how human beings are composed of body and spirit and so
17:44 17:44 - physical death is when a human being has their Spirit separated from their physical body um so their physical body
17:52 17:52 - uh is buried it is no longer animated if you will by their Spirit um so maybe that can be confusing you know it’s
18:02 18:02 - maybe why we don’t always use that language when we explain this but the idea is that physical death means that
18:08 18:08 - someone’s human Spirit has been separated from their body all right so that kind of lays the
18:18 18:18 - groundwork we need to to start talking about exactly what happens after someone dies and so before we can even get there
18:25 18:25 - we have to talk about well first of all what is dying is physical death and to properly explain that physical death is
18:32 18:32 - the removal of the human Spirit from the body we had to talk about well humans are made up of body and spirit right
18:38 18:38 - because that’s related and we also had to talk about how there’s you know different types of death and physical
18:43 18:43 - death specifically is the one we’re talking about so after all of that we kind of get here where we’re ready to
18:47 18:47 - start addressing the main thrust of the question that what happens after someone dies and is it different in the case of
18:54 18:54 - a person who will be resuscitated and so the procedure I’m going to use here to explain this is first we’re going to
19:01 19:01 - kind of talk about the quote unquote normal case so for someone who will not be resuscitated what does their path to
19:08 19:08 - the afterlife look like and then we’re going to circle back at the very end and talk about well are things different or
19:14 19:14 - are they the same for a person who will be resuscitated now before we can get too
19:23 19:23 - far here we actually have to make another point and that is that what happens after you die actually isn’t the
19:30 19:30 - same across all of human history and so there are sort of three states here that we’re going to be talking about there is
19:37 19:37 - before Christ’s Ascension after Christ’s Ascension and in eternity proper so where you go when you die has not been
19:46 19:46 - constant throughout human history and how and where we will spend eternity with God in the new heavens and new
19:54 19:54 - earth is yet again different from both states that that uh Believers have when they die before eternity so eternity
20:03 20:03 - proper that is new heavens and new earth will be yet a a third possible state that people will experience after they
20:11 20:11 - die relative to what happens after they die before Christ’s Ascension and after Christ’s Ascension and then after the
20:19 20:19 - resurrection all three of these are different and so some of these topics are a bit tangential to this present
20:25 20:25 - matter so I’m really not going to spend too much time here like we could probably make a video on each honestly
20:31 20:31 - say speaking but we’re just going to kind of try to summarize the basics of these Concepts just so that we can
20:37 20:37 - explain well what does the afterlife experience look like in the normal case because we kind of have to talk about
20:43 20:43 - this to be able to talk about what you know what happens after you die in a general sense well if you don’t know
20:48 20:48 - where people go or what it’s like you have a hard time explaining what the afterlife is like right so we kind of
20:54 20:54 - have to delve into a bit of this but we’re not going to get super off in the Weeds on some of the technical details
21:00 21:00 - so in this section I’m not so much going to be uh establishing this with I don’t know scholarly arguments and lots of
21:06 21:06 - verse references and stuff I’m just going to be kind of saying this is how it is and I’m not going to try to prove
21:11 21:11 - it so much other than saying well in my understanding and reading of scripture and the Bible’s evidence this is what
21:17 21:17 - the afterlife is like and so we’re just going to kind of assert it in summary form here and then we’re going to
21:22 21:22 - describe what happens when people die and what their experience in the afterlife is uh after we’ve gone through
21:28 21:28 - and summarized some of these topics here all right so this slide look a picture it’s not just text this time uh
21:38 21:38 - the first thing we’re going to talk about is sort of answering the where question so where do people go when they
21:45 21:45 - die and um to answer that we’re going to kind of look at what can be termed quote unquote Heavenly geography here and so
21:53 21:53 - starting at the top not that it’s like necessarily two-dimensional but you know conceptually speaking uh we’re going to
22:00 22:00 - start with the third heaven so this is where the throne room of God the father is um and you know we’re we’re gonna
22:07 22:07 - talk about all this in the next slide here um so I’ll you know switch back and forth but um the third heaven is
22:14 22:14 - separated from this present Universe uh by a barrier that we’re going to call the waters above so when Genesis the
22:23 22:23 - creation account talks about separating the waters above and the waters below I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that
22:29 22:29 - or if that sounds familiar it’s actually has a purpose more than just I don’t know that land came out of water in the
22:36 22:36 - creation account like it is talking about this this ontological reality of how the universe is constructed of how
22:44 22:44 - you know God is separate from our present physical creation ever more important after the presence of sin in
22:51 22:51 - this world um but there is a separating barrier between the third heaven and this present world this Cosmos under the
22:59 22:59 - control of Satan and ruled by sin um in our present times and so there’s that separating barrier and then within this
23:08 23:08 - Cosmos we have the heavens and the earth now Heavens is actually plural in Hebrew um so it’s not you know we might say uh
23:17 23:17 - in English we might say the sky and the sky we would typically mean like the atmosphere but if you say night sky
23:23 23:23 - you’re usually not just talking about like I don’t know like the stratosphere around Earth but also stars in the
23:29 23:29 - universe right so kind of same concept in Hebrew shamayim is plural and it is talking about kind of Earth’s atmosphere
23:37 23:37 - like clouds and whatnot and also the universe beyond um and then Earth is our planet um and so this is this world this
23:46 23:46 - Cosmos that we presently inhabit and then there’s another barrier separating uh the this present world this creation
23:55 23:55 - from what we’re going to term Hades and so kind of explaining some of this more you may also hear Hades termed Shel or
24:03 24:03 - the grave um these are all descriptions of the same place that in terms of heavenly geography is separate from the
24:11 24:11 - third heaven and separate from Earth and all of these all of these are separated by these barriers the so-called Waters
24:20 24:20 - above and Waters below so on those separating Waters um there’s a couple verses in Revelation that talk about a
24:27 24:27 - sea of GL so Revelation 4: 6 says Before the Throne there was something like a sea of
24:34 24:34 - glass like Crystal and in the center and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind so
24:40 24:40 - Revelation 4:6 mentions the sea of glass and also Revelation 15:2 again describing what it’s like in
24:49 24:49 - the third heaven and I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who had been Victorious over the
24:56 24:56 - beast in His image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God so from here this
25:04 25:04 - sea of glass this is what we’re talking about with this separating barrier between the third heaven and this
25:09 25:09 - present Cosmos um these these barriers divide the Heavenly geography if you will into three distinct categories the
25:18 25:18 - third heaven uh this Cosmos the devil’s World which is composed of the heavens and the Earth and then Hades or what
25:27 25:27 - would also you might also hear it just term the underworld generally you know that’s a staple in mythological systems
25:33 25:33 - but um Hades or Shield or The Grave is the third division so as kind of mentioned a little bit before the third
25:41 25:41 - heaven is where the father currently resides separated from the world due to the tainting presence of sin in this
25:47 25:47 - current creation so this will no longer be the case that is the father will no longer be separated from us but will
25:54 25:54 - actually dwell alongside us when this current creation is destroyed and replaced with the new heavens and the
26:00 26:00 - new Earth at the end of history and so that is take this middle section here this present Cosmos the devil’s world we
26:08 26:08 - would say under the control of Satan uh you can contrast Ephesians chapter 2 the prince of the power of the air um Satan
26:15 26:15 - is temporarily in control of the world not because he won a battle or something but because God has let him for the
26:21 26:21 - purpose of testing Humanity well this present heavens and earth will be destroyed we we’ll go over that a bit
26:28 26:28 - later um rolled up like a scroll replaced with the new heavens and the new Earth which won’t have sin anymore
26:34 26:34 - and at that point in time God the Father will dwell alongside us and elect angels and we’ll all have perfect fellowship
26:41 26:41 - with each other in eternity but this middle part will get replaced is what I’m saying um but in the meantime the
26:49 26:49 - father is separate from this present World due to the tainting present of sin um and so the cosmos this present world
26:57 26:57 - is composed of Earth and the shamayim mentioned this before plural Heavens uh referring to Earth’s atmosphere in The
27:05 27:05 - Wider universe and so this is where we currently dwell this is what we would call SpaceTime in the universe um and so
27:13 27:13 - we are here for a finite amount of time until we die until we go meet our maker we Face judgment um this is where human
27:22 27:22 - beings are tested will we believe in God will we choose to follow him in this world controlled by Satan will we make
27:30 27:30 - the right choices this period of testing occurs in the cosmos uh as I said right now under the temporary control of Satan
27:39 27:39 - because God has let him usurp control for the purpose of testing humanity and then finally this third segment here
27:47 27:47 - Hades or sheld or the grave or the underworld well this third place is actually composed of some further
27:53 27:53 - subdivision so not on this picture here and I said I’m not I’m not like doing the full accounting of these things you
28:00 28:00 - know giving you all the scripture that supports all this or all of the logical argumentation to lay all this out I’m
28:06 28:06 - just kind of summarizing what I hold to be the truth about the organization of the underworld and you know like where
28:13 28:13 - people go when they die and things like that so not that I’m being uh you know kind of handwavy here I I do believe all
28:20 28:20 - this I think there is evidence for this but just kind of going through the summary version like I said so uh for
28:25 28:25 - Hades the further subdivis that are part of this uh one is sometimes known as Abraham’s bosom or
28:33 28:33 - Paradise um so this is the quote unquote good part of Hades and this is where pre- cross Believers used to be located
28:41 28:41 - and so we’ll talk more about what that used to be means in a moment here and then there is torments which is the
28:49 28:49 - quote-unquote bad part of Hades where unbelievers go to await the great white Throne Judgment at the end of history
28:56 28:56 - and so uh so-called great white Throne judgment well this is the Judgment of unbelievers um so there is a judgment at
29:04 29:04 - the end of the tribulation when Christ Returns the church is resurrected that’s when 1 Corinthians chapter 15 happens um
29:12 29:12 - and then at the end of human history right before the heavens and the Earth are remade there’s this judgment where
29:17 29:17 - unbelievers go before the great white Throne to be judged for their works now they’re not sent to hell because of
29:23 29:23 - their sin they’re sent to hell because of their rejection of Jesus Christ Jesus paid for all human sin on the cross so
29:30 29:30 - people don’t go to hell because of sin people go to hell because of unbelief um and so at any rate torments is where
29:38 29:38 - unbelievers go to await this final judgment so-called great white Throne judgment and so it’s a subdivision of
29:44 29:44 - Hades it’s not the same as Abraham’s bosom or Paradise which is the good part this is where unbelievers go and there’s
29:51 29:51 - actually another place uh so-called the abyss or Tartarus you know that might sound familiar if you know Greek
29:58 29:58 - mythology but you know don’t import all the associations there it’s not the same right it’s not like the Bible stole this
30:05 30:05 - thing from Greek mythology it’s just a word in Greek right um and so the abyss is where certain fallen angels are
30:13 30:13 - currently incarcerated on account of transgressing God’s limitations put on them so a couple verses here 1 Peter
30:20 30:20 - chapter 2 ver4 says if God did not spare Angels when they sinned but cast them into hell and commit them to pits of
30:28 30:28 - Darkness reserved for judgment that’s what we’re talking about here the abyss now keep in mind angels are creatures of
30:35 30:35 - light you know casting them into the pit of Eternal Darkness you know not going to do good things to creatures of light
30:42 30:42 - right um and then also Jude chapter 1 verse 6 here and Angels who did not keep their own domain but abandon their
30:50 30:50 - proper Abode he has kept in Eternal bonds under Darkness for the Judgment of that great day referring to to the same
30:57 30:57 - thing as that passage from second Peter um now this is actually not to get off topic this is referring to uh Angels
31:05 31:05 - breeding with human women in Genesis chapter 6 there’s these people called the Nephilim who were half angel um and
31:12 31:12 - so you know that is a kind of a controversial thing we’re not going to get into that here but um that is the
31:19 31:19 - sin of these angels for which they were incarcerated not allowed to mess with humans like that and so God chained them
31:26 31:26 - in the abyss second Peter 2:4 Jude 1 verse6 now Lake of Fire also a subdivision of Hades now this is where
31:37 31:37 - all unbelieving humans and angels will be cast for all eternity although it is presently uninhabited and will remain as
31:44 31:44 - such until that future point of irreversible judgment judgment before the great white Throne is when
31:50 31:50 - unbelievers are condemned to the Lake of Fire alongside Satan and all the Fallen Angels
31:57 31:57 - and so have you been following along with all this you might wonderwell where’s hell fit into this you know that
32:03 32:03 - is typically what we refer to as quote unquote the place where unbelievers go when they die well what do we mean by
32:10 32:10 - that and we are actually kind of loose with how we use this in English so in practice sometimes people mean by it
32:17 32:17 - torments so this part of Hades where unbelievers go to await the great white Throne judgment and then you know we
32:25 32:25 - also refer to it uh you know like as meaning like the final resting place of unbelievers like unbelievers go to hell
32:32 32:32 - for all time well in that sense if we use it in that way we’re actually kind of talking about the Lake of Fire those
32:38 32:38 - are actually technically speaking two distinct places of neither of them Pleasant both of them separated from God
32:45 32:45 - but not quite the same place in terms of heavenly geography so I’m sure this was a lot of information I kind of had to
32:54 32:54 - get through this like I said just to talk about well where where did people go when they die there’s there’s all
32:58 32:58 - these subdivisions and you know what is Heavenly geography like and what’s the difference between this present Cosmos
33:06 33:06 - and and Hades which is where people go when they die in the third heaven which is where Believers are currently which
33:13 33:13 - we’ll get to in a sec well what’s the difference between all these that’s kind of what we’ve been talking about
33:20 33:20 - here all right so we kind of hinted at this in our discussion of all of the places where people can end up after
33:27 33:27 - they die but things actually changed after Christ’s Ascension and so in Ephesians chapter 4 verses
33:35 33:35 - 7-10 um it describes you know Christ leading captivity captive that is one way you may hear this phrase now this
33:44 33:44 - link here is actually to uh a study in the Systematic Theology that my mentor has written about Jesus Christ so this
33:52 33:52 - is so-called christology a section of that study talks about the transfer of Believers from the Subterranean Paradise
34:00 34:00 - to the third heaven that is from Abraham’s bosom or Paradise in Hades to the third heaven with the father so in
34:07 34:07 - our picture they went from somewhere down here in the good part of Hades to the third heaven and this happened after
34:15 34:15 - Jesus ascended um and so this is why we say um things are different before and after Christ’s Ascension and so for uh
34:25 34:25 - pre cross believers when they died they went to Abraham’s bosom in Hades or the good part paradise and Hades um so in
34:36 34:36 - the Underworld Shield the grave whatever you want to call it um this part of heavenly geography that is separated by
34:43 34:43 - the waters below so not part of this universe but separate but also not in the presence of the Father which is
34:51 34:51 - where the third heaven is um so this is where Lazarus and Abraham are in Luke chapter 16 so with the parable of
34:59 34:59 - Lazarus and Abraham and the rich man Lazarus and Abraham are in this place that we would call Abraham’s bosom and
35:05 35:05 - in fact that’s where we get this term from um La Lazarus is said to be kind of by Abraham’s side in Abraham’s bosom
35:12 35:12 - right next to him um in Paradise in Hades so as we mentioned before Hades contains multiple subdivisions all these
35:20 35:20 - in fact right Paradise torments the abyss the Lake of Fire well this other place called torments This is where the
35:27 35:27 - man was in that parab um and so that is where unbelieving humans go after death to await the final judgment that great
35:35 35:35 - white Throne judgment and so these two sections that is Abraham’s bosom or paradise and torments are separated by a
35:43 35:43 - great Chasm such that nobody can cross between the two sections and so this is what Luke 16: 26 is getting at Luke
35:51 35:51 - 16:26 says between us and you there is a great Chasm fixed so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not
35:59 35:59 - be able and that none may cross over from there to us and so there is this big division between Abraham’s bosom and
36:07 36:07 - torments um because unbelievers get sent to torments they can’t go to paradise they are fixed they are bound and they
36:16 36:16 - will be there until Judgment Day um and so too for believers they do not go to torments they go to Abraham’s bosom and
36:25 36:25 - these are two separate places in their boundaries between them that’s what Luke 16: 26 is getting at now we should say
36:32 36:32 - in all this that Abraham’s bosom which is where pre cross Believers went to or rather like pre- Ascension Believers
36:38 36:38 - went to um well Abraham’s bosom even though it’s separate from the presence of the father because the father is in
36:44 36:44 - the third heaven like we said Hades is not the third heaven and Abraham’s bosom is a subdivision of Hades well even
36:51 36:51 - though Abraham’s bosom is separate from the presence of Father this was not some neutral or negative holding space or
36:59 36:59 - prison so like Purgatory not that we’re going to go there it’s not like neutral or even bad this was a form of paradise
37:07 37:07 - it is not the same as the third heaven and it’s not the same as the new heavens and the new Earth where we will live
37:12 37:12 - with God for all eternity like a final Paradise if you will and it’s also not the same as initial Paradise I.E the
37:19 37:19 - Garden of Eden but it is a form of paradise right a good place to be this is where Believers went before Christ
37:30 37:30 - ascension all right so that was before Christ’s Ascension now we’re going to talk about where Believers went after
37:36 37:36 - Christ’s Ascension so again as described in Ephesians chap 4: 7-10 all of those who were previously in Abraham’s bosom
37:43 37:43 - were led by Christ into the presence of the father in the third heaven and so we would say that this is the victory that
37:50 37:50 - Christ won for us on the cross the veil of separation between us and God was completely and utterly split we are no
37:58 37:58 - longer separate from God the veil has been torn into and so we are able to be in the presence of the father because he
38:07 38:07 - sees us through the blood of Christ when the father accepted Christ’s payment for our sins death Was Defeated and God now
38:15 38:15 - only sees believing humans through the blood of Christ and for this reason since then when Believers die they join
38:23 38:23 - all of our previously departed brothers and sisters in the third heaven where our ancient forebears were LED after
38:29 38:29 - Christ’s Ascension so after Christ ascends he takes his his seat at the right hand of God the father in The
38:35 38:35 - Third Heaven um believing humans up to that point were transferred to the presence of the third heaven because now
38:42 38:42 - after after Christ’s sacrifice had been rendered uh God sees us only through the blood of Christ so that’s the change
38:51 38:51 - that’s why they are now allowed into the presence of the father because they are covered in the blood of Christ
38:57 38:57 - positionally they had been saved before on credit so to speak because Christ paid for all human sin um upon the cross
39:05 39:05 - it wasn’t like their sin before was somehow like not punished um there’s this verse in Hebrews 3 chap or Hebrews
39:12 39:12 - 325 um that says God passed over the sins previously committed uh so Old Testament Believers uh before Christ uh
39:21 39:21 - you know payment for our sin on the cross and his resurrection and Ascension they were saved on credit so to speak
39:27 39:27 - because it was the blood of Christ that sacrificed that he died for us on the cross and and was judged in our place
39:34 39:34 - for human sin that’s what saves everybody past present and future and so Old Testament Believers positionally
39:40 39:40 - saved on credit here um but because the father now sees Believers through the blood of Christ that’s why we are able
39:49 39:49 - to be in the third heaven and that’s why they weren’t able to be in the third heaven before and so this is the change
39:55 39:55 - that happened after Christ Ascension as described in Hebrews 4: 7-10 now in this unbelievers didn’t change unbelievers
40:03 40:03 - still go to torments in Hades to await the great white Throne judgment that part stayed consistent it’s just that
40:09 40:09 - pre Ascension Believers went to Abraham’s bosom in Hades and post Christ Ascension Believers go straight to the
40:17 40:17 - third heaven in the presence of the father that is the thing that changed after Christ
40:25 40:25 - ascended now now if that wasn’t already enough for you we’re going to talk about eternity proper now as well and so there
40:32 40:32 - is described in Revelation a period of 1,000 literal years known as the Millennium wherein Christ will rule from
40:39 40:39 - Jerusalem in this present creation so not new heavens and new earth but in this present creation uh The Returned
40:45 40:45 - Christ you know he’s coming with the crown this time not the suffering servant um he will rule from Jerusalem
40:53 40:53 - in this present creation and it will be a time of overflowing peace and prosperity like no other time before now
40:59 40:59 - I should say that I am stating this as fact and I believe it is true um plenty of people disagree on this period known
41:06 41:06 - as the Millennium um there is a form of end times interpretation called a millennialism that doesn’t believe in
41:12 41:12 - Millennium at all and so we’re not going to get into that here just thought I should mention it that I am taking a
41:17 41:17 - position here um but in the Millennium literal 10,00 years under my interpretation and you know what I would
41:24 41:24 - say the Bible actually says because that’s what Revelation says um Christ will rule from this present creation but
41:31 41:31 - eternity proper is actually different from the Millennium because it’s a new creation new heavens and new earth so at
41:37 41:37 - the end of History this current creation will be destroyed so I have a lot of verse references here I’m not going to
41:43 41:43 - read all of them but um you know this this creation will be replaced new heavens and new earth one of these
41:52 41:52 - verses talks about um the Earth being rolled up like a stroll yeah here it is Isaiah
41:58 41:58 - 34:4 um the host of heaven will wear away and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll um so this present creation
42:06 42:06 - will be destroyed and then God will make the new heavens and the new Earth uh the New Jerusalem will descend from the sky
42:13 42:13 - and we will dwell there in perfect bliss for all eternity No More Tears no more pain and perfect Fellowship not only
42:21 42:21 - with each other but also elect angels and God God’s entire family those who have chosen for him in this life will
42:28 42:28 - all have perfect Fellowship in the new heavens and the new Earth and the New Jerusalem living with the father and so
42:34 42:34 - that is the Eternal state of Believers and elect Angels by way of contrast unbelievers will find themselves thrown
42:41 42:41 - into the Lake of Fire for all eternity alongside Satan and the other Fallen Angels so like a fire one of those
42:47 42:47 - subdivisions of Hades we talked about this is where people uh unbelievers will end up in final judgment for all of
42:55 42:55 - eternity um so as you can see you know this question of well where do you go when
43:01 43:01 - you die well are you talking about before Christ Ascension after Christ Ascension or after eternity here where
43:08 43:08 - will we be in you know the end state of things well all those are different and so that’s why this question kind of hard
43:14 43:14 - to answer uh just like simply or shortly that’s why kind of we’ve gone through uh this this General State of well where
43:22 43:22 - are the possible places you could go and when do you go to them like what divisions of History um were people
43:30 43:30 - going to these places and based on what events so that’s what we’ve talked about here obviously a lot of information but
43:36 43:36 - the point is that when you die uh or sorry rather when people have died throughout history Believers would have
43:42 43:42 - either ended up in Abraham’s bosom uh before Christ’s Ascension or into third heaven in the presence of the father
43:48 43:48 - after Christ’s Ascension and then in eternity we will be dwelling with God on the new heavens and the new Earth Earth
43:56 43:56 - in the New Jerusalem as described in the Book of Revelation but that won’t happen until the end of human history after
44:03 44:03 - this present universe that’s infested with sin is destroyed completely and God makes the new heavens and the new
44:13 44:13 - Earth okay now before we can get to actually answering that question of well what happens after you die we still have
44:20 44:20 - yet another facet to talk about and that is kind of in what form do we exist as I don’t know like beings after we die
44:30 44:30 - like are we just Spirits floating about or do we have physicality and so uh this is going to be the last general
44:38 44:38 - information topic I promise before we actually get to answering the main question and so fortunately we have a
44:45 44:45 - lot of explaining to do here too but this is the the last background thing that will help us explain exactly what
44:51 44:51 - the afterlife is like and so unfortunately a lot of pop culture ref representations of Heaven involve like
44:58 44:58 - Pearly Gates clouds floating gold streets and things like that uh things that make it seem somehow floaty and
45:05 45:05 - ephemeral and almost not real rather than something that’s physical and this isn’t at all compatible with the Bible’s
45:12 45:12 - descriptions of the afterlife there is physicality there especially new heavens and new earth this one people get very
45:19 45:19 - wrong because in eternity we won’t be walking around up in the sky somewhere we will be on the new Earth in the New
45:25 45:25 - Jerusalem like ground not Sky um it is completely different and so this is just you got to
45:32 45:32 - be careful about what I don’t know like connotations Heaven might pull up for you because a lot of what people think
45:39 45:39 - Heaven is it’s not really there like another one humans do not have wings in heaven that’s not a thing um you don’t
45:45 45:45 - earn your wings humans do not become Angels either so all sorts of problematic I don’t know teaching that
45:51 45:51 - you can pick up from popular representations of this that don’t have they’re grounding in the Bible so all
45:58 45:58 - that aside um unlike what some people think Heaven is not floaty and ephemeral it is physical it has physicality and so
46:07 46:07 - the Bible is real clear that in final Resurrection we will be quote unquote like Christ so that’s a direct quote
46:14 46:14 - here from 1 John chapter 3:2 says beloved now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will
46:22 46:22 - be we know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him just as he is so we will be like Christ we
46:30 46:30 - will have Resurrection bodies just how Christ did and then there’s this other passage here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15
46:38 46:38 - now uh some folks might just know off the top of their heads 1 Corinthians 15 one of the biggest passages in the Bible
46:44 46:44 - talking about resurrection and so we’re going to go ahead and read this whole thing and you know it’s a few paragraphs
46:50 46:50 - here so um it is just really important for talking about the resurrection for talking about about what bodies we will
46:57 46:57 - have and what our state will be like in the resurrection State you know not in temporary bodies as we’re about to talk
47:05 47:05 - about not in Abraham’s bosom not in the third heaven but once Believers are resurrected what happens so talking
47:13 47:13 - about the Revelation picking up in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 35 Paul says but someone will say how are the dead raised
47:21 47:21 - and with what kind of body do they come you fool that which you s does not come to life unless it dies and that which
47:29 47:29 - you sow you do not seow the body which is to be but a be grain perhaps of wheat or of something else but God gives it a
47:37 47:37 - body just as he wished and to each of the seeds a body of its own All Flesh is not the same flesh but there is one
47:44 47:44 - flesh of men and another flesh of Beast and another flesh of birds and another of fish there are also heavenly bodies
47:51 47:51 - and Earthly bodies but the glory of the Heavenly is one and the glory of the Earthly is another there is one glory of
47:58 47:58 - the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the stars for Star differs from star in glory so also is
48:05 48:05 - the resurrection of the dead it is sown a perishable body it is raised an imperishable body it is sown in dishonor
48:14 48:14 - it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a
48:22 48:22 - spiritual body if there is a natural body there is also Al a spiritual body so it is also written the first man Adam
48:30 48:30 - became a living Soul the last Adam became a lifegiving spirit so just pausing there that’s verse 45 1
48:38 48:38 - Corinthians 15:45 the last Adam is referring to Jesus Christ um so Adam became a living Soul the last Adam
48:45 48:45 - became a life-giving spirit that is what Christ did for us so picking up at verse 46 however the spiritual is not first
48:55 48:55 - but the natural natural than the spiritual the first man is from the earth earthy the second man again Jesus
49:02 49:02 - Christ here the second man is from Heaven as is the earthy so also are those who are earthy and as is the
49:09 49:09 - Heavenly so also are those who are Heavenly just as we have borne the image of the Earthly we will also bear the
49:16 49:16 - image of the Heavenly now I say this Brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the
49:24 49:24 - perishable inherit the Imp imperishable behold I tell you a mystery we will not all sleep but we will all be
49:32 49:32 - changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be
49:38 49:38 - raised imperishable and we will be changed for this perishable must put on the imperishable and this Mortal must
49:47 49:47 - put on immortality but when this perishable will have to put on the imperishable and this Mortal will have
49:53 49:53 - to put on immortality then will come about the saying that is written death is swallowed up in Victory oh death
50:00 50:00 - where is your Victory oh death where is your Sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks
50:08 50:08 - be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ therefore my beloved Brethren be steadfast
50:15 50:15 - immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your toil is not in vain in the
50:22 50:22 - Lord so don’t know exactly how long I read that for probably a few minutes there but 1 Corinthians 15 picking up at
50:29 50:29 - there verse 35 very important discussion in the Bible about resurrection and so I obviously don’t have enough time to
50:37 50:37 - unpack all of this I just wanted to give us the full context actually read that chapter um because it is critical to us
50:44 50:44 - understanding the difference between the bodies that we have here on Earth as humans versus the bodies we will have in
50:51 50:51 - Resurrection so we obviously see that in both these cases we have have bodies um so verse 44 it’s swn a natural body and
51:00 51:00 - raised a spiritual body if there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body direct quote from the Bible there
51:07 51:07 - is a body for us in eternity we will not be disembodied and so to pull us back to our discussion here on the slide we know
51:17 51:17 - that in final Resurrection we will have a body just how Christ had a body and so we will be living in the new heavens and
51:24 51:24 - the new Earth not up the clouds somewhere like we were talking about we will have bodies that are Incorruptible
51:31 51:31 - spiritual bodies as Paul puts it that will be ruled over by spiritual impulses rather than the sinful fleshly ones like
51:38 51:38 - we have at present now we can only kind of grasp the barest outlines of exactly what this means but the key point is
51:46 51:46 - that our spirits will still be housed in bodies even if they are different than the ones we are now in and obviously as
51:53 51:53 - this passage shows they will be different they are Heavenly because as is the earthy so also those who are
51:59 51:59 - earthy and as is the Heavenly so also those who are Heavenly we will bear the image of the Heavenly when we are
52:07 52:07 - resurrected so the question in all of this was that’s the resurrection State and right now we are in the earthy State
52:14 52:14 - we are in these these bodies presently corrupted and infested with sin and fleshly desire well what about before
52:21 52:21 - the resurrection we said the resurrection doesn’t happen until you know Jesus returns at the end of the
52:26 52:26 - tribulation this is before the Millennium that’s when Believers are resurrected that Judgment of Believers
52:32 52:32 - happens which is separate from the great white Throne judgment so kind of confusing apologies about that but
52:38 52:38 - before that before that Resurrection what were people like you know did they have bodies then because
52:44 52:44 - the bodies we talked about just there in 1 Corinthians 15 those are Resurrection bodies and the bodies we have now are
52:49 52:49 - fleshly Earthly bodies so what about in between did the people in Abraham’s bosom have bodies of something form what
52:56 52:56 - about those in the third heaven now so the place where people were LED after Christ’s
53:05 53:05 - Ascension so to answer that question we just raised here that is um do people in Abraham’s bosom have bodies and so to
53:14 53:14 - people in the third heaven the answer to that question we’re going to argue is yes people in the afterlife even before
53:21 53:21 - the resurrection as discussed in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 have bodies too and so you’ll recall at the beginning of
53:28 53:28 - today’s lesson we talked about the nature and composition of human beings we said human beings have body and
53:35 53:35 - spirit we are dichotomous and so back in what we’re talking about here all the way here where we are um the answer to
53:45 53:45 - do we have bodies in the afterlife is yes because human beings have bodies that is ontologically speaking that’s
53:51 53:51 - simply how God has made us we aren’t human if we are just spirit because humans are composed of body and spirit
53:58 53:58 - um and so how could we only exist as Spirit if that’s not how God has made us that that’s not our nature um so that’s
54:06 54:06 - the general argument here and as the Bible talks about it this concept of human spirits being joined with physical
54:13 54:13 - bodies is typically spoken of metaphorically in terms of clothing uh so a spirit puts on a body so to speak
54:20 54:20 - um there’s several passages that we’re going to look at here so one of these is 1 Corinthians CH 5 veres
54:27 54:27 - 1-4 um so first 1 Corinthians chap 5: 1-4 says for we know that if the Earthly tent which is our house is torn down we
54:36 54:36 - have a building from God a house not made with hands Eternal in the heavens for indeed in this house we grown
54:43 54:43 - Longing To Be clothed and note the clothing metaphor here Longing To Be clothed with our dwelling from heaven in
54:51 54:51 - as much as we having put it off I’m going to come back to why I translated that as off not on it’s important having
54:58 54:58 - put it off will not be found naked for indeed while we are in this tent we groan being burdened because we do not
55:06 55:06 - want to be unclothed but to be clothed so that what is Mortal will be swallowed up by
55:12 55:12 - life so uh again this verse three here not going to actually spend too much time because we have time in the video
55:19 55:19 - but there is a textual problem here this needs to be translated as off not on um you know I’ll I’ll talk more about
55:26 55:26 - that when we get there I think it’s a you know maybe a minute from now or whatever but uh this passage here second
55:32 55:32 - Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1-4 talks about the Earthly tent versus the Heavenly tent and talks about this idea
55:40 55:40 - of being clothed versus naked and that is the metaphor to think about in terms of human Spirits so um two other
55:50 55:50 - passages Revelation 6: 11 uh talks about people in the third heaven having white robes um uh very beginning of verse 11
56:00 56:00 - says there was given to each of them a white robe and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer
56:07 56:07 - and so on so they were given a white robe and then so to Revelation 7:9 says after these things I looked and
56:15 56:15 - behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing
56:22 56:22 - Before the Throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches and and so on so again white robes are
56:31 56:31 - things being worn by Believers in the third heaven so for a human to be a human a human Spirit must be embodied
56:40 56:40 - and joined with some form of vessel and that is the physical body it must be clothed with a body that’s the metaphor
56:47 56:47 - that the Bible uses so that’s the metaphor we should use too and so in this scripture indirectly teaches a
56:54 56:54 - concept that my mentor has termed intern bodies I’m not sure how standard a theological term that is that’s what
57:01 57:01 - ichus the website run by my mentor calls it um that’s the terminology I use to to follow his um but this idea that humans
57:11 57:11 - must be embodied that’s just how we are as humans that’s how we’re built um so what this is is the idea that after we
57:19 57:19 - die physically but before the resurrection as talked about in 1 Corinthians 15 human spirits of departed
57:25 57:25 - Believers uh who were previously in Abraham’s bosom before Christ Ascension and now in the third heaven after Christ
57:32 57:32 - Ascension are clothed by God in temporary bodies and so bodies of this sort what we are calling intern bodies
57:40 57:40 - are both distinct from the sort of body we possess in this life that is a fleshly body infested with sin and the
57:48 57:48 - sort of Resurrection body like Christ’s we shall eventually possess in eternity this would be the so-call spiritual body
57:56 57:56 - and in Greek that is somatic that is spiritual body I I think it’s actually plural in 1 Corinthians
58:04 58:04 - 15:44 like so well I don’t know I have to go check the Greek but it might be like
58:11 58:11 - soaa would be the plural form of that but um the point is we will have these spiritual bodies in eternity like
58:19 58:19 - christs separate from the fleshly ones but in the intern there will be a body that is like neither of these what we
58:26 58:26 - are going to call the intern body uh the sleeves are our Spirits are put in the clothing we put on in the intern period
58:36 58:36 - And so to flush out this topic a little more um one of the reasons why this is very often missed or misunderstood is
58:45 58:45 - because of that that issue I brought up when we were looking at 1 Corinthians 5 veres 1-4 right this thing in verse
58:51 58:51 - three where I said having put it on we will not be found naked is really more having put off the old physical body and
58:58 58:58 - so uh my mentor has a uh an explanation of this up on his site in one of the questions and answers um I taking a sec
59:08 59:08 - to load here um but this is kind of a complicated textual issue so textual criticism is the Art and Science of
59:17 59:17 - figuring out what the original text of the Bible said since the Bible was copied and recopied many times over the
59:25 59:25 - decades and centuries changes could creep in and corrupt the text so just as if you or I copy something down we might
59:32 59:32 - we might misspell something we might not we might miss a word that could happen with the Bible as well um so the exact
59:39 59:39 - specifics of this particular matter um are kind of beyond the scope of what I want to get into here um it’s pretty
59:47 59:47 - complicated pretty technical um so again you can see this link uh to go kind of read all the Gory technical details
59:54 59:54 - about this particular issue but suffice it to say that the proper way to translate 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse3
01:00:03 01:00:03 - is actually along the lines of when we are unclosed again here having put it on we
01:00:10 01:00:10 - would say hav put it off if you want to use that that form of translation we say when we are unclothed that is because we
01:00:17 01:00:17 - have died in our Spirits have left our physical bodies because bodies are the clothing analogy here so when we are
01:00:23 01:00:23 - unclosed that is we have died physically we will not be found naked that is because God will clothe our Spirits with
01:00:31 01:00:31 - some new body so you can see here in as much as we haven’t put off like our physical bodies we will not be found
01:00:39 01:00:39 - naked and so the difference here in the Greek I’m going off memory it didn’t look like the link was working I maybe I
01:00:45 01:00:45 - don’t have internet right now um is that um the Greek has prepositions n and x and so the question here in the prefix
01:00:56 01:00:56 - is are we putting it on or taking it off you know and so that is the textual matter here um and so uh the alternative
01:01:05 01:01:05 - and this is the way that other translations take it in fact most translations translate this way is
01:01:10 01:01:10 - saying that when we are clothed so notice the difference clothed versus unclothed um we will not be found naked
01:01:18 01:01:18 - and so what that means is well when we have a body we will end up not being naked that is not having being out of a
01:01:25 01:01:25 - body and so you can kind of see that this second version one of the other things strengthening the the texture
01:01:30 01:01:30 - argument against it is that it’s really tological it’s like super obvious and repetitive like if we’re clothed we’re
01:01:37 01:01:37 - not naked well okay that’s great but you know like why would we need to say that versus the correct textural form and
01:01:47 01:01:47 - again if you want to see all the details you can read this link but the correct textual form is saying something more
01:01:53 01:01:53 - along the lines of when we become unclothed that is because we die we will be clothed by God that is God will give
01:02:01 01:02:01 - us a new body to clothe us and so uh sorry that was a bit technical um I tried to keep some of the details out of
01:02:08 01:02:08 - it but to put all that into pler English when you translate 2 Corinthians chapter 5:3 correctly it’s saying something more
01:02:16 01:02:16 - like this that when we put off our present bodies when we die physically that is our spirits leave our physical
01:02:22 01:02:22 - body we will not be found naked in the sense of being without a body for our human Spirit AO intern bodies like
01:02:30 01:02:30 - that’s where we get the idea from in scripture so it’s not just this verse alone that this rests on although as I
01:02:37 01:02:37 - say this is not understood a lot primarily because of the textual issue in this verse um so there’s also the
01:02:43 01:02:43 - passage in Luke chapter 16 that we’ve been thinking about so if you wanted to say that human beings are somehow not
01:02:50 01:02:50 - embodied in eternity or sorry not in eternity in the afterlife well what if about uh this Parable here in Luke
01:02:57 01:02:57 - chapter 16 do disembodied Spirits have tongues that experience heat and so the rich man in this Parable asks Abraham to
01:03:04 01:03:04 - let Lazarus dip his finger in water to cool off his tongue for he is in agony in this flame well how can someone who
01:03:13 01:03:13 - doesn’t have a physical body have a tongue right and then moreover how could you even recognize Abraham and Lazarus
01:03:20 01:03:20 - and the rich man if they were just disembodied Spirits in Hades what do spirits look like how do you tell one
01:03:26 01:03:26 - from the other it just doesn’t seem like this Parable here um and I should be clear like I’ve talked about in previous
01:03:34 01:03:34 - video that this is literal it’s not just like made up this is you know historical people who actually lived Abraham was a
01:03:41 01:03:41 - real person Jesus doesn’t just make up stories using real people this is a description of something and so it is
01:03:50 01:03:50 - actually describing how the afterlife Works how Abraham’s bosom works um and so for that reason how could these
01:03:56 01:03:56 - people just be disembodied if they’re recognizable and they have physical attributes like tongues so that’s
01:04:02 01:04:02 - indirect evidence too right and then you can also compare those verses that we read initially in Revelation chapter 6
01:04:09 01:04:09 - and Revelation chapter 7 talking about the white robes that people in the third heaven are wearing so how can
01:04:16 01:04:16 - disembodied Spirits wear white robes how does that work they have to have bodies but they can’t be Resurrection bodies
01:04:24 01:04:24 - because this is early in Revelation the resurrection hasn’t happened yet so they can’t be the resurrection bodies that we
01:04:30 01:04:30 - were talking about in First Corinthians 15 because that hasn’t happened yet so they’re not alive they’re not in the
01:04:37 01:04:37 - world they don’t have their physical bodies but they don’t have Resurrection bodies but they have to have bodies
01:04:41 01:04:41 - because they’re wearing robes Argo intern bodies so that’s where we’re getting it from in scripture now in
01:04:48 01:04:48 - closing off this this introduction of this teaching I should be real clear that there’s a lot we don’t know here so
01:04:55 01:04:55 - I’m just going to go ahead and quote something um from my mentor’s website he has a question and answer up on intern
01:05:01 01:05:01 - bodies and so almost you know I’m just going to go ahead and read the quote off his site but this is describing these
01:05:08 01:05:08 - things that we’re talking about these bodies that we have in between when we die physically and the resurrection the
01:05:15 01:05:15 - bodies that we have in between intern bodies well we just don’t know a lot about them and so my mentor says this we
01:05:21 01:05:21 - have very little to go on when it comes to the constitution of the intern body just the passages I cited previously so
01:05:28 01:05:28 - that is 2 Corinthians 53 which has the textual issue we talked about uh and then the two passages from Revelation
01:05:35 01:05:35 - talking about the white robes um so picking back up in his quote Revelation calls it a white sheet to wear second
01:05:43 01:05:43 - Corinthians also uses the clothing analogy saying that we quote unquote won’t be found naked and in Luke 16 both
01:05:51 01:05:51 - those in paradise and those in torments are recogniz can speak reason and seemingly function
01:05:57 01:05:57 - in most important ways just as we presently can were I to speculate I would say that the materiality or
01:06:03 01:06:03 - physicality of the intern body is less pronounced than the other two and so we know that we can eat in both the natural
01:06:10 01:06:10 - and Revelation bodies um there’s a quotation from Luke chapter 24 here which is you know uh when Jesus appears
01:06:18 01:06:18 - to them uh he ate this piece of broiled fish before them he was physical he ate the fish um so we can eat in both the
01:06:26 01:06:26 - natural and Resurrection bodies but there is neither need nor probably opportunity to eat in the interim State
01:06:33 01:06:33 - whether it be paradise of the past or the third heaven of the present and I would imagine that this is true of much
01:06:39 01:06:39 - of the physical interaction which is commonplace now and will be again after the resurrection then again the rich man
01:06:45 01:06:45 - asked Abraham to have Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue it doesn’t happen but it may be
01:06:51 01:06:51 - that he was observing eating and drinking across Ross the great fixed Gulf of Luke 16: 26 I can’t say for sure
01:07:00 01:07:00 - so again this is my mentor on the the concept of intern bodies and there’s just a lot that we don’t know for sure
01:07:07 01:07:07 - um it is possible plausible even that maybe they aren’t quite as physical so to speak as the bodies we presently have
01:07:16 01:07:16 - in the resurrection bodies but even that we really can’t say with certainty because we just don’t have a lot on this
01:07:22 01:07:22 - from the Bible we know that are bodies because human beings have bodies because we are composed of body and spirit we
01:07:29 01:07:29 - know that they can wear things because the people in the third heaven in Revelation 611 and 79 have white robes
01:07:37 01:07:37 - that they wear and we know that 2 Corinthians 53 when you translate it using the correct text uh vises textual
01:07:45 01:07:45 - criticism teaches that when we become unclothed because we die we will have we will not be found naked that is we will
01:07:53 01:07:53 - have a body well all of these things teach it but we just don’t know very much past that um so we will be embodied
01:08:01 01:08:01 - in the afterlife even before the resurrection but what exactly that means we just shouldn’t teach too much
01:08:08 01:08:08 - dogmatically on it because we just don’t know from scripture and that’s kind of that’s kind of like the the point to end
01:08:14 01:08:14 - on here in emphasis is just that we shouldn’t go past what the Bible teaches on this and um again it’s not as direct
01:08:21 01:08:21 - a teaching some other things as you can see here just a few vers but the concept is clearly there by
01:08:26 01:08:26 - inference that when we die we will still have bodies in the afterlife even before the rection even before the resurrection
01:08:34 01:08:34 - they will just be intern bodies rather than Resurrection bodies all right so with that we are
01:08:43 01:08:43 - finally ready to answer that question of what happens after physical death in the normal case so if you remember back uh
01:08:51 01:08:51 - we said that we were going to try to answer you know like what happens when people die in the normal case before we
01:08:58 01:08:58 - try to handle well what happens when people die right before they’re resuscitated like what’s the difference
01:09:03 01:09:03 - there well before we’re going to get to that second case we need to talk about what is the normal State of Affairs for
01:09:09 01:09:09 - people who aren’t resuscitated and so assuming we’re talking about a Believer here which you know Lazarus presumably
01:09:14 01:09:14 - was and we don’t actually know so much about Gus’s daughter but probably so well before Christ’s Ascension they
01:09:21 01:09:21 - would have ended up in Abraham’s bosom in Haiti or in the Paradise in Hades in an intern body and so this is before
01:09:29 01:09:29 - Christ’s Ascension as described in Ephesians chapter 4 now after Christ’s Ascension they will end up in the third
01:09:35 01:09:35 - heaven in an intern body still this is in the presence of God the father and so in both these cases this is after they
01:09:42 01:09:42 - died physically but before the resurrection they end up in intern bodies it’s just a matter of where you
01:09:48 01:09:48 - know before the cross uh before the Ascension of Christ the pre cross believers were in Abraham’s bosom and
01:09:55 01:09:55 - after Christ’s Ascension now when people die they go immediately to the presence of the father in the third heaven but in
01:10:01 01:10:01 - both cases they still have these temporary bodies that they’re in until the resurrection and then finally after
01:10:07 01:10:07 - the resurrection each person shall possess a resurrection body just like Christ’s body after he was resurrected
01:10:14 01:10:14 - that’s the Som numatic of 1 Corinthians 15 verse 44 this is the spiritual body that we will possess in eternity and so
01:10:23 01:10:23 - this is is quote unquote what happens after you die um this is in all the details and hopefully now we know what
01:10:30 01:10:30 - all of this means we know what we mean by before and after Christ’s Ascension we know what Abraham’s bosom is we know
01:10:37 01:10:37 - what Hades is we know what an intern body is we know what the resurrection body is because we read that whole
01:10:43 01:10:43 - passage in 1 Corinthians 15 all of this hopefully based on all of that background work we did even though it’s
01:10:50 01:10:50 - just several sentences here you can see that this entire I’m quite sure we’re over an hour now this long video has
01:10:56 01:10:56 - been going over all of the terms that we use here to talk about well what happens after we die so this is the normal case
01:11:05 01:11:05 - this is what happens when a person who is a Believer dies physically and so finally we’re going to
01:11:17 01:11:17 - get to the the point of this whole video was to answer the question about well what about those people who are
01:11:24 01:11:24 - resuscitated is their afterlife experience any different and so put differently matters of the afterlife are
01:11:31 01:11:31 - no different when it comes to people who are resuscitated except they go backwards from the intern body to the
01:11:39 01:11:39 - physical world in addition to the normal forward version of that passage whereas others only ever make that transition in
01:11:45 01:11:45 - the forward Direction alone that is most people when they die they go from this world to Hades and never back to the
01:11:53 01:11:53 - world again so I’m going to go look at our picture since pictures are helpful um so most people when they die they
01:11:58 01:11:58 - leave here they leave this Cosmos the devil’s world and they go here and then after well okay so this would be before
01:12:07 01:12:07 - Christ Ascension they they would leave here go here after Christ Ascension they leave here they go here um but people
01:12:13 01:12:13 - who are resuscitated um again before Christ Ascension they would go from here to
01:12:20 01:12:20 - here they end up in Hades and then they’re resuscitated and they go back here so most people only go this
01:12:25 01:12:25 - direction those people go from the cosmos to Hades back to the cosmos versus most people just go from the
01:12:33 01:12:33 - cosmos to Hades and then that’s it they will not be resuscitated they will that’s where they will be until the
01:12:39 01:12:39 - resurrection and so that’s the only difference here is that most people only go forwards but those who are
01:12:46 01:12:46 - resuscitated go backwards too but they only do that once really because once they make that transition a second time
01:12:53 01:12:53 - that is they die a second time after being resuscitated it’s really as if there were nothing irregular about their
01:12:58 01:12:58 - afterlife experience at all so we’re going to use Gus’s daughter as an example here and so assuming for the
01:13:04 01:13:04 - sake of argument that she meant the standards of belief necessary for salvation at the time of Matthew 9 uh
01:13:10 01:13:10 - not going to get into that too much either but basically what we believe now after Jesus came and died and was
01:13:15 01:13:15 - resurrected what we have to believe to be saved it’s not quite the same as what pre-c cross Believers did because there
01:13:22 01:13:22 - wasn’t as much revelation at that point God’s like epistemological standards if you want to use jargon would be
01:13:28 01:13:28 - different for people but let’s assume for the sake of this argument that you know gyrus was a leader of the Jews and
01:13:34 01:13:34 - that he was teaching his family to believe and you know further that his daughter was actually past the age where
01:13:40 01:13:40 - she had moral uh like accountability you know it’s not like a specific age for children depends on the person but like
01:13:46 01:13:46 - let’s say she was old enough that that was true but that she did believe all that out of the way let’s say that gyrus
01:13:51 01:13:51 - his daughter would be saved like that’s the short version here well then when she died she would have found herself in
01:13:58 01:13:58 - Abraham’s bosom in an intern body until her human Spirit was called back to her physical fleshly body here in the world
01:14:05 01:14:05 - at which point the intern body in Abraham’s bosom would have no longer been necessary but we don’t really know
01:14:11 01:14:11 - what happens to it like did it get recycled so to speak or you know uh well we don’t know no idea again we just
01:14:17 01:14:17 - don’t know very much about intern bodies but point is she died she went to Abraham’s bosom she was in an intern
01:14:23 01:14:23 - body she gets called back when she’s resuscitated the intern body is no longer necessary and now her human
01:14:29 01:14:29 - spirit is joined with her physical body in the world again but then after she lived out the remainder of her days she
01:14:36 01:14:36 - would once again have died physically because that happens to everyone who’s resuscitated they don’t live forever
01:14:42 01:14:42 - after they’re resuscitated they die again and so after all this she would have once again died physically and if
01:14:49 01:14:49 - she was still a Believer at that point in time she would have again found herself in an intern body in the
01:14:54 01:14:54 - afterlife although probably now in the third heaven since she probably would have died long after Jesus had ascended
01:15:01 01:15:01 - because she was so young at the time of his ministry so Luke Chapter oh I forget Which chapter it is Luke chapter 12
01:15:07 01:15:07 - maybe I I don’t remember exactly where this Parable is in Luke but Luke says she’s about 12 um when this happens and
01:15:14 01:15:14 - so you know if she was 12 and Jesus does this early on in his ministry Jesus’s Ministry was three years long we don’t
01:15:21 01:15:21 - know exactly the dates but plus or minus a couple years years here well Jesus would have probably been died and
01:15:26 01:15:26 - resurrected and ascended before she was 15 for sure and so if this happened and she lived a you know a normal lifespan
01:15:33 01:15:33 - you know for that time period maybe 50 60 um years then she probably would have died decades after Jesus’s Ascension and
01:15:42 01:15:42 - so all that to say if she was still a Believer at that time because only Believers are saved then she would go to
01:15:48 01:15:48 - the third heaven but in an intern body so Vis the initial question here the point is when people who are
01:15:56 01:15:56 - resuscitated die they go to the same place that everyone else who dies normally does the only difference is
01:16:02 01:16:02 - that they go backwards too at least once you know so they go from either Abraham’s bosom before the Ascension or
01:16:09 01:16:09 - the third heaven after the Ascension back to their physical body they live out the rest of their days they die
01:16:14 01:16:14 - again they go back into an intern body to wait for the resurrection just like the rest of us so that is how all this
01:16:22 01:16:22 - works for those who are resuscitated and so I hope this video has been helpful I’m sure it has been quite a lot to take
01:16:29 01:16:29 - in um but nonetheless now that we’ve been through all of this hopefully what we say here makes sense you know talking
01:16:35 01:16:35 - about human spirits and intern bodies and Abraham’s busm and all that we’ve hopefully gone through enough that when
01:16:43 01:16:43 - you have to explain this and think about it in your head all of what we have said here uh kind of comes together to give
01:16:51 01:16:51 - us that full picture of what happens when people people die and the fact that those who are resuscitated they have
01:16:57 01:16:57 - kind of this this strange transition when they go backwards from you know Hades or the third heaven back to the
01:17:03 01:17:03 - cosmos and then they die again and then end up in an intern body a second time well hopefully all this kind of make
01:17:10 01:17:10 - sense in context with everything that we’ve talked about here in this lesson all right finally to pull it all
01:17:19 01:17:19 - together because this has been a long one just talking over the outline of what we’ve gone over so we introduced
01:17:25 01:17:25 - that question of well does resuscitation mean that people’s afterlife experien is any different than people who aren’t
01:17:32 01:17:32 - resuscitated that is kind of what we were setting out to answer here but before we could even get to that we had
01:17:36 01:17:36 - to give an awful lot of background information we talked about the nature and composition of human beings how we
01:17:43 01:17:43 - are dichotomous body and spirit we talked about the three types of death physical spiritual and eternal death and
01:17:50 01:17:50 - how we are specifically focusing on physical death in these questions here we talked about how physical death means
01:17:57 01:17:57 - someone’s human Spirit leaves their physical body um and so uh breath and spirit are the same words in Greek uh
01:18:06 01:18:06 - and Hebrew so uh nephesh in Hebrew and R sorry no that’s that’s soul um ruach in Hebrew and Numa in Greek mean breath and
01:18:19 01:18:19 - spirit and so we talked about how when people die they no longer breathe then that’s the association there we talked
01:18:25 01:18:25 - about well what happens after people die well where do they go we had to explain Heavenly geography and the third heaven
01:18:31 01:18:31 - and Satan’s Cosmos the world system we now inhabit and Hades or Shield or The Grave or the underworld which is where
01:18:38 01:18:38 - all the other subdivisions are and then how those are separated by the waters above and the waters below like the sea
01:18:44 01:18:44 - of glass mentioned in the Book of Revelation and so that’s Heavenly geography that’s where we go when we die
01:18:51 01:18:51 - so to speak and then we we talk about how that’s actually different for believers before and after Christ’s
01:18:56 01:18:56 - Ascension although in both cases unbelievers still go to torments to await the great white Throne Judgment at
01:19:01 01:19:01 - which point they’ll end up in the Lake of Fire and then that’s eternity proper so in eternity proper uh Believers end
01:19:08 01:19:08 - up uh having perfect fellowship with each other and God and elect angels in the new heavens and the new Earth oops
01:19:15 01:19:15 - while unbelievers and Satan and the other Fallen Angels end up in the Lake of Fire and to close out our background
01:19:22 01:19:22 - discussion we talked about intern bodies and so this idea that uh after we die physically we’re no longer in our
01:19:28 01:19:28 - physical bodies here in the world but before we get the resurrection bodies of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 we are in what
01:19:35 01:19:35 - we’re going to call intern bodies these temporary bodies that God gives us so that we will not be found naked as 2
01:19:43 01:19:43 - Corinthians chapter 5:3 says if you translate it from the right text you you know do the textual criticism to get to
01:19:52 01:19:52 - the right textu base and so then after all that we we said that well what happens after you die physically in the
01:19:58 01:19:58 - normal case well for for normal folks they they go from the physical world either to Abraham’s bosom or the third
01:20:05 01:20:05 - heaven uh depending on if uh Christ had ascended at this point like when they died and then the only difference in the
01:20:12 01:20:12 - case of those people who are resuscitated is that they go backwards once they make that transition in the
01:20:18 01:20:18 - reverse Direction until they die a second time in which case it’s permanent then it’s as if their experience is no
01:20:25 01:20:25 - different than anyone else’s in the afterlife so I hope this was helpful an awful lot of information here but
01:20:31 01:20:31 - hopefully this helps explain the afterlife and what we believe as Christians you know like what does the
01:20:37 01:20:37 - bible teach about when we die where do we go what happens how are we what will we
01:20:44 01:20:44 - experience when all of this happens and so long video here but good stuff talking about these tops topics of death
01:20:53 01:20:53 - and resurrection and what we believe on these matters as Christians

Could You Explain More How All This Works with Respect to the Finality of Death?

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Summary

The word that some English versions translate as “once” in Hebrews 9:27 is the Greek adjective hapax. This lesson argues that the best way (and in fact only correct way) to take the sense of this verse is that “it is appointed for people to die once for all” rather than “it is appointed for people to die one time (as opposed to two times, three times, etc.).” If the correct interpretation of this verse really is the “once for all” sense of things, then there is no contradiction in resuscitated people facing physical death more than once, since even those people who are brought back to life for a time will still face eventual permanent physical death.

Timestamps

0:00 0:00 - Intro and outline
03:40 03:40 - Q: Could you explain more how all this works with respect to the finality of death?
05:12 05:12 - Luke 16 - on the chasm of separation
19:06 19:06 - Hebrews 9:27 - Perhaps speaking in terms of “types of death” was a poor choice on my part
24:19 24:19 - A better way to talk about it, perhaps: focusing on the vocabulary and context of Hebrews 9:27 more
25:41 25:41 - Hebrew 9:27’s wider context
36:35 36:35 - The Greek adverb hapax
43:56 43:56 - The Greek adverb hapax in Hebrews 9
53:56 53:56 - The importance of the “once for all” concept as it pertains to Christ’s work completely forces our hand in translating Hebrews 9:26, 28
01:03:11 01:03:11 - So Hebrews 9:27 does not contradict the idea of resuscitation, QED
01:05:38 01:05:38 - Summary and outro

Content (click to show)

Content

Q: Could you explain more how all this works with respect to the finality of death?

In Luke 16, a chasm is described as separating the two parts of Hades (such that no one on either side can cross over). Also, Hebrews 9:27 says that each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment.

So how does the concept of resuscitation affect the finality of death? It seems to me like Luke 16 and Hebrews 9:27 describe death as final, but then these people die twice…? What gives?

Luke 16 - on the chasm of separation

Heavenly geography > Subdivisions of Hades Afterlife > Boundaries between the living and the dead as a literary theme

See our previous video for more on “heavenly geography”, and the subdivisions of Hades.

I am not entirely sure what bearing the chasm mentioned in Luke 16:26 has on the finality of death, as you see things, but assuming you take its mention to be something along the lines of “there exists not only an uncrossable separation between Abrahm’s Bosom and Torments in Hades, but also between Hades and our world”, well that is very true. Those in the afterlife are “contained”, if you want to look at things that way, but looking at things from the other direction, so are we. We cannot cross over there any more than they can cross over here.

In fact, the unyielding nature of this separating boundary between life in the world and death in the underworld has always been a major theme in mythological systems. Consider the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in Greek myth, for example.

If the conceptual hang-up is that in resuscitation people once in Hades somehow exit and traverse the boundary said to be so vast and uncrossable, well resurrection poses just as much a problem in this regard as resuscitation, does it not? And that is certainly completely central to our faith (as Paul argues most eloquently in 1 Corinthians 15:16-19). Christianity does not “work” without the resurrection of the dead.

So what to make of this? How do we puzzle it out? The key point is that in resurrection and resuscitation both, it is not humans that do the crossing of the uncrossable boundaries on our own, but God that causes it to happen. Compare Matthew 19:26.

I also don’t think we should lose sight of the fact that raising people from the dead (resuscitation) was clearly recognized as being utterly miraculous. It is not normal, but completely extraordinary—that’s the whole point! So far from arguing “well, resuscitation can’t actually be a thing, because it would mean that dead people have to cross an uncrossable boundary”, we should instead be emphasizing how awe-inspiring it is that God, out of His overflowing grace and mercy and love, actually Himself violates the natural order He has set up, for our benefit!

This reminds me in some respects of people struggling with exactly how the divine nature of Jesus Christ could possibly come to be bound to a physical body in the incarnation. It is fine to wonder and ponder and meditate upon (for it is certainly not easy to metabolize), but past a certain point, the important thing is that God did send His one and only Son into the world to take on humanity and die for our sins, so that we might be reconciled to Him. Shouldn’t we focus on the wonder and awe of that, rather than focusing on raising objections to the “logic” of it, so to speak?

That’s not meant to be a rebuke or anything, by the way. We just need to be sure to keep our focus upon what is truly important, and not let ourselves get tripped up by trying to apply human logic to God… who is decidedly not bound in the ways that we are as humans. God created the Universe in the blink of an eye; He can do whatever He pleases within it. Even things that are completely impossible from the human perspective.

Hebrews 9:27 - Perhaps speaking in terms of “types of death” was a poor choice on my part

Death > Cannot be avoided by anyone

I’m afraid in the prior video when I discussed Hebrews 9:27, I was not as clear I should have been. I spoke in terms of of a type of death leading to resuscitation, and a type of death leading to resurrection/judgment. I argued that Hebrews 9:27 is referring to the second kind and not the first kind, and that while human beings cannot know the difference between the two states (that is, whether someone who has died will come back or not), God does, based upon his perfect foreknowledge and foreordination of everything.

While I don’t think there is anything technically wrong with what I said, perhaps this is not actually the ideal framework for trying to explain the concept, now that I think about it. Since it’s not so much that the “dying” is different (so to speak), so much as what comes after it. That is, the difference comes from the following condition of the human being’s existence more than it comes from how they left the physical world the first time around.

So, for example, if Jairus’ daughter died of illness (as is likely, given that she was only about 12 years old per Luke 8:42, and the text gives us no reason to think it was anything different), then her death from illness was no different than that of someone who would not ultimately be resuscitated. There was nothing special about this part, per se. What was special came only afterwards: that someone who was once dead (well and truly dead, not merely asleep) once again had life. That is the special thing—the miracle—not the “type of death”.

What I had been trying to get at before was that there is a sort of death after which one stays dead, and that is true of all humans, even those who were resuscitated in the interim. Permanent physical death eventually comes for us all, and cannot be avoided by anyone.

A better way to talk about it, perhaps: focusing on the vocabulary and context of Hebrews 9:27 more

This will be a bit detailed and technical, which is sort of why I hadn’t done the deep dive the first time around. However, I do hope it will help you make sense of Hebrews 9:27 better, despite the complexity.

Hebrew 9:27’s wider context

Tabernacle > Contrast between earthly and heavenly Blood > Use in ratification of covenants

Leaving aside a wider thematic analysis of the entire book of Hebrews (although see here), chapter 9 specifically of Hebrews can be broken down as follows:

Hebrews 9:1-15 contrasts the sacrifices of the Earthly Sanctuary with the sacrifice (singular) of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary. The sacrifices in the Earthly Sanctuary cleansed only the outside, but the blood of Christ won for Him entrance into the Heavenly Most Holy Place once for all (verse 12), and allows us to cleanse not only our exteriors, but also our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (verse 14). We are now under a new covenant (verse 15).

Hebrews 9:16-24 speaks of the role of blood in covenants. We are told that these sorts of covenants are sealed with blood (verses 16-18). Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness (verse 22). In the prior sacrifices, the earthly tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies had to be cleansed with the blood of calves (verse 21), but the heavenly things had to be purified with better sacrifices than these (verse 23). For the blood of Christ was not payment to enter a sanctuary made with human hands, but rather payment to enter heaven itself (verse 24).

Hebrews 9:25-28 makes it clear that unlike the prior ritual sacrifices that had to be offered again and again, Christ does not enter heaven to offer himself repeatedly, since “He appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (verse 26). When He returns again, it will not be to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him (verse 28).

The Greek adverb hapax

Interpretation > Context often directly limits how words can be translated

To better explain the “once” in Hebrews 9:27—part of the wider statement “people are destined to die once”—we will primarily be focusing in on the last few verses of the chapter (Hebrews 9:25-28), and even more specifically, the usage of the Greek adverb hapax (ἅπαξ), which is the Greek word that many versions translate as “once” here.

Put simply, sometimes this adverb can be used in the sense of “one time, as opposed to more times”, but sometimes it also takes on the meaning “once for all”. This second meaning has overtones of completion and finality: in this case, the adverb is modifying something that has been rendered done in such a way that it will be perpetually valid, and never need repetition.

So, for example, contrast these uses:

Last month I crashed my car once (i.e., one time, as opposed to more times) when someone cut me off in traffic. Thankfully, the damage from that accident was quite minor, but then I dented the bumper again yesterday when the power steering suddenly stopped working when I was backing up!
Unlike normal people, Johnny only ever seems to total cars when he crashes them. While the rest of us get into fender-benders occasionally, Johnny crashes a car once (i.e., once for all), and then that’s it; the car will inevitably be toast after that. This is why Johnny’s car insurance rates are sky high.

See the difference? I quite like the analogy of a single fender-bender (the “single time” meaning) vs. totaling a car completely (the “once for all” meaning), as I think it illustrates the differing concepts well.

Before we look at how hapax is used in Hebrews 9 specifically, let’s look at a couple other examples from scripture to make sure we understand the difference between these two meanings of hapax.

2 Corinthians 11:25 is a good example of a verse where the sense of the hapax is most certainly “one time, as opposed to more times” rather than “once for all”. Since why would Paul be beaten with rods three times, shipwrecked three times, but then be stoned once for all rather than stoned one time? Contextually, that would make no sense.

Jude 1:3 is a good example of a verse where the sense of the hapax is most certainly “once for all” rather than “one time, as opposed to more times”. Since how could the faith be delivered unto the saints multiple times? What would that even mean?

The Greek adverb hapax in Hebrews 9

In Hebrews 9, the Greek adverb hapax shows up in verses 7, 26, 27, and 28.

As in all translation, we determine how to translate primarily based upon context. In Hebrews 9:7, we must translate the hapax as “one time” rather “once for all” because Hebrews 9:25 says that the high priest entered the inner room every year (Greek: κατ᾽ ἐνιαυτὸν), not just one time and then never again.

In Hebrew’s 9:26, we ought to translate that hapax as “once for all”, since it is obviously being contrasted with the “often” or “frequently” (Greek: πολλάκις) of Hebrews 9:25. So too in Hebrews 9:28—the sense is still clearly contrasting the effectiveness and finality of Christ’s sacrifice with the feebleness of the repeated sacrifices of the Law.

This means the hapax of Hebrews 9:27 is set directly parallel with the “once for all” usage of Hebrews 9:28. In fact, the verses begin with with “27 καὶ καθ᾽ ὅσον… 28 οὕτως καὶ”, which translates to something like “27 and just as… 28 so also”. We thus conclude that the sense of the hapax in Hebrews 9:27 must be “once for all” rather than being “one time”.

The importance of the “once for all” concept as it pertains to Christ’s work completely forces our hand in translating Hebrews 9:26, 28

Interpretation > NT Principles > "Once for all"

This latter part of Hebrews 9 is not the only place the finality and completeness of Christ’s work is clearly emphasized in scripture. For example, see:

1 Peter 3:18 is using hapax, but the rest are actually using the Greek adverb ephapax (ἐφάπαξ). This different word has two meanings:

“At once” in the sense of “at the same time” (you can see this usage in 1 Corinthians 15:6).
“Once for all”, just like hapax.

That second meaning of ephapax is in view in Hebrews 9:12. Even though this verse is using this different adverb in Greek, it means the same thing as the hapax in Hebrews 9:26, 27, 28. I just hadn’t mentioned before in our discussion of hapax in Hebrews 9 since it is in fact a different word.

At any rate, all of this is to show how it is irresponsible to take Hebrews 9:26 and Hebrews 9:28 as anything other than “once for all”. We must translate that way, if we care at all about interpreting scripture with scripture, as we should.

And if the hapax Hebrews 9:28 must be translated as “once for all”, then so too must the hapax in Hebrews 9:27, as we covered just previously.

So Hebrews 9:27 does not contradict the idea of resuscitation, QED

Interpretation > Apparent contradictions > Hebrews 9:27 says people can only die once, but resuscitated people die twice

The reason why all this is important is as follows:

If the hapax in Hebrews 9:27 means “one time”, any cases of resuscitation would contradict this verse. Since then those people die not one time, but more than one time.
But if the hapax in Hebrews 9:27 means “once for all”, then there is no contradiction whatsoever. Because it is a true statement that all humans die once for all (since even those people who are brought back to life for a time will still face eventual permanent physical death), then Hebrews 9:27 does not contradict the idea of resuscitation in the least.

Transcript (click to show)

Video/audio transcript

00:00 00:00 - hey guys so right now we are going to be talking in a little bit more detail about how Hebrews
00:07 00:07 - 9:27 as well as another passage do not really have any problem with the finality of death so we had in our
00:15 00:15 - previous video been talking about the resuscitation of Lazarus in John chap 11 and gyrus his daughter in Matthew
00:24 00:24 - chapter 9 and we had been uh trying to draw a distinction there uh between the sort of death that leads to
00:33 00:33 - resuscitation and the sort of death that leads to Resurrection in the end so that is what we would call perhaps final
00:39 00:39 - death and so we’re going to talk a bit more about the differences between these and and maybe try to explain in a way
00:45 00:45 - that is not as confusing because I’ll acknowledge that maybe that that wasn’t perhaps the ideal approach to use so
00:51 00:51 - you’ll see more what we mean by this in a moment okay so here’s the outline uh as per normal we’re going to kind of go
00:58 00:58 - over exactly what the question is here um you know basically how does resuscitation work with this idea of
01:05 01:05 - death being final uh then we’re going to talk about Luke chapter 16 specifically verse 26 is talking about a Chasm of
01:13 01:13 - Separation in Hades or the underworld between Abraham’s bosom where Abraham and Lazarus are in this particular
01:20 01:20 - Parable that Jesus uses and then the rich man over on the other side and we’re going to be talking about this
01:26 01:26 - idea of chasms or boundaries between these states not only within Hades itself but also between uh you know
01:34 01:34 - Hades and the rest of the world um and then we’re going to talk about Hebrews 9:27 again and so this is the verse that
01:42 01:42 - reads something like it is appointed for man to die once and uh basically it is a very normal question to ask of well if
01:51 01:51 - this verse says that then what about these people who are resuscitated don’t they die twice um so it’s a perfectly
01:57 01:57 - normal question we’re going to be examining that again this time from a different angle so I did talk about it
02:02 02:02 - in the previous video although I’m going to kind of come at it from a different approach here and hopefully that will
02:07 02:07 - help make things clearer so we’re going to look specifically more at Hebrews chapter 9 here um so this is a verse
02:14 02:14 - towards the end of Hebrews chapter 9 so we’re going to look at the kind of wider chapter itself and then we’re going to
02:20 02:20 - spend some time looking at the Greek adverb hop Hawks so this is the word that gets translated as once in this
02:28 02:28 - verse and as we’ll see it actually shows up in multiple places in Hebrews chapter 9 and it’s a very important Concept in
02:35 02:35 - the interpretation not only of this chapter but kind of also of Christ sacrifice being effective uh in a f in a
02:42 02:42 - sense of finality once for all um so we’re going to be talking about this this word a lot and uh when we get there
02:49 02:49 - you’ll see what I mean about a lot um and so we’re going to be arguing that the proper way to interpret this word in
02:55 02:55 - Hebrews 9: 27 is actually to translate as once for all rather than just once because if you do that then suddenly
03:05 03:05 - this problem of well these people aren’t just dying physically one time they’re dying physically two times well they
03:12 03:12 - still only die once for all that is the second time they stay dead they don’t come back anymore and that is the final
03:20 03:20 - eventual physical death that every single human being who’s ever born will face uh we are not Immortal we will die
03:28 03:28 - and so if you translate it like this as we’ll get to there actually isn’t any contradiction with the idea of
03:34 03:34 - resuscitation and so that’s kind of how we’re going to approach answering this question this time
03:42 03:42 - around all right so to go over the questions here in a little bit more detail we are going to start with these
03:50 03:50 - two passages and uh probably picking up with Luke 16 first so in Luke 16 aasm is described as separating the two parts of
03:59 03:59 - Hades such that no one on either side can cross over and also in Hebrews 9:27 we see that that verse says that
04:08 04:08 - each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment so what we’re going to be talking about here is well
04:16 04:16 - does the concept of resuscitation kind of contradict these things what does it have to do with the finality of death
04:23 04:23 - does it change anything or do we just need to do a bit more work to understand how all this fits together and so uh you
04:31 04:31 - can kind of see how these passages you know the Luke 16 passage talking about this this big barrier of Separation um
04:38 04:38 - and if there’s that between the parts of Hades well there’s also a barrier between Hades you know the afterlife the
04:44 04:44 - underworld and the world we presently inhabit and so if we can’t cross that as humans well doesn’t resuscitation kind
04:51 04:51 - of violate that and then we’re also going to be talking just about Hebrews 9:27 again right this idea of well these
04:58 04:58 - people who are resuscitate ated die twice not once so kind of what gives there in that sense and so as I say we
05:05 05:05 - did talk about this a bit in the previous video but we’re just going to be taking a bit of a different approach
05:09 05:09 - this time uh in trying to explain it all right so first of all we are going to be picking up talking about the
05:19 05:19 - chasm of Separation that’s mentioned in the parable of Abraham Lazarus and the rich man in Luke chapter 16 so the
05:27 05:27 - specific verse if you want to go look it up is uh Luke 16: 26 which talks about this great Chasm separating the parts of
05:36 05:36 - Hades and so if you need a refresher on uh so-called Heavenly geography and what the subdivisions of Hades are you can go
05:43 05:43 - look at the earlier video in this particular playlist uh in which we talk about resuscitation and the afterlife
05:50 05:50 - and one of the parts of that video we talk in great detail about the subdivisions of Hades so there is
05:56 05:56 - Abraham’s bosom or Paradise there’s torments there’s the abyss there’s the Lake of Fire all of these are different
06:03 06:03 - parts of Hades and presumably all of them are separated in this way that we hear about in Luke
06:10 06:10 - 16:26 and so kind of getting more to the question here um this chasm in verse 26 is actually relating to the two sections
06:20 06:20 - of Hades so Abraham’s bosom versus torments and making the point that those two places are separated from each other
06:28 06:28 - so in saying that kind of the relevance here is I’m not quite sure what the what the question uh with this verse
06:36 06:36 - specifically is as it relates to the finality of death now kind of where I’m guessing we’re going with this is that
06:42 06:42 - if you take the mention of this of this Chasm of this boundary to be something like there exists not only an
06:48 06:48 - uncrossable separation between Abraham’s bosom and torments in Hades like that is between the two different parts in the
06:55 06:55 - Underworld but also between Hades and our world well that’s a true observation that’s probably kind of what the
07:02 07:02 - question is here is that well if you can’t cross over between the two parts of Hades well you also very much can’t
07:09 07:09 - cross over from Hades into the normal world or from the normal world into the underworld into the Afterlife because
07:15 07:15 - they’re separated and in that previous discussion of the Heavenly geography that we had you’ll remember that there
07:21 07:21 - were uh the there were described to be these Waters below and Waters above and these are the the barriers of separation
07:30 07:30 - between the third heaven and this present Cosmos that we inhabit you know the world and the universe and then
07:38 07:38 - Hades the underworld and so all three of these places are separated to each other by uh the waters above and the waters
07:45 07:45 - below and so there is this uncrossable boundary in the case of you know between Hades and the normal world just as much
07:54 07:54 - as there are between the different parts of Hades itself and so looking at things from a certain perspective you could say
08:02 08:02 - that those people who are in the afterlife who are either in Abraham’s bosom or torments depending on if they
08:08 08:08 - were Believers or not are sort of contained within Hades they can’t they can’t leave they’re they’re they’re not
08:14 08:14 - trapped because that makes it sound negative but like there’s a boundary that that kind of defines where they
08:21 08:21 - cannot go past and if you want to look at things that way that’s not incorrect but you can kind of also look at things
08:27 08:27 - from the other direction we are also Bound in such a way we cannot leave this normal World in fact we cannot cross
08:34 08:34 - over there into Hades any more than they can cross over here after they’ve died and so this this thing that we’re
08:41 08:41 - talking about here is actually a really common theme in mythology so the the mythological systems of different
08:49 08:49 - cultures across history um there’s actually a particularly famous myth in uh Greek myth you know gets repeated in
08:56 08:56 - the the Roman myths as well of a guy named orus who goes to the underworld to try to get his wife back uriy and so
09:05 09:05 - Orphus and uriy you might have heard of this um but you know we’re not going to spend too much time talking about this
09:10 09:10 - other than making the observation that this idea of the boundary or the separation between the world of the
09:17 09:17 - living and the world of the dead has been you know a very very popular Topic in mythology across a whole bunch of
09:25 09:25 - different cultures it’s not just the Greeks and so this topic here that we’re talking about is very much something
09:32 09:32 - that is true like there is a boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead and they can’t cross
09:38 09:38 - over back to the world of the living and we can’t cross over back to the world of the Dead that is you know reality as God
09:44 09:44 - has said it up and then sort of to the point that well doesn’t resuscitation sort of seem to go against this this
09:52 09:52 - structure that we have set up here well that is sort of true but I’m G to kind of reframe the question here so if we
09:59 09:59 - are saying that the conceptual hang-up here is that in resuscitation people once in Haiti somehow exit and Traverse
10:06 10:06 - this boundary that said to be so vast and uncrossable well doesn’t Resurrection pose just as much a problem
10:12 10:12 - as resuscitation like that is human people leaving you know the underworld after being there after they died and
10:20 10:20 - then coming back once more into the world of the Living Well that too is these people who were previously
10:26 10:26 - confined traversing this uncrossable boundary right and unlike resuscitation which is a teaching that’s maybe not as
10:34 10:34 - widely taught and appreciated and things like that the resurrection is completely Central to our faith as Christians um in
10:41 10:41 - fact Paul makes this real clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 I’m going to go ahead and read this it’s a few verses
10:47 10:47 - here um but you’ll see what I mean in a second this is how Central the resurrection is to our belief so this is
10:54 10:54 - Paul remonstrating with the Corinthians about the resurrection um 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 16-9 says this for if
11:02 11:02 - the dead are not raised not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is worthless you
11:09 11:09 - are still in your sins then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if we have hoped in Christ in
11:15 11:15 - this life only like that is without believing the resurrection we are of all men most to be pied so Moy this is quite
11:24 11:24 - strong stuff right Paul is saying that if you don’t believe in the resur rection of the Dead you cannot believe
11:31 11:31 - in Christ’s Resurrection you cannot believe that the father accepted Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf that we
11:37 11:37 - are still dead in our sins and so point you know kind of quite simply here we would say that Christianity does not
11:45 11:45 - work without the resurrection like that’s probably the best way to think about this you cannot have Christianity
11:52 11:52 - as you know Christianity is if you don’t believe in the resurrection and so I’m not trying to straw man the position
11:59 11:59 - here but the point is resurrection is very very clearly taught in the New Testament and Resurrection also violates
12:06 12:06 - the boundaries between the living world and the world of the dead of course in that case it is a final uh you know like
12:13 12:13 - people who are resurrected they don’t die anymore um so they never go back and that is not the case with resuscitation
12:20 12:20 - but I’m just trying to show here that this boundary that we’re talking about well it’s there in that case as well and
12:27 12:27 - so kind of what are we supposed to make of all this how do we puzzle this out you know if we have the emphasis being
12:34 12:34 - put here on the chasm in Hades that is you know said to be vast such that people can’t cross over it and we can
12:41 12:41 - kind of infer that there’s a boundary a barrier between you know Hades and the world of the living which is true as
12:47 12:47 - well well then what do we make of resuscitation and Resurrection having these boundar be crossed and so I’m
12:54 12:54 - going to argue here that the key point is that in Resurrection and resuscitation both it’s not humans that
13:01 13:01 - do the crossing of these uncrossable boundaries on our own but it’s actually God that causes it to happen and so uh a
13:07 13:07 - verse reference that I have cross referenced here is Matthew Chapter 19 Verse 26 which says uh and looking at
13:15 13:15 - them Jesus said to them with people this is impossible but With God all things are possible and so the idea here is
13:22 13:22 - that these things that would be impossible on our own on our own power we would not be able to cross these
13:27 13:27 - divides we would not be able to you know go from the world of the Dead back to the world of the living but it’s not on
13:35 13:35 - our own power that these things are happening it’s through the power of God and so that is how I would say we really
13:41 13:41 - ought to kind of you know initially start thinking about this idea in our minds now to kind of turn to a different
13:48 13:48 - topic you know in continuing to flesh out this this Luke 16 passage and what we ought to make of it I don’t think we
13:54 13:54 - ought to lose sight of the fact that raising people from the dead uh that is recessive itation was clearly recognized
14:01 14:01 - as being utterly miraculous that is it’s not normal but completely extraordinary that’s kind of like the whole point it’s
14:07 14:07 - why it’s such a big deal when Jesus does it it’s a miracle it is a demonstration of God’s power that he’s breaking
14:13 14:13 - natural law that this is not how things are supposed to work and so you know just in this sense that we’re talking
14:21 14:21 - about this kind of far from arguing that resuscitation can’t be a thing because it would mean that you know people are
14:27 14:27 - crossing this crossable boundary and we say oh look it’s a contradiction we should sort of instead be emphasizing
14:34 14:34 - how awe inspiring it is that God out of his overflowing grace and mercy and Love Actually violates the natural order that
14:41 14:41 - he has set up for our benefit he’s breaking the rules for us right well of course God made the rules so he can
14:49 14:49 - freely break them but the point is is that this is supposed to be a miracle a demonstration of God’s power of his
14:56 14:56 - ability to control even life and death and he’s doing this for our behalf and you know as a sign for those people that
15:04 15:04 - they might believe you know and obviously uh Lazarus uh his resurrection in particular we know this from the
15:09 15:09 - latter part of John chapter 11 people believed because of it God did this as a miracle as a demonstration of his power
15:17 15:17 - so that people might come to believe in him and so now kind of where I’m going with all this is that um we have to kind
15:25 15:25 - of take these things that we wonder about and kind of put them in proper context so something else that a lot of
15:31 15:31 - people uh trying to think about how to phrase this you know it’s it’s not like a bad thing to have wonders and and try
15:37 15:37 - to figure out how it all fits together but here’s another one that kind of reminds me of this is that uh some
15:43 15:43 - people have a hard time understanding how the divine nature of Jesus Christ could possibly come to be bound in a
15:49 15:49 - physical body in the Incarnation and of course as finite human beings we’re never really going to completely
15:55 15:55 - understand this one you know we’re we’re going to take the Bible’s word for it but what does that mean how does that
15:59 15:59 - work you know we’re kind of never going to get there and so it’s fine for us to wonder and Ponder and meditate upon this
16:06 16:06 - but past a certain point what we need to acknowledge is that God did send his one and only son into the world to take on
16:14 16:14 - humanity and die for our sins so that we might be reconciled to him he did it it’s what the Bible says and so the
16:21 16:21 - focus that we should have here honestly needs to be on the Wonder and the awe of that that God so loved us that he sent
16:28 16:28 - his only son into the world to become a human being far below his station that he had as a member of the Trinity you
16:37 16:37 - know co-equal and co-eternal with the father and the spirit you know no one had to do this God did not have to
16:43 16:43 - rescue us but he loved us so much that he sent his only son to die for us so that we might have forgiveness from our
16:50 16:50 - sins and be reconciled to him we need to be a struck by that we need to appreciate the Wonder of it rather than
16:57 16:57 - kind of putting our focus on the well well how did something Divine become human like that doesn’t make sense and
17:02 17:02 - and raising these objections to the logic of it um and this isn’t meant to be a rebuke really you know it’s just
17:09 17:09 - talking about the perspective we need to hold when we talk about things like this we just need to be sure to keep our
17:16 17:16 - focus upon uh what is truly important not not matters of of mechanics or or well you know like I understand reality
17:26 17:26 - to work this way but this doesn’t comport so it can’t have happened or or things like that you know maybe we’re
17:32 17:32 - not even going that far we just let it trouble us but we ought not be troubled we need to not try to apply human logic
17:39 17:39 - to God because God’s decidedly not bound in the same ways that we are as humans so we are very finite in our knowledge
17:47 17:47 - and our abilities but God is not God is outside of SpaceTime and so if we start kind of troubling ourselves with well
17:56 17:56 - God did this and God did that but if if I tried to do that I couldn’t do it well if we even go down that path just a
18:02 18:02 - little bit we’re going to kind of have it upset us because you know it might seem impossible and let me go back to
18:08 18:08 - that verse from Matthew chapter 19 with people this is impossible but With God all things are possible that’s the god
18:15 18:15 - that we worship and serve so for him nothing is impossible because he’s in complete control of the universe God
18:23 18:23 - created the universe in the blink of an eye he can do whatever he pleases within it even things that are completely
18:29 18:29 - impossible from the human perspective you know like raising people from the dead right and so kind of that’s the
18:36 18:36 - sense that we want to have here is that when someone is raised from the dead it is a miracle those people crossing this
18:44 18:44 - boundry of separation between Hades and the normal world and and you know making that passage that ought not be possible
18:52 18:52 - it is God exercising his power in an overtly miraculous way and so we need to appreciate it for the miracle that it is
19:00 19:00 - rather than I don’t know trying to see some sort of contradiction in it that’s kind of where I’ve been going with all
19:08 19:08 - this okay so now we’re going to turn our attention back to Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 um and so that’s that verse
19:15 19:15 - that once again says something like uh for it is appointed for man to die once so this idea that there is there’s one
19:22 19:22 - death rather than more deaths if that’s kind of the the way that many English versions tend to to make this verse
19:29 19:29 - sound and so we’re going to be kind of initially talking about kind of what how I did explain it before and maybe how uh
19:36 19:36 - there’s a way that might be better so kind of talking about what I said before um in that previous video when I
19:43 19:43 - discussed Hebrews 927 um I had spoke in terms of a type of death leading to resuscitation and a type of death
19:51 19:51 - leading to Resurrection or judgment and I argued that the death that is mentioned in Hebrews 9:27 is referring
19:58 19:58 - to the second kind and not the first kind that is it’s referring to the type leading to Resurrection you know the
20:05 20:05 - type where people stay dead after they die rather than the type leading to resuscitation and that while we as human
20:12 20:12 - beings can’t know the difference between the two states that is whether someone who has died will come back to life or
20:18 20:18 - not or be raised from the dead well God does know that based upon his perfect for knowledge and for ordination of
20:24 20:24 - everything and so I don’t really think there’s anything technically wrong with what I said here but after thinking
20:30 20:30 - about it a bit more I I did kind of decide that maybe this isn’t actually the ideal framework for trying to
20:35 20:35 - explain the concept and that’s sort of because it’s not really the dying that’s different in the cases so much as what
20:43 20:43 - comes after it uh that is to say the difference comes from the following condition of the human being’s existence
20:50 20:50 - more than it really comes from how they left the physical world the first time around so if someone dies the way that
20:57 20:57 - they die is not going to be different if they’re going to be resuscitated versus if they’re not as in there isn’t
21:03 21:03 - anything special about the manner in which they die and therefore speaking in terms of like quote unquote types of
21:09 21:09 - death probably is just kind of going to confuse the topic because it’s really not like there’s types of death there’s
21:15 21:15 - like types of things that happen after death right that’s kind of like the better way to think about it probably
21:21 21:21 - probably and so to use gyrus daughter as an example here if she died of illness is likely given that uh the text in Luke
21:31 21:31 - 8:42 says that she was only about 12 years old so quite Young and the text really doesn’t give us any reason to
21:37 21:37 - think it would be anything but illness you know generally speaking children of that age they they don’t die for many
21:43 21:43 - reasons but it’s likely that that if she was in this state that it was probably because of illness so at any rate if she
21:51 21:51 - died of illness then her death from illness wouldn’t really be different than that of someone who would not
21:57 21:57 - ultimately be resuscitated this is what we were just saying that when someone dies even those folks who are going to
22:03 22:03 - be raised from the dead that God forn knows are going to be raised from the dead there really isn’t anything special
22:09 22:09 - about how they die that first time so the special thing is what comes after that so what happens to most people
22:18 22:18 - after they die is that they don’t come back and so this case where Jesus raises her from the dead this was someone who
22:26 22:26 - was well and truly dead like we talked about in the past video not just asleep although Jesus uses that euphemism to
22:33 22:33 - create ambiguity to kind of run interference so that he and his ministry and this girl and her family wouldn’t
22:40 22:40 - face uh you know not only the celebrity of it but uh also perhaps the the evil intentions of the Jewish leaders of the
22:47 22:47 - time well all that aside he raised her from the dead that is the special thing the miracle not how she died right and
22:56 22:56 - so again just to State the point clearly again the reason why I’m bringing all this up is because previously talking in
23:03 23:03 - terms of you know so-called types of death we were kind of using this this construct of God’s for knowledge to say
23:10 23:10 - that well there is a sort of death that leads to resuscitation but there’s also a sort of death that leads to
23:14 23:14 - Resurrection and that second kind is final well what I’m saying here is that maybe talking about types of death isn’t
23:21 23:21 - the most ideal way to frame the uh solution to this problem and so what I’ve been trying to get that before and
23:28 23:28 - again I don’t think anything I said was technically wrong it’s just maybe it’s a little bit more of a confusing way to
23:33 23:33 - come at this um so what I’ve been trying to say before was that there’s a sort of death after which one stays dead and
23:39 23:39 - this is true of all humans even those who were resuscitated in the interm that is to say permanent physical death
23:47 23:47 - eventually comes for all and cannot be avoided by anyone it is simply how it is for us as human beings being born is a
23:55 23:55 - death sentence none of us can escape permanent physical death even those people who are resuscitated and so
24:01 24:01 - that’s why I was trying to say well for some people when they die they can come back but that’s not quite the same thing
24:05 24:05 - is those people who die uh for once for all like in the final sense they they don’t come back anymore after that and
24:12 24:12 - everybody eventually faces that second kind of death that’s what I had been talking about
24:21 24:21 - previously all right so if we decide that maybe what we just went over wasn’t the best way to talk about it that
24:28 24:28 - trying to draw a distinction between the types of death kind of just makes the issue unclear you know just kind of is
24:34 24:34 - confusing because we’re talking about all this hypothetical stuff and God’s God’s knowledge that we don’t possess as
24:39 24:39 - humans and so on so um I’m G to try taking a somewhat different approach here as I try to explain this again and
24:47 24:47 - uh in doing that I’m going to be trying to focus on the vocabulary in the context of Hebrews 9:27 this verse that
24:54 24:54 - we’ve been talking about about how humans only die once well I’m going to be looking at some of the vocab in that
24:59 24:59 - verse as well as the chapter that that verse is a part of to try to explain how actually it still doesn’t contradict the
25:06 25:06 - idea of resuscitation and uh you’ll see more what I mean as we get into it here but uh this is going to be kind of
25:13 25:13 - detailed and Technical and that’s sort of why I didn’t do the Deep dive on it the first time was because I just tried
25:18 25:18 - to kind of explain you know back of the napkin sort of style and uh guess it didn’t work super well but um I do hope
25:24 25:24 - that despite the length and the complexity here that this will help make sense of Hebrews 9:27 better so
25:30 25:30 - hopefully I’ll do a better job this time kind of explaining all the details and getting into the nitty-gritty a bit so
25:35 25:35 - that we can have confidence in the fact that this verse doesn’t contradict the idea of
25:44 25:44 - resuscitation all right so the first thing that we’re going to do here in trying to take a closer look at Hebrews
25:49 25:49 - 9:27 is examine the wider context of the chapter here and so before we do anything else I’m just going to go ahead
25:56 25:56 - and read the whole chapter here just decided to read it in nkjv here just so that we have a sense of well where does
26:04 26:04 - this verse show up what is the writer of Hebrews talking about when this verse is mentioned um and so we’re going to start
26:11 26:11 - all the way at the beginning of the chapter even though this verse verse 27 is actually down towards the end in fact
26:17 26:17 - it’s the second to last verse in the chapter we’re going to go ahead and read the whole chapter just to make sure that
26:21 26:21 - we have a better idea of the context of this verse so that when we try to interpret it we’re kind of putting it in
26:29 26:29 - its proper place we’re seeing how it relates to the theme of this chapter and what the writer of Hebrews was trying to
26:35 26:35 - do with it so picking up Hebrews chapter 9 verse one and reading through the end of the chapter Hebrews chapter 9 says
26:44 26:44 - this then indeed even the first Covenant had ordinances of divine service and the Earthly Sanctuary for a tabernacle was
26:52 26:52 - prepared the first part in which was the lampstand the table and the sh showbread which is called the sanctuary and behind
27:00 27:00 - the second Veil the part of the Tabernacle which is called the holiest of all which had the golden sensor and
27:06 27:06 - the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides with gold in which were the golden pot that had the Mana Aaron’s Rod that
27:14 27:14 - budded and the tablets of the Covenant and above it were the cherubim of Glory overshadowing the mercy seed of these
27:21 27:21 - things we cannot now speak in detail now when these things had been thus prepared the priests always went
27:28 27:28 - into the first part of the Tabernacle performing the services but into the second part the high priest went alone
27:35 27:35 - once a year not without blood which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance the Holy
27:42 27:42 - Spirit indicating this that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was
27:49 27:49 - still standing it was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make
27:56 27:56 - him who performed to serve as perfect in regard to the conscience concerned only with foods and drinks various Washings
28:03 28:03 - and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation picking up verse 11 now but
28:10 28:10 - Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with human
28:17 28:17 - hands that is not of this creation not with the blood of goats and Cales but with his own blood he entered the most
28:24 28:24 - holy Place once for all having obtained Eternal Redemption for if the blood of bulls and goats and
28:30 28:30 - the ashes of a hepher sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood
28:37 28:37 - of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead Works
28:43 28:43 - to serve the Living God and for this reason he is the mediator of the New Covenant by means of death for the
28:50 28:50 - Redemption of the transgressions under the first Covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the
28:56 28:56 - Eternal inheritance for where there is a testament there must also of necessity
29:02 29:02 - be the death of the testator so the one who makes the Testament for a testament is in force after men are dead since it
29:10 29:10 - has no power at all while the testator lives therefore not even the first Covenant was dedicated without blood for
29:18 29:18 - when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and goats with
29:24 29:24 - water Scarlet wool and hiip and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying this is the blood of
29:31 29:31 - the Covenant which God has commanded you then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the Tabernacle and all the vessels
29:37 29:37 - of the ministry and according to the law almost all things are purified with blood and without the shedding of blood
29:44 29:44 - there is no remission that is there is no forgiveness of sins verse 23 therefore it was necessary
29:52 29:52 - that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these but the Heavenly things themselves with
29:58 29:58 - better sacrifices than these for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands which are copies of the true
30:05 30:05 - but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us not that he should offer himself often as the high
30:12 30:12 - priest enters the most holy place every year with blood of another he then would have he then would have had to suffer
30:20 30:20 - often since the foundation of the world but now once at the end of the ages he has appeared to put away sin by the
30:28 30:28 - sacrifice himself and as it is appointed for men to die once but after this the Judgment so Christ was offered once to
30:37 30:37 - Bear the sins of many to those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time apart from sin for
30:45 30:45 - salvation so nkjv is a version here makes a few translation decisions and I wanted to just highlight a couple of
30:52 30:52 - them so I’m going to go to uh there’s a site called Bible Hub uh that lets you just really easily compare different
30:59 30:59 - versions so I’m going to type in Bible Hub and then let’s look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 here so nkjv is what
31:07 31:07 - I just read for Hebrews chapter 9 so let’s go find it just so I can convince you of this um it says that he has
31:14 31:14 - appeared to put away sin you know once at the end of the ages that’s how the king uh New King James Version
31:20 31:20 - translates it now if we go look at something like the English Standard Version note that it translates same
31:26 31:26 - word as for all and the NLT translates as once for all and the NIV translates as once for all right and so this
31:35 31:35 - actually is the same word in the Greek and we’ll get to this I’m just showing you that actually how different versions
31:41 31:41 - translate it kind of has an impact on how we can take it now it’s not that the nkjv translates wrong so much as that
31:48 31:48 - there is a way in which we interpret this in English in which we don’t get the right sense um and so that is
31:54 31:54 - precisely what we’re going to be talking about here now so so that’s just a bit of a sneak peek again we read the nkjv
32:00 32:00 - you’ll note that other versions translate some of the ones in this chapter as once for all Now to turn back
32:06 32:06 - to just a general overview of what Hebrews chapter 9 is talking about so you know maybe listening hearing it just
32:14 32:14 - once isn’t going to kind of give us that big picture we need to situate ourselves so that we do the interpretation of this
32:20 32:20 - verse later in the chapter in the right way so to kind of Remedy that I’m just going to do a a real big fly by uh just
32:28 32:28 - overview of what Hebrews 9 is talking about and you know again much more could be said about all of these things I’m
32:34 32:34 - not trying to be exhaustive or comprehensive just trying to give us a bit of a framework in which to
32:39 32:39 - contextualize this verse that we’re going to be looking at here so and and you know I didn’t I didn’t like look at
32:46 32:46 - a great deal of things to pull this up I just kind of like read the chapter and tried to summarize as best I could so
32:51 32:51 - you know this is a little bit back of the napkin is what I’m saying but Hebrews chapter 9 veres 1-5 the first
32:57 32:57 - part of the chapter contrast the sacrifices of the Earthly Sanctuary with the sacrifice singular of Christ in the
33:04 33:04 - Heavenly Sanctuary the sacrifices of the Earthly Sanctuary cleansed only the outside but the blood of Christ won for
33:11 33:11 - him entrance into the Heavenly Most Holy Place once for all that’s verse 12 and allows us to cleanse not only our
33:18 33:18 - exteriors but also our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the Living God that’s verse 14 so
33:27 33:27 - verse 15 then says that we are under a New Covenant as opposed to the old Covenant with the old
33:32 33:32 - sacrifices so then picking up at verse 16 uh Hebrews chapter 9: 16- 24 speaks of the role of blood in covenants or
33:42 33:42 - Testaments as the nkjv translated it so we are told that these things these covenants are sealed with blood that’s
33:50 33:50 - kind of the sense of verses 16-8 in Hebrews chapter 9 without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness
33:57 33:57 - verse 22 there is no remission how the nkjv translates it in the prior sacrifices the Earthly Tabernacle and
34:04 34:04 - everything used in it ceremonies have been cleansed with the blood of Cals and goats it’s verse 21 but the Heavenly
34:09 34:09 - things had to be purified with better sacrifices than these verse 23 for the blood of Christ was not payment to enter
34:17 34:17 - a sanctuary made with human hands but rather payment to enter Heaven itself that’s verse 24 okay so now picking up
34:25 34:25 - towards that section that’s really relevant for us Hebrews chap 9: 25-28 through the end of the chapter here so
34:32 34:32 - Hebrews 9 25-28 makes it clear that unlike the prior ritual sacrifices that had to be offered again and again Christ
34:41 34:41 - does not enter Heaven to offer himself repeatedly since and this is direct quote he appeared once for all at the
34:47 34:47 - culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself pretty sure that’s NIV but you know direct
34:53 34:53 - quote there verse 26 when he returns again it will not be to bear sin but to bring Salvation to those who are waiting
35:01 35:01 - for him that’s what verse 28 says so hopefully that overview here helps us understand exactly what this chapter is
35:09 35:09 - talking about so we have this contrast between the Earthly sanctuary and the Heavenly Sanctuary the contrast between
35:15 35:15 - the Earthly sacrifices and Christ sacrifice you know the Earthly ones could only wash clean our exterior but
35:21 35:21 - Christ can cleanse our consciences so that we may serve the Living God we have this idea of blood needing to be shed in
35:27 35:27 - covenants that these covenants are sealed with blood they cannot be in effect until there is until blood is
35:33 35:33 - shed we have this idea of the difference between the blood in the human ceremonies and the blood of Christ that
35:41 35:41 - that was payment for him entering into that Heavenly Most Holy Place once for all um because it was payment to enter
35:48 35:48 - Heaven itself and he bought for us entrance to heaven with his blood and then at the very end we talk about
35:55 35:55 - specifically this idea that Christ didn’t have to do this over and over again he did it once because when he did
36:00 36:00 - it it would be effective for all time he appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the
36:08 36:08 - sacrifice of himself that’s what verse 26 says and so when he returns again um you know this is like Revelation chapter
36:15 36:15 - 19 he will be coming with a sword in his hand not to bear sin but to bring Salvation for those who are waiting upon
36:23 36:23 - his return um and so this is Hebrews chapter 9 kind of viewed a little bit from the bird’s eye you know not super
36:29 36:29 - specific into all the verses but kind of taking a thematic look at the chapter as the
36:37 36:37 - whole all right so now that we have talked a little bit about the chapter itself we’re going to focus in even more
36:43 36:43 - specifically on this word here in verse 27 so we just talked about how the end of chapter nine is talking about how
36:51 36:51 - Jesus only appeared once he doesn’t have to offer himself as a sacrifice repeatedly unlike the physical phical
36:57 36:57 - sacrifices under the law and so this idea of Jesus offering himself once that’s what we’re going to be turning to
37:04 37:04 - to look at next so to better explain the once that’s used in Hebrews 9:27 you know part of that wider statement people
37:12 37:12 - are destined to die once we’re going to primarily be focusing on this latter section that we talked about so that is
37:19 37:19 - verses 25- 28 and even more specifically the usage of the Greek adverb hop Hawks which is the Greek word that many
37:27 37:27 - versions translate as once here and so this is the word in Greek if you click on this you you can go see a lexicon and
37:33 37:33 - you can also look at a concordance so you can see all the places in the New Testament since this is a Greek word all
37:38 37:38 - the places in the New Testament where this word is used and so kind of the short version of what this word means is
37:45 37:45 - sometimes you can use this in the sense of one time as opposed to more times so you know like as opposed to two times or
37:52 37:52 - three times but sometimes it also takes on the meaning of once for all the second meaning has overtones of
37:59 37:59 - completion and finality in this case the adverb is modifying something that has been rendered done in such a way that it
38:06 38:06 - will be perpetually valid and never need repetition and so hopefully you can kind of see well that’s where we’re going
38:12 38:12 - here in this latter part of Hebrews chapter 9 is that’s the sort of usage that is going to modify Jesus’s death
38:19 38:19 - for our sin that once for all sense here and so just to give us a sense of what this means I came up with an analogy
38:27 38:27 - here now this isn’t completely perfect but maybe it’s something that will help us explain this so contrast these two
38:32 38:32 - usages of the word once even in English here and so in one case someone might say something like this last month I
38:40 38:40 - crashed my car once that is one time as opposed to more times when someone cut me off in traffic thankfully the damage
38:47 38:47 - from that accident was quite minor but then I dented the bumper again yesterday when the power steering suddenly stopped
38:52 38:52 - working when I was backing up so you can see that in this particular case whoever saying this was saying well you know
38:59 38:59 - last month I only had one accident as opposed to two or three but then I had another one you know more recently so
39:05 39:05 - it’s kind of like something talking about the number of accidents and then in another usage contrast what I just
39:12 39:12 - said with this so someone else might say unlike normal people Johnny only ever seems to Total cars when he crashes them
39:20 39:20 - while the rest of us get into fender benders occasionally Johnny crashes a car once that is once for all and then
39:27 39:27 - that’s it the car will inevitably be toast after that this is why Johnny’s car insurance rates are Sky High so
39:33 39:33 - hopefully you can kind of see here if you think in terms of this and you kind of keep this analogy in your head when
39:38 39:38 - you think about the two senses of the word then maybe it can kind of help make sense of this one time versus once for
39:45 39:45 - all uh as the two meanings here now I should be clear that this adverb in Greek can kind of be used in some other
39:50 39:50 - ways too you know like once when someone was doing this and so on like that but I’m just focusing on these meanings
39:57 39:57 - because these are really the ones that would be possibilities in the context of our passage here and so as I say I kind
40:03 40:03 - of like this car crash analogy this this the difference between having a fender bender versus totaling your car is kind
40:09 40:09 - of the difference here in the senses of this adverb and I think it illustrates kind of the difference in these meanings
40:16 40:16 - pretty well but you know nonetheless obviously the Greek adverb has nothing to do with crashing cars I’m just using
40:22 40:22 - this as an illustration uh to try to help us understand what adverb means a little bit more so before we get into
40:30 40:30 - how to translate this adverb in Hebrews chapter 9 specifically I think it’s a good idea for us to take a look at a
40:36 40:36 - couple other examples from scripture to make sure that we understand the difference between these two different
40:41 40:41 - meanings of HX so we’re going to look first at 2 Corinthians chap 11 verse 25 which contains this adverb and so we’re
40:49 40:49 - going to be looking at how this adverb is used in this verse so I’m going to go ahead and read this this is Paul giving
40:53 40:53 - a somewhat gruesome accounting of bad things that have happened to him uh you know in his service to the gospel so 2
41:00 41:00 - Corinthians 11:25 three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned three times I was Shipwrecked a night and a
41:08 41:08 - day I have spent in the Deep okay so not pleasant things of course but the point here is that in this particular verse
41:17 41:17 - Paul is most certainly using the adverb hoox in the sense of one time as opposed to more times rather than once for all
41:25 41:25 - since why would be beaten with rods three times shipwreck three times but then be stoned once for all rather than
41:32 41:32 - stoned once time like one time so contextually that wouldn’t make any sense at all so if Paul’s detailing this
41:38 41:38 - list of you know this thing happened to me three times this thing happened to me three times this thing happened to me
41:42 41:42 - one time that’s how we have to translate it there that’s the only one that makes sense and so that is an example of the
41:49 41:49 - pop Hawks being translated as one time as opposed to more times that is the correct way to translate that adverb in
41:57 41:57 - that particular verse of the Bible and so now we’re going to look at a verse for the other one too there’s this verse
42:03 42:03 - at the beginning part of the book of Jude uh Jude chapter 1:3 says beloved while I was making every effort to write
42:10 42:10 - you about our common salvation I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith
42:16 42:16 - which was once for all handed down to the Saints so imagine for a a a moment if you know the sense of this adverb in
42:26 42:26 - this verse was well the faith was once handed down to the Saints as opposed to twice or three times what would that
42:31 42:31 - even mean right and so what Jew’s getting at here is that we have this we have this this knowledge of the Gospel
42:38 42:38 - even the very word of God in our hands here and that has been given to us it’s been purchased what does it mean for God
42:46 42:46 - to give it multiple times that’s not how the plan of God operates and so this is a good example of the verse in which the
42:52 42:52 - sense of the haox is most certainly once for all rather rather than one time as opposed to more times since how could
42:59 42:59 - the faith be delivered unto the Saints multiple times what would that even mean so contextually and you can see by the
43:05 43:05 - way that this version at least this is nasby the 1995 version of it actually translates once for all or like I said
43:13 43:13 - that’s one of the definitions that’s one of the Lexicon entries for this word but if he translated as once here or one
43:19 43:19 - time I would argue that that’s actually incorrect that’s the point I’m making is that you have to use the appropriate
43:26 43:26 - definition of the word in the context in which it’s being used and so with these two examples again these are not part of
43:33 43:33 - the book of Hebrews that’s intentional on my part just showing you that this is how the adverb in Greek Works in general
43:39 43:39 - having nothing to do with our particular context in Hebrews 9 just looking at how this word is used in other parts of the
43:45 43:45 - New Testament helps us see that there is a difference between these meanings and we don’t get to just pick and choose we
43:51 43:51 - have to use the right meaning in the right spot that’s the idea that we’re trying to introduce here
44:00 44:00 - okay so now we’re going to turn our Focus specifically to Hebrews chapter 9 now that we’ve talked a bit about what
44:06 44:06 - this Greek adverb hopo means and so in Hebrews chapter 9 this same adverb actually shows up in four places it
44:13 44:13 - shows up in verse 7 verse 26 verse 27 and verse 28 so three verses all in a row there at the end of the chapter and
44:21 44:21 - so like we just talked about as in all translation we determine how to translate primarily based upon context
44:28 44:28 - so we don’t just get to pick and choose we have to use the right the right definition the right translation of the
44:34 44:34 - word based on its multiple meanings depending on how it’s being used and so in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 7 we actually
44:42 44:42 - must translate that hopo as one time rather than once for all and that’s because Hebrews 9:7 is talking about the
44:49 44:49 - high priest entering the most holy Place once a year and it says that he does not do this without taking blood which he
44:55 44:55 - offers for himself and the sins of the people committed in ignorance so he does this once a year right as opposed to one
45:03 45:03 - time only once for all and so again another verse that you know basically makes it very clear that we have to
45:09 45:09 - translate this way Hebrews 9:25 says that uh you know Jesus would not offer himself often as the high priest enters
45:17 45:17 - the holy Place year by year with blood that is not his own so that doesn’t even have a hopo in it there is no once in
45:25 45:25 - that verse you know as it is in verse seven once a year this is year by year every year you
45:32 45:32 - know um the Greek there is actually caught any out tone so literally you could translate that as every year or
45:38 45:38 - year by year according to each year not just one time and then never again and so this particular instance plugging in
45:47 45:47 - our possible definitions we see this one has to be one time it has to be you know one time as opposed to more rather than
45:55 45:55 - once for All In a final sense because if it was once for all in a final sense the high priest wouldn’t have to do it every
46:00 46:00 - year right and so you can see that this is a case of that adverb where we have to translate using the meaning of one
46:08 46:08 - time so that’s Hebrews chapter 9:7 and then in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26 we ought to translate this one as
46:18 46:18 - once for all since it’s obviously being contrasted with the often or frequently of Hebrews 9:25 so if we look at Hebrews
46:26 46:26 - 9:25 again nor was it that he he being Christ would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy Place year
46:34 46:34 - by year with blood that is not his own so the often here that’s the Greek word polakis again you can click on the uh
46:42 46:42 - the word here to be taken to the Lexicon where you can see the concordance enty so you can see how this word is used
46:48 46:48 - across the New Testament well this word is definitely being contrasted with the Hop Hawks of verse 26 that that is to
46:56 46:56 - say it’s it’s kind of in opposition to this Christ does not have to offer himself often or frequently that’s this
47:03 47:03 - word in Greek but he has to offer himself once that’s the Hop Hawks he has to offer himself once for all so what
47:10 47:10 - I’m saying is that you would actually be remiss if you don’t translate this verse kind of intending that sense to be the
47:17 47:17 - one that your readers get now arguably you can translate as just once in English because you can have once with
47:23 47:23 - the sense of once for all and you can also have once with the sense of one time like that that’s true in English as
47:28 47:28 - well but I think it’s better objectively speaking to translate as once for all as many versions do right if you remember
47:36 47:36 - back we took a look at different translations of Hebrews 9:26 and we saw that a lot of them in fact most of them
47:42 47:42 - except for the nkjv actually did translate with once for all here and so that’s Hebrews 9:26 set in opposition to
47:50 47:50 - the pakus that other Greek adverb in the verse before that’s that’s saying that Jesus doesn’t do this often or
47:57 47:57 - frequently he does it once for all well so that’s why we say Hebrews 9:26 has to be translated as once for all and
48:04 48:04 - actually in Hebrews 9:28 it’s the same thing so Hebrews 9:28 says so Christ also having been offered once to Bear
48:12 48:12 - the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him and
48:19 48:19 - so you can see actually nasby doesn’t translate this one as once for all it only translates it as once and uh you
48:25 48:25 - can kind of see why because you know in the second clause in this verse here we have this you know well he will appear
48:32 48:32 - for a second time as opposed to you know only appearing once but he is talking not about appearing in the first part of
48:39 48:39 - verse 28 but talking about offering himself up to the pay pay for our sins once and so where people I think make
48:48 48:48 - the mistake here and I’m not saying that the translators of the nasby did this again you can translate the word as once
48:53 48:53 - it’s fine you just need to be interpreting it in the sense of once for all that’s the way you need to think
48:58 48:58 - about it and that’s because the second here is not referring to him offering himself up again in fact that’s the
49:05 49:05 - opposite of what the verse is saying um the verse is saying that he suffered once for all he offered himself up for
49:11 49:11 - our sins once for all but he will return a second time he will appear a second time two different concepts right and so
49:18 49:18 - the contradiction would be you know if he offered himself up once for all but then offered himself up again then we
49:24 49:24 - would have to translate as one time rather than once for all that’s not what the verse is saying and so my contention
49:30 49:30 - here and in fact if you read the chapter like we did in context the entire chapter is talking about how the Earthly
49:37 49:37 - sacrifices had to be done over and over again and they didn’t even cleanse people’s consciences and we are
49:43 49:43 - contrasting that with the efficaciousness of Christ sacrifice the sense is clearly contrasting the
49:49 49:49 - effectiveness and the finality of Christ sacrifice with the feebleness of the repeated sacrifices of the law fact if
49:56 49:56 - you take a look at the book of Hebrews as a whole that’s kind of the theme of the book of Hebrews is that why are you
50:02 50:02 - guys turning back to the Shadows of the law when we have the real thing Christ has come died was crucified paid for our
50:10 50:10 - sin on the cross and was resurrected why are you turning back to the law this is the person writing to the Hebrews right
50:17 50:17 - that’s the kind of the purpose of the letter of the book of Hebrews here but all of that to say the the sense here is
50:24 50:24 - still clearly contrasted the effectiveness and the finality the not needing to be repeated if you will
50:30 50:30 - of Christ sacrifice with the feebleness of the repeated sacrifices of the law so translating this verse as you know
50:38 50:38 - implying that somehow Christ could offer himself up again as in it was just one time he did it but you know maybe there
50:45 50:45 - could be more that’s the wrong way to translate it plain and simple because this verse is very clearly getting at
50:51 50:51 - that sense of Christ did this once for all he paid for sin once once for all we’ll take a look at some more verses
50:57 50:57 - actually that that talk about Christ sacrifices in those terms we’ll do that in the next slide here but I just want
51:03 51:03 - to say that you have to translate the verse this way or you have to at least understand it this way this is the
51:08 51:08 - correct way to interpret this verse and if you don’t you’re just doing it wrong basically um this is what the Bible
51:14 51:14 - means in this verse and so that brings us to verse 27 so we just argued that verse 7 in Hebrews chapter 9 we
51:23 51:23 - translate as one time verse 2 and verse 28 we translate as once for all so what about verse 27 and so again I apologies
51:32 51:32 - for the technicl here but I did say I was going to go there so the hopax of Hebrews 9:27 since it shows up in verse
51:39 51:39 - 26 27 and 28 well the one in verse 27 is actually set directly parallel with the usage in verse 28 which we just argued
51:50 51:50 - has to be once for all just has to be that is the right way to take it and so in the Greek
51:55 51:55 - and you know I’m just going to read this and you can plug your ears if it scares you the Greek here says kathos in verse
52:02 52:02 - 27 that’s how verse 27 starts with translates to something like and just as and then the first two words of verse 28
52:11 52:11 - are hutos Kai which we translate something like so also so these verses are being basically stuck together as an
52:21 52:21 - association so we start out in verse 27 saying just as it is appointed for men to die
52:28 52:28 - once so also Christ having been offered once let me read that again just as it is appointed for men to die once kind of
52:38 52:38 - like dot dot dot that’s verse 27 so also Christ was offered once to Bear for the sins of many so just as so
52:47 52:47 - also just as so also that’s how we translate these verses because Kai kosan in verse 27 and hutos Kai in verse 28
52:55 52:55 - those are the the opening words of those two verses that’s what they mean and so these usages of hop Hax in verse 27 and
53:04 53:04 - verses 28 are parallel to each other that’s what I’m trying to say grammatically speaking the sense here is
53:10 53:10 - that verse 27’s usage is being you know is being said to be as verse 28’s you know simil like or as right it is it is
53:19 53:19 - so also is verse 28 so basically we have to include that the sense of the hopax here in Hebrews 9:27 has to be once for
53:30 53:30 - all rather than being one time why because it’s being set parallel to the usage in verse 28 which we just argued
53:38 53:38 - was the once forall meaning rather than the one time meaning so if we’re sure about verse 28 then for the grammar I
53:45 53:45 - just talked about for how these verses are being Set uh in relation to one another then verse 27 has to mean that
53:53 53:53 - too that’s just how it works grammatically speaking all right so maybe you’re
54:00 54:00 - already convinced but just in case we need a little bit more to bolster this idea here especially you know the fact
54:07 54:07 - that in verse 28 this has to be once for all we’re going to go ahead and look a little bit more at this idea of Christ’s
54:14 54:14 - work being like once for all being final and all the other places in the Bible we hear about this and I’m going to argue
54:21 54:21 - that you know this the importance of this concept in all the places mentioned in Scripture it actually completely
54:27 54:27 - forces our hand in translating verses 26 and 28 here in Hebrews chapter 9 like that is if even if we had no idea you
54:34 54:34 - know with respect to the context of the chapter itself but we look at everywhere else the Bible talks about Christ
54:40 54:40 - sacrifice and its finality we would have to translate these verses that way because other places in the Bible you
54:47 54:47 - have to translate them that way and I’ll talk about that in just a sec here so the latter part of Hebrews chapter 9 is
54:52 54:52 - not the only place that has the find ality and the completeness of Christ’s work clearly emphasized in scripture so
54:59 54:59 - I’m going to go ahead and read five more verses here now three of these are also from the book of Hebrews that should say
55:05 55:05 - something right as I said before um the book of Hebrews a big part of this is talking about how Christ came once for
55:12 55:12 - all so don’t go back to the repeated and not so effective you know system of the law when Christ came and died for us you
55:21 55:21 - know don’t keep putting him to death crucifying him a new believe in him and thus you know be saved and reconciled to
55:28 55:28 - God that’s the theme of the book of Hebrews here so we’re going to actually start with a verse in 1 Peter chapter 3
55:35 55:35 - 1 Peter chapter 3: 18 says for Christ also died for sins once for all there’s our word right uh the just for the
55:44 55:44 - unjust so that he might bring us to God having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit Christ died
55:51 55:51 - for sins once for all so 1 Peter 3:18 is actually using the same word that we just talked about elsewhere it’s using
55:57 55:57 - hopo but all of the the following passages that I’m going to read are actually using a different adverb and
56:04 56:04 - this one has to mean once for all it does not have the meaning of one time now it does have another meaning um and
56:11 56:11 - so this Greek adverb here is epop box so different word you know if you don’t read Greek I’ll promise it it looks
56:18 56:18 - different than the first one where’s the first one here right see less letters this one has an extra Epsilon and a a
56:27 56:27 - fee in front of it epop box this different word can mean two things um it can mean at once in the sense of like at
56:35 56:35 - the same time and so you can see this usage in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: 6 where it says after that he he being you
56:43 56:43 - know Jesus Christ after the resurrection appeared to more than 500 Brethren at one time or at once atep poo there most
56:52 56:52 - of whom remain until now but some have fallen asleep that that is they die right um so in that particular usage we
56:59 56:59 - see that this adverb is being used in the sense of 500 people at once 500 people at the same time that’s one
57:06 57:06 - meaning that this other adverb can have but the only other meaning that it really has at least in New Testament
57:12 57:12 - usage is once for all the finality sense of it just like we’ve been talking about as one of the possibilities for hotx
57:20 57:20 - well unlike it being a possibility for hotx it is the way you have to translate this other adverb here you don’t have a
57:26 57:26 - choice about it basically lexically speaking and so we said 1 Peter 3:18 just like the other verses we already
57:33 57:33 - looked at in Hebrews 9 is using hopax that one that we could kind of take to mean you know these other things I mean
57:39 57:39 - like I said there are other translations besides depending on context but these are the ones we’re focusing on but these
57:44 57:44 - other verses I’m about to read you don’t have a choice you have to translate these things using once for all and the
57:51 57:51 - argument is going to go kind of something like this if you have to translate these other things using once
57:55 57:55 - for all and these other things are directly parallel to what Hebrews 928 is saying then Hebrews 928 you also have to
58:02 58:02 - translate as once for all and if you translate Hebrews 9:28 as once for all then because of how verse 27 and verse
58:08 58:08 - 28 are related with this just as so also business then you have to translate verse 27 as once for all two that’s how
58:16 58:16 - the argument fits together here but before we get to that let me read these other verses so in Romans chapter 6
58:22 58:22 - verse 10 Paul says this for the death that he died he died to sin once for all but the life that he lives he lives to
58:30 58:30 - God and again because Romans chapter 6:10 is using epop box we cannot translate it any other way we have to
58:38 58:38 - translate this one as once for all because he didn’t die to sin like at once like at the same time he died for
58:46 58:46 - sin once for all right that’s the the meaning of this adverb we have to use and so Romans 610 he died to sin once
58:53 58:53 - for all that’s what that verse has to mean Hebrews 7: 27 also EP opox here who does not need daily like those High
59:02 59:02 - priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people because he did once for all
59:09 59:09 - when he offered up himself it’s talking of the same thing that we talk about later in Hebrews chapter 9 and in fact
59:17 59:17 - even stronger evidence for us in verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 9 this other adverb is used not hop Hawks but EP box
59:25 59:25 - and so Hebrews 9:12 says and not through the blood of goats and calves but through his own blood he entered the
59:32 59:32 - holy Place once for all having obtained Eternal Redemption now just to emphasize this is in our immediate context in our
59:40 59:40 - verses in Hebrews chapter 9 this is even stronger evidence than anything else we’re going to read on this slide
59:45 59:45 - because it’s right there and this one like I said because it’s using this other adverb you have to translate as
59:51 59:51 - once for all you don’t have a choice about it if you you know are are are using your lexicons as you ought and you
59:56 59:56 - are using the evidence for how this adverb is used you have to translate it that way and so if verse 12 translates
01:00:04 01:00:04 - as once for all why would you translate verse 25 and sorry verse 26 and 28 as not once for all you have to it’s it’s
01:00:12 01:00:12 - contextually you are kind of mandated because of how interpretation works and then finally Hebrews chapter 10 also I
01:00:22 01:00:22 - should note there are no chapter division in the original text and so Hebrews 10: 10 is just about as close to
01:00:31 01:00:31 - our particular verses as Hebrews chapter 9 verse2 so nine you know verse chapter 9 verse2 is about 14 verses away from
01:00:40 01:00:40 - verse 26 and 16 verses away from verse 28 and then Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10 is actually only 10 verses away from
01:00:48 01:00:48 - verse 28 since it’s the last verse in the chapter and about what is that 12 verses away from verse 26 so you can see
01:00:56 01:00:56 - actually it’s even closer in Hebrews chapter 9 so in the same exact context that Paul uses our particular verses
01:01:03 01:01:03 - there in verses 26 27 and 28 he also uses this other adverb twice once in Hebrews 9:12 and once in Hebrews 10:10
01:01:13 01:01:13 - and in Hebrews 101 0 he says much the same thing says we have been Sanctified through the offering of the body of
01:01:19 01:01:19 - Jesus Christ once for all so on both sides of our particular immediate context in verses 25- 28 in Hebrews
01:01:28 01:01:28 - chapter 9 we have two statements that say and you cannot translate them any differently say that Jesus Christ
01:01:35 01:01:35 - offered himself for us once for all that’s why we have to translate verse 26 as once for all and verse 28 as once for
01:01:43 01:01:43 - all with hopx different adverb you know the one that’s a little bit more ambiguous because the surrounding usages
01:01:51 01:01:51 - of this other adverb that are clearly the same concept are translated as once for all and they have to be and so I
01:01:58 01:01:58 - hadn’t mentioned this this other verse here in Hebrews 9:12 um because it is a different word and in fact that’s really
01:02:04 01:02:04 - important to what I’m saying because this other word we don’t have a choice when we translate it we have to
01:02:09 01:02:09 - translate that one is once for all so even though this verse is using a different adverb it means the same thing
01:02:16 01:02:16 - as 926 927 and 928 as we are talking about here so that’s why I didn’t mention it before but it’s in the
01:02:24 01:02:24 - immediate context same deal with the one in Hebrews chapter 10 and so what I’m trying to do with all this is just show
01:02:30 01:02:30 - you how irresponsible it is to take Hebrews 9:26 and Hebrews 9:28 as anything other than once for all when
01:02:38 01:02:38 - you interpret it you have to translate that way you have to interpret it that way if you care about interpreting
01:02:43 01:02:43 - scripture with other scripture like we obviously ought to that’s how we need to interpret the Bible and so this isn’t
01:02:49 01:02:49 - optional is what I’m saying this is how we actually have to understand it and to go back back to our argument here this
01:02:56 01:02:56 - business with and just as so also in verses 27 and 28 if we have to translate Hebrews 9:28 as once for all and so too
01:03:04 01:03:04 - must we translate The Hop Hawks in Hebrews 9:27 as we just covered in the last thing we talked
01:03:14 01:03:14 - about all right so to pull it all together let’s address that question headon so how does resuscitation
01:03:21 01:03:21 - interact with the verse Hebrews 9 27 which says it is appointed for man to die once so if the hopax in Hebrews 9:27
01:03:31 01:03:31 - means one time any cases of resuscitation would contradict this verse since then these people wouldn’t
01:03:37 01:03:37 - die one time but they die more than one time they die twice but if the hopax in Hebrews 9:27 means once for all then
01:03:45 01:03:45 - there is actually no contradiction whatsoever because it is a true statement that all humans die once sorry
01:03:52 01:03:52 - sorry all humans die once for all since even those people who are brought to life for a time will still face this
01:03:57 01:03:57 - eventual permanent physical death then actually Hebrews 9:27 doesn’t contradict the idea of resuscitation in the least
01:04:05 01:04:05 - because it is true it is still true will always be true that human beings die once for all that is true whether or not
01:04:12 01:04:12 - you are resuscitated eventually you will die once for all you will die in the sense that you don’t come back you die
01:04:18 01:04:18 - permanently and that is what dying once for all means that’s what Hebrews 9:27 means and because that’s what it means
01:04:25 01:04:25 - there is no contradiction with the idea of resuscitation because it’s not talking about the number of times you
01:04:31 01:04:31 - die but it’s talking about the fact that you will eventually die in the sense that it does not need to be repeated you
01:04:38 01:04:38 - will die in the sense of it being final um so I had a particular way of phrasing it back here let me let me find this
01:04:46 01:04:46 - right the second meaning that we’re talking about here has overtones of completion and finality in this case the
01:04:53 01:04:53 - adverb is modifying something that has been rendered done in such a way that it will be perpetually valid and never need
01:04:59 01:04:59 - repetition so you die in that way when you use that adverb and once you die in that way you don’t ever die again is
01:05:06 01:05:06 - what I’m saying um and so for that reason there is no contradiction here between Hebrews 9:27 and the concept of
01:05:14 01:05:14 - resuscitation or even Resurrection for that matter because well I guess you don’t ever die after Resurrection so you
01:05:20 01:05:20 - know scratch that just resuscitation there is no contradiction between Hebrews 9:27 and resuscitation
01:05:27 01:05:27 - because the meaning of Hebrews 9:27 is using this specific meaning of the adverb once for all rather than one time
01:05:35 01:05:35 - and for that reason there is no contradiction all right so just to finish us off going back over what we
01:05:44 01:05:44 - talked about here in this video uh we went over this question talking about the finality of death in terms of the
01:05:51 01:05:51 - chasm or the Gap that’s mentioned in Luke chap 16: 26 as well as this verse in Hebrews 9: 27 that talks about how
01:06:00 01:06:00 - it’s appointed for men to die once so the question was asking well don’t both of these things kind of point to a
01:06:06 01:06:06 - finality of death and doesn’t resuscitation kind of run a foul of that and so we started off talking about the
01:06:12 01:06:12 - Luke 16 case we talked about how yes indeed there is a barrier between the afterlife and the world of the living
01:06:19 01:06:19 - but God can make us cross that you know on his power for what is impossible for man as possible for God and we talked
01:06:26 01:06:26 - about how we actually need to view this as a miracle God is violating natural law so to speak on our behalf and so for
01:06:33 01:06:33 - that reason uh you know like we we used the example of Lazarus being used as a sign for the Jewish people in John
01:06:39 01:06:39 - chapter 11 people believed because of this miracle Jesus did we need to kind of thank God for his grace and his Mercy
01:06:47 01:06:47 - rather than questioning him about like you broke natural law God why’ you do that um and so that’s sort of the sense
01:06:54 01:06:54 - we need to have here when we talk about this and so yes indeed there is a Chasm and it does separate the world of the
01:06:59 01:06:59 - living from the world of the dead but God can do as he pleases because he’s the Creator and sustainer of the
01:07:04 01:07:04 - universe and part of his plan is showing us his control over life and death so that’s the Luke 16 case and then the
01:07:13 01:07:13 - Hebrews chapter 9 case here Hebrews 9:27 uh we kind of took a different approach than when I tried to tackle this the
01:07:18 01:07:18 - first time now we actually looked at the full context of Hebrews chapter 9 so we read the chapter I gave kind of a a
01:07:25 01:07:25 - bird’s eyee view summary of what I think the chapter means you know each of the sections in it and then we looked at the
01:07:31 01:07:31 - Greek adverb hop Hax here and uh we looked at a couple verses where it’s used see off the top of my head I don’t
01:07:38 01:07:38 - have them but second Corinthians chap 11: 25 as an example of the meaning of this word where it means one time as
01:07:46 01:07:46 - opposed to more times and then Jude chapter 1 ver3 as an example of when it is for sure meaning once for all and we
01:07:54 01:07:54 - also looked at a whole bunch of other verses uh 1 Peter 3:18 Romans 6:10 Hebrews 7:27 Hebrews 9:12 and Hebrews 10
01:08:02 01:08:02 - verse1 all of those as cross references here that just make it mandatory for us to translate Hebrews 926 and 928 as once
01:08:12 01:08:12 - for all rather than just one time and because of that just because of how the grammar is set how verse 27 relates to
01:08:19 01:08:19 - verse 28 grammatically speaking in this construction of just as so w so Hebrews 9:27 is set directly parallel to verse
01:08:28 01:08:28 - 28 in its usage of this adverb and for that reason we conclude that Hebrews 9:27 means actually something along the
01:08:36 01:08:36 - lines and just as is and just as it is appointed for all men to die once for all that is to die in a permanent sense
01:08:44 01:08:44 - so too and so on right so it’s not talking about dying one time it’s talking about dying once with finality
01:08:50 01:08:50 - and that’s true of all people even those people who are are resuscitated

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