Ask Bob – August 2021

Dear Friends, greetings.

Well, it is another day, another month in the Lord’s year, 2021, and I have been asked to comment on some of our reader’s statements or/and answer some questions that were asked. Before I go into that, let me say that it is always a privilege to receive and answer your questions or comment on your statements, for it means that you are searching the Word of God in order to come to a full and better understanding of what God’s Holy Word holds in store for you. So, without further ado with the guidance of God’s spirit and His infallible Word, let’s get started.

The first item is a statement rather than a question. One reader wrote, according to Eph. 2:6, it’s his understanding that some Christian believers have already gone to Heaven prior to the return of our Lord. So let us look at that verse and see what it says, but we should start in the previous verse to understand better what St. Paul is saying. “Even when we were dead in sins {spiritually dead}, {God} hath made us alive together with Christ {by grace are ye saved}, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:5-6). So, you can see in vs. 5 that Paul is speaking of spiritual death, not physical or bodily death. So, the Heavenly places, as mentioned in vs. 6, is speaking of a spiritual plateau not a physical realm. When we read “with Christ in vs. 5, and in Christ Jesus in vs. 6” Paul is talking about a spiritual awareness that is only attainable through grace with our Lord and Savior. In John 3:13 Jesus told us, “And no man, {I emphasize the word no} hath ascended up to Heaven, but He that came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man who is in Heaven”. Jesus is the supreme and ultimate authority, so let’s take His Word for it.

In light of this first Q and A section, I would at this point like to address a question that has been asked many times in the past, but one that we have not addressed before, this question being, quote, “Where do we, Christian believers, go when we die?” Many of us, who have been to a funeral service, and I assume most of us have, have heard the Pastor or Minister proclaim that the beloved brother or sister that has passed away is now in the Heavenly Realm and is now doing his or her favorite thing. These statements are very comforting for the bereaved who are paying their last respects to their departed loved one, but is this concept Biblical? In Gen. 2:7 we read that He, God, breathed into that clay figure the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Again in Gen. we read that when Rachel was bearing Benjamin, that her soul was departing (for she died) (Gen. 35:18). So you see, the only thing that returns unto God is the soul. The Hebrew word soul is Strong’s #5314, “Naphash” meaning breath. In the Greek it is # 4151 (pneuma) and # 5590 (psuche) both meaning breath. Thus, you can see that which goes back unto God is the breath. Now breath has no consciousness in and of itself. God told Adam that he was taken from the dust and that he would return unto dust. There are many references that we, (when we die) shall sleep in the dust in the OT, and that we will sleep in Christ until He returns. Now here is an enigma, for those left behind after the demise of a loved one, the Bible tells us that they will sleep until He returns, which could be days, years, decades in the future, it’s because we still live in time. But the deceased, to whom time is no more, he or she, whether they be dead a year, ten years or a thousand years, will awaken to the sound of the trumpet in the twinkling of the eye and be united with their Lord as if they went from one realm to the next without a pause, and so be with Him forever.

The next and last item for this edition is a subject that was discussed in a Bible study session and passed on to me for comment. The question being, if a person, a believer says, he or she never experience joy in his or her heart, is that person saved? The first thing here that we must look at is not, is that person saved, but rather what is the reason that said person does not experience joy in his/her walk with the Lord? There are several factors that can play a role in the spiritual condition of said person. First of all, the church world abounds with chinos (Christians in name only). These people attend church regularly and are thought of highly in their communities, but they can’t wait for the preacher to say Amen, so they can rush out to go and play a game of golf, and then there are those who cannot or will not bow their egotistical self to the freely offered grace of God to accept the faith in our Lord, simply because they are afraid of losing control of their own being, but by their own actions they remain spiritually empty. The only remedy for such folly is to find Jesus. In John 10:9 Jesus tell us that He is the door. In Matt. 7:7 He says, “Seek and ye shall find: knock and it shall be opened unto you”. He will open that door and not reject any that come looking for Him. It is only when we find Jesus that joy and peace can enter our hearts. So don’t be proud, but seek and find, know and He will take you in. As for the last part of the question, I will let everyone and the Lord be the judge.