Words of Truth

There is a way of thinking that permeates our culture and is reflected in almost every report given regarding someone who has died. I am talking about the practice of referring to people who have died in the past tense.

When we talk about something that happened in the past we use the past tense because it is past. It’s over. There is no more.

I had pizza yesterday.
I was 43 years old last year.
I got married 23 years ago.

My wedding was one day and it is over. The pizza was one slice and it is over. I am now 44 years old and I will never be 43 again. It’s totally appropriate to refer to things events happening in the past by using the past tense. The problem enters when we refer to people in the past tense.

When my wife went to visit family for Thanksgiving last month and I was not able to go with her I did not refer to her in the past tense when talking about her. I did not say, “My wife was a beautiful woman” or “My wife was very intelligent.” I said she IS beautiful, she IS intelligent. Because she is still alive. We were separated by distance, certainly, separation by distance does not negate existence. She does not cease to exist when I leave home to go to work.

In the same way, when someone dies they do not cease to exist. Those of us who have trusted in Christ as Savior and therefore identify ourselves as born again believers acknowledge this fact, that people do not cease to exist. Death is not the end. Death is a door way through which we step from this world into the next. I know several people personally in the next world. They are not dead. Their bodies are dead, yes, but that does not mean they as a whole are dead. When I get a haircut, part of my body is removed but I do not cease to exist. When someone gets their arm or foot amputated, part of their body is removed and is now dead but they do not cease to exist. And so it is with our physical body. The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That applies to those of us who have trusted in Christ as Savior. Those who have not trusted in Christ are still alive when they leave their body but they wish they were not because the Bible says that they are suffering as we speak. So when someone dies we should not say they WERE our brother or our sister or our father. Because they ARE alive they still ARE our brother or sister or father.

Death is not an ending, it is only separation. As believers, we will one day be reunited with those of our family and friends that are also believers. That is the joy and the hope and the surety of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus said in Matthew 22:31-32 ” “But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”” If God doesn’t refer to these people who no longer live on earth as “dead” then why do we?

So the next time someone asks you, “Did you love that person who died?”  You can answer, “Yes, I love them” instead of “I loved them.”  Because they aren’t gone, they’re just somewhere else.

I have changed my mind. In April 2016 I said I would never vote for Donald Trump. I gave nine reasons why. But times have changed, and I now have almost two years of track record to look at for his administration. Here is the list of my nine reasons, each immediately followed by the reason I have changed my mind.

1. His character is lacking: Not lately.
2. He is a narcissist. In fact but not in practice.
3. He thinks he is never wrong: still true, but he does listen to people and consider carefully before he makes decisions. And never admitting you are wrong is acceptable so long as you aren’t wrong.
4. He is nonspecific about his plans: This is still true, but the decisions he’s made during the first two years of his Presidency have been good ones, by and large, so we can probably expect this to continue.
5. He supports Planned Parenthood. He has actually made moves to defund PP and CNN is upset with his moves against abortion, so they can’t be pro-abortion, right? That being said, the Republicans as a whole (not just Trump) are flat-out refusing to defund PP, so it’s not just Trump’s fault.
6. He is not a good businessman. Still true, but from his actions, he’s a good President.
7. He lies constantly: He still lies, but not constantly. And he has kept his promises about the important things.
8. He does not tell it like it is: This is still mostly true, but as I said, his actions speak louder than his words.
9. He’s not a Christian. From every evidence I’ve seen, he still has not stated that he has trusted in Christ or asked Him for forgiveness, but he is at least friendly to Christianity.

If his current decisions continue to be positive ones for the country for the next two years, I can definitely see myself voting to reelect Donald Trump. I have stated that we shouldn’t vote for the lesser of two evils, but until Christ returns there will always be two evils because all humans are sinners. The question is where do you draw the line? What evil is too much for me to support someone as leader? Given his behavior and decisions, I don’t think Trump is “too evil.”

At one point in 2016 I referenced “you shall know them by their fruits” but I believe he has shown good fruit as President. Yes, he’s a blowhard. Yes, he is egotistical and at times dishonest. But he has kept his promises. He has nominated two constructionist conservative justices to the SCOTUS, he has made several other moves in foreign policy AND domestic issues showing his decisions are conservative even if his personal positions are not.

This does not mean that I will definitely be voting for him, only that he is back on the table as a candidate I might vote for. In short, I believe people can change. And so must I.

I had an interesting thought.

But first, background. When someone dies they go to one of two places. If they have trusted in Christ to forgive their sins their spirit goes to heaven. The Bible is unclear about whether or not we will be given temporary physical bodies in heaven. I’m not sure exactly how that works. I mean, in the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man asks for Lazarus to dip his FINGER in water so as to cool the rich man’s TONGUE. This would seem to indicate that we do have some kind of body complete with physical sensation.

When Christ returns for His church as promised in I Corinthians 15 it says we will receive immortal, imperishable bodies. Immortal means forever, so whatever body we had on earth or possible temporary body we had in heaven, we will, at that point, receive our new, permanent, immortal bodies. We will not die. I was going to say we will not ever get injured, but the Bible doesn’t say that. What it does say is that we will have no more pain and no more crying (after the final judgment, that is). So if we DO get injured, it won’t hurt, and it won’t be permanent. Why do I allow that we may get injured? Because the last chapter in the Bible, which takes place in eternity future, says that the leaves of the tree of life are “for the healing of the nations.”

But the point of this post is this: it will not be possible for us to starve to death after we get our incorruptible bodies. And yet the Bible shows that we will be able to eat. God created food in the Garden of Eden as a good thing. Jesus ate food after He rose from the dead. Revelation 22 says the tree of life will produce 12 different kinds of fruit. That implies it will be available to eat. So we will finally be able to enjoy eating the way God intended.

To be able to eat, but not need to eat. Now that sounds nice.