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Amazing Facts

Five Minutes After Death, Then What?

Joe Crews

Five Minutes After Death, Then What? Part 1

Special scientific committees have been investigating psychic phenomena such as spirit forms, voices of the dead and communication with departed spirits.

The results of these studies have shaken the entire world community.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about souls 5 minutes after death.

Hello this is Joe Cruz in the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, some of the most perplexing questions under discussion today have to do with the possibilities of life after death.

Many Popular books are currently on the market exploring the intriguing subject of communication with the dead.

Scientific committees have been set up on a university level even to investigate the hundreds of claims for extra-sensory perception.

The disturbing and often indecisive results of these studies has left millions of people with the impression that the dead are not really dead at all.

From high theological circles right on down to the most obscure layman, there is strong personal conviction that every earthly body actually houses a naturally immortal soul that can never die.

But friends, we are not interested in the ideas and speculations of men, no matter how learned they might be.

We have discovered long ago that error has a way of sweeping in on a tide of majority opinion.

Truth is determined by God and not man, and that is why we are dedicated in this broadcast to examining all the Bible evidence in the pursuit of ultimate truth.

Perhaps we might be led to some very unpopular positions under the influence of this Bible.

Every preconceived and cloudy opinion should be willingly laid aside in favor of the authority of the Bible.

By that book alone the lines of truth will be laid out on this program.

Now in our last broadcast we introduced the subject of death and the soul.

We discovered that there is no such doctrine in the Bible as a naturally immortal soul.

In Ezekiel 18, verse 4 we read, "...the soul that sinneth it shall die." Now scores of other texts expand on this very same thought.

God did not put a soul in the body at creation.

He breathed in the Spirit or the breath of life.

The soul is simply the life which resulted from the combination of the breath and body.

In Genesis 2, 7 we read, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

Now notice that man became a soul only after the breath was added to the body.

The fact is the soul is the conscious life which resulted when God added the breath to the body.

Now a simple illustration will probably help us see this truth more clearly.

The current flowing into that bulb will represent the breath of life which God put into the body, and the light itself will represent the soul which man became, you remember, after the breath joined the body.

And as we look at the shining light, we see a perfect representation of the completed creation.

Now we press the button and turn the light off.

The current has left the bulb just as the breath leaves the body at death.

Why, no, it simply ceased to exist when that current separated from the bulb.

Now let's ask this, where is the soul when the breath separates from the body.

Why, there simply is no soul until in the resurrection God restores that breath of life to that body again.

Now that should not sound so strange to us now that we have discovered how everything returns at death the way it was before.

Before creation, man did not exist in some disembodied form.

There was no personality, no conscious emotions before God added the breath of that body.

At that moment, man became a living soul.

If the soul came to be as a result of that union, when does the soul cease to be?

Well, surely as a result of breaking that union.

Suppose we have 2 things before us here, boards and nails.

We take a hammer and drive the nails into the boards making a box.

Now we actually have 3 things instead of 2.

Later we carefully pull out the nails and lay them down beside the boards.

Again we have only 2 things before us, boards and nails.

Of course there is no box because it requires the 2 things together to cause the box to become.

Now in the same way God started with 2 things, the body and the spirit.

When He put them together, the soul became, it came into being, it began to exist.

At death, the wise man tells us, the spirit returns to God and the body returns to the dust.

And nowhere in the Bible are we told that any soul survives the body or continues to exist without a body.

The soul or the life has no existence without the power of God residing in that body.

And at death that power of life is removed, it returns to God, and the state of that man is exactly what it was before the breath joined the body.

That means no life, no consciousness, and no personality.

You know, friends, even animals are referred to as souls in the Bible.

Because they have the same power from God to make them live.

You will read this in the writing of the wise man.

He said, For thy which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beast, even 1 thing befalleth them, as the 1 dieth, so dieth the other, yea, they have all 1 breath, all go into 1 place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Ecclesiastes 3, 19, 20.

Now this does not mean, of course, that men and animals have the same ultimate end.

There will be a resurrection and judgment for God's creatures, but life comes only from God, whether it be human or animal, and that life is often referred to in the Bible as the soul.

All right, with this background now, we are prepared to see what actually happens to the person who dies.

In Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost, he made this strong statement about David who had, by the way, been dead for over a thousand years.

For David is not ascended into the heavens.

David had long ago departed this life, and though often wayward, he had received the assurance of forgiveness and salvation.

All right, why then was he not enjoying the bliss of heaven those thousand years after he passed away?

The question is answered in verse 29 where Peter explains, Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.

So the inspired Peter said that David was right there in his grave.

If the man after God's own heart had not received his reward a thousand years after death, what about all the other good people who had lived and died up to that time?

They also were resting in their graves awaiting the call of God in the resurrection.

Now Jesus assured the people of His day, Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

And again Jesus said, For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Now notice, friends, that the recompense comes in the resurrection, and Jesus said that that reward would come when the Son of Man will come in His glory.

In simple direct language, Jesus declared that no 1 would be rewarded until the resurrection takes place at His second coming.

This means that none of the righteous dead have gone to heaven so far.

All are waiting in their graves for the judgment and the end of the world.

Almost the last words of the Bible confirm this fact.

And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as His work shall be.

Revelation 22.12 This last day reward is further described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.53.

He says, And this mortal must put on immortality.

Well, now, friends, when does that happen?

In a moment and the twinkling of an eye at the last trump, Paul says there in verse 52.

So this settles the issue about the reward of the righteous without any question.

When will they be punished for their sins?

The amazing answer is found in 2 Peter 2, 9.

"...the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." Now there it is, friends, the wicked are reserved somewhere until the day of judgment arrives.

Five Minutes After Death, Then What? Part 2

Bizarre stories of life after death are regular features of some national tabloids.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts.

Hello this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

Today we continue with the subject of the soul 5 minutes after death.

So far we have discovered that the soul is not some independent, immortal entity that can exist apart from the body.

We found from the Bible that the soul is simply the conscious life which resulted when God placed his breath or spirit into the body of clay.

When death comes, the breath returns to God, and the body goes back to the earth.

Life ceases until God restores that soul in the resurrection by breathing that breath of life again into that body.

Now we closed our last broadcast with the experience of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.

Christ said Lazarus was sleeping, and when He called him out of the grave, Lazarus had no story to tell about being in some paradise of glory.

You know, most modern accounts of patients who resuscitate from heart failure include dramatic recitals of glorious views of heaven.

Now what did this righteous man have to say about his 4 days of death?

Did he report celestial visions of heavenly reward?

He had been asleep just as Jesus had indicated.

In fact, Christ has said, Lazarus is asleep.

And it had been like a moment of oblivion as far as Lazarus was concerned.

And by the way, what kind of unspeakable punishment would it have been to bring Lazarus back into this dark world after being in the presence of God.

Surely he would have begged to return had he truly been enjoying the rewards of the righteous.

A resumption of earthly life would have been worse than the horror of hell in comparison to ninety-six hours in paradise.

Certainly our Lord would never have been guilty of playing such a trick on His friend Lazarus.

Now why do we find it difficult to believe the simple terminology that Jesus used in describing death?

Certainly we have no problem in understanding the nature of sleep.

Suppose a man lies fast asleep on a park bench, let's say.

So soundly does he sleep that he is totally unaware of the stealthy approach of an attacker.

In another moment he lies dead in a pool of blood.

Now according to the popular view of death, this man who knew nothing while he was sleeping suddenly knows everything as his soul leaves his body at death.

If the man knew nothing while sleeping, how could he know any more after death?

Christ's words would have no meaning if we twist them to mean whatever we want them to mean or whatever we want to believe.

So we are not left to wonder about the nature of this death sleep, friends.

Many Bible writers give detailed explanations of what it is like.

For example, the psalmist in Psalm 146, 3 and 4, he said, Put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of man, in whom there is no help.

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish." Now, out of all the puzzling aspects of death which could be discussed, the inspired writers most often talked about the unconscious nature of it.

Never once do we find any of the exciting descriptions of life after death that mark these modern versions of the doctrine.

Theology has adopted its teaching directly from the pleasing forms of pagan worship.

David said, He returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish.

For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished.

Neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done unto the Son.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." Ecclesiastes 9, 5, 6, and 10.

Now, friends, if somebody deliberately tried to produce stronger words and expressions to support a totally dreamless sleep and death, he would be hard put to match those words of the wise man.

Just suppose for a moment that the same forceful statements were made to assert consciousness after death.

In other words, suppose Solomon had said, Their love, and their hatred, and their envy will continue, for there is work, and knowledge, and wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.

Now such an unambiguous statement would rightly be the end of all debate on the subject.

Not only does the Bible contain no such statement, but it repeatedly declares the opposite.

Yet people continue to believe only what they want to believe.

Passing over the explicit verses given by numerous inspired authors which tell the truth about death, multitudes blindly follow empty traditions learned from parents or pastor.

Again we read, For the grave cannot celebrate thee, they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day.

Now would not the righteous dead praise God if they were ushered into heaven at their death?

He said, The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.

Again, Psalm 6, 5, For in death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave who shall give thee thanks.

Now why do so many resist the obvious import of these biblical statements?

Strong traditional biases may be part of the answer, but there is much more involved.

Many sincerely believe that they have physical eyewitness proof that the dead do return.

They have the witness of their own senses that they have actually conversed with departed loved ones.

Now what can be said about these manifestations, friends?

They can give the place, date, and hour when they were confronted by dead relatives or friends in exactly the same form as when they lived.

Shall we discount all such psychic appearances as mental aberrations of emotional unstable people?

The fact is that forms do appear, and they have been verified countless times.

But on the basis of the infallible Word of God we can categorically reject them as being the spirits of the dead.

The dead cannot return, neither do they have any postmortem existence in any conscious form whatsoever.

Then who is appearing in these bodily forms and making these lying claims in the name of the innocent dead?

Who else, my friends, but the Father of Lies, who built His first deception around the issue of death.

He boldly contradicted God when He said to Eve, You shall not surely die.

Now, when death did follow, Satan tried to make the survivors believe it was only an illusion.

By impersonating those who died, Satan has persuaded millions that he was right and God was wrong.

Accepting the testimony of their eyes and ears above the testimony of the Bible, many have become expert in calling up the spirits in seances.

Often Satan exploits the grief of those who have lost relatives and tries to draw them into some sort of spiritualistic snare by pretending to be their own special loved ones.

Only those who have fortified their minds with the truths of the Bible will be able to stand against this type of attack.

Let me share with you an incredible example of Satan's mode of operation.

A dear friend of mine served for many years as a missionary in Africa.

While he and his wife were living in an isolated mission station, their little three-year-old daughter was struck down by a fatal tropical fever.

They buried the little girl on a hillside across from their home, and a few days after the funeral the mother was sitting in her kitchen when the door burst open and her little daughter ran across the room to fling herself into her mother's arms.

Can you picture yourself under that kind of traumatic horror, friends?

And to top it off, the little girl cried out, Mommy, Mommy, I'm not dead, I'm not dead.

Now fortunately that mother knew the Bible truth about death, and God gave her the power to pray instantly for deliverance from that satanic masquerade.

When she called on the name of Jesus, the form disappeared.

Experiences like this have been repeated over and over again.

Now doubtless there are some charlatans who create their own illusions, but we have to recognize that very often the prince of all evil is manipulating the minds of people by his supernatural expertise and deceit.

Now you think of the implications of this for just a moment.

Millions have literally submitted their lives to the control of demons, believing that they were being advised by loving relatives.

Can't you see the monstrous irony of this situation?

And can't you see how easily Satan can even start controlling the lives of Christians who have not understood the true Bible teaching about death?

The only safety for anybody is the word of God.

Yet the stage is set for the majority of Catholics and Protestants to be swept away by the final manifestation of satanic power, all because they have been taught a lie about the state of the dead.

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Five Minutes After Death, Then What?

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Five Minutes After Death, Then What? Part 1

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