The gift of eternal life through Christ alone
I am trying to post a link to a diagram Todd shared with me and I'm obviously not doing it right. If you want to see it, go to Mike Ratliff's blog by copying and pasting the following URL:
http://mikeratliff.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/death-and-the-afterlife/
I have shared before that one of my greatest struggles has been to believe I would ever go to heaven. I have that struggle because I was told all my life that nobody went to heaven when they died unless they were perfect. In my former church, the only way we could put someone in heaven at their funeral was if we declared them an overcomer (perfected), having overcome all sin just as Jesus had (before their death).
According to this teaching, your soul only moved out of your body alive if you had reached that sinless status. In years past, there was even discussion about how long you had to have remained in that sinless status to be considered perfect. One theory (that I think has now been rejected) was that you had to be perfect for three and a half years because of the three and a half years of Jesus' public ministry.
Otherwise, if you were not perfect, you would sleep (be dead) for a thousand years and come up in the resurrection. But you wouldn't come up in a glorified body. We were taught that you would resurrect in the same condition you died in. So if you died in a bad attitude, or having turned away from God, you would resurrect in the same condition. But you weren't lost if you had ever had "an experience" with God and believed in him. You would have this "full chance" (a full chance, some would way, not a second chance) that you perhaps did not have in this life. I always wondered why, if I couldn't "make it" in this life, anyone (including God) would think I could "make it" to perfection in a subsequent life. Some would call this a version of reincarnation. I never thought of it that way. It was all I knew.
I was told it was a special truth and a privilege to know these things. This also made provision for all the other Christians who would die in faith, not knowing about the requirement of perfection. God would not hold them accountable for what they didn't know. Not everyone would have the opportunity to come into contact with the true body of Christ and hear the truth from the five-fold ministry. (Great emphasis was given to the ministry and the role they played in salvation and restoration of the church.) So there obviously had to be some way to explain where these went, I guess.
I left there very confused about my own eternity. I remember asking so many times, "But what if they're right?" And I'll never forget my Christian counselor asking me in response to that question, "So, if you stay there, you don't believe you can ever be perfect and you certainly have no hope and no joy because of that. You don't feel like you're growing spiritually and you don't see how you ever can in that environment, unless you comply with all the man-made, outward standards in order to fully participate without disapproval. But at least you will have a resurrection when you die. Is that correct?" I replied, "Yes, that's correct." Then he said, "Okay, so let's say hypothetically they ARE right in what they've told you -- you will still have a resurrection because you're trying to serve God to the best of your ability. But away from that church, you have found freedom in Christ, forgiveness, love, joy, hope, peace and spiritual growth. So your life is better in the here and now, and your outcome is the same." To which I replied, "Yeah, I guess so." And he said, "Well, I see that as a win/win for you. What have you lost and what have you gained?"
He made me laugh because, believing what I had believed, he could bring it to that and the absurd would make sense. I have come a long way in my faith from that conversation. I now see the holes in that teaching from a scriptural standpoint. But, back then, I didn't. So, for anyone who struggles as I have, I wanted to share the above diagram and these scriptures:
Hbr 9:24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a {mere} copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this {comes} judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without {reference to} sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
http://mikeratliff.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/death-and-the-afterlife/
I have shared before that one of my greatest struggles has been to believe I would ever go to heaven. I have that struggle because I was told all my life that nobody went to heaven when they died unless they were perfect. In my former church, the only way we could put someone in heaven at their funeral was if we declared them an overcomer (perfected), having overcome all sin just as Jesus had (before their death).
According to this teaching, your soul only moved out of your body alive if you had reached that sinless status. In years past, there was even discussion about how long you had to have remained in that sinless status to be considered perfect. One theory (that I think has now been rejected) was that you had to be perfect for three and a half years because of the three and a half years of Jesus' public ministry.
Otherwise, if you were not perfect, you would sleep (be dead) for a thousand years and come up in the resurrection. But you wouldn't come up in a glorified body. We were taught that you would resurrect in the same condition you died in. So if you died in a bad attitude, or having turned away from God, you would resurrect in the same condition. But you weren't lost if you had ever had "an experience" with God and believed in him. You would have this "full chance" (a full chance, some would way, not a second chance) that you perhaps did not have in this life. I always wondered why, if I couldn't "make it" in this life, anyone (including God) would think I could "make it" to perfection in a subsequent life. Some would call this a version of reincarnation. I never thought of it that way. It was all I knew.
I was told it was a special truth and a privilege to know these things. This also made provision for all the other Christians who would die in faith, not knowing about the requirement of perfection. God would not hold them accountable for what they didn't know. Not everyone would have the opportunity to come into contact with the true body of Christ and hear the truth from the five-fold ministry. (Great emphasis was given to the ministry and the role they played in salvation and restoration of the church.) So there obviously had to be some way to explain where these went, I guess.
I left there very confused about my own eternity. I remember asking so many times, "But what if they're right?" And I'll never forget my Christian counselor asking me in response to that question, "So, if you stay there, you don't believe you can ever be perfect and you certainly have no hope and no joy because of that. You don't feel like you're growing spiritually and you don't see how you ever can in that environment, unless you comply with all the man-made, outward standards in order to fully participate without disapproval. But at least you will have a resurrection when you die. Is that correct?" I replied, "Yes, that's correct." Then he said, "Okay, so let's say hypothetically they ARE right in what they've told you -- you will still have a resurrection because you're trying to serve God to the best of your ability. But away from that church, you have found freedom in Christ, forgiveness, love, joy, hope, peace and spiritual growth. So your life is better in the here and now, and your outcome is the same." To which I replied, "Yeah, I guess so." And he said, "Well, I see that as a win/win for you. What have you lost and what have you gained?"
He made me laugh because, believing what I had believed, he could bring it to that and the absurd would make sense. I have come a long way in my faith from that conversation. I now see the holes in that teaching from a scriptural standpoint. But, back then, I didn't. So, for anyone who struggles as I have, I wanted to share the above diagram and these scriptures:
Hbr 9:24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a {mere} copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this {comes} judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without {reference to} sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Col 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
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