Thursday, September 13, 2012

Christians and Communicating with the Dead (Part 3)


by Lisa Grace


Thank you Reverend Mark that “sleep” did not mean sleep, it meant “dead”. One of the points I’ve emphasized in my posts over the last few months (running every other Thursday) is that you must understand the rabbinical teachings and social customs, and interpret the Greek and Hebrew according to what was known back in Jesus’/Yeshua’s day.

For instance, “it’s raining cats and dogs” doesn’t mean it is literally raining furry pets, but that the drops are coming down fast and hard.

Last week, I didn’t emphasis that “sleep” means dead, which it was understood to mean in Jesus day. Just like we might say someone has “passed away” means “dead”.

Jesus also frequently spoke in parables. When he told the woman at the well that he could give her water so she would never thirst again, He DIDN’T MEAN WATER and He DIDN’T MEAN she could spend the rest of her life not imbibing the wet stuff.

It’s easy for us to understand in this context what he meant, but for some reason, when you start in on the supernatural, what you know goes flying out the window (and I don’t mean literally flying out the window).
Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water (and I don’t mean to not throw the baby out with the bath water, all though you shouldn’t do that if you are giving a baby a bath.)

Anyway, you see how someone not knowing our culture would think we were saying some bizarre things if WE meant them LITERALLY.

Since when we die, our next aware moment is to be with our Creator in heaven or hell (and we’ll talk about that topic some other time), Jesus couldn’t make his point if he told the literal truth. This was the time for a parable. A parable about suffering, and how our reward/punishment is not on/of this earth and if a man’s heart is hard, nothing will convince him otherwise. The point was not to make to a statement about ghosts. (Jesus mentions the “great divide“, although He doesn’t get into the concept of time not really existing, the supernatural world exists outside of time and what was—is—and always will be— are heavy concepts that again make ghosts impossible, but serve no purpose in this parable hence saying, “great divide” really says it all.) Rewards/punishment are metted out after this earthly life.

Jesus knew ghosts do not exist, only God creates life. Only God can bring a man back. Believing otherwise is a blasphemy against God, (because you are saying if humans can call up the dead, they are doing something only God can do so you are making humans into a god and that is blasphemy) and you are being deceived by demons.

Witches and those that call out to the supernatural are communicating with supernatural creatures not man, and not anything that ever was a man.

You see how easy it is to take things out of context, I hope. Look at all of Jesus’ parables and you will see how they were not meant literally, but as a way to get across a concept. Again, in reviewing part two, you see how easy it is to think I meant “sleep“, when I meant dead as a doornail (all though since doornails were never alive, they can’t be dead, can they?)

In the same way Jesus did not go into a long explanation of the words and terms He was using, because back then this was already understood, unlike now, where we take too much literally without understanding the times and context of what Jesus was really saying. It’s time for me too catch some ZZZZ’s now (and no, I’m not really going to try and grab the last letter from the American alphabet.)