I had the singular honor of being interviewed my Laura Maxwell for three interviews (false deliverances, purgatory, poltergeists, residual energy, etc!!) To view them on YouTube please see: "Laura Maxwell and Mark Hunnemann on Youtube" and share with any who are seeking, please. Thank you and God bless!!
What happens after we die? If there had been no Fall, we do not know how humans would have left this world; if they would have left it at all. But the fact is that there was a historical Fall, where a literal Adam and Eve rebelled against God. The result was God's judgement, which included the separation of body and soul through bodily death (Gen. 2:17; 3:19, 22; Rom. 5:12; 8:10; 1 Cor. 15:21) The separation of soul and body is a consequence of the spiritual separation from God.
You may have heard that the way some banks taught their tellers to distinguish between real currency and counterfeit was to handle the real so much, that they would instinctively know the counterfeit. In this newsletter I want us to handle the truth about the so-called Intermediate State; to focus on it, so that the errors surrounding the notion of ghosts will be instinctively and manifestly apparent.
Hence, death is both real and abnormal. It is real as opposed to those who say that death is a mere illusion. Physical death is abnormal in that it was not the normal way God had originally created the world. Death is the violent disruption of the vibrant flow of life.No wonder there is the instinctive fear of this ripping apart of the soul from the body at death. In itself death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26) and a terror (Heb. 2:15).
For followers of Christ the terror of physical death has been abolished. Jesus rose from the dead after He had died as a substitute for our sin, and bore the punishment for our sin. He promised to help us as we left this world (our souls) for the place He has prepared for us in heaven (John 14:2,3)
Christians know that our upcoming deaths (if Jesus does not come back before then) is an appointment to meet our Savior--an appointment He will always faithfully keep. Paul ( and we) could say, "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." And he yearned "to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." (Phil. 1:21,23). He knew with utter certainty that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) I have read some pretty ridiculous attempts to explain away these clear texts.
Upon death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness and enter into the worshiping community in heaven (Heb. 12:22-24). We are glorified. This eliminates any notion of a Purgatory and it also dispenses with the common error of "soul-sleep". The bible consistently teaches that our glorified (made perfect) souls are conscious during the Intermediate State (Lk. 16:22; 23:43; Phil. 1:23; 2 Cor. 5:8; Rev. 6:9-11; 14:13).In 2 Cor. 5 Paul discusses how our glorified souls will be reunited with our glorified bodies. Perfect soul within a perfect body! This is a distinctively Christian idea.
The bible emphatically teaches that death is decisive for eternal destiny.There is no second chance for salvation after we die. (Luke 16:26; Heb.9:27) After death, both believers and unbelievers will reap what we have sown in this world (Gal. 6:7,8).But believers will be in heaven for all eternity, while unbelievers will suffer for all eternity in hell.
Now that we have handled the truth regarding death, should not the counterfeit nature of the notion of earthbound spirits be readily apparent?
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
