What happens after death — Comments II
As we almost come to the close of this series, I would like to deal with one more of the many comments that I received throughout this series. I will be dealing with this reader’s comments in two to three parts, so yes, there will be more ‘what happens after death comment’ section.
Let me say though that I did receive many negative comments from people who decided to avoid the many biblical references that were given and instead began to attack my person when in reality they don’t even know anything about me. To those I say that even though you might hate what is written in the paper, you cannot change the biblical facts or avoid what the Bible says about death. And even though we have one or more articles to go on this current topic, the next series will still be with as much biblical truth and scriptural references as this one.
The reader wrote, “You mention on your posting that the ‘soul’ goes to heaven or to hell. But that is a blasphemy. In the Gospel we are told that even king David... nor any of the Apostles themselves have gone into heaven...how can you teach that when one dies...can go to either heaven or hell when they die?”
The first part of the comment is dealing with Acts 2:25-29. But the reader is failing to see that Peter is making the argument for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and uses the body of David to prove that. The resurrection of Jesus Christ speaks about His body of flesh and bones being raised again from the dead. The point that Peter is making is that David’s flesh is still in the grave. David’s body will not rise again until the resurrection. Peter in no way is he referring to David’s spirit because that would be a contradiction to Scripture (John 14:1-6, 2 Corinthians 5:1-9, Philippians 1:21-23). And so when you say that ‘in the gospels it says that David or the Apostles did not go to heaven,’ that is nothing else than your opinion because the gospels do not teach that. If so where?
The reader also commented that “In scripture, the word ‘hell’ comes from the Gehenna, an ever burning fire in ancient Jerusalem where ‘trash’ would be disposed off.” Unfortunately, based upon your question I can tell that you are very unlearned when it comes to the Scriptures. You are right when you say that there was a place in Jerusalem where the trash would be disposed off called hell. But you fail to see that when the Bible speaks about hell, it is not talking about the dump in Jerusalem. What is Jesus referring to in Matthew 10:28 where He says, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Is Jesus saying that the body and the soul will be destroyed in the dump in Jerusalem? Of course not! Jesus is talking about the eternal state of the soul.
Prior to the death of Jesus Christ nobody would go to heaven, with the exception of two people. Everybody else that died, believer or non-believer would go to hell. Hell then was split into two parts. And that is what we will be dealing with in our next article. To give you some homework, read Luke 16:22-26 because that will be one of the passages that we will be dealing with.
Rangel is Senior Pastor of Borderland Calvary Chapel. You may contact him at 956-399-3534 or through e-mail at: gregrangel@msn.com. His services are at 11 a.m. on Sunday and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays at 299 E. Heywood St. in San Benito.
