Photo by Rick Mortimer
God is not the author of death and sickness.
By
Rick Mortimer
I have been to two funerals this week. One was for an 88 yr old fellow who went pretty fast. The other was from a guy my age who went very slowly through alcoholism. One bottle at a time.
I do not believe that in either case, 'God called them home." We hear this wrong teaching all the time at funerals and it just makes me mad that the churches push this, and that we hear it so much that we believe it. Even the Baptists 'push' this view of God.
We live in a fallen world. There have been two men who would never have to face death. One was Adam -whom God made in His image. Adam would have lived forever, but brought his own death about through sin. Through the same sin 'Death then entered the world.' Now everything is full of death. (disease, sickness, poverty, unrighteousness, mold, corruptness, etc...)
The second man was Jesus. Jesus was born of the Father and never took on the sin full nature of the human race after Adam. Jesus gave up his own life. He stated that. God did not kill him. Jesus gave up his own life so that he could defeat satan through his death. He could not die! He GAVE his life up for me. Much like another soldier throwing himself on a land mine and blowing himself up in order to save his friend from walking on it. Jesus did this out of Love for me.
I do not believe that in either case, 'God called them home." We hear this wrong teaching all the time at funerals and it just makes me mad that the churches push this, and that we hear it so much that we believe it. Even the Baptists 'push' this view of God.
We live in a fallen world. There have been two men who would never have to face death. One was Adam -whom God made in His image. Adam would have lived forever, but brought his own death about through sin. Through the same sin 'Death then entered the world.' Now everything is full of death. (disease, sickness, poverty, unrighteousness, mold, corruptness, etc...)
The second man was Jesus. Jesus was born of the Father and never took on the sin full nature of the human race after Adam. Jesus gave up his own life. He stated that. God did not kill him. Jesus gave up his own life so that he could defeat satan through his death. He could not die! He GAVE his life up for me. Much like another soldier throwing himself on a land mine and blowing himself up in order to save his friend from walking on it. Jesus did this out of Love for me.
This concept that God kills people is wrong. God loves us. God loves us more than we can even understand. EVERY SINGLE unsaved/unreborn/sinner in the New Testament that asked Jesus to heal him - and whom Jesus healed - stayed healed. Jesus killed no one, nor did he refuse to heal anyone. NOT ONE. Jesus brought LIFE to us. God loves us, why on earth would He 'call us home? And yet the churches keep pushing this at us. I know God and Jesus are there to greet us when we do go to Heaven, and I for one am looking forward to THAT hug! But no, God is not going to kill me for it so I can have it.
I believe we live in a fallen world. Crap happens. If you are standing under a bridge and the supports are weak and give out - because of the law of gravity you are going to be crushed and killed. If you are in a spot where a bullet has to pass by because of the laws of trajectory - you will get hit and probably killed. If you are in a plane and the motors quit...probably the laws of aerodynamics will kill you. If you breath in chemicals or germs, there's laws covering that. Plus, our bodies start wearing out from the moment we are born because of Adam's sin. Etc..
Satan is the author of death, not God. God’s choice for us is LIFE. (He even told us twice to choose life in Deuteronomy). Because God is LIFE not death.
We know that Satan can put thoughts into your head, but he has been defeated and has no power over us. So he comes to us with lies and deception. That is the only weapon he has left! If we believe those lies, then he can maneuver us into a position where we will die. Through our own ego, selfishness, character defects, lusts or whatever, if we believe the thoughts he can put in our heads and if we choose to follow them, it can/will lead to death. He is the father of lies, and if we believe his lies, we will act on them, and we will die. Slowly or otherwise, but we WILL die. God tells us to learn His thoughts. Satan tries to get us to believe his lies and thoughts. Scripture tells us "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." God is life, satan is death. Which thoughts do we want to 'thinketh' here?
And we will die physically, not just spiritually by following satanic lies.
But conversely, just because we die does not mean we were following satan's lie, either. We live in a world governed by physical laws. Break one and you can well die. The law of electricity for example. You don't have to be an evil person to die from high voltage. You can be a saint, but if you touch a high-voltage wire you are going to die. That is not God killing you. God will surely welcome you when you get home, but He sure did not kill you to get you there!
Of course, according to Psalm 91, we do have protection. If we listen, the Holy Spirit will guide us to somewhere where that high voltage wire can't harm us. Or move us from the path of the bullet...or the tornado, or the flood. But we must be in a position to hear the Holy Spirit. If you are not 'fearing the Lord' you are probably not going to respond to His quiet urging either.
But God does not kill us. I think that is one of the greatest heresies in the church today!
And here's the reason for this lie being repeated over and over.... How can you trust a God -or have faith in Him - if you think he's going to kill you at any moment? Or maybe He'll strike your baby with cancer to teach you a lesson?
What a great way for the father of lies to destroy -or at the least, horribly weaken, your faith in the Father of TRUTH AND LIFE.
Of course, according to Psalm 91, we do have protection. If we listen, the Holy Spirit will guide us to somewhere where that high voltage wire can't harm us. Or move us from the path of the bullet...or the tornado, or the flood. But we must be in a position to hear the Holy Spirit. If you are not 'fearing the Lord' you are probably not going to respond to His quiet urging either.
But God does not kill us. I think that is one of the greatest heresies in the church today!
And here's the reason for this lie being repeated over and over.... How can you trust a God -or have faith in Him - if you think he's going to kill you at any moment? Or maybe He'll strike your baby with cancer to teach you a lesson?
What a great way for the father of lies to destroy -or at the least, horribly weaken, your faith in the Father of TRUTH AND LIFE.
Another reason why it’s preached, I think, is because it makes it easier to tell grieving people that their teenaged son died because God wanted him back in heaven and so ‘called him home,’ than it is to say the truth that the son died because he got drunk and drove his car into a tree – or whatever. It's easier to tell people that God called Grandpa home than it is to tell them that satan's alcohol or nicotine killed him. In other words, it is easier for us to blame God for our sin-caused deaths than it is to tell the truth about them. If we told the truth about them, we might have to hurt someone's feelings... and we're much to selfish to do that, because that would be too hard for us. God is big, He can handle taking the blame, right? Wrong. The proof of this is that we now have millions of people believing that when you die, it's because God killed you and 'Called you Home.'
WHAT AN APPALLING LIE THAT IS!
I stand on that.
Rick
Rick
