My Journey of Faith - Part IV

Hey kids, you know, I’ve been saying so much and I’m sure you have questions, but don’t worry, I’m getting to them…..It was the summer of 2013 I believe, and I remember camping out at our cottage for the annual Horse shoe tournament, yes camping it out on my tent, and I saw a friend of mine post a video or two from a man named Don K Preston.

Well, let me tell you, that a lot of the stuff I’ve learned – a lot of the weird and hard questions has probably come from a Video or something that Don has spoken of.

So – the question comes that starts to come forward when we start understanding fulfilled or Covenant eschatology is: what happens when we die?

Now – I think before we get to that, we need to understand what the resurrection is, but also need to understand what death is.  Don said it so clearly in his tapes too.

What is death?  The resurrection is to bring us to life from death, right?

So here’s something to consider.

Genesis 2:16-17 says:

And the Lord God gave a charge to Adam, saying, Of every tree which is in the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-of it you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Interesting what’s said here.  God told Adam that if he eats of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that he will surely die – that same day.

Now – we know that they didn’t die that day because God kicked them out of Eden and here they went on to live and Adam went on to live to be over 900 years old.  Now, I know Adam isn’t a Time-Lord and his name isn’t “Doctor” – but something doesn’t make sense here.

Did they die that day or not?  God said they would.  If they didn’t die – then clearly, God lied.  Now the old serpent, the most crafty of the “beasts” that roamed the earth told Eve that they wouldn’t die.  Surely they didn’t die – so it would seem that the Serpent was telling the truth.  Yes?

Romans 5:12 says:

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Romans 6:23 says:

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So – we know that sin leads to death.  Sin is disobedience to God, or disobedience to God’s law.

Isaiah 59:2 says:

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

James 2:26 says:

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Clearly it is revealed to us in Isaiah and confirmed in James that death is a separation from God and humans.

Notice now, how I’ve now come to see that the death that Adam died on that very day wasn’t a physical death – but on that same day he ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he was separated from God and thus died.

This is the death that would endure throughout all of time.  This was the death that Jesus came to save us from.  Now if Jesus is the resurrection – where does that leave us?

I’ll continue answering the questions as I continue through this journey I’ve been on – but if you’re really waiting and interested in knowing more.  Here’s the first segment of Don Preston’s video series about the Resurrection: