Interesting conversation on All Saints’ Day

The kids didn’t have to go to school and there were four or five days that we could spend at our leisure.  So someone asked, “What’s the plan?  Are we going somewhere?”  As soon as that question was asked, there was a reply: “Where can we go?  It’s not like us to go to the cemetery.”

This began the burning discussion of that weekend at our house: Why don’t we go to the cemetery?

Someone said, “When we were young, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day were always occasions for a family reunion.  All the dead in the family was buried in our hometown and so all our relatives dropped by the house after they paid respects to the dead in the town cemetery.  There was always good food.”

Someone else said, “We don’t know where our dead is buried.  Some of our dead were guerrillas in the war and they were buried in mass graves.  There is just nowhere to go.”

This exchange opened up a whole discussion of other related questions which I will share with you.

 

Why don’t we visit the dead in the cemetery?

• Because the dead are not there anymore.  There is only dust there.  The soul and the spirit of our relatives who have died are either in heaven or in hell.
• When Jesus Christ comes and the dead is resurrected, it doesn’t matter where their dust is (those who died in the sea, those who were eaten by animals) will all be resurrected by the power of the Risen Lamb of God.
• The trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise.  During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he called Lazarus of Bethany by name and he rose from the dead even after he had already been dead for four days.

Is it true that the souls of the dead linger for forty days before they ascend to heaven or go on to hell?

• The Bible says, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after this, the judgment”
• Only Jesus Christ rose from the dead and lingered on the earth for forty days before he ascended up to heaven.
• Someday, when Jesus Christ comes for us, our bodies will be resurrected but it will also be changed into an incorruptible and glorified body – fit for eternity.
• Souls wandering on the earth for forty days after death has no basis in the Bible.

Why don’t we pray for the dead?

• Everyone is accountable for himself as far as spiritual choices go.  The time to choose whether or not we want to receive the offer of salvation is during our lifetime.  Once we die, we go to heaven or hell depending upon what we have chosen for ourselves.
• Praying for the dead will not change the mind of the dead person about going to heaven or hell.  It will not change his eternal destination as he has already arrived at his chosen destination.  It will not change the mind of God, either.
• We were given limited free will – while we are alive, we are supposed to choose whether or not we trust that Christ’s death on the cross is the ONLY way by which we can be saved.  If you do not choose to trust that Christ’s death on the cross is all that is necessary (baptism isn’t necessary, being good, going to confession, going to church, etc.), then you are not going to be saved even if all your relatives pray for you to be saved.
• Traditionally prayers for the dead were offered to ease the pain and suffering of the bereaved.  It has been a doctrine that has been a source of revenue for established churches that believe in praying for the dead – that is what mass cards, sales of candles and masses for the dead are all about.
• Also, this is how charlatans and those who claim to be able to communicate with the dead make their living.
• The funds to build St. Peter’s Basilica were raised from the sale of indulgences – indulgences are pieces of paper, signed by the Pope granting to the person who buys it a period of reprieve from purgatory.  The bigger the amount you pay for an indulgence, the more number of days are deducted from your stay in purgatory.

Why don’t we even go to the cemetery just to have a family reunion?

• If you can’t love and be kind and pray for your relatives while they are alive, praying for them and visiting them and keeping their graves lovely will only ease your conscience – it cannot change the neglect of the past or affect the eternal destiny of those who are already dead.
• You can keep the memory of the loved one by talking about him, talking about the lessons he gave in his lifetime, and living up to his good example.  Going to a grave pales in comparison to honouring the dead by living in their good example.
• Our hope of eternal life negates the grave.  Our hope is that our loved one who died in Christ will rise up from the dead when the trumpet sounds and Christ descends from heaven.  We will bodily rise up to meet the Lord with our dead loved ones who will also rise from their graves – we will meet the Lord in the clouds.  That is where the reunion will be.

Can the dead come back to haunt us?

• The Bible says that after we die, we go either to heaven or hell.  There is no in-between place called purgatory or limbo.
• Once we die and we go to heaven or hell that is where we will stay.  Those who are in heaven cannot go for a visit to hell or vice versa.  And those who are in heaven or hell can no longer go back to warn the living.
• Remember that God has not given us the spirit of fear – when you feel creepy like you feel that there may be disembodied souls around – they are not – that is the work of demons and devils.  Fear is from the enemy.

Where are the dead now?

• If they are saved, they are in heaven.
• If they are not saved, they are in hell.
• The Bible does not teach of purgatory or limbo – these are man-made traditions and superstitious beliefs. It is not Biblical.

What’s the difference between hell and the lake of fire?

• Hell is a holding cell.  That is not the eternal punishment.
• The lake of fire is where the Antichrist and the False prophet will be cast.  It is also where the devil, the deceiver will be cast.  This is also where those who are not saved will be punished.  This is the eternal site of everlasting punishment away from the manifest presence of God.
• The lake of fire is not the kingdom of Satan – Satan will be punished in the lake of fire, he will not reign there.  Satan reigning in hell is Dante Aligheiri’s story in The Inferno – it is not Biblical doctrine.
• The dead who are in hell will be resurrected only so that they can be cast into the lake of fire.  All the angels who rebelled against God and who joined forces with Lucifer will be cast into hell.
• Those who are not saved will be cast into the lake of fire.

How can a loving God condemn people to go to Hell?

• God loves people so much, he has given them the will to choose whether or not to believe in Jesus Christ (that he is the ONLY WAY to the Father, the ONLY TRUTH and the ONLY LIFE).
• God honors our choices.  He will ensure that we get all the full implications of our choices.
• Those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is God, or those who do not believe that Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient payment for sin that God accepts, and do not trust that Christ’s blood shed on the cross is the only way by which he can escape everlasting punishment – have made a choice: they chose to reject God’s offer.  God will honor their choice.
• Hell is something we choose for ourselves when we refuse Christ.  Hell is something we choose for ourselves when we trust our own goodness or our own righteousness to save us.  Hell is something we choose for ourselves when we trust a church or membership in a church to save us.  Hell is something we choose for ourselves when we choose anything or anyone else other than Jesus Christ to save us.
• The loving God is also a HOLY and RIGHTEOUS GOD.  He abhors sin and punishes sin.  He is also no fool.  You cannot reject God in your heart and expect to enter His Holy Heavenly Home or live as His family for eternity when you refused him during your lifetime.  The time to repent is now, not in the hereafter — any repentance there will not serve to change your eternal destination.

What about those who have not heard of Jesus Christ it seems unfair to condemn them to hell if they did not know about Christ?

• The Bible says, they are without excuse.
• God has sent prophets to preach.
• God has put in our hearts a longing for God.
• God has put in our hearts a knowledge of eternity.
• God sends believers to preach the gospel.
• The Bible has been translated to every known language.
• The Bible is preached on TV, on radio, on the internet, even on street corners
• During the tribulation 144,000 Jews will preach salvation in Jesus Christ.
• During the tribulation angels will preach salvation in Jesus Christ.
• Part of the work of the Holy Spirit in the world today is convincing people of sin and showing them who Jesus Christ is – man has always chosen to reject God.  Man is very self-willed and man always seeks to establish his own righteousness.

Can the dead pray for us?

• The Bible says that the rich man asked Father Abraham to send Lazarus back to his relatives so that Lazarus can warn them about hell.
• Father Abraham said:  They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
• The dead in hell possess all their senses and their memories.  The do not lose their consciousness or their identities.  They have lost their power to choose as they have chosen already in their lifetime.
• The ill will or good will of the dead cannot affect the living in any way.  The rich man loved his brothers and sisters and wanted to spare them the agony of hell – Father Abraham said that each one chooses one’s eternal destination.

 

I saw people posting pictures on Facebook and they were professing Christians and yet they visited the graves of their departed loved ones – they have their reasons.  We will all give an account of ourselves to God.  We are to live in accordance with the teaching of Scriptures and not in accordance with the traditions of this world.  We are all free to choose how to live our lives: only know thou that in all these things, God will surely bring us to judgment (Yes, there is a separate judgment for Christians where we will receive rewards, if any, for things we have done in our body, whether they are good or bad.)   We are not to live in a manner that conforms to this world, but in a manner that shows that we have been transformed in our minds.  We are to live separate from this world.  We are to live as we believe.  Our every action shows others around us what Christ means to us.