Answers for Our Times
Dearly beloved of God, if the Word of God was rightly divided and taught in our churches, our country would not be in the shape it is today.
Isaiah 33:6
And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
Isaiah informed Israel of this truth before they rejected what God had to say, and were carried away into captivity.
There is little stability in our times today because, like Israel, people are ignorant of the wisdom and knowledge that God gives us in His Word, or they have rejected it.
Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Where there is no vision, speaking of the Word of God, the people perish. The Sanskrit reads, “Where there is no knowledge the people wander aimlessly.”
Hosea 4:6
My People [Israel] are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge [God’s Word] I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
God’s people in Hosea’s day were destroyed for a lack of knowledge of God’s Word. Instead of worshipping the One True and Living God they turned to idols and worshipped other gods. Instead of listening to God, they listened to the spirit of whoredoms which caused them to err.
God reveals His Word to us so that we can know the truth. With a knowledge of God’s Word we can separate what is the truth from what is error. Let me give you an example.
Isaiah 8:19, 20 NIV
19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
New age religion is not new at all. It comes from the old serpent, the devil, who deceives the whole world. These verses are addressing what we today call a séance.
Today it is commonly believed that the dead are not really dead. Many churches teach that if a person who is saved dies, they immediately go to heaven, and they are alive. What does God say about this?
Israel, in the Old Testament, hoped for their resurrection from the dead, when the Lord would raise them to life again. The fulfillment of the resurrections is recorded in Revelation 20:4-6, and 20: 11-15.
The first century Church hoped for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ who would gather together the Church to meet him in the air. We have the Word of the LORD concerning this truth.
I Thessalonians 4:15-18
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The dead in Christ will be raised at the same time that the living ones will be changed, and together they will meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air. This has not occurred as yet.
I Corinthians 15: 20-23, and 15:51-57; and Philippians 3:20, 21 provide more information from God about this. These scriptures are addressed to the Church, and they are clear.
If we run across a scripture that we do not understand, we must compare it to the clear scriptures that speak about the identical subject.
We certainly do not discard the clear scriptures, or blend what God says with people’s ideas, and come up with an interpretation that contradicts the Word of God. God does not give us the liberty to add to, or change what He has spoken.
Every scripture regarding the identical subject must agree if we are to have the truth of God’s Word.
Nowhere in the Bible is the doctrine that immediately upon dying a Christian goes to heaven. The dead are dead, and will remain so until the Lord Jesus Christ raises them to life at his coming.
If one believes that the dead are alive, they will be easily deceived by the medium who purports to bring them in contact with a loved one who has died.
Read Leviticus 19:31; 20: 6,7; Deuteronomy 18:9-15. A necromancer is a medium who is possessed by a devil spirit that purports to be able to contact someone who is dead.
A familiar spirit is a devil spirit that impersonates dead human beings. They were familiar with the person when they were alive. They know their mannerisms, characteristics, habits, sayings, etc.
A medium uses this information to deceive people in a séance so that they think that the person is alive. They then give them advice, which will lead to their ruin.
What does God reveal that the dead know? Read Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10. God says that the dead know nothing at all. Knowing this, why would anyone want to seek knowledge from the dead instead of from the Living God?
God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of His Word. He would have all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
If you know what the Word of God teaches, share it with someone in need. The truth of God’s Word will set people free. It is God-breathed and profitable. The Word of God shows us what is available from God, and how we can receive it.
The Word of God shows people how and when we will gain eternal life, how to be healed, how to prosper, how to have a sound mind, how to operate the spirit of God, how to get prayers answered, and much more. It shows us how to walk with and for the Living God as His beloved children.
God is our Father and He is for us, dearly beloved, take Him at His Word, and you will be equipped to have the profit He desires for you.