Amazing Facts

Guest (Male): This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry.

Doug Batchelor: And if you ever walk through a cemetery and you read some of the graves, some of them will say our beloved mother now singing with the angels in heaven. And the same church cemetery, you'll see another one that will say our beloved mother resting until the resurrection trumpet. Which tells me there's a lot of confusion in the cemetery about what happens. Now, this is a sensitive subject and so I don't want to be insensitive about this, but here's what you need to know is that the dead are dead until the resurrection. What confuses people is you read a verse in the Bible where it says absent from the body present with the Lord.

They don't read the whole verse. And they say, well, as soon as you die, you're immediately in the presence of the Lord. Well, in a sense, if you're saved and you die, your next conscious thought is the resurrection and being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So for the person who dies, it is their next conscious thought. But it hasn't happened yet cuz the judgment has not happened yet and the resurrection has not happened yet. And Jesus said the dead are asleep. I could give you 50 scriptures. There's just not time. What about people Pastor Doug, I know you die, you go right to heaven or hell cuz I read a book.

Somebody died on the operating table. They had a car accident and they left their body and they had a whole experience in hell or in heaven and that proves it must be true. Do we base our theology on somebody having an experience when they stop breathing? They've done experiments now and they know people who report what they call these near death experiences. They have elevated levels of carbon dioxide in their blood and they suffer from oxygen deprivation which causes hallucinations and many of them will see this channel of light. Many of them will feel like I was outside my body looking in.

And one reason I know you cannot trust these near death experience books to figure out what happens when you die for heaven or hell is because if you're in a Christian country, they say I went to heaven I was with Jesus. If you're in a Buddhist country, they say I was with Buddha waiting to be reincarnated. If you're in a Hindu country, they have near death experiences and they were with Krishna. They were with their god. And based on their training, they have their various visions. Now, God can speak to somebody. I'm not detracting that it is possible that a person can have a near death experience and the Lord can give them a vision or dream that is for them.

He's trying to tell them something. Maybe wake them up or comfort them. I don't know. But you don't base your theology on a person's a dream when their body is robbed of oxygen. We base our theology on the unchanging word of God. Amen. Heaven and earth will pass away. Jesus said my word will not pass away. People say, you know, I had this experience and I was caught up and and I saw these things and they make movies about it. I don't know if you heard. There was one book that was written became very popular and they made a whole movie about this kid that said that he had he died on the operating table and he saw loved ones and new things that only they would know.

And later he confessed he made the whole thing up. After the book was a bestseller and after they made a movie, he said I just made the whole thing up. And so yeah, you can check that out on the internet. Just don't do it right now. Number eight. The Bible makes it plain the King David is saved. So is he in heaven now? Is David in heaven now? First of all, we're talking about good King David killed Goliath. He will be saved. Are we in agreement? Yeah, Bible says he was a man after God's own heart.

What does the Bible say about David? Read this Acts chapter two. This is after Jesus died. This is 50 days after the resurrection. Peter is preaching. He says, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. I've been to Israel. That's a picture of David's tomb. It's still there today. And then he goes on to say David is not ascended into the heavens. Now, if you're going to use a English to communicate, how could you be more clear than that?

Dead, buried, not in heaven. The Bible says that David died approximately a thousand years before Christ. It says he slept with his fathers. Now, David has it been 3,000 years for him? No. David closed his eyes in death and the next thing he knows is he is going to wake up, come out of his grave, meet Christ in the air with a glorified body. And for him, it will seem like a moment. The twinkling of an eye. It's going to seem like 15 seconds. So for people that die, don't be discouraged. Your loved ones that die in the faith, you can rejoice for them cuz their next conscious thought is the presence of the Lord.

I remember doing the funeral service for the pastor who baptized me. He retired before I was born. This guy loved the Lord, real worker. And I was doing his wife's funeral service. This lady was a saint, died in her 90s working in her garden. And she woke up that morning, did her Bible study and the last thing she wrote was we shall not die. She was quoting from an Old Testament prophet. She had a stroke. She died. She was talking about the second death. So I'm doing her funeral and there is Sister Phillips and she's stretched out in the coffin as they often have before me.

And I was jealous because I thought here she's been a faithful, you know, fought a good fight, finished the faith. Her next conscious thought is she's going to come out of the grave not with a 94 year old body, but with a glorified young vivacious body, never to feel pain or suffering again. I was jealous. Uh you know what I'm saying? For those who die in the faith, Paul says, we sorrow not as others that have no hope. We sorrow for ourselves cuz we're going to miss them, but don't sorrow for them. If they died saved, a Christian funeral should almost be a celebration if a person has lived a full life.

Amen. Number nine. Isn't it true that the soul is immortal and that only the body dies? Now, how many of you have heard that you know, we have an immortal soul? Have you heard someone say that before? There's an immortal soul to save. I am going to turn the camera around. Let's get an audience shot. Please show me the verse in the Bible that says we have an immortal soul. We got people here visiting from all different places. I if there's a verse, I don't know what that verse is. Let's tell you what the Bible does say.

Ezekiel 18 verse four. The soul who sins what does it say? Will die. And then can mortal man does does Job say we're immortal or mortal? He says can mortal mortal means you die. Can mortal man be more righteous than God? Listen to this one. 1 Timothy 6 verse 15 and 16. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords who alone has immortality. So when do we do we get immortality? Yes. We do get it. But sinners do not have immortality. When will the righteous be given immortality? That's question number 10. Look at this 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51.

We shall not all sleep, but we will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will be sound will sound. The dead will be raised incorruptible. We will be changed for this corruptible. The word corruption means bodies that get old and wrinkled and decay and you turn back to earth when you die. This corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on what? Immortality. When? When the trumpet sounds. And when is that? When the Lord descends. The Bible is read 1 Corinthians 15 and you can't misunderstand.

The whole chapter is about the resurrection. And that we will get glorified immortal bodies. Someone's going to write down will we recognize our loved ones in heaven? And they you know, grandma's not going to be 90. It is such a miracle to me how a caterpillar can be this this fat little worm. He builds a chrysalis, goes through this metamorphosis where then it emerges with aerodynamic design. There is no scenario. There is no scheme in evolution and ex can explain how a worm will decide that it's going to go through a change where its body turns into a virtual soup of chemicals and reorganizes where it's got delicate legs and wings and it can pump blood into those wings and then fly off for flowers.

I mean, that is still mind boggling when you think about it. This has to be designed by God. And you know, Jesus compares the resurrection to seeds. I've done some amazing facts on seeds. Seeds can stay viable for thousands of years. They found some seeds of an extinct Judean date palm in Masada down in the desert. It was very dry, perfect conditions. They planted several of them. Some of them were not viable anymore, but two or three of the seeds sprouted. One of them turned into a mature date tree. It's several years old now. They call it the Methuselah tree and it is now bearing fruit.

2,000 years the essence of life was somehow kept in that seed that when the conditions were right with the moisture and the sunlight, it came back to life. And the Bible says and Paul says God can do this. It shouldn't be a mystery. He was encouraging the Corinthians. God can resurrect us. Nothing's too hard for the Lord. And some of you might be thinking, well, Pastor Doug but if we're cremated and our ashes are scattered will God come back and look around and say, oh man, they're all over the place. I don't think I can put them back together again.

Don't worry about it, friends. For one thing, he's not putting back together the old body. He's going to take the essence of who you are. It's kind of like today, you know, you take your computer programs and you put it on a little USB drive and you can take your program and plug it into a brand new computer and there it is. And so he's going to take the software of your character and plug it into new hardware. And you're going to have a brand new body. Does that make sense? Say amen. Okay, the young ones all said amen.

1 Thessalonians 4 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel. The Lord has the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. That's when this mortal puts on immortality. Number 11. How does the Bible consistently refer to death? You rest with your fathers. The Bible calls it asleep. The graves were opened and many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Now, are there any people in heaven now? Yes. Who's there? Moses?

How do we know? Jude verse nine. There's only one chapter. Jude verse nine. Enoch. Bible says that Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him and it also repeated in the New Testament. Elijah went to heaven in a fiery chariot. 2 Kings chapter two. And Matthew 27 says when Jesus died, there was a great earthquake. He first he said it is finished. Sky was dark and there was a great earthquake and many of the graves, not all many of the graves of them that slept in Jerusalem were opened and after his resurrection, they came out of their graves and appeared to many in the city.

And when Christ ascended to heaven, they ascended with him. Now, that must have been just a small group because John, Mark and Luke don't even mention that. But some of the patriarchs, we don't know who they were. Could have been John the Baptist, could have been Isaiah. We don't know. Some of the faithful suddenly appeared to other faithful in the city and said Jesus was the Messiah. He's alive. Just like Moses and Elijah appeared to Peter, James and John, some of the saints who had died around Jerusalem appeared to other faithful in the city to say Jesus is the Messiah.

I am Isaiah and we're going to heaven together. I don't know, but it's very vague, but there are others that went to heaven. The rest of the people are doing what? Rip. Sleeping. Rest in peace. They're in their graves. Jesus said, if you know the story there, John chapter 11 verse 11 our friend Lazarus is what? Sleeping. But I go that I might wake him. And then his disciples said to him, Lord, if he's got a fever, if he's sleeping, that's good. He'll maybe get better. And he says, no, no, no. Lazarus is dead. So how did Jesus refer to death?

Sleep. Now, when Jesus comes to resurrect Lazarus does Lazarus comment on it? The Bible says even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. There are people asleep. The reason it says bring with him is because the dead in Christ rise first. So as the Lord comes from heaven and he circles around the earth and the dead in Christ are caught up to meet him in the air, they're there first. So when we are transformed and caught up, they're with him. You understand? It's telling us the sequence of how this happens so that we will have a reunion.

They're not enjoying heaven a thousand years before us. We're going to all celebrate that grand experience together. It says then we will together be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Now, let me get you to think about something. Just use use common sense. There are about a dozen resurrections in the Bible. I can't remember them all, but I'll try. You got Elijah resurrects a boy. The widow's boy dies. Interestingly enough, Elisha then resurrects a boy from the Shunamite woman. You've got a man who is let down on the bones of Elisha.

He comes back to life. You got Moses who is resurrected. Uh Jesus resurrects Jairus's daughter. Jesus resurrects the son of the widow of Nain. Jesus resurrects Lazarus. Paul, we believe Eutychus died when he fell out the window. They said he's dead and Paul said his life still in him. So that would be another resurrection if if that's what happened there. Then you have Paul was stoned and they thought he was dead, but he got back up. Maybe they weren't praying. God said, look, Paul, I'm not done. Get back up. And God just resurrected Paul. We don't know.

I mean, but it may have been a death. And I might be leaving a couple out. I think there's oh Peter uh resurrected Dorcas. Thank you. So there's about a dozen resurrections in the Bible. Now you work for a news agency. BBC, Fox, CNN, pick your news agency. You've just heard that there is a resurrection and a lot of witnesses are verifying this has happened. You are going to run to them with your microphone from all around the world. You ever seen where they're interviewing some you know, international celebrity and they got 50 microphones right there.

And they're all waiting for this statement. And the the news is all gathered in the back with their cameras going. First question they'd ask is what was it like? What happened when you died? Where did you go? What did you see? What did you feel? Don't you think it's interesting that of all those resurrections in the Bible, not one person comments on what they experienced during death? Number 12. Why does Satan want us to believe that the spirits of the dead are really alive? The serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. One of the first lies and isn't it strange that even pastors are repeating the devil's lie.

You don't really die. You go right to heaven. You go right to hell. You go to some reincarnation waiting area. You go to purgatory. You go to limbo. They got all these theories. The Bible says you're asleep. You're dead. You're unconscious. False Christs, Jesus said false prophets will show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect. If suddenly a whole city sees this big apparition of Mary and she's giving some message that may be slightly contrary to scripture how many people are going to believe what they see rather than what the Bible says?

A lot of people will believe what they see because they don't know what the Bible says. They're just believing what they hear from the pastor once a week. And you know, when he says, oh, everything's great. You can be a better you. And that that's all they hear is the kind of the sloppy agapi happy slappy kind of Christianity out there. They're not here in the whole thing. So a lot of them are being deceived. False Christs and false prophets will arise and deceive many. For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works.

There are a lot of counterfeit ministries out there that are deceiving people. Now, I also want to hasten to say I know a lot of ministers in other churches I think are sincere. I think they love the Lord. I think they teach the Bible. They're doing their very best. We would respectfully disagree on some points, but there's some charlatans out there that are just taking advantage of people and they're lining their checkbooks while they do it. Number 13. How effective will Satan's use be of these evil spirits in the last days? The serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives how much?

He is deceiving the whole world. Babylon the great is fallen is fallen. It's become the dwelling place of demons. Remember God's people are in Babylon. There's demons in Babylon deceiving. And every foul spirit of prison for every foul spirit, there's spiritualism in the world by your sorcery. And I understand that one of these words I think is pharmakeia which means drugs. By your sorcery, all nations were deceived. Number 14. How does God regard these miracles by evil angels? The Bible says a man or a woman who is a medium shall surely be put to death.

Now, friends, I am not asking anybody to start going on a witch trial. Um this is talking about when the people of Israel were a ocracy and when God was their King, if there was someone in their midst that was dabbling in consulting with the dead, the penalty was the most severe penalty. The only reason I read that is so that you understand how did God view it. He knew that people could be led astray by evil spirits and they were not to tolerate people trying to communicate with the dead. Do not be deceived. Now, I'm going to the New Testament.

Evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness and do not sin for some do not have the knowledge of God. And again, some will depart from the faith speaking of in the last days, Paul says 1 Timothy 4 1. Some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of the devils. They were Christians. They've departed from the faith and what did it? They said a spirit spoke to me. I remember once I gave a Bible study about the Sabbath truth to a pastor. And the pastor said, you know, brother Doug, if I'm going to go by the Bible, what you say is clear enough.

But I had a spirit speak to me. And he told me that I'm not under the law anymore and I don't need to worry about this and I've got peace that this what this spirit is telling me is more important than what the Bible tells me. Now, did Jesus say the Holy Spirit will ever contradict the Bible? Or did he say when he the spirit of truth has come, he will bring to your remembrance what I have said? The job of the Holy Spirit is to reinforce the teachings of Jesus in the Bible, never to contradict it.

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. The works of the flesh which are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery. You read about those who are going to be in the lake of fire. What does it say in Revelation 21? Sorcerers shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death. Yeah, I don't know if I haven't seen any in Texas, but we've got them in California. When I was in New York City, they some of the cities it says astrologer palm reader psychic.

Do you have those businesses around? Yeah. And you know, they used to have one it was you know, 1 800 psychic. You'd call this number. And they'd give you your psychic reading. And I had a friend that was very curious and a little mischievous. He called the number and they said, okay, can we have your credit card, please? And he said, well, if you're psychic, you tell me and then I'll know that you can you can answer my other questions. Yeah, but there are people that you know, that you you know what it is? They're looking for answers.

People want to know what's the future. That's why we do these prophecy seminars. God can tell you what the future is in his word. You don't need to go to a psychic. God tells you the part of the future we need to know. He can tell you what your future will be if you turn your back on God and he can tell you what your future will be if you follow his will for your life. You can know the future. You can know that your life is in good hands. You can know what the future of the world is as well.

Number 15. What glorious power does God offer his people? Answer that I might know him and the power of his resurrection. Now I would rather not die, but I'm not afraid of dying. It's like Woody Allen said, I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens. I would rather be among those who are alive when Jesus comes. Can you say amen? You know, there there is going to be two kinds of people when Jesus comes. Moses and Elijah were with Christ on the mountain. It was a miniature picture of the second coming.

Moses died, but he was resurrected. Elijah was translated. That's the word that we use. Never really experienced death. He went through this transformation where in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, he received his glorified immortal new body. And if I could choose, I would rather be that group that somehow survives what's coming in the future. And Jesus said we will look up. He said, when you see these signs come to pass, lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh. Says every eye will see him coming. There are going to be saved people that will see Jesus coming, that will escape the pains of death.

And they'll say, death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? That's what I want to be. I want to be in that group. Amen. So y'all pray for me because when it gets tough, I'm kind of visible. You know that, don't you? So I've got a cave I'm going to. And I'm not telling anyone where it is. Being confident of this very thing, he that has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. You know, friends, we are talking tonight about life and death. Uh death is a serious subject.

Usually we hear people talk about it at a funeral. But you realize that if Jesus doesn't come, there is a 100% death rate in the world. It should not frighten a Christian because Christians do not die. They go to sleep. When the martyr Stephen was being executed he looked up to heaven. His face was shining and he said, look, I see Jesus standing on the right hand of the father. He said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he went to sleep. Christians don't die. They go to sleep. Friend, God is offering you peace and eternal life.

How? Well, it all begins by simply turning towards the Lord. The Bible promises that if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. You can turn to him right now and ask for forgiveness in a new heart and he's already to forgive and receive you. That's why Jesus came. Whether you know it or not, he's always been your best friend. A new life is only a prayer away. Just ask him now.

Guest (Male): Amazing Facts began in 1965 with a God inspired concept.

Joe Cruz: Hello, this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts broadcast. Facts which affect you.

Guest (Male): Each radio broadcast would begin with an amazing fact from science, nature or history followed by a Bible message that touched the hearts of listeners from every walk of life. The program was an instant success and the ministry soon began expanding to include Bible lessons. In 1986, Amazing Facts added the medium of television to its growing outreach efforts offering soul winning evangelistic messages for viewers around the world. In 1994, Pastor Doug Batchelor assumed leadership of the ministry adding the Bible Answers Live call in radio program and new ministry TV programs began airing on multiple networks around the world.

For 50 years, the driving vision of Amazing Facts has been the bold proclamation of the everlasting gospel. And with a team of evangelists circling the globe and thousands of men and women being trained through the Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism program AFCO, the ministry is helping God's church see a rich harvest of souls. Amazing Facts. God's message, our mission.

Guest (Male): Don't forget to request today's free offer. It's sure to be a blessing. And thank you for your continued support as we take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. This presentation was brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry.