Jesus’ Memorial Service
Part Two
Some who attend funerals or life celebration events do so to satisfy some perceived personal, familial, social, or religious obligation or expectation. This may be appreciated by the immediate family.
Some will go to funerals or celebration of life events to say goodbye to the departed soul, not realizing that the departed one will not be there.
Nor will the departed soul be in any urn or grave, affording survivors an opportunity to do so in the future at any time while here on Earth. It would be like driving past a house where the departed one once lived. It may trigger some memories, good or bad, but does not reopen the means of communication.
The last possible opportunity to have said goodbye to a departed soul expires with the individual’s departure at the moment of physical death, providing that he or she had the capacity to hear.
The departing soul and the one’s they leave behind may not be able to exchange goodbyes, but there will be the opportunity to say hello, providing the departed one and the ones left behind have been born again. All born-again believers will share in the great reunion when their own departure, or the Rapture takes place (1).
Personally, I am not a big fan of wakes or funerals. In too many cases, they send the wrong messages.
They are perceived to mark an end and a loss, whereas divine viewpoint sees the passing of a born-again believer as a new beginning (2) and a gain (3). The departed soul is not there in the casket, awaiting burial or cremation, only the bodily remains.
He or she is as much alive after the physical death of the body as he or she was on the day God created him or her.
Continuation of soul life after the physical death of the body is not a matter of if, but a matter of where and how the departed soul will experience ALL of eternity future from that moment forward.
The message that wake and funeral arrangements should convey is a warning to some to get prepared for their own inevitable departure, and a source of hope and comfort for the ones that know where they are going, when their own time of departure arrives.
“YOU” will not be at your funeral, only your bodily remains. “You” will have already departed at the moment of physical death, and “You” will have already arrived where you are going to be, based on the choice (4) John 3: 18 you made while you were still here, on Earth, having reached the age or stage of moral accountability.
Our survivors will bury or otherwise dispose of our bodily remains, but not our soul.
The ONlY connection between the bodily remains (going through the stages of decomposing) and the departed souls that left them behind at the moment of physical death, is that the bodily remains (of departed born-again believers) will be raised up in the form of a resurrected body, and reunited with the departed soul when the Rapture (5) 1Thess. 4: 16-17 takes place.
Contrary to what some of the religious traditions of Man would have us believe, there is NOTHING that can be said or done before, during, or after a funeral or celebration of life event, that will change the predetermined (6) John 3: 18 locations of the departed soul.
There is no resting in peace for a tormented soul in Hades, nor can an unbeliever be prayed out of there. Unbelievers will remain in the Torments of Hades until the Rev. 20: 13,15 event takes place, after which they will be cast into the lake of fire where they will spend all of eternity.
There is nothing to celebrate when a spiritually dead unbeliever departs this world. All of his or her earthly accomplishments are of no eternal significance (7) Matt 16:26.
On the other hand, there us much to be celebrated when a born-again believer departs this world.
Scripture (8) 2Cor.5: 1-3 teaches that from the time one leaves his or her physical bodies behind at physical death, until the Rapture takes place, the departed soul is in an interim body in Heaven.
Born again believers, that are alive and in physical bodies here on Earth at the time that the Rapture takes place, will NEVER experience physical death, but will instantaneously have their bodies transformed into resurrected bodies, and be taken up in the Rapture.
Scripture speaks of three types of bodies associated with the experience that a born- again believer will have. The first is likened to a tent (the physical body), the next likened to a building (the interim body), the third is likened to a mansion (the resurrected body). Note that with each “up-grade,” there is an increase in durability and glory in the different bodies received.
End of Part Two
(1)\t2Sam.12: 23/1Thess. 4: 16, 17 (2) 2Cor. 5: 8 (3) Phil. 1: 21 (4) John 3: 18 (5) 1Thess. 4: 16, 17 (6) John 3: 18 (7) Matt. 16: 26 (8) 2Cor. 5: 1-3