July 2001 Teaching 
 
Dead and Buried

 By Dennis (Eagle Spirit) Bracy

Bible Verses from New American Standard Greek/Hebrew Key Study

        In this lesson I want to start out by saying that this teaching has nothing to do with going to heaven or hell.  In other words this issue is more about growing and understanding rather than doctrinal perfection.  Also, understand that this issue is one that personally gets under my skin and I have not heard much teaching on this subject and it may get difficult.  I have lost very close and dear people so I can fully sympathize with those who have lost someone.  So here goes.

This lesson is all about how we as Christians should act/react over the dead.  I think it's vital that I start out by saying that I fully believe that every single person alive should go through a grieving process of some type when they lose a loved one.  Please do not hear in this lesson that we should not grieve over losing someone.  I believe that it is unhealthy for people not to grieve when they lose someone close.   

First, we must understand that a funeral is not now, nor has it ever been for the dead person.  Funerals are for the living.  It's for remembering that person in order to aid in emotional closure, which is vital to the healing process.  I think where we get off track is the belief system that we allow to set in sometimes.  For example, to believe that a loved one has died and gone to heaven even when you know that person was not a Christian is not only sad but, absurd (Rev. 20:11-15).  It's wrong for us to bring on any teaching that is false even if that teaching makes us feel better.  It's also disturbing and false when some churches teach that we can pray a loved one into heaven, after they have died.

How did Jesus view death?  For one, He obviously understood the pain of losing a loved one, as He raised Lazarus from death (John 11:1-44).  However, I think His view was still much more clear as He instructed a disciple to forego the funeral of his own father in order to go with Him (Matt. 8:21-22).  While, I’m not suggesting that we never go to a funeral, I think the heart of what Jesus said, speaks clearly that death is something inevitable and that we cannot alter the outcome in any way once it has taken place.  There’s only one way to alter death, and that must be done while people are still alive (Mark 16:15-16).

I suppose that the most frustrating thing though, is the belief that the dead come back to look after us in some way or that the dead actually become guardian angels.  While I’m not utterly convinced that it is not possible for the dead to come back (I Sam. 28:15), it seems obvious that they do not wish to come back if they were found in Christ and furthermore it is a sin when we attempt to communicate with the dead (Deut. 18:9-12).

        I’ve spoken to Christians that believe that we are supposed to go and honor the dead by visiting them, changing the flowers at the gravesite, etc.  But, I still go back to my first point.  While doing those things is not a, “sin”.  I believe that it grieves the Holy Spirit, when we give our thinking over to false beliefs.  If you were doing these things strictly as part of the healing process, I think that would be fine.          However, month after month, year after year, something seems wrong.  God wishes to heal us in every way and if we are grieving for that length of time something is wrong somewhere.  Perhaps we are choosing not receive the healing that is available to us.  Let us be sure that we serve the God of the Living.  There is only a veil between this world and the next.  You will forever be completely conscience just as you are now, somewhere in eternity.  “Where, will be your choice.”  (I Cor. 15:54-55).

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