“And We Shall All Be Raised”
TERRY SHANAHAN, NE REGIONAL PASTOR
“We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.“
In preparing for this article, I went through my bookshelves, pulling out all the books I had on Heaven and hell. It didn’t take long. I only had the Bible and In Light of Eternity by Randy Alcorn. I perused my archives of sermons for one specifically dealing with Heaven and hell. Again I came up short. Indeed, when was the last time we heard a sermon on Heaven and hell? Or found a best seller dealing with the subject? With the small amount of attention being brought to this subject in our churches and in our personal lives, one might ask if we have indeed, “set our hearts on things above.”
Randy Alcorn quotes Richard Baxter from his book, The Saints Everlasting Rest, written in 1649,
“If there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no more industrious seeking after it? One would think, if a man did but once hear of such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard to be true, he should be transported with the vehemence of his desire after it, and should almost forget to eat and drink and should care for nothing else, and speak of and inquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure. And yet, people who hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their faith, do as little mind it, or labor for it, as if they had never heard of any such thing, or did not believe one word they hear.”
But in fact we do believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost, and we would do well to witness to that belief more often by contemplating this ourselves and sharing it with others. We would do well to reverse the amount of time we spend considering the things here below and to focus our hearts on the things above.
One of my favorite quotes that I often have used at funerals is from Dwight L Moody, a man who truly believed in the resurrection:
“Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive then I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto his glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the spirit will forever.”
As always I am grateful to minister with like-minded believers who know the truth and are committed to sharing that truth with those who are saved unto the resurrection of eternal life and those who are lost unto the resurrection of damnation, while there is still time.