The Allure of Death Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW

Transcription

1 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 1 The Allure of Death Program No SPEAKER: JOHN BRADSHAW It seems hard to deny the fascination that exists in today s society with the subject of death. Look in the media books and television programs abound on the subject of death and the hereafter. And people consume them like they re going out of fashion. In 1997, a new program began airing on what was then a new television network, drawing as many as 6 million viewers per episode. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the story of a teenage girl who battled against demons and vampires. Vampires are said to be corpses that periodically come back from the dead to disturb or harass the living and Buffy went toe-to-toe against the best of them, as well as against ghosts and zombies, other things that are said to be back from the dead. In recent years, vampires have become big business. Huge business, in fact. In 2005, the first of the series of four Twilight books was released telling the story of a teenage girl from Forks, Washington, who fell in love with a 104-year-old vampire. In five years, more than 120 million copies of the Twilight books were sold worldwide and they spent more than 200 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists. They were extremely popular with children, even young children, in spite of the fact that the books were, in the words of one writer, one long, bodice-ripping romance. Maybe that s a story or a discussion for another time. The author of the Twilight books said that idea for the series of books came to her in a dream. Now, of course, the Twilight books aren t the first books written on the subject of somebody coming back from the dead. Years ago, Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights, which had Healthcliff communicating with the ghost of Catherine. Go back even further. Shakespeare s writings featured ghosts and spirits left and right. It s like Shakespeare never met a ghost he didn t like or at least didn t want to write about. But what we have today is the mainstreaming of books and movies about the subject that has become cultural phenomenon. Now, someone is going to ask: Is there a problem with that?

2 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 2 From a Biblical point of view, you bet there is. I will tell you what the problem is in just a moment. There is no doubt an increasing fascination in society today with death, life after death, and the occult. Many people are more than happy to part with their hardearned money to be entertained by books, television programs and movies that deal with subjects that, when you really think about it are pretty bizarre. A teenage girl fighting off vampires and werewolves? That was the theme of a very successful television program. Well what about the idea of a young girl barely out of her teens getting...intimate with a vampire? That idea was behind one of the most successful series of books in all of literary history. Hollywood has been playing to society s fascination with death and the beyond for decades. In 1990, the late Patrick Swayze starred in the movie Ghost, which promoted the idea of a dead man coming back and communicating with his grieving wife. Now, I am not suggesting that that movie was a documentary or was supposed to portray life as it really is, but what it did succeed in doing is cause millions of people to contemplate the idea of communicating with people who have passed away. That same year, 1990, another movie was released, this one featuring a host of upand-coming hot, young Hollywood stars. Now the idea behind this movie, Flatliners, was this: a group of medical students experimented with experiencing clinical death, and then they were brought back from clinical death so they could talk about what death was like. Here is what you are going to find: More people than ever before have encouraged, and have even been educated to think about the idea that it is possible to communicate with those who are dead and gone on to the other side. Here is something else that is true: I m pretty sure you know this from experience. There are many people who would be very uncomfortable in a situation like this they d be uncomfortable in a cemetery. Why? Because they have watched programs, read books, and seen movies about people who come back from the dead or about ghosts, ghouls, goblins, vampires and werewolves. Are the people here in this cemetery really going to hurt anybody? I think we both know that the answer to that question is No! I ve told people many times before, it s not the dead you need to worry about, it s the living. But there has been an education process that has gone on, causing people to become very comfortable with the idea that people really do come back from the dead.

3 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 3 Now let s consider this from a Biblical perspective. Does the Bible comment on it? Oh yes, the Bible does. We read now from Job (Job 7:9, 10): As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. So if we re going to take what the Bible says on this subject as the guide for what we believe, we would have to conclude that the dead do not come back to visit the living, and they certainly don t come back to suck blood out of the necks of unsuspecting victims. Yet society is fascinated with this idea of the dead coming back to visit the living. Where did this allure of death come from? There are some societies who embrace this idea very enthusiastically. Every year, November 2 is in Mexico known as Dia de los Muertos, or The Day of the Dead. It s treated somewhat like a national holiday. It s held very close, and it s related to All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Altars are erected where offerings are left for the spirits of dead people. Candied skulls are made and left and eaten. Various food and drink items are presented as offerings for those who have departed and passed over to the other side. The roots of the Dia de los Muertos go back hundreds or even thousands of years, to the traditions practiced by indigenous cultures. Today, people will visit cemeteries. They will go down there hoping that their prayers and conversations will be heard by the spirits of the departed who would then come back and tarry and visit with the living. For a dead child, a gift of a toy may be purchased and given, maybe alcohol will be bought as a gift or an offering for a dead adult. This homage to the dead penetrates Mexican culture so far that even government-run schools and government buildings have small altars erected in honor of Dia de los Muertos. Skulls and skeletons are commonly seen. It is believed that these symbols can be used to honor and pay respect to those who have passed on. But what was it Job said? Job said: The dead...do not return to their houses any more. So the Bible comes at this subject from an altogether different angle. North of the border, in the United States, there is a different annual homage to the dead. So what about Halloween? We ll talk about that in just a moment. Death is a pretty serious business. It s also pretty ugly business. Death causes people to experience intensely painful emotions. Anguish. Grief. Death brings a whole lot of difficulty. And there is a reason for that. When God created Adam and Eve back in

4 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 4 the beginning, He created them with the idea that they would live forever. Death was not a part of God s original plan. Adam and Eve were created to experience joy, peace, gladness, happiness and contentment. Death came into the picture as an intruder, and brought emotions that were foreign to the human family emotions that today, we still wrestle with with some real difficulty. You see, God told Adam and Eve that everything would work out if they simply followed His perfect prescription for a happy life. He said in the Garden of Eden, they could do anything they wanted, pretty much, and eat absolutely anything they liked, except for the fruit that grew on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God said, If you eat that, then you will die. Death will come. Today, we are still bearing the consequences of what Adam and Eve did long ago in the Garden of Eden. What they did proved Paul s words to be true. The wages of sin is death. So what about the subject of Halloween, which glorifies death and makes death almost something to be laughed at, enjoyed, something of sport and fun? You see the homes in the United States, and perhaps in some other parts of the world, toward the end of every October. Now, you ve got the run of the mill Halloween decorations: the jack-o-lanterns they re the carved out pumpkins and then maybe some fake cobwebs on the sides of houses or on doors, something like that. But then you ve got the homes that really go all-out. And on the front yard, there are fake caskets and tombstones, and there might even be life-size witches hanging from trees or fixed to the sides of homes. I ve seen them up on roofs. Halloween celebrates that idea that there is life after death in another dimension on the other side. Halloween celebrates the idea of the dead coming back and not only communicating with, but bothering those who are living. Is that really something that you think God smiles upon and blesses? Is that something that Bible-believing Christians could really, conscientiously participate in, knowing that they have the blessing of God? I d like you to consider this. Halloween really muddies the Biblical waters. I ll tell you why. Halloween celebrates the idea that people live on after death, but what does the Bible say? Consider these allusions in Bible verses from the Old Testament. You will read about King so and so. He lived and died and then what does the Bible say? He slept with his fathers. This other king lived, died, was buried and he slept with his fathers. The Bible uses that phrase in relation to the kings many times.

5 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 5 Now remember the story of Stephen, the martyr of the book of Acts, right around the end of Acts chapter 7 and the beginning of Acts chapter 8. Stephen was stoned. The Bible says after he had spoken with God, he fell asleep. Now, what did that mean? You know that he didn t fall asleep in terms of I ll see you in the morning sleep. This was a sleep that you would call a sleep of death, where Stephen would sleep in his grave until Jesus comes and wakes him up in the Resurrection. The Bible says things like this: I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep. What does the Bible mean when it says that? It certainly doesn t mean a person lived and died and went to Heaven. How can you be sleeping when you are in Heaven? And somebody is going to say, But the body is sleeping but the spirit is in Heaven Do you know what the Word of God teaches? The Word of God teaches that a person is a combination of body plus breath. You go back to Genesis 2. God made the body of Adam, and then He breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the Bible says Adam became a living soul. The Word of God does not say God gave Adam a soul, which then would depart his body when he died. Instead, the Bible says Adam, like everybody else from Adam down to today, with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, who were taken straight to Heaven, everybody else lives and dies and sleeps a dreamless sleep sleeping in the grave or wherever the final resting place might be, waiting for the Resurrection. Have you ever wondered why there would even be a Resurrection if people, when they die, go to Heaven or hell or purgatory or some other place? I remember as a child, wrestling with that. Standing at the graveside while someone is being buried, we ll hear someone say, Now we commit this person s body to grave where it waits for the Resurrection But back in the church, that same person celebrating the funeral service had said Now we can all be glad because Mr. or Mrs. So-and-So, Brother or Sister So-and-So is in Heaven. How can they be in Heaven and in the grave at exactly the same time? The Bible says that a person lives, dies and sleeps a dreamless, peaceful sleep waiting for the Resurrection. That s the only interpretation of what happens in death that can possibly make sense. If people go to Heaven or go to hell when they die, or that makes communication with the dead possible, that breathes life into Halloween celebration because someone could then say, Well, maybe that s kind of what happens. But no. God has got a better plan. His people live. They die in faith in Christ. They sleep the sleep of death and wake up in the Resurrection when Jesus comes back to take them home.

6 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 6 In recent years, the idea of communicating with the dead has gotten a big boost through the resurgence of mediums. We ll talk about them in just a moment. The subject of death and life after death really seems to have gone mainstream in the last few years. The media, and I am referring to books, movies and television, have really strongly promoted the idea that spirits from the other side can come back and communicate with the living. And something else that has gone strongly mainstream in the last few years is the popularity of mediums people who claim to be able to put the living in touch with the dead. What a comforting thought. A grieving, lonely spouse might be able to receive a visit from a departed spouse. Maybe surviving children could receive communications from their departed parents, or living parents might be able to receive visits from their dead children. It s easy to see how that thought might be comforting to some. I was watching a popular television program a few years ago in which a well-known medium offered to put somebody in contact with her departed sister. This somebody was Denise Brown and her departed sister was Nicole Brown Simpson, who had been the wife of O.J. Simpson, and who had been tragically murdered a few years before. The crowd watched on with real interest as the medium started to, in just a short amount of time, bring messages purportedly from Denise s dead sister. Denise was very impressed. She said that the medium was bringing back messages that could only have come from Nicole. Some of the details were very personal, known only to Nicole and Denise. But how could that be when the Bible says that the dead do not communicate with the living? As a matter of fact, the prophet Isaiah stated strongly that God is against people communicating with the dead. He said that God was against people going to those that have familiar spirits. That would be going to people who are mediums. Again and again, Denise said, Well, what I m hearing could only come from Nicole. She is the only one who could have known that. The crowd looked as though they wanted to know more and more. And I am referring to the studio audience. Were they ever impressed. That must be Nicole, Denise said. Only she knows that. Well, what I couldn t figure is that if she was really Nicole, how come Nicole couldn t tell Denise whether O.J. was the real killer or not? So, let s ask the question: If communicating with the dead is something that God does not sanction, can this communication really have come from God? If God has outlawed human beings speaking with the dead via the instrument of a spirit medium, could this really have been something that came with God s blessing?

7 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 7 I ve read where one spirit medium said, My work is very powerful. It is God s work. Now, if you re not familiar with what the Bible says about this subject, you might think it is God s work. But if you are familiar with what the Bible says, you might have to come to a different conclusion. And what conclusion might that be? I think we need to admit that the devil is more than capable of communicating with the minds of people and of pressing them with certain thoughts and certain ideas. One of the movies I mentioned earlier in today s program had a promotional line that said, Some lines shouldn t be crossed. And that s very good advice. Some lines shouldn t be crossed. While vampires, werewolves and zombies aren t true, aren t real and are simply the product overactive imaginations, do you think it s safe or right that we should treat them like harmless playthings? If people don t really come back from the dead, if people don t really communicate with the other side, if that s not good, if that s not right, if that doesn t have God s blessing, is that the sort of thing we want to make our entertainment? Is it really appropriate that people ought to be reading books, and watching movies and television programs that deal with those themes and treat those untrue, unbiblical ideas as though they are accurate and right? Is that the sort of thing we want to bring into our minds? It s hard to imagine that it would be appropriate or healthy. It s hard to imagine that it would be harmless. And it s pretty easy to imagine that it might be harmful. It s pretty hard to imagine that vampires are God s gift to the literary world, and not so hard to imagine that they might have sprung from some other place. Now look, I m not suggesting that if somebody were to read one of the Twilight books, they are going to turn into the devil. That s not what I am suggesting at all. I know that people want to be entertained, and I know that people want to have fun, but what the Bible is suggesting is that it is not harmless for us to entertain ideas that are directly opposed to the truths of God s Word. It isn t safe for us to get away from the platform, the strong foundation of the Bible, and then go and live our lives entertaining ideas and feeding our minds with ideas that don t come from God but instead come from the enemy and wander onto ground that God does not bless. You see, there s One who conquered death, and His name is Jesus. If we are going to be celebrating anybody at all coming up out of the grave, we ought to be rejoicing today that Jesus has triumphed over the grave. He has come out of the grave and today He is not dead, but alive!

8 It Is Written Script: 1223 The Allure of Death Page 8 Anything else that you might be celebrating regarding somebody coming back from the dead is a deception and a counterfeit. The Bible teaches that death and the grave will one day be cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:4 says this: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. When Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago, He died to pay the penalty for your sins and mine. Jesus died after having lived a perfect life. He died and then said to us: If you will accept me in your life, if you will trust me, then my death will stand in the place of your death and I will give you as a gift the everlasting life not that you deserved, but that I deserved. I will give it to you as a gift so that you can live with me forever. That s a gift God wants you to accept. You can have it today. The demons, the zombies, the vampires, the ghosts, and the goblins are all distractions designed very purposefully to lead us away from the wonderful truths of the Bible. Yes, somebody came out of the grave. Jesus. He went to Heaven where He was at the right hand of the Father, interceding for people like you and me. And one day He is coming back. He is coming back for you. He wants to take you with Him to be with Him forever. By choosing Jesus today, you re saying Count me in. I d like to trust in you. I thank you Jesus, that you are the resurrection and the life. Let s pray together. PRAYER: Father in Heaven, we thank you today for the truth that Jesus has triumphed over death, that Jesus has conquered the grave and that one day there will be no more death. We will be able to live in a place where there is life and only life forever. Lord, by your grace thank you that we can be part of that, and we pray in Jesus name, Amen. It Is Written Box O Thousand Oaks, CA USA Tel: (805) Fax: (805)