Death - Carpenter Flock teaching notes 14.9.28 AM

 Death
I.We teach the bodily resurrection of all men. (John 5:29)  
     A. The saved to eternal life and
     B. The unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.
     C. There is no “second chance” to accept Christ after death. (Hebrews 9.27)
     Some force 1 Peter 3:19 and/or 4:6 but both difficult to interpret and there are good alternative interpretations.
II.We teach that
     A. Physical death involves no loss of our immaterial consciousness. (Revelation 6:9-11)
     B. At death, the spirit is separated from the body, and
          1. The spirits of the redeemed.
                a) Immediately depart to be with Christ in conscious joy and delight. (2 Corinthians 5:8;  Philippians 1:21-24)
                b)At the second coming of Christ.
                    (1)  Their bodies shall be raised.
                    (2) The spirits of the redeemed will be reunited to their bodies.
                    (3) Their bodies will be transformed into the likeness of the body of His glory at the first resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 15:35-44, 50-54)
                    (4) They will remain thus in joyful fellowship with our Lord forever. (2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
         2. The spirits of all those who persistently reject Jesus Christ in the present life.
                a) They will be kept under conscious punishment until their resurrection. (Luke 16:19-26; Revelation 20:13-15)  The use of names and specific people indicates that Luke 16:19-26 is not just a parable.
                b) At the resurrection
                    (1) Their spirits and bodies are reunited at the resurrection.
                    (2) They will appear in this state at the Great White Throne Judgment. (Revelation 20:11-15)
                    (3) They will be cast into the lake of fire. (Matthew 25:41-46)
                          (a) To be cut off from the presence of God.
                          (b) To be punished in a state of conscious, unutterable, endless torment and anguish throughout eternity. (Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:41-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) 


THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION:
1.  What hope does the Bible give for believers who die?
2. What hope does Genesis 18:25 give us for the tough cases we are uncertain about?
3. In what ways can we show empathy to someone who loses a loved one that gave no evidence of being a believer?
4. What are some things we should not say to someone had a loved one die?


C.A.R.M. - Do people have a second chance to be saved after they die?  by Matt Slick
No, people do not get a second chance after death in order to be saved.  The Bible tells us in Heb. 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”
There is no place in Scripture that tells us about anyone receiving a second opportunity to receive Christ after he dies. Unfortunately, this is how it will be for countless people.  When they die, they face judgment. This is why the Bible says that now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).
http://carm.org/questions/about-people/do-people-have-second-chance-be-saved-after-they-die
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GOTQUESTIONS.COM - Question: "Will there be a second chance for salvation after death?"
Answer: While the idea of a second chance for salvation is appealing, the Bible is clear that death is the end of all chances. Hebrews 9:27 tells us that we die, and then face judgment. So, as long as a person is alive, he has a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. chance to accept Christ and be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10; Acts 16:31). Once a person dies, there are no more chances. The idea of purgatory, a place where people go after death to pay for their sins, has no biblical basis, but is rather a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.
To understand what happens to nonbelievers after they die, we go to Revelation 20:11-15 which describes the Great White Throne judgment. Here takes place the opening of the books and “the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” The books contain all the thoughts and deeds of those being judged, and we know from Romans 3:20 that “by the works of the Law is no flesh justified.” Therefore, all who are judged by their works and thoughts are condemned to hell. Believers in Christ, on the other hand, are not judged by the books of works, but their names are found written in another book—the “Lamb’s Book of Life” (Revelation 21:27). These are the ones who have believed on the Lord Jesus, and they alone will be allowed to enter heaven.
The key to understanding this is the Lamb’s Book of Life. Anyone whose name is written in this book was “saved before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4) by God’s sovereign saving grace to be part of His Son’s bride, the church of Jesus Christ. These people need no “second chance” at salvation because their salvation has been secured by Christ. He chose us, He saved us, and He will keep us saved. Nothing can separate us from Christ (Romans 8:39). Those for whom He died will be saved because Jesus will see to it. He declared “all that the Father has given me will come to me” (John 6:37), and “I give to them eternal life, and they shall never ever perish, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28). For believers, there is no need for a second chance because the first chance is sufficient.
What about those who do not believe? Wouldn’t they repent and believe if they were given a second chance? The answer is no, they would not because their hearts are not changed simply because they die. Their hearts and minds “are at enmity” against God and won’t accept Him even when they see Him face to face. This is evidenced clearly in the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. If ever someone should have repented when given a second chance to see clearly the truth, it was the rich man. But although he was in torment in hell, he only asked that Abraham send Lazarus back to earth to warn his brothers so they didn’t have to suffer the same fate. There was no repentance in his heart, only regret for where he found himself. Abraham’s answer says it all: “And he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded, even though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Here we see that the witness of the Scriptures is sufficient for salvation for those who believe it, and no other revelation will bring about salvation to those who do not. No second, third or fourth chances would be enough to turn the heart of stone into a heart of flesh.
Philippians 2:10-11 declares “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” One day, everyone will bow before Jesus and recognize that He is the Lord and Savior. At that point, though, it is too late for salvation. After death, all that remains for the unbeliever is judgment (Revelation 20:14-15). That is why we must trust in Him in this life.
http://www.gotquestions.org/second-chance-salvation.html#ixzz3EXuOsm8t
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http://www.toughquestionsanswered.org/2009/05/31/can-a-person-be-saved-after-he-dies/

11 - 1 Timothy 6:11-21 - Lessons for Leaders

Lesson 11                                       “The Good Confession”                        1 Timothy 6:11-21

ID: Inductive Questions (Asking the text questions like who, what, where, when, why, & how?”)

CR: Cross References (Comparing Scripture to Scripture, understanding the vague by the clear.)

WS: Word Study (Understanding definition, theological meaning, and usages in other passages.)

The WORD: What does the Bible say?

Context: Read 1 Timothy 6:1-21 and the account of Christ’s confession before Pilate in John 18:36-37 to help understand the context.  Then read 1 Timothy 6:11-21 in a more literal or more dynamic translation than you usually use.  What does “these things” refer to?

1.     ID/WS:  (6:11-12a)  What do each of this first set of commands teach us about the Christian life?

2.   ID/CR:  (6:13)  What was Christ’s “good confession” before Pilate?  How does it relate here? (John 18:29-38)

3.     ID: (6:12b-14) What do these verses teach about eternal life?  About witnessing a good confession?  How do they relate to the exhortation to lay hold on eternal life?

4.     ID:  (6:14-15a)  What is “our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing?”  When will it be manifest?

5.     ID:  (6:15b-16) How does this doxology especially relate to the surrounding verses?

6.     ID:  (6:17-18) What commands were given to the rich?  What reasons were given for them? (How are you doing with them?)

7.     ID: (6:20-21) What was committed to Timothy’s trust?  What was he to avoid?  Why?

The WALK: What should I do?

1.     Verse seventeen speaks of being rich in “this age.”  What does it mean to be rich in the “time to come?”  How do you do that?

2.     How should Christ’s appearing motivate believers?  What are some practical ways we can be more mindful of Christ’s return?

3.     Do you consider yourself to be rich?  Why or why not?  How does your income compare to others in the world? In the US?  Why does wealth tend to make us haughty, self-confident, and selfish?

4.     What are some clues that we are trusting our riches (I.e. paychecks, retirement accounts, etc.)

5.     CSBI: What effect could the argument that truly human authors cannot help but error have on the doctrine of Christ’s sinless humanity?  What effect would it have on the Bible’s reliability?

Going Beyond: 1. What areas of theology are touched on in this passage?

   The Bible (Bibliology)     God (Theology Proper)     The Father (Paterology)     The Lord Jesus Christ (Christology)     The Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)     Man (Anthropology)      Salvation (Soteriology)     The Church (Ecclesiology)     Angels & Satan (Angelology)      Future Things (eschatology)

Explaining Inerrancy: A Commentary on the

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1980) by R.C. Sproul

THE WORD OF GOD AND INERRANCY

Articles IX through XII deal with the matter of greatest present concern: inerrancy.  They seek to define terms and answer the chief questions that have been raised:  If the Bible has come to us through human authors, which the earlier articles acknowledge, and if it is natural for human beings to err, which all confess, isn’t the Bible necessarily errant?  Doesn’t it cease to be authentically human if it does not have errors?  Again, if inerrancy applies properly only to the original manuscript, called autographs, and if we do not possess these, as we do not, isn’t the argument for inerrancy meaningless?  Or doesn’t it stand only by appealing to documents that do not exist and whose inerrant state cannot be verified?  Why can’t inerrancy be applied to those parts of the Bible that deal with salvation and not to those parts that deal with history, science and other “unimportant” and “non-essential” matters?

ARTICLE IX: INERRANCY

We affirm that inspiration, though not conferring omniscience, guaranteed true and trustworthy utterance on all matters of which the biblical authors were moved to speak and write.

We deny that the finitude or fallenness of these writers, by necessity or otherwise, introduced distortion or falsehood into God’s Word.

The affirmation of Article IX indicates that inspiration guarantees that the writings of Scripture are true and trustworthy.  That is, they are not false, deceptive, or fraudulent in what they communicate.  As we dealt with the problem of the limitations of human language in Article IV, so we face now the difficulty of the speaking of truth by creatures who are not omniscient.  It is one thing for God to confer infallibility to the writings and quite another to confer omniscience to the writers.  Omniscience and infallibility must be carefully distinguished.  Although in God they are cojoined, for man it is different.  Omniscience refers to the scope of one’s knowledge and infallibility, not to the reliability of his pronouncements.  One who knows better can make a false statement if his intentions are to deceive.  And, vice versa, a person with limited knowledge can make infallible statements if they can be guaranteed to be completely reliable.  Thus we say that though the biblical writings are inspired, this does not imply thereby that the writers knew everything there was to be known or that they were infallible of themselves.  The knowledge that they communicate is not comprehensive, but it is true and trustworthy as far as it goes.

The denial of Article IX has to do with man’s propensity as a finite and fallen creature to introduce distortion or falsehood into God’s Word.  This was covered from another angle in Article IV.  But what is in view here is the recurring charge that verbal inspiration or a confession of the inerrancy of Scripture carries with it a docetic view of Scripture. Docetism applies to a particular distortion of the biblical view of Jesus.  In the earliest days of the Christian church there were those, usually associated with the school of gnosticism, who believed that not really have a human nature or a human body.  They argued that he only seemed or appeared to have a human body.  This heresy was called docetism from the Greek word dokeo which means to seem, to think or to appear.  Those who denied the reality of the incarnation and maintained that Jesus had but a phantom body were accused of this heresy.  In a more refined and sophisticated sense docetism has come to apply to any failure to take seriously the real limitations of the human nature of Jesus.  The charge of biblical docetism has been leveled against advocates of inerrancy, most notably by Karl Barth.  He accuses us of holding a view of inspiration in which the true humanity of the biblical writers is canceled out by the intrusion of the divine characteristics of infallibility.  For Barth it is fundamental to our humanity that we are liable to error. If the classic statement is errare est humanum, to err is human, we reply that though it is true that a common characteristic of mankind is to err, it does not follow that men always err or that error is necessary for humanity.  If such were to be the case, then it would be necessary for us to assert that Adam, before he fell, had to err or that he was not human.  And we must also assert that in heaven, in a state of glorification and perfected sanctification, we must continue to err if we are to continue to be human.  Not only must we ascribe such error to Adam before the fall and to glorified Christians, we would also have to apply it to the incarnate Christ.  Error would be intrinsic to his humanity, and it would have been necessary for Jesus to distort the truth in order to be fully human.  Let us never engage in such blasphemy even though we confess the depth to which we have fallen and the high degree of the propensity that we do have to err.  Even apart from inspiration, it is not necessary for a human being to err in order to be human. So if it is possible for an uninspired person to speak the truth without error, how much more will it be the case for one who is under the influence of inspiration?

Finitude implies a necessary limitation of knowledge but not necessarily a distortion of knowledge. The trustworthy character of the biblical text should not be denied on the ground of man’s finitude

Leader Notes:

WORD:   

1.  Another thing to think about here is how these particular commands are opposites of the love of money.

2.   Take time to look at the passage in Gospels.  Help your men make the connection between principles articulated in Christ’s confession and this 1 Timothy passage.

3.  Do you notice the way the work of God and response of man work together?

4.  It seems we tend to over look Christ’s return more than we should.  Use this questions to promote and eagerness for Christ to return and desire to “be ready.”  (1 John 3:2)

5. If you have time, take a few minutes for the men to pray and praise God for these.

6. We should probably be a little uncomfortable discussing this question.  I have a theory that our culture is soooo materialistic that most of us are blind (to some extent) to our short comings in this area.

WALK: 

These questions aim at two themes.  1. Are you looking and preparing for Christ’s appearing?  2. Why did God give us so much money and what is it doing to our hearts?

10 - 1 Timothy 6:1-10 - Lessons for Leaders

Lesson 10                                         “Masters and Money”                          1 Timothy 6:1-10

ID: Inductive Questions (Asking the text questions like who, what, where, when, why, & how?”)

CR: Cross References (Comparing Scripture to Scripture, understanding the vague by the clear.)

WS: Word Study (Understanding definition, theological meaning, and usages in other passages.)

The WORD: What does the Bible say?

Context: Read 1 Timothy 5:19-6:16 to understand the context.  This passage alludes to Job 1:21.  Read Job 1:18-22 so you will be familiar with its Old Testament context. Then read 1 Timothy 6:1-10 in a more literal or more dynamic translation than you usually use.

1.     ID: (6:1) What does it mean for bondservants to count their masters worthy of all honor?  Why are they told to do that?

2.     ID: (6:2) How should it change a bondservant’s attitude when his master is a believer?

3.   ID: (6:3-5) How does Paul characterize the teaching of those who believe that godliness (eusebeia) is a means to gain (porismos)? 

4.     ID/CR: (6:6-8) How does Job’s confession reinforce the truth that godliness with contentment (autarkeia) is a great gain?

5.     CR: (6:9) What often happens to those who desire to be rich (plouteō)?

6.     ID: (6:10) What cautions are given about the love (philargyria) of money?

The WALK: What should I do?

1.    We might have expected Paul to say, “Especially honor masters who are unbelievers so that you can win them to the Lord.”  Why do you think that he said the opposite?  Does that change the way you think about how we relate to believers and unbelievers?

2.    Paul tells Timothy to “teach these things.”  What resources have you found helpful teaching about a Biblical perspective on employment and money?  Put together a brief sketch of how you would teach from 1 Timothy 6 on this topic (for your children/grandchildren or a group of your peers). 

3.     What is the difference between teaching godliness is a means to godliness and Proverbs 10:22?

4.    Verse eight says that we should be content with adequate food and clothing.  What struggles would you have being content with so little?

5.   CSBI: How do you think Paul’s personality and background impacted the style and content of the pastoral epistles?  How has God used your individual traits and background in your ministry and witness?

Going Beyond: 1. 1 Timothy 6:6-10 are classic verses on contentment.  Pick one or more of them to memorize.

2. What areas of theology are touched on in this passage?

The Bible (Bibliology)  
God (Theology Proper)  
The Father (Paterology)  
The Lord Jesus Christ (Christology) 
The Holy Spirit (Pneumatology)  
Man (Anthropology)   
Salvation (Soteriology)
The Church (Ecclesiology) 
Angels & Satan (Angelology)
Future Things (eschatology)

Explaining Inerrancy: A Commentary on the

Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1980) by R.C. Sproul

THE WORD OF GOD AND INSPIRATION

Inspiration is the way in which God gave his Word to us through human authors, but how he did is a matter not fully understood.  In this section of the Articles of Affirmation and Denial the framers of the document explicitly deny understanding the mode of inspiration.  But they affirm, as Scripture itself also does (2 Tim. 3:16), that the Bible is the product of divine inspiration and that this work extended through the human writers to each section and even each word of the original documents.  The process of inspiration did not make the biblical writers automatons, for their books reveal differences of vocabulary, style and other matters of variation by human author and another.  But inspiration did overcome any tendency they may have had to error, with the result that the words they wrote were precisely what God, the divine author, intended us to have.

ARTICLE VIII: HUMAN AUTHORS

We affirm that God in His work of inspiration utilized the distinctive personalities and literary styles of the writers whom He had chosen and prepared.

We deny that God, in causing these writers to use the very words that He chose, overrode their personalities.

Article VIII reiterates that God’s work of inspiration does not cancel out the humanity of the human writers he uses to accomplish his purpose.  The writers of Scripture were chosen and prepared by God for their sacred task.  However, whatever the process of inspiration may have been, it does not include the canceling of the personality of the writers as they wrote.  Though the word is not used in the article, what is clearly in view is a denial of any kind of mechanistic or mechanical inspiration.  Mechanical inspiration would reduce the human authors to the level of automatons, robot-like machines.  An analysis of Scripture makes clear that the distinctive personalities and writing styles vary from one human writer to another.  The style, for example, of St. Luke is obviously different from that of Matthew.  The literary structures found in the writing of Daniel differ greatly from those found, for example, in the writing of James.  Men of Hebrew origin tended to write in Hebraic styles, and those of the Greek cultural background tended to write in a Greek style.  However, through divine inspiration God made it possible for his truth to be communicated in an inspired way making use of the backgrounds, personalities and literary styles of these various writers. The human writers were not machines and ought not to be conceived of as being without personality.  What is overcome or overridden by inspiration is not human personality, style or literary structure, but human tendencies to distortion, falsehood and error.

Leader Notes:

WORD:  

1-2.  This is an important reminder about our attitudes toward those in authority at work.  It is also interesting to note that while slavery was often different than what occurred in this country, there is no reason to assume the masters were always kind and progressive in their thinking.

3. Note that this passage does not teach about a reward for or gain from being godly and content.  Those ARE the rewards.  You may want to let the men think about how/why those two traits go together so well.

5-6.  We need to avoid all this being about somebody else.

WALK: 

1.  This explores two themes.  1) Let’s get away from a shallow mercenary motivation of being good just or primarily to entice others to get saved.  2) How is honoring masters central to the Gospel and Christ’s example?

2. Give each of the men 2-3 minutes (timed) to explain their outline and approach to teaching a lesson from this chapter.  It will be helpful to think about how they would put a lesson together and get good ideas from the other men.

4.  If this question does not make anybody a little uncomfortable, we may have missed the point.