Pastor Augie’s Blog

Question: The question was recently posed to me: “How soon after death can someone be cremated?  How much time is necessary for any spiritual processes to take place?”  This is an interesting question because it allowed me to share some of our basic understanding concerning our humanity and what happens when we die.  I will share my brief response below.  

Answer: The ‘short’ answer to your question is that the body can be cremated immediately after death is confirmed.  For a little more discussion, however …  Our understanding of humanity is that we’re three-part beings. (Though some will say two, but that’s a bit of semantics on how one distinguishes soul and spirit).  We say that we’re body, soul and spirit.  The body is physical.  Modern (Western) science tries to claim that our life is just a result of chemical processes, neurons, synapses, and impulses.  But, as I’m sure you’d readily agree, that doesn’t begin to explain the full realm and breadth of experiences that people have – near death, after death, life itself: love, sadness, memories, etc. etc.  And that doesn’t agree with the Bible which tells us that God created Adam out of the dust of the earth (physical) but then breathed LIFE into him (spirit).  Interestingly, both the Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament) and Greek (the language of the New Testament) words for “spirit” actually are the same word for “breath” & “wind!”  So we have bodies, but we have the breath of God – Life – in us.  Then there’s the third part – our immortal soul.  This soul is our ‘personhood’ our ‘being’ if you will.  This soul, we believe lives on even after the body has expired.  In fact, on the last day, when Jesus returns, our souls will be reunited with our bodies and we will live forever.  … the part of the Bible that people don’t like to hear, though, is that some will live forever at peace with God, and some will live forever separated from Him.  This relationship that we enjoy with God at the end of our life and the end of days is determined by the relationship we established during our life on earth.  In other words, some have said: at death people get the God of their choosing.  If they want God, they get Him.  If they don’t want God and refused to believe in Him and acknowledge His one and only Son – they have eternity without Him.

So back to the question… Cremation only affects the body.  It can harm neither the soul or spirit.  On the day when Jesus returns, the Bible tells us that God will raise our bodies from wherever they are.  How can he do this?  Well – I can’t explain how he created the universe, or made man in the first place, so I don’t begin to understand how he can resurrect the dead.  I just know that Jesus demonstrated this power both in himself and in others.  He’s the only person/being to ever have lived that commanded life and death.   And so in short, this is our faith and this is our hope. 

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This graphic helps you understand in your mind what Christians believe teach and confess about the Trinity as the Bible reveals it.  You read the picture above like this:  “The Father Is God.” “The Son Is God.” “The Holy Spirit Is God.”  BUT  “The Father Is Not The Son And Is Not The Holy Spirit.”  “The Holy Spirit Is Not The Father And Is Not The Son” “The Son Is Not The Father And Is Not The Holy Spirit.”  Here you have the relationship depicted that the three Persons of the Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit, are unique and distinct, but all three are God… not three gods, but one God.

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Opens in theaters on January 22, 2010.

Click here to find a theater: http://tosavealifemovie.com/tickets/

Click here to watch the trailer: http://tosavealifemovie.com/

We saw a sneak preview of the movie. It’s good for teens and parents (even parents of younger kids - they’ll be teens some day). It deals with a lot of life issues, but does so in a positive Christian way.

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Question: Reading Romans 8:9, should a Christian be worried about whether they have the Holy Spirit in them?

Short Answer:  No. A person who has a repentant faith (in Christ!) and has been baptized is promised in Scripture to have the Holy Spirit in them: “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

Longer Answer:  Romans 8:9 can cause people to doubt their salvation because of that tiny little word, “if.”  However, as you can see below, the Greek language sheds some light on this little word.  (Greek is the language in which the original manuscripts of the New Testament were written.) Furthermore, a careful reader of Scripture must always remember to let the clear passages of Scripture interpret less-clear ones.  So in the case of a conditional word like “if” we use the rest of Scripture to help us answer the question. Let’s look more closely at these two points:

• In English we have different words for “if” & “since.” They convey quite different meanings depending on how they are used.  In Greek, there is a word/particle “ei” … it can be combined with other particles and get slight nuances, but it’s mainly used simply as “ei” … and most commonly translated in English as “if” – but it can just as well be translated as “since.”  Here’s what the Greek dictionary (Friberg Lexicon) says:

a.  eiv conj subord, from eiv  if; whether;  that; if only, surely; since; ei; tij, ei; ti  who(ever), what(ever); ei;per since, if it  is true that ei;ge if indeed (red, italics, underline – my emphasis.)

b.      in the form “ei,” “since” is an allowable translation, but not the most common use.  However, in the form “ei-per,” “since” is the most common use! (see red words in letter-a above)

c.       Note that in Romans 8:9, the first use of the word “if” is in the “ei-per” form!… So Paul is really starting out by saying “SINCE Christ is in you…” So then all of the other “if’s,” though written simply as “ei,” are best thought of with the meaning “since” because of what Paul says before the rest.  In verse 9, therefore, he establishes the certainty of the discussion.  (Consider if the NIV translated that “ei-per” in verse 9 as “SINCE.”  It would read: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, SINCE the Spirit of God lives in you.”) doesn’t that even sound better?  Some translations will say “If in fact,” or “if indeed” to show that a simple translation of “if” is not sufficient.  What I’ve written here show the allowable translation of the Greek word “ei-per” as “since” where the word “ei-per” occurs within the verse.

d.      Think of it… you’re talking to a child and you say, “Don’t be afraid!”  “If you believe in God, then you know there’s nothing to worry about!” You aren’t calling into question whether that child believes in God!  You’re not saying, “you might not believe in God, but just in case you do…” No. You’re simply acknowledging that there’s a choice in behaviors, and one way demonstrates their faith.  In this case, isn’t what you’re really saying to the child: “SINCE you believe in God, then you know there’s nothing to worry about?”

• And in case the above explanation doesn’t help and/or confuses you.  Or you just find yourself more comfortable letting “if” be “if” and Romans 8:9 remaining uncertain… then let SCRIPTURE INTERPRET SCRIPTURE, and let the Word of God resolve for you whether or not you, the believer, is safe in answering all of the “If’s” in Romans 8 in the affirmative (because certainly “if” is not required to mean “NO,” right?) … Look at the clear word of God in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;”  In this Scripture the same Paul who wrote Romans makes it clear that the Holy Spirit IS in you (my emphasis).  The believer need not read anything in Romans, or any other Scripture, and wonder whether the Holy Spirit is in them! 

It’s simply a tool of the devil to call into question many things: whether a believer really has faith, rather God is good, whether lost sinners are forgiven and saved, whether Christ’s work is sufficient, etc.  And to that list, we can add the Satanic doubt that is placed in the mind of the believer when reading all the comfort and exhortation in Romans 8 (and others) to question whether the Holy Spirit has really been given and dwells in the believer.   Let us not doubt what God’s Word has made certain.

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I’m certainly not opposed to prosecuting someone who assaults another human being.  Why do cases of race and sexual orientation need to be considered as special subsets?  Assault is assault.  I *do* have a problem when the lawyers (and they WILL) try to blame someone other than the perpetrator for the crime.

The president of the LCMS (Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod) has issued a statement concerning this recent legislation.  It’s brief.  You can read it here: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=15941

In that article, he makes the point that it’s possible that based on this legislation that pastors could be prosecuted for teaching what the Bible teaches concerning sexual behavior outside of one man-one woman marriage.  It remains to be seen, just how strictly this hate crimes legislation will be implemented.  Let’s hope that our freedoms of speech and religion are protected.

One closing thought:  What if a pastor preaches that stealing is wrong and some “confused” parishioner beats up a person he believes is a thief?  Should the pastor be prosecuted?  Think about it…

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Rachelle and I went to Thailand at the end of July with the Pastoral Leadership Institute.  This was the culmination of our four year learning experience.  We and three other couples from our “collegial group” (collegial groups are made up of 5 to 7 pastors and their wives who stay together during the PLI program.) went to Thailand to experience a variety of ministry settings and to assist as we were able.  We were in Thailand for about 10 days.  We visited Bangkok and Chiang Mai.  We saw the offices of Lutheran Hour Ministries, Concordia Gospel Ministry Center, the LISA training center for pastors, Phong Phet Church, Concordia Day Care, Bang Na Daycare, Mae Rim Student Center, some Hmong Villages and then several tourist attractions at the end of our mission trip.

You can see pictures from our trip by clicking here:

Thailand General

You can hear the audio of the message I preached following our trip clicking here.  (I used a different slide show during the sermon, but many, if not all, of the pictures are in this larger slide show posted on this blog).

or view the same pictures in slide show below:

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You have likely heard in the news that “Lutherans” have embraced homosexuality.  Or as this one popular Christian / Conservative news source puts it: “Evangelical Lutherans abandon Bible teaching on homosexuality.”

And you may have thought to yourself… “Wait!  I thought *I* was Lutheran?”  Does that include me and my church?

Make no mistake.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is an entirely different church body from the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (www.LCMS.org) of which I and Saving Grace Lutheran Church in Queen Creek, AZ (www.SavingGraceLC.org) are members.

The ELCA’s teaching on homosexuality, among other doctrines, are what separate us theologically.  We at Saving Grace affirm the Biblical teaching against homosexuality.  Simply because two practicing homosexuals are monogamous in their relationship does not negate the Biblical prohibition against this form of adultery.

I suggest that you read our church body president Jerry Kieschnick’s response to the ELCA’s church wide assembly: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=15618.  This address was made and posted today, 8/22.  President Kieschnick is to be commended for making such a clear and direct statement, in such a swift fashion.  I might also add that his in person presence at their assembly is a wonderful example of Matthew 18’s model for conflict resolution at work.  He went to the source directly and expressed the matter directly with those involved.  He didn’t hide behind ink & pen (or keystrokes and internet).

Please join me now in praying for our brothers and sisters of the ELCA who are being shaken by this decision, and also for the negative public witness this brings to the authoritative Word of God.  Lord Have Mercy.

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I recently completed a five week series at Saving Grace called “CSI: Examining the Evidence for Creation”  You can listen to those sermons and download the handouts by visiting our sermon audio page here: http://www.savinggracelc.org/resources/sermons/current.html

What I hope to do in the next few blog posts is to summarize briefly some of the key points from those messages.  To do that, I am going to present the material in an order & organization completely different than the sermon series.  I hope this is helpful.

The first point I hope to make is that Both Darwinism (Evolution) and Creation are religious beliefs or worldviews.  Though we are regularly told that evolution is science and completely proven fact, what we discovered as we studied over the weeks is that it is anything but.  In fact, according to the scientific method, real science is:

1. observable
2. measurable
3. repeatable

Yet Darwinian evolution seeks to answer questions of origin and history.  It seeks to postulate about things which can no more be observed, measured or repeated than a 6-day creation or a global flood (see the first nine chapters of Genesis).  This makes me wonder whether this so called “science” of evolution is science at all, or whether it is more appropriately categorized as philosophy or religion.

In addition, consider this:  The a priori (preconceived) assumption of virtually every evolutionist is that there MUST be no God and that EVERYTHING must be able to be explained by materialistic arguments.  This is what’s called a “materialistic worldview.”  And it is dangerous to real science which should not allow wordviews, philosophies or religions to bias its observations or results.

Here’s the kind of bias I am talking about.  If two paleontologists come across a fossil buried among sedimentary layers of rock.  One scientist may postulate that the fossil is millions of years older than another fossil because of the layers in which they were found.  The other scientist, however, may disagree and say that in fact this fossil is approximately the same age as another fossil found several layers above it because, he postulates, the fossils were buried rapidly in a global flood.  Both scientists are looking at the same data, but the second scientist’s hypothesis won’t even be considered because his explanation involves something suggested in the Bible.  My question is, why aren’t the first scientist’s hypotheses considered “religious” in nature?  He (or she) is asserting an UNPROVABLE worldview/philosophy as the basis for his assumptions.  Yet in our mixed up world, the second scientist’s analysis won’t even be considered, even though it fits the data BETTER (very often, 6-day special creation and global flood explanations fit the data better than “uniformitarian” analyses) than that of his secular counterpart.  And all this is done citing the claim that the one analysis is “religious” and the other “scientific.”  Nonsense!  A materialistic worldview/philosophy is still a philosophy/religion and not science. Period.

One more thought on this… how “religious” do these assumptions of evolutionary scientists sound?

1. “given ENOUGH TIME anything can happen!”
2. “the processes we observe today were always the same throughout time.”

Who says?  To pound one’s fist on the table and assert the two statements above is scientific and not religious??  Why? Where’s their proof?  They don’t have any.  In fact the evidence suggests otherwise, but they won’t consider it because they have already made up their minds.

I will say it again, evolutionary scientists are not un-biased, and they are not non-religious.  They put forth their unsubstantiated arguments with all the same zeal as any religious adherent.

The Bible tells us in Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

I would say that evolutionary science fits this description entirely.  It’s NOT science.  It is a hollow and deceptive PHILOSOPHY which has pervaded our laboratories and classrooms, and we, as Christians, are warned against it.

I look forward to sharing with you next time many of the frauds and fakes that evolutionary science has put forth over the years.

Blessings!
PA

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Pastor and Author Chuck Swindoll writes a number of Lesson’s Learned over a lifetime of experiences.  He writes from the perspective of a pastor, but it’s good stuff for everybody. (Click the links below)

Part 1   Part 2

May your life be blessed with wisdom and marked by peace.

- PA

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Evidence.  What comes to your mind when I say that word?  Do you think of a crime scene - maybe a suspected murder or arson?  The detectives sift through the evidence and find what’s pertinent and provides clues in their investigation.  Or maybe you think in terms of history and archeology? Researchers examine the evidence of civilizations gone by and are able to determine in what kind of houses they lived, what implements they used for work and what food they ate.

Just this morning at the church office, I saw some evidence.  Our twelve acres of farmland, that will soon be transformed into a church campus, is currently occupied by a number of gophers.  Now I love all of God’s creatures, but these gophers really gotta “GO” … I mean it’s in their name after all: “GO-phers!”  When I look out all around the property I see literally dozens if not hundreds of gopher mounds.  Now, I have never actually SEEN a gopher hopping around the property, but I sure have seen the EVIDENCE of gophers!  I know their marks well.  And I can see that they are alive and well at 24414 S Ellsworth Rd in Queen Creek, AZ!

And that got me thinking about God.  You and I have likely never SEEN God with our eyes, but we see the EVIDENCE of God all around!  The sun, moon and stars are evidence of His handiwork - and wow! do they ever sing His glory!  The birds, grass and flowers likewise give testimony to a powerful and amazing creator.  Likewise, people - humans who are able to love and give and serve … show us evidence of the nature of our loving and gracious creator!

On Sunday, we will begin a 5 week sermon series that will take an even closer look at some of the EVIDENCE of our creator God that is all around us - evidence that has been “co-opted” by an unbelieving scientific community and used either incorrectly or fraudulently to in fact argue AGAINST God.  I hope that you’ll join me as together we use some investigative techniques like you’ve seen on the popular TV series: “CSI -Crime Scene Investigation.”   Here’s what we’ll do:

5/17 - Secure the Scene

5/24 - Examine the Timeline

5/31 - Interrogate the Witness(es)

6/7 - Analyze the Data

6/14 - Tell What Happened.

You won’t want to miss it!

May you be blessed and may God be glorified!

Pastor Augie

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