I may have posted in the past about going to two funerals-- at a Baptist church and a Pentecostal church-- and hearing references to dying and going to heaven, but no references to the resurrection. I was specifically listening for it. I went to a Roman Catholic funeral, the first ever for me, for a young man who wasn't Roman Catholic but when to an Roman Catholic university. Their liturgy was full of reference to the resurrection. The prayers for the dead I'd been warned about were prayers that God would raise the deceased from the dead at the resurrection... along the lines of a prayer for God to (presumably) fulfill his word.
An aunt of mine passed away. My father was the youngest in a very large family, and all but one of his siblings have now passed on, most living into old age. I lived far from my dad's relatives and saw them once a year growing up. His surviving brother is a retired Independent Baptist pastor. I got to know just a few first cousins kind of well since some of them were grown when I was a child and did not always go to reunions, or I was out playing. The younger preacher, who I think may have taken over the church where he ministered, where my recently deceased aunt attended, spoke on I Corinthians 15. I cannot say he was exactly wrong in anything he said, but I was wondering if I had the 'pop' idea that a Christian just dies and go to heaven forever, that I would have thought any differently after that. My uncle spoke, and he talked about the resurrection of the dead. He said that one day there would be a one-world government.... the Ruler would be Jesus Christ. He also spoke out of I Thessalonians 4 about the dead in Christ rising and they that are alive and remain being caught up to meet the Lord from the dead. I thought this was appropriate since Paul wrote to 'comfort one another with these words.'
I find myself, if I attend a traditional evangelical church service and hear the altar call, I'm paying attention as to whether the gospel is preached first. I listen for doctrine of the resurrection at funerals.
How many of you have gone to church for years and never really heard the fact that the saints will be resurrected from the dead clearly taught, and hear things that reinforce the idea that the afterlife is eternity in a disembodied state in heaven? How often do you hear references to the resurrection if you attend funerals? (Hopefully you do not have to go to that many.)
An aunt of mine passed away. My father was the youngest in a very large family, and all but one of his siblings have now passed on, most living into old age. I lived far from my dad's relatives and saw them once a year growing up. His surviving brother is a retired Independent Baptist pastor. I got to know just a few first cousins kind of well since some of them were grown when I was a child and did not always go to reunions, or I was out playing. The younger preacher, who I think may have taken over the church where he ministered, where my recently deceased aunt attended, spoke on I Corinthians 15. I cannot say he was exactly wrong in anything he said, but I was wondering if I had the 'pop' idea that a Christian just dies and go to heaven forever, that I would have thought any differently after that. My uncle spoke, and he talked about the resurrection of the dead. He said that one day there would be a one-world government.... the Ruler would be Jesus Christ. He also spoke out of I Thessalonians 4 about the dead in Christ rising and they that are alive and remain being caught up to meet the Lord from the dead. I thought this was appropriate since Paul wrote to 'comfort one another with these words.'
I find myself, if I attend a traditional evangelical church service and hear the altar call, I'm paying attention as to whether the gospel is preached first. I listen for doctrine of the resurrection at funerals.
How many of you have gone to church for years and never really heard the fact that the saints will be resurrected from the dead clearly taught, and hear things that reinforce the idea that the afterlife is eternity in a disembodied state in heaven? How often do you hear references to the resurrection if you attend funerals? (Hopefully you do not have to go to that many.)
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