A Theology Of Death

THURS., AUG. 31, 1989, 7:00 AM
FARM, STUDY

The title is in place, but what does it mean? Can there be a theology of death? Well, theology deals with God, so the inference is… how is God involved in death. It shall not be new, but the “packaging” will be somewhat different.

In secular, scientific terms death is the permanent cessation of all bodily functions. The lungs no longer exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide, the heart no longer pumps blood, and the brain ceases even its lower level functioning. This is death… the end of an earth life.

How does this affect the spirit, that “chip off of the ol’ Holy Spirit” that has been part of that human person at least since birth? Death of the body simply means that “it’s time to move on.” Spirits do not die with bodies. Spirits have life that comes from Me that is everlasting. Yet just as some bodies do not grow and develop as they should, so some spirits do not progress in an earth life.

How am I involved in such non-growth… even regression? I allow such to happen. Once a spirit forms, from Me, that spirit is free to develop as it has potential and free to simply remain as it is. As Jesus I told a parable of talents. Entrusted with talents some invested these, and, at the time of judgment, had more talents to present to the Lord. But the parable told of one who did not invest his talent, but buried it in the ground for safe-keeping. At judgment the Lord was angry and disappointed with that one’s exercise of his freedom, and took away that talent and gave it to another.

In like fashion, I offer you free will to develop your spirit in a body here in the earth. Some do this magnificently, many do so reasonably well, and a few fail, making no growth. I am more lenient than the Lord in the parable. I allow a spirit to assess its lack of development and together We work out a better opportunity than the earth life just completed.

Spirit and soul. How are these related? There is no single way even I define and differentiate these two “concepts.” I tell you that spirit is that aspect of eternal life that comes from Me. As it develops, in earth life or in other realms, it becomes a soul. The soul is like unto a spiritual body, that which the spirit builds over lifetimes and varied experiences. Spirit doesn’t die. It finally returns to Me, and, in effect, the soul dies. But it is the glorious death of permanent return to become part of Me.

In a more orthodox Christian perspective the spirit and the soul are more alike or the same. Spirit enlivens the soul, which develops in some way during its one earth life, and, at death, that soul goes, intact, to be with Me in paradise or to some hell distant from Me, where it must spend eternity in torment for a life of non-acceptance of Me (however short the life). There are some merits to this theology, but I have led you beyond this “version.”

Conception, pregnancy, and birth are natural processes I have established. I can affect these, of course, but generally I do not. Into each baby, before or just after birth, enters a spirit, which becomes that person’s soul. The development is varied… some highly developed… to a few that are “brand new.” As long as physical life continues, even in a coma, that spirit, in that soul, persists, developing as it will.

At death that spirit/soul moves on, sometimes happily, as if being freed, and sometimes reluctantly, when a life has been good and worthwhile or has been too short. Peter’s spirit moved on joyfully, not because of your actions as parents, but because his spirit needed another environment in which to grow.