On May 8, 2010, Dave Harris will give the sermon, titled, “Head and Tail.”
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.
A new StandingWatch program was posted on the Web, titled, “Soon–All Nations Against Jerusalem?” In the program, Norbert Link asks and answers the following questions: Will the Jews begin soon to offer sacrifices and build a third temple on the Temple Mount? Is former New York mayor and Democrat Ed Koch correct when he warns that it is President Obama’s policy to create an alliance with Arab states against Israel? And what is behind Muammar al Gaddafi’s concept of a new bi-national state, called “Isratine,” and Egypt’s attempts to rally U.N. support against Israel?
A new German sermon was posted on the Web. It discusses the love of the Father and of Jesus Christ towards us, and the injunction to us to manifest that some love towards others, even and especially during times of trials and suffering. It is titled, “Gottes Liebe im Leid” (“God’s Love in Trials.”)
We received an offer from YouTube regarding our “very popular [German] video” on the swine flu, Die Schweinegrippe–was man uns nicht sagt! giving us the opportunity to sign up for their partnership program and receive money with every viewing. Of course, we are not accepting the offer, but are happy about the attention we are receiving.
According to most Christian commentaries, this passage addresses the First and Second Coming of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Savior of mankind. However, most Jewish commentaries reject this conclusion and give the passage a different meaning.
Zechariah 12:10-11 reads as follows:
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem…”
The phrase “in that day” gives us the time setting–it is a reference to the time of the end, the coming of the LORD and His reign over this world (note Zechariah 12:4, 6, 8-9; 13:1-2, 4; 14:4, 6, 8-9, 20).
At the time when the LORD appears to defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Zechariah 12:8), they will begin to recognize Him as their Savior. They will understand that it was they–as this is true for all of mankind–who pierced and killed Him, when He came in the flesh (John 1:1, 11, 14; Luke 19:14; 20:13-15). They will recognize Him as the Son of God–the FIRSTBORN among many brethren. They will realize that it is the potential of man to become a member of the very Family of God. They will mourn because of their sins, realizing that they were responsible for Christ’s death; they will believe in Christ and the gospel message and become baptized; and it is then that God will pour His Spirit on them (Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38).
All of this should be understood as the clear and unambiguous meaning of the above quoted passage. As we explain in our free booklet, “The Book of Zechariah–Prophecies for Today,” on page 72:
“Zechariah 12:10 refers to the fact that the Messiah would be pierced. We are told in the New Testament that a soldier pierced Christ’s side with a spear, causing His death on the cross (John 19:34–37). (For the exact manner of Christ’s death, please read our free booklet, “Jesus Christ—a Great Mystery”). The passage in Zechariah 12:10 is quoted in Revelation 1:7, referring to Jesus Christ.”
Revelation 1:7 states: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him…”
We might note that we read in Zechariah 12:10 that God (the Father) says that the inhabitants of Jerusalem will look on “Me” (the Father) whom they have pierced, and that they will mourn for “Him” (Jesus Christ) as one mourns for his only son and his firstborn son.
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary gives the following (unconvincing) explanation as to the change of the pronouns “Me” and “Him”:
“The change of person is due to Jehovah-Messiah speaking in His own person first, then the prophet speaking of Him.”
However, reading the context, there is really no justification for the conclusion that Zechariah would first repeat the words of God, then interject his own thoughts, and then return to a quotation of the words of God in the subsequent verses.
Rather, we need to understand that the Father suffered when Christ suffered. Even though Jesus Christ was pierced, it was God the Father who GAVE His only begotten Son to DIE for the world (John 3:16). We read that the Father was IN the Son (2 Corinthians 5:19). He experienced the Son’s suffering as well. When the Son was pierced, the Father was pierced too in that sense–God the Father who loved the Son felt the pain and suffering of His Son; He suffered WITH Christ; He felt the piercing as Christ did. Today, in the same way, both the Father and the Son feel also our pain and suffering when we go through severe trials (compare 2 Corinthians 1:5).
Let us consider the following remarks by non-Jewish commentaries regarding Zechariah 12:10:
Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible states:
“‘I will pour upon the house of David’ – This is the way in which the Jews themselves shall be brought into the Christian Church. 1. ‘They shall have the spirit of grace,’ God will show them that he yet bears favor to them. 2. They shall be excited to fervent and continual prayer for the restoration of the Divine favor. 3. Christ shall be preached unto them; and they shall look upon and believe in him whom they pierced, whom they crucified at Jerusalem. 4. This shall produce deep and sincere repentance; they shall mourn, and be in bitterness of soul, to think that they had crucified the Lord of life and glory, and so long continued to contradict… since that time.”
The “Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge” adds:
“That this relates to the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, and to his being pierced by the soldier’s spear, we have the authority of the inspired apostle John for affirming; and this application agrees with the opinion of some of the ancient Jews, who interpret it of Messiah the son of David…”
However, as we will see, even most of those ancient Jews who have realized that Zechariah 12:10 speaks about the Messiah, did not understand the true meaning of that passage. In addition, Jewish interpreters are divided as to whom this passage is addressing.
John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible gives a lengthy narrative of Jewish interpretation, as follows:
“… the Jews themselves, some of them, acknowledge it is to be understood of the Messiah. In the Talmud… mention being made of the mourning after spoken of, it is asked, what this mourning was made for?… one says, for Messiah ben Joseph, who shall be slain… Jarchi and Kimchi… say, our Rabbins interpret this of Messiah the son of Joseph, who shall be slain… Hadarsan… understands it of Messiah the son of David. The Jews observing some prophecies speaking of the Messiah in a state of humiliation, and others of him in an exalted state, have coined this notion of two Messiahs…”
Did you catch that? Some preach that the Messiah would be slain at His (future) coming–and that allegedly in battle, as we will see. Others preach two different “Messiahs.”
The confusion abounds. The “New Bible Commentary: Revised” explains:
“… various suggestions of historical personages have been made in an attempt to identify the pierced one–the brother of Johanan, Onias III, c. 170 BC, or Simon the Maccabee, c. 134 BBC, or the Teacher of Righteousness mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, or even Zerubbabel, or others. But the traditional identification with the suffering Messiah remains the best understanding.”
The Nelson Study Bible mentions these Jewish “interpretations”:
“Jewish commentators often regard this as a corporate reference to the Jews killed in the defense of Jerusalem… The Jewish Talmud views the text as referring to the Messiah who will be pierced in battle. The messianic view is favored by the fact that Jesus was pierced with a spear…”
The concept that the coming Messiah would die in battle is nowhere supported in Scripture. In fact, the opposite is revealed in both the Old and the New Testament (compare Zechariah 14:3, 9, 12-13; Daniel 2:44; Matthew 24:30-31; and Revelation 19:11-15). Jesus Christ, the Messiah, told the Apostle John in Revelation 1:8, 18: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,’ says the Lord, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty… I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive FOREVERMORE. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and Death.'”
The Jewish Soncino commentary gives the following additional (incorrect) explanation:
“The mourning is over those Jews who fell in defiance of their city as martyrs for their faith and country; the slain in battle are those whom the heathens have ‘thrust through’ (“pierced”). This is substantially the view of most Jewish commentators. In the Talmud the passage is interpreted with reference to the Messianic era, and the martyr who was ‘thrust through’ is the Messiah the son of Joseph who will fall in battle.
“The verse has received Christological application by the Church; but as Driver observes: ‘The context points plainly to some historical event in the prophet’s own time, for which people would eventually feel the sorrow here described.’ Modern commentators see in the verse an allusion to an unknown martyr who suffered death at the hands of the people. They will be stricken with remorse and penitence over their guilt. Probably he was one whom God gave to the restored Jewish community, a good shepherd, but they rejected him and put him to death. Could it have been Zerubbabel whose fate, otherwise unknown, is here referred to?”
As stated before, the phrase “in that day” points at future events–the passage in Zechariah 12:10 is clearly prophetic and does not address an historical event at the time of the prophet Zechariah.
Now note how the English rendering of the Hebrew Text in “The Jewish Bible”–the “Tanakh”–completely alters the original Scripture, obviously in an attempt to hide the intended meaning:
“But I will fill the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem with a spirit of pity and compassion; and they shall lament to Me about those who are slain, wailing over them as over a favorite son and showing bitter grief as over a first-born…”
That the original Hebrew passage of Zechariah 12:10 relates to Jesus Christ–referring to His (past) First Coming AND His (still future) Second Coming–is the clear and intended meaning of the passage, and as stated before, this understanding is confirmed in the New Testament by the Apostle John in the book of Revelation.
The misunderstanding and confusion of many Jewish commentators in regard to a passage like Zechariah 12:10 amply prove the accuracy of the following inspired comments, made by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:12-16:
“Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech–unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
The veil of spiritual blindness remains today on the children of Israel (Acts 28:25-27; Romans 11:25), as well as on all nations (Isaiah 43:8-9; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Ephesians 4:17-18; Revelation 12:9). It can only be removed or “taken away in Christ” for those whom God gives spiritual understanding in this day and age. When the Messiah and Savior of the world returns, then that veil will be removed from all peoples (Isaiah 25:7; Revelation 20:3).
Lead Writer: Norbert Link
On May 1, 2010, Norbert Link will give the sermon, titled, “To the Ephesians.”
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.
A new member letter was sent out this week and posted on the Web. In the letter, Rene Messier reminds us of the lessons from the Passover season and looks forward to the Day of Pentecost.
Our new booklet “The Authority of the Bible” has reached the second review cycle.
In addition to our advertisement campaign in the USA, offering our free booklet, “Do We Have an Immortal Soul?”, we have also begun running ads in Canada and Great Britain, offering our free booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound.”
A new German SW program was posted on the Internet and on our website, www.aufpostenstehen.de. It is titled “Turiner Grabtuch–Fälschung oder Wahrheit?” [“The Shroud of Turin–Forgery or Authentic?”].
A new German sermon was posted on the Web. It is the fourth (and last) part of the series on Sickness and Healing, and is titled, “Krankheit und Heilung, Teil 4” [“Sickness and Healing, Part 4”].
by Connie Grade
In the physical preparation for the keeping of the recent Feast Days of Unleavened Bread, my husband and I tried diligently to physically remove any leaven we could find in our living quarters. We vacuumed our cars and our home, including the chairs, the couch and closets, removing any leavening agents we found. We made sure we had gone through all the kitchen cabinets, thoroughly cleaning the stove, the freezer and the refrigerator. As we cleaned, we attempted to read labels on containers that might contain leavening agents and throw away the items.
We felt pretty sure we had found and removed all leaven from our dwelling, and that we had emptied the vacuum sweeper bag.
On the day before the last Day of Unleavened Bread, we were cleaning up after having had breakfast. One of the brethren had stayed over with us and was helping with the clean-up. I had gone into another part of the house, and when I returned a few minutes later, my husband and our guest were standing in the kitchen, having just put everything away. I noticed that they had a strange look on their faces, and then I saw something sitting on the kitchen counter. To my horror there sat a jar of baking yeast!
I immediately asked, “Where did that come from?” They pointed to the refrigerator. I could not believe it! Apparently, when cleaning the refrigerator, I had removed everything from it in order to wipe it out and then sorted through everything making sure (or so I thought) that nothing with leaven was placed in it. Well, guess what? I put the jar of yeast back into the refrigerator as this is where I normally keep the yeast.
What a tremendous lesson for me to learn from this! It reminded me in my analysis that perhaps some sins can become such a part of my life that I don’t readily recognize them or that somehow I am able to just gloss over them because I have allowed myself to become “comfortable” with them. It was not only embarrassing for “someone else” to find my “physical” sin but to also realize how easily I could overlook the absolute obvious.
I had become comfortable with looking at that jar of yeast over the past few months and didn’t even recognize it when time came to put it out of our home. It just shows I am unable to become sinless without the help of our Great God. I was reminded that I have to ask Him to “show” me what needs to be removed from my life every day and to reveal to me what I cannot see.
In our last Q&A (in Update #438, dated April 15, 2010), we explained that God gives every person, apparently at the time of conception, a “spirit,” which the Bible calls the “spirit in man.” This spirit is not a soul–the person is the soul–nor is it a conscious being. When the person or the soul dies, the spirit in man returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). It is being stored in heaven until the time of that person’s resurrection.
We also explained that the spirit in man has recorded all there is about the person–including his appearance, his thoughts and his deeds. It can be compared with a video cassette or a DVD, which only comes “to life,” when placed in a VCR or a DVD player and when the play button is pushed. Following this analogy, God uses the spirit in man to resurrect or better recreate the body of the person at the time of his resurrection.
In the First Resurrection, the person, who during his lifetime had also received God’s Holy Spirit in addition to the human spirit, will be resurrected as an immortal spirit being. Those in the Second and Third Resurrections will be raised as physical beings, and it is again the “vehicle” of the spirit in man which God will use to create new physical bodies, based on what the human spirit has recorded and stored.
What, then, is going to happen to the human spirit of those who are going to be thrown in Gehenna fire to be burned up? We saw in the last Q&A that those are the ones who have committed the unpardonable sin. They will be destroyed and totally annihilated. It will be as if they had never existed. The soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4)–and unless the soul repents of its sins, it will die the second, final and eternal death.
We read in Revelation 21:4 that after the Third Resurrection, no more death will exist–that is, no physical human being will any longer exist who could die. By that time, those who qualified for the Kingdom of God (in the First and the Second Resurrections) have been changed into immortal Spirit beings, and those who disqualified themselves have been destroyed in the lake of fire.
Does this only refer to the body–the soul–of such a person who died the eternal death, or also to his human spirit? Will their human spirit go once again back to God in heaven, or will it, too, be destroyed and cease to exist?
In attempting to answer this question, we need to say from the outset that the Bible does not specifically state what will happen to the human spirit of those who will die the second and final death from which there is no resurrection. But there are some indications which we might want to look at.
As explained, God gives the human spirit to a person to bestow on him intellect and intelligence, distinguishing him from the animal world. It also records man’s appearance, personality and memories, to be used at the time of the resurrection.
Since there is no further resurrection for those who die the eternal death, and since the very being of those in the Third Resurrection is totally extinguished (with no memory of their prior existence remaining), we might ask why the human spirit would continue to exist even on an unconscious basis.
We read in Revelation 4:11 that God has created all things–visible and invisible–and that they exist and were created by His Will. Therefore, God could most certainly will to end the existence of whatever He has created, if He so chooses. The question is, will He?
We know that God will not do so in regard to angels. We read that God has created angels as immortal beings–they cannot die (compare Luke 20:36). The same is true for demons, as they are fallen angels. But this is talking about conscious beings–not something which is unconscious.
On the other hand, we have explained that Spirit beings and “spiritual things” cannot die. In that sense, “Spirit” is incorruptible. The question is whether the spirit in man would fall under the category of a “spiritual THING.”
Let us quote from our free booklet, “Angels, Demons and the Spirit World”:
“Romans 8:18-23 tells us very clearly what those invisible things will be: ‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption INTO the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption [sonship], the redemption of our body.’
“We saw in verse 21 that the creation will be delivered from corruption ‘into’ (‘eis’ in Greek) the glorious liberty of the children of God… The Revised Standard Version writes: ‘…the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and OBTAIN the glorious liberty of the children of God’…
“This physical creation, patterned after God’s spiritual creation, waits to be delivered from corruption to obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. The glorious freedom, which the universe will receive, includes freedom from death. In that new universe, DEATH will be unknown, and so will decay and corruption.
“We will be changed into Spirit. Spirit endures. Spirit cannot die or decay. Spirit remains. Spirit is INCORRUPTIBLE. The universe will obtain that same freedom from decay, corruption and death. In order to obtain such freedom from death and corruption, this universe will have to be changed into SPIRIT, as we also will be changed into Spirit beings. In this way, the new heavens and the new earth will remain, for only the things that the human eye cannot see will remain…
“Every physical thing will have been destroyed in the all-encompassing fire that burns up the earth and dissolves the physical universe, as we read in 2 Peter 3:11. This will include those humans who have willfully refused to live God’s way of life…
“God will restore a condition that existed at the beginning of His creation when He first created spirit beings and spiritual things. Ultimately, all physical things, which have been patterned after things in the Spirit world, will be changed into spiritual things…”
The question is, do these “spiritual things” include the “spirit in man” (and “the spirit of animals,” see below)? If so, they could not cease to exist. In that case, the spirit of those who will be destroyed in the Third Resurrection would go again back to God, but it would have to be “empty.” It would have to be compared with a cassette or a DVD, the contents of which had been erased. Nothing that had been recorded would be left–no memory would remain of their personality, their thoughts, their ideas or actions, not even of their outward appearance. It would indeed be as if they had never existed.
But is this the way it will work?
Does the Bible tell us more about the “fate” of the spirit in man of those who die the eternal death in the Third Resurrection?
We need to realize that there are all kinds of spirits. There are Spirit BEINGS. God is a Spirit Being. And so, there is God’s Holy Spirit–emanating from both the Father and Jesus Christ. It is through the Holy Spirit of God that both the Father and the Son dwell in us (John 14:23). That Spirit, although not a person, is clearly eternal and immortal, because it emanates from GOD–and GOD is immortal and eternal. As God cannot die, so His Spirit cannot be extinguished. We read that we can quench the Holy Spirit WITHIN US (1 Thessalonians 5:19)–but that does not mean that somehow God’s Holy Spirit would cease to exist. This is just referring to the dwelling of His Holy Spirit IN US. When a person loses the Holy Spirit–that is, when God withdraws from that person by removing His Holy Spirit from such a person–then of course THAT portion of the Holy Spirit does not “die”–since it was part of GOD all along.
When we become immortal Spirit beings in the Family of God, we too–everything that we will be–will be eternal. That is, our “human” spirit will become eternal as will be our “bodies”–they will be spiritual or Spirit bodies–and we, as eternal beings, will have God’s eternal Holy Spirit abiding in us forever. We will be GOD–full-fledged members of God’s Family.
There are other spirit beings–angels and demons. And they too, possess a spirit. But again, their spirit is eternal, if you please, as THEY are immortal beings. They cannot die, and neither can their spirit, which is emanating from them, be destroyed .
Then there is the human spirit which distinguishes man from the animals (1 Corinthians 2:11). But there is also an animal spirit (compare Ecclesiastes 3:19). We explain in our free booklet, “The Theory of Evolution–a Fairy Tale for Adults,” that animals have a spirit, too, but it is NOT the same as the human spirit. Still, we read in Genesis 7:21-22 that all flesh outside Noah’s Ark died in the Flood–birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing, AND every man; that is, “ALL in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on dry land, died.”
But neither the spirit in man nor the animal spirit are conscious “entities,” nor are they the same as the Holy Spirit of God or the spirits of angels. And while the Bible DOES say that the spirit of man returns to God when man dies, at least in this time and age, prior to Christ’s return, the question regarding the “fate” of the animal spirit at the time of the death of the animal was purposefully left unanswered.
In order to address the question of what might happen to the human spirit of those who will die the second death, let us consider whether the Bible tells us WHEN God creates the human spirit.
Isaiah 42:5 says that God, after having created the heavens and the earth, gives breath to the people on it, and “spirit to those who walk on it.” But there is no breath in a particular person prior to his existence, and by extension, there would not be any spirit either. That is, neither the breath nor the spirit of man exist prior to the “creation” of that particular person. We also read in Zechariah 12:1 that God FORMS the spirit of man within him. Again, this seems to imply that God actually creates in man the human spirit when man comes into existence.
The connection between God’s breath and the spirit in man is also expressed in Job 32:8. The New Jerusalem Bible translates Job 32:8, “There is, you see, a spirit residing in humanity, the breath of God conferring intelligence.”
We also discussed in the last Q&A, when explaining the biblical concept of the soul, that Paul prayed that God would preserve blamelessly spirit and soul and body of a converted Christian (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Paul wished that God would preserve blameless the Christian’s human spirit, his temporary physical life and his physical flesh. All of these “components” are mentioned together, to describe the entire being. In addition, 1 Corinthians 5:5 says about a Christian who sinned gravely to “…deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”
But what if that spirit cannot be “saved”? The fact that Paul prayed to God to “preserve blameless” the body, soul AND spirit of a person shows that it is possible that body, soul AND spirit may not be preserved “blameless”–or not at all. And if they are not preserved, then they cease to exist.
Realize that the human spirit of the incorrigible sinners will still be in heaven at the time just prior to the Third Resurrection. This proves, in passing, and as will be explained more fully below, that there must be a Third Resurrection; otherwise, their spirit would remain in heaven, while those incorrigible sinners would stay buried in their graves. Some, who believe in the First and the Second Resurrections, have wondered why there should be an additional Third Resurrection and asked whether God could not just leave those who committed the unpardonable sin dead and buried in their graves.
However, Christ said in John 5:28-29 that ALL who are in their graves will come forward when they hear the voice of the Son of Man, and we read in Daniel 12:2 that some who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake to shame and everlasting contempt. We also read in 1 Corinthians 15:22 that all who died in Adam will be made alive in (or by) Jesus Christ.
In addition, there must be a final Third Resurrection to everlasting condemnation, when the spirit in man is placed back in the (newly created) physical body of the person here on earth, as otherwise, the spirit in man would remain in heaven, and with it the recording of the personalities and thoughts and memories.
A strong hint at the final fate of the spirit in man of those who are going to be destroyed in the Third Resurrection can be found in Isaiah 57:16. The New King James Bible translates: “For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made.”
The commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explains correctly that the “spirit” in the passage refers to the spirit in man–not the Holy Spirit of God. This should be evident as the Holy Spirit would never “fail”–whatever may be meant with that phrase. In referring to a passage of Numbers 16:22, where God is referred to as “the God of the spirits of all flesh,” the commentary states that the word “spirit” in Isaiah 57:16 refers to “the human spirit which went forth from Me (Numbers 16:22).”
Isaiah 57:16 implies, then, that the spirit in man could fail. But what is meant with the word, “fail”? Could it mean, “cease to exist”? If so, this would show that “spiritual things” do not include the spirit in man or in animals.
The Hebrew word is “ataph” and has a variety of meanings. According to Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, it conveys the thought of “to be feeble” or “to be covered.” The Authorized Version translates this word at times also as, “to be overwhelmed,” or “to hide self.”
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible states that the word actually means, “to shroud, i.e. to clothe… hence (from the idea of darkness) to languish–cover (over), fail, faint, feebler, hide self, be overwhelmed, swoon…”
It is obvious that very few of these meanings would make any sense in the context of the statement in Isaiah 57:16. After all, it is both the soul AND the spirit that could “fail” or “faint.” We know that the (incorrigible, corruptible) soul, when God contends forever, will die the eternal death and will be extinguished. But what about the spirit?
German translations point out that the word “ataph” can also mean “cease to exist, get destroyed, become annihilated.” For example, the German Luther Bible; the Elberfelder Bible; the Menge Bible; the Schlachter Bible and the Pattloch Bible all use the expression, “verschmachten,” which is a word describing the death of a person in the desert, who is dying of thirst.
Some English-speaking translations agree. The Amplified Bible renders Isaiah 57:16 as follows (brackets in the original):
“… for [where it not so] the spirit [of man] would faint and be consumed before Me, and [My purpose in] creating the souls of men would be frustrated.”
Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible comments regarding Isaiah 57:16:
“The simple meaning seems to be, that if God should continue in anger against people they would be consumed. The human soul could not endure a long-continued controversy with God. Its powers would fail; its strength decay; it must sink to destruction.”
If the concept of “dying” is conveyed in this passage in Isaiah 57:16, then it would indicate that not only the soul, but also the spirit in man CAN be extinguished and cease to exist; and if so, that would have to be the obvious “fate” of the human spirit of those in the Third Resurrection.
Lead Writer: Norbert Link
On April 24, 2010, Dave Harris will give the sermon, titled, “Take Warning!”
The services can be heard at www.cognetservices.org (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.
A new StandingWatch program was posted on the Web, titled, USA Antagonizes Europe. The program addresses the following “shocking news”: “The US is ruling out a nuclear response to non-nuclear attacks, but Obama is criticized by the left and the right.” “USA and Russia sign a new arms reduction agreement, forcing Europe to look at their own defense strategies.” “Europe outraged over American misconduct in Iraq.” “German soldiers forsaken by US Air Force in Afghanistan.” What does it all mean in the light of biblical prophecy?
A new German sermon was posted on the Web, titled, “Krankheit und Heilung, Teil 3” (“Sickness and Healing, Part 3”). It is also posted on our German website, www.aufpostenstehen.de.
by Cali Harris
Coming out of the Spring Holy Days, the idea of changing direction has been on my mind. As with every year, I’ve been thinking about leaving sin behind and walking toward obedience–basically, making small and big direction changes in my life. This hasn’t been limited only to my spiritual life, but has also trickled into the rest of my life.
I recently changed topics for my thesis in my graduate program. This meant that I chose to walk away from four semesters worth of work, research, discussions with professionals in the field and even completion of a business plan that related to my original topic. It was hard to change direction–but I know that my new thesis topic will be a much better choice for my education and future.
Timing-wise, I think it’s interesting that I was confident enough to change direction in my thesis now. Perhaps I needed to go through the Spring Holy Days in order to be open to this change… and I suspect that God was leading this change of direction all along.
