Spir Dynamics 1093-96, 7/6/97; Eph 744, 777, 818, 910 9/25/88

DOCTRINE OF LIFE AND DEATH

A. Introduction.

1. If you advance to spiritual maturity, if you experience the life beyond gnosis so that you become an invisible hero and are filled with the fullness of God, so that you go to the life beyond dreams, then it can be said that you have enjoyed living. If you have enjoyed living, you will love dying.

2. If you live as an invisible hero, as a believer who daily utilizes the problem-solving devices of the protocol plan of God, who enjoys your escrow blessings for time, you enjoy the most fantastic eight-course dinner spiritually. But the dessert of dying is so fantastic and is a surprise, as it were, since it is manufactured by the sovereignty of God totally apart from our own volition.

3. We participate in the Christian way of life by the decisions we make every day as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We either make good decisions from a position of strength or bad decisions from a position of weakness. For those who make daily good decisions from a position of strength, whose number one priority is the Word of God, it is inevitable that you will come to realize that God saves the best things for you until last.

4. Categorically, the Christian way of life or protocol plan of God can be classified in two ways.

a. From the standpoint of spiritual growth, there are two phases to the protocol plan.

(1) Phase one starts at salvation and goes to the point of reaching spiritual maturity. This is called the life beyond gnosis, Eph 3:19. The life beyond gnosis is the life of epignosis, i.e., the perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine, otherwise known as postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation. Eph 3:19, “And to come to know the love for Christ which goes beyond gnosis, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

(2) Phase two starts at spiritual maturity and goes to the point of physical death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first. This is called the life beyond dreams. Eph 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine on the basis of the power which works for us.”

b. From the standpoint of Christian experience, there are two phases in the experience of any believer whether he is growing spiritually or not.

(1) The living stage begins one second after faith in Jesus Christ and continues to the point of dying.

(2) The dying stage of the Christian life may be short or prolonged, but it begins with cognition of being in a state of dying and terminates with physical death or the Rapture, whichever occurs first.

B. The Function of Volition while Living and while Dying.

1. In the living phase of the Christian way of life, the believer has the full use of his volition to exercise his options for the protocol plan.

a. By using his option of positive volition, the believer becomes a winner and an invisible hero.

b. By using his option of negative volition, the believer becomes a loser and a carnal Christian, and he fails to execute the protocol plan.

2. Therefore, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist by divine decree in the living stage.

3. In the living stage of God’s plan, the believer has control over his life for success or failure with regard to the Christian way of life or the protocol plan.

4. By consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine and the use of the ten problem solving devices of the protocol plan, the believer can use his volition to become a winner and invisible hero.

5. The winner, having executed the protocol plan of God through postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation, is in a position to have a wonderful life and a wonderful experience in dying, unless the Rapture occurs first.

6. By failure and malfunction of postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation, the believer becomes a loser under such categories as carnal Christian, cosmic believer, and reversionistic believer. His life is fragmented and miserable, and he dies the sin unto death.

7. Every believer has equal privilege and equal opportunity for the execution of God’s will, plan, and purpose for his life under the computer assets of election and predestination.

a. Under election, every believer has the equal privilege of his royal priesthood. He has equal opportunity under logistical grace, wherein God’s justice has provide everything we need to be sustained in life.

b. Under predestination, every believer has equal privilege by virtue of the baptism of the Spirit and all its results. He has equal opportunity in his very own palace, the operational-type divine dynasphere.

8. In other words, in living God has provided for every Church Age believer his very own portfolio of invisible assets so that he can come to the place of understanding and utilizing the ten problem solving devices. These demand the function of positive volition and subsequent cognition of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

9. Whether the believer is a winner or a loser is determined by his attitude toward Bible doctrine and his consistent function under the three R’s:

a. Reception is listening to the teaching of the Word consistently and taking it in

b. Retention is the metabolization of that doctrine.

c. Recall is the application of the doctrine he as learned. With enough doctrine, this is called wisdom.

10. The term loser does not refer to losing salvation, but simply to the believer who fails to execute the protocol plan of God. In fact, it is the quintessence of human arrogance to assume that the believer can commit a sin or perform an act of evil which can cancel the forty things he receives at the moment of salvation.

C. The Death of the Christian.

1. The death of the believer is the sovereign decision of God based on the integrity of God. What the righteousness of God demands (the time, manner and place of our death), the justice of God executes for both the spiritual and carnal believer. Apart from the Rapture generation, all believers will experience physical death. In dying, God has saved the best until last.

2. Dying is a part of Christian experience which does not depend upon the volition of the believer, but on the sovereignty of God.

3. If you like living in God’s plan, you will love dying.

a. In the living phase of God’s plan, the believer has control over his life for successes or failure, for execution of God’s plan or failure to do so. Therefore, the believer approaches dying as a winner or as a loser, as an invisible hero or as one who has fragmented his life.

b. In the dying phase of God’s plan, the believer has no control over the time, place, or manner of his death.

4. The physical death of the Church Age believer is a matter of the wisdom, integrity, and sovereignty of God. The integrity or holiness of God is composed of righteousness, justice, love and grace.

5. The spiritual believer is not afraid of death. The carnal believer is afraid of death. Living and dying are part of the same package for the spiritual life. The fear of the carnal believer distorts his dying into a horrible experience. Dying is profit for both the spiritual and carnal believer because both are absent from the body and face-to-face with the Lord and there is no distinction between them after death in heaven. They are both in an interim body with great happiness. There is no distinction made until the evaluation seat of Christ.

6. Because the integrity of God cannot be unfair or unjust, the time, place, and manner of our physical death is a perfect decision from Him. Because of the infinite and eternal wisdom of God, He cannot be wrong in any decision He makes.

a. Anytime you become critical or upset, blaming God for the departure of a loved one, you’re in a state of blasphemy. Because it isn’t a matter of when we think the death should be; it is a matter of when God has decided. God cannot be unfair. His decision about the death of any person is never unfair.

b. Some die healthy; some die ill. If God decides to take you out by some terrible disease, all the health food and vitamins in the world won’t help you; you will die of disease. The point is that nothing will prolong your life beyond God’s time for your to die.

c. This does not imply that long life means that you have advanced spiritually. It simply means that God in His own wisdom has made the decision regarding the death of each one of us. All of us will die with the exception of the Rapture generation.

7. Since the omniscience of God knows all the facts in each individual case, the time, place, and manner of our physical death is a wise decision.

8. All decisions from the sovereignty of God are made in perfect and eternal wisdom, including the time, place, and manner of dying. Furthermore, apart from the Rapture generation, we will all die.

9. For the believer who has the ten problem solving devices, dying is the ultimate experience of all. The problem solving devices are just as pertinent in dying as they are in living. The person who has been using them while living is ready to die.

10. Therefore, the death of every believer, winner or loser, is always God’s victory. Ps 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

D. Death is Always God’s Victory.

1. Some believers will die as losers; some will die as winners. All go to heaven. Since it is God’s decision when and how we die, it’s His victory.

2. It’s impossible for God to be unfair, to make a mistake or a bad decision. Therefore, when it’s your time to die, that is the perfect time for you to die. Your timing may be off in life, but it will never be off in death.

3. The death of the Church Age believer includes the manner of his dying, which is a matter of the sovereignty, wisdom, and integrity of God. God has perfect integrity and perfect wisdom, and therefore He makes a right decision in the case of every believer, whether he is as winner or loser.

4. Because of the infinite and eternal wisdom of God, He cannot be wrong in determining the time, manner, or place of our death. We will depart just exactly where, when, and how He determines.

5. All decisions from the sovereignty of God, including death, are made in perfect righteousness, eternal wisdom, and gracious love. God is eternal, immutable, and perfect. His wisdom never makes a mistake in the time, manner, or place of our death.

6. In Christian death, we experience what God has provided for us. Therefore, the dying and the death of the believer is a matter of the sovereignty of God.

7. Only in the living phase do you have the option to make good decisions from a position of strength which will result in your receiving the most wonderful dying blessings. Then you will be able to say with Paul (Phil 1:21), “For me, living is Christ and dying is profit.” Dying is profitable for the believer who advances to spiritual maturity through the perception of Bible doctrine.

8. All decisions with regard to the Christian way of life as to whether we are winners or losers are made by us; these decisions are related to our intake of doctrine. But our death is not our decision. The exception to this is suicide, which is the blasphemy of superimposing your own will over God’s will, saying you know better than God your time to die.

9. Once you settle in your mind this very simple principle that God decides perfectly the time and manner of your death, then you no longer have a problem with death.

10. All decisions from the sovereignty of God are perfect because God is perfect. They’re made in perfect wisdom because God has perfect wisdom. No one knows better when is the best time for you to depart from this life.

E. Scriptural Documentation on Death.

1. Physical death is a matter of the sovereignty of God. Job expressed this in Job 1:21, “The Lord gave, the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In other words, the Lord decides!

2. Ps 68:19, “Blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burdens, the God who is our deliverer. God is to us a God of deliverance, and to Jehovah the Lord belongs escape from death.”

a. Until the Lord is ready to take us home to be with Himself, we are going to continue to live on planet earth.

b. The very moment that the sovereignty of God decides to take us home, nothing will keep us here.

3. This principle is extended in Ps 116:15, “Precious [valuable] in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” That refers to all His saints, winners and losers. The death of any believer is valuable in the eyes of the Lord. The death of the believer is valuable, important, and precious to the Lord.

4. The death of every Church Age believer, both winner and loser, is described in 2 Cor 5:8, where we are said to be “absent from the body and face to face with the Lord.” What is left behind is the biological part of you, your body. You don’t need that body any more.

5. We have no idea of the perfect happiness that will come to us when we check out of these bodies. We know that it will be a state of perfect happiness because everything related to your body that can produce pain is gone. Rev 21:4, “And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes [comfort]; furthermore, there shall no longer be any death, no longer will there be any mourning, and no more crying, and no more pain; the first things have passed away.” a. You use your body for mourning, for pain, for many unpleasant things and some pleasant things. Our resurrection body will have none of these unpleasant things.

b. There are two reasons why you cry: either because you are frustrated, upset, and hurt; or because you are happy. Of course, you couldn’t cry without a body.

c. The “first things” refer to the living phase of God’s plan for your life, which is over after physical death. God has saved the best for last.

6. Heb 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment [for the unbeliever].” You will only die once. Only unbelievers will be judged and cast into the lake of fire.

7. David said in Ps 23:4, “Also when I walk through the death-shadowed valley, I do not fear adversity in dying, because You [are] with me; Your rod [rebound] and Your staff [keep moving], they comfort me.”

a. Note “I walk;” not “we walk.” All your life you’re accustomed to being herdbound, having someone to hold your hand. But in dying you go it alone. But you have the greatest encouragement in the world, something far greater than anything anyone could say to you: you have the ten problem solving devices and epignosis doctrine in your soul.

b. God’s victory for all believers, both carnal and spiritual, occurs at the moment of death and thereafter forever.

c. Every one of us have our very own death-shadowed valley. We all go through death alone, and you have the whole living grace to be prepared for it so that it is a blessing. The loser goes into his valley with fear and irrationality.

d. If you do not have harmonious rapport with God, you will be lonely in life and intensely lonely in dying.

F. The Christian’s death is God’s timing and God’s wise and just decision.

1. Death is God’s victory. God will get at least one victory out of your hide even if you are a total loser. Losers glorify God in dying because it is strictly God’s decision and God’s victory. God’s integrity demands that losers be judged. And dying is a horrible nightmare for losers because God is judging them. This glorifies God.

a. If you fail to execute living grace as a part of your spiritual life, you will fail miserably when it comes time for dying grace.

b. Dying grace is given to both the winner and loser believer, the spiritual believer and the carnal believer. That is the integrity of God as God’s victory in dying grace. The difference is that the spiritually mature believer goes through the death-shadowed valley with maximum blessing, whereas the carnal believer creates his own misery through fear during his dying grace. Dying grace means what happens after death and the carnal believer has the same interim body and great blessing as the spiritual believer after death until the Rapture of the Church. God’s victory for all believers occurs at the moment of death, not in living and not in dying.

c. The more you increase the power of fear while living, the greater your intensification of fear while dying.

2. Winners and invisible heroes can die in two general ways: painlessly and quickly or painfully and prolonged. But by the same token, losers and cosmic believers can die in the same two general ways: painlessly and quickly or painfully and prolonged.

a. No one can judge the reason for your death. Sometimes you may die very publicly, yet the reason is very private. You can’t conclude that the one who suffered horribly died the sin unto death, and that the one who died magnificently was an invisible hero.

b. You are not to judge the reason why another dies. Those in the habit of judging others while living will judge those who are dying. According to the Greek of Mt 7:2, those people will receive back to them the judgment for what they judged in another. “Judge not that you be not judged. The measure with which you measure it out, it will be measured back to you.” c. No one can judge the reason or cause of the death of a fellow believer. It is not a subject for judgment or speculation.

3. The manner, time, and place of our death is the wise and just decision of the sovereignty of God. It is totally compatible with His grace policy directed to every believer, winner and loser alike. You are strictly under God’s wisdom and sovereignty from the day you start to die.

4. God is perfect; therefore His decisions regarding our death are perfect decisions. All decisions from the sovereignty of God, including the manner, time, and place of our death are made in perfect wisdom and in perfect integrity.

5. To wish the death of another person is evil thinking on your part. You have no right to judge or speculate about the life or death of another.

G. The Grace Aspect of Dying.

1. The manner of our death is not only a sovereign and wise decision, but it is also a grace decision from God. For the winner who executes the protocol plan of God, God has saved the best in this life until last. For the spiritually mature believer, dying is the best dessert.

2. If you enjoy living under the protocol plan, you will really love dying under the protocol plan. For dying is an extension of the decisions you made to prepare for it. By making positive decisions you grow in grace, and for you dying is profit. By making negative decisions you do not grow in grace, and your dying will be miserable under the sin unto death.

3. The dying testimony of the greatest winner in all the Church Age, the apostle Paul, is found in Phil 1:20-21. “On the basis of my confident expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but with all boldness, Christ shall even now as always be exalted in my body whether by living or by dying.

For me living is Christ, and dying is profit.”

a. Paul knew that he was a winner, and that everything in the future would be the best. He knew the best is saved until last: dying, death, heaven, resurrection, and the eternal state.

b. Paul would not be put to shame in dying, in death, in living in heaven, in resurrection, or in living in the eternal state. Why? Because through epignosis doctrine and advancing to spiritual maturity, Paul came to the realization that God had saved the best for him until last.

c. We know he had a wonderful life: “for me, living is Christ;” you can’t have a more wonderful life than that! That is occupation with Christ which equates living with dying and adversity with prosperity; that’s the ultimate in happiness.

d. “Dying is profit” because dying is the beginning of the last, and the last will last forever. God saves the best for last, to include dying, death, heaven, resurrection, and the eternal state. There’s nothing better! The dessert, as it were, goes on forever.

e. Why did he say, “Christ is exalted in my body?” Why didn’t he say “Christ is exalted in my soul” where all that metabolized doctrine is? Or why not “in my human spirit” ?Because the body experiences dying. The last body experience you have is dying.

f. Christ is exalted in the body in dying because He chose the time, the place, and manner of that death. It’s all His decision. For the individual with the ten problem solving devices, it is the most fantastic experience in the world. It doesn’t matter whether it’s short or prolonged; the principle is Phil 1:21, “For me living is Christ and dying is profit.”

g. In dying, God saves the best for the last for the Christian. Death is God’s victory.

h. Death is really very private. Only you go through the valley of the shadow of death. While you’re going through it, that epignosis doctrine makes your death very profitable. It makes your death far, far greater than living! You may have had a lot of fun in life, but dying will be even more fun. If you like living, you will love dying. God has saved the best until last. 4. Those who enjoy living are winners, and love dying, i.e., believers who execute the protocol plan through consistent postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation, who reach spiritual self-esteem and advance to spiritual autonomy and take the high ground of spiritual maturity. 5. So in dying, God has saved the best until last. Rom 14:8, “For if we live, we live for the Lord; or if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” There is the utilization of one’s personal sense of destiny.

6. Winners or invisible heroes utilize the ten problem solving devices of the protocol plan, both while living and while dying. In fact, the function and use of the ten problem solving devices contributes to the manufacture of the invisible hero. The function of the ten problem solving devices in dying manifests the dying grace of the invisible hero.

a. Therefore, a sudden change of circumstances doesn’t change their status quo. If you get into the habit of using the ten problem solving devices while living, then you will use them in dying and derive far greater profit from them in dying then you ever did in living.

b. The winner enjoys dying because he has accumulated in the living stage a tremendous inventory of Bible doctrine.

c. He has perfect happiness while living and perfect happiness while dying. Therefore, he loves both living and dying.

d. He is occupied with Christ while living; he is occupied with Christ while dying.

e. He has a personal sense of destiny while living, and he has a personal sense of destiny while dying.

f. He has personal love for God the Father while living; he has personal love for God the Father while dying.

g. He has impersonal love for all mankind while living; he has impersonal love for all mankind while dying.

h. He has grace orientation while living; he has grace orientation while dying.

i. He has doctrinal orientation while living; he has doctrinal orientation while dying.

j. He has faith-rest while living; he has faith-rest while dying.

k. He has the filling of the Spirit while living; he has the filling of the Spirit while dying.

l. He uses rebound while living; he uses rebound while dying.

7. The mystery doctrine of the Church Age plus the ten problem solving devices of the protocol plan provides the dynamic and great historical impact. For the mature believer, the invisible impact of dying is greater than the invisible impact of living.

8. Dying is therefore the greatest experience in life for the invisible hero. Winners or invisible heroes are filled with all the fullness of God so that the blessings of living are extended and parlayed into the blessings of dying.

9. Dying and death is God’s victory. Therefore, the time and the manner of our dying is the wise decision of the sovereignty of God.

H. The Two Categories of Death for the Believer.

1. For the winner, there is dying grace. For the loser, there is the sin unto death, the last act of divine discipline to the loser. Therefore, the winner is prepared for the dying experience; the loser is not. This is the difference between dying grace and the sin unto death.

2. In dying, both winners and losers enter into the presence of the Lord. They remain in a state of perfect happiness, whether winner or loser. Before the Rapture and the Judgment Seat of Christ, there is perfect happiness for every believer and no distinctions are made.

a. While there is a difference in the manner in which we die, there is no difference in the life beyond the grave in heaven; there is only happiness for all.

b. So in dying, both winners and losers leave their body behind on earth while their soul and spirit travel billions of light years into the presence of God.

3. Losers do not lose their salvation, but they do lose their escrow blessings for time and eternity. Because their escrow blessings are irrevocable, they remain on deposit forever as a memorial to their lost opportunity during their living phase in God’s protocol plan.

4. There is nothing any believer can do by way of failure, sin, or evil to cancel the forty things God gave to each of us at salvation.

a. It is the quintessence of human arrogance to assume that because you have failed as a believer you can lose your salvation. That is blasphemous.

b. Because since salvation is the entirely the work of God, once you believe in Christ, you cannot lose your salvation.

5. Therefore, whether the believer is a winner or a loser, whether he dies under dying grace or the sin unto death, the death of every believer is God’s victory.

6. The testimony of the winner in dying grace is found in Phil 1:20- 21. “On the basis of my confident expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but with all boldness, Christ shall even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For me, living is Christ and dying is profit.” Verse 21 teaches the extension from life into death.

I. Summary of Dying Grace.

1. Dying grace is defined as the death of the mature believer who is both a winner and an invisible hero.

2. Dying grace is the divine vehicle for the transferring of the invisible hero from earth to heaven.

3. Dying grace is the mature believer passing over the high golden bridge from earth to heaven, traveling from grace to grace.

4. Escrow blessings for time are distributed to the winner so that he receives the best in time. Dying grace is the final escrow blessing. Therefore, dying grace is better than the best. 5. The distribution of escrow blessings for eternity at the Judgment Seat of Christ is better than the best of the best.

6. Dying grace is the transition between escrow blessings for time and escrow blessings for the eternal state.

7. Job 5:19-27, “From six disasters, God will deliver you. Furthermore, in seven no evil will touch you. In depression [economic disaster], He will preserve you from death; in battle, from the stroke of the sword. You will be hidden from the lash of the tongue [social disaster from sins of the tongue], and you will not be afraid of death when it comes. You will laugh at death and famine. You will have nothing to fear from violent death. You will have a covenant with the stones of the field [weapons, ammunition], and wild animals will be at peace with you. Therefore, you will know that your tent [human body] is in peace, for you will visit your home in heaven and you will not forfeit blessing or reward. And you will know that your seed will be numerous and your descendants like the grass of the earth [perpetuation of client nation]. You will come to the grave in full age, like a shock of corn in its season. Behold this doctrine, we have researched it. This is the gist of it; hear it and apply it to yourself.”

a. In verse 21, four disasters are listed as illustration: depression, warfare, sins of the tongue, and dying.

b. Verse 22 reduces the disasters to two: economic disaster and dying. Wild animals were instruments of violent death in the ancient world, just as drugs and automobiles are today.

c. The believer cannot be removed from life apart from the sovereignty of God. The principle is that until God makes the decision, nothing will remove the believer from this life. Once the decision is made, nothing will keep him here.

d. In verse 23, no instrument of violent death can remove the believer until the sovereignty of God permits. No believer can be removed by death until God is ready to take him home. But once God in His sovereignty calls the believer home, nothing will retain him on this earth.

e. Death is the decision of the sovereignty of God. Therefore, the believer has no right to question the decision and wisdom of God with regard to loved ones. We have the right to mourn, but we have to right to bitterness or antagonism toward God. It is His decision, His judgment call, and His wisdom.

f. Verse 24. Death does not terminate escrow blessings for the winner and the invisible hero.

g. Verse 25. “Seed” is not a reference to procreation, but to blessing by association with the invisible hero. When he dies, the invisible hero knows that personal blessing will continue to be extended to all his loved ones and friends. So the impact of the invisible hero exists not only in his living phase of the protocol plan, but in his dying phase and in death.

h. Verse 26. A “full age” doesn’t mean you live a long life, but that you will die at the right time. God is perfect; therefore, His timing is perfect. In all matters of life and death, timing is important, as noted by this illustration.

i. The illustration is taken from the agriculture of the ancient world. There is a right time and a wrong time to harvest and shuck the corn. Only the expert can determine that right time. God is the expert. Therefore, God decides when it is time for us to die, where we shall die, and how we shall die.

j. All corn does not ripen at the same time. But when corn is ripe and is harvested and separated from its sheath, it is a perfect illustration of our dying. Likewise, we are separated from our physical body through physical death.

k. The sheath represents the human body; the corn represents your soul and spirit as a believer. At the right time, the sovereignty of God removes the corn from its sheath. Since God knows best, His decision is the only decision and the right decision regarding the time, manner, and place of our death.

l. Mourning the death of a loved one is normal. But bitterness and resentment toward God is ignorance of God’s essence and protocol plan. Remember that God knows exactly what He is doing. Therefore, we have no right to question the sovereignty of God.

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