{"id":261,"date":"2023-07-19T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/?p=261&2023"},"modified":"2023-07-17T18:00:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:00:43","slug":"not-the-god-of-the-dead-luke-20-27-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/not-the-god-of-the-dead-luke-20-27-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Not the God of the Dead: Luke 20:27-40"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"spoiler spoiler-style-2\"><div class=\"spoiler-title\">Focus Passage: Luke 20:27-40 (TNIV)<\/div><div class=\"spoiler-content\"><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <sup class=\"versenum\">27<\/sup>\u00a0Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. <sup class=\"versenum\">28<\/sup>\u00a0\u201cTeacher,\u201d they said, \u201cMoses wrote for us that if a man\u2019s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. <sup class=\"versenum\">29<\/sup>\u00a0Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. <sup class=\"versenum\">30<\/sup>\u00a0The second <sup class=\"versenum\">31<\/sup>\u00a0and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. <sup class=\"versenum\">32<\/sup>\u00a0Finally, the woman died too. <sup class=\"versenum\">33<\/sup>\u00a0Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?\u201d <\/p>\r\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <sup class=\"versenum\">34<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus replied, \u201cThe people of this age marry and are given in marriage. <sup class=\"versenum\">35<\/sup>\u00a0But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, <sup class=\"versenum\">36<\/sup>\u00a0and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God\u2019s children, since they are children of the resurrection. <sup class=\"versenum\">37<\/sup>\u00a0But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord \u2018the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.\u2019  <sup class=\"versenum\">38<\/sup>\u00a0He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.\u201d <\/p>\r\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <sup class=\"versenum\">39<\/sup>\u00a0Some of the teachers of the law responded, \u201cWell said, teacher!\u201d <sup class=\"versenum\">40<\/sup>\u00a0And no one dared to ask him any more questions.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"passage-read-more\">Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke 20:27-40&amp;version=tniv\" title=\"Read the passage on BibleGateway.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"hyperlink-underlined\">Luke 20:27-40<\/a> in context and\/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!<\/p><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Have you ever read something and had your mind trail off into a funny scene or odd picture?<\/p>\r\n<p>Surprised as you might be when that happens, even more surprising for me was that happened while studying this passage \u2013 specifically when reading the phrase: <strong>\u201cHe is not the God of the dead, but of the living.\u201d<\/strong> (v. 38a)<\/p>\r\n<p>The scene that jumped into my mind is the easy-to-imagine-for-many scene of a red devil with a pitchfork in a hot fiery place making things very uncomfortable for those who are with him.<\/p>\r\n<p>Why might this scene have jumped into my mind? Well, if the dead are still conscious, and those who died without accepting Jesus have met with their final punishment, then that is where they would be \u2013 maybe.<\/p>\r\n<p>This dualistic thinking sets up the idea that there is a kingdom that God rules over (the living), and a kingdom that the devil rules over (the dead), but if you take that simple idea that is so commonly believed just one step further, it makes Satan (the devil) a \u201cgod\u201d to those who have died and it places his kingdom in a separate place where God has no power \u2013 and this logic does not fit with an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God. Why would God let anyone He helped to form be tormented forever in a place where He has no jurisdiction. Nope, this train of thought does not make sense.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>So if this isn\u2019t the case, should we scrap the idea and say that death is the end of all life?<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>If death was the ultimate end, then the promised \u201cresurrection\u201d would not be true \u2013 and this cannot be the case with the broad context in this passage being that of the resurrection.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>So if neither of these ideas work, what thought makes more sense in light of the resurrection discussion?<\/em><\/p>\r\n<p>The only thought that makes sense for a loving God who has promised a resurrection is that those who have passed away, and who are \u201cresting in peace\u201d are resting an unconscious state waiting for resurrection day. We could call this \u201csleep\u201d, but it is a step further than that since it is a state where only God can awaken us from, and it is unlikely that we dream in this state \u2013 though I have never been there to know this for a fact.<\/p>\r\n<p>However, this logic presents a problem with my imaginary scene: Unconscious dead people don\u2019t make for very good subjects in the kingdom of the dead. Not only that, Jesus conquered death at the resurrection, so if anyone has jurisdiction over the kingdom of death at this point, it\u2019s Jesus \u2013 making death something that we need not fear.<\/p>\r\n<p>This promise then becomes this amazing, climatic truth: <strong>God is not the God of those who will die the second death; but the God of those who will be saved.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"aj-wrap-up--261\" class=\"aj-wrap-up\"><p><em>This thought was inspired by studying the <strong>Walking With Jesus<\/strong> \u201cReflective Bible Study\u201d package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, <a class=\"underline\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/\" title=\"Check out Reflective Bible Study!\">click here<\/a> and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!<\/em><\/p><p><em><a class=\"underline\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\" onClick=\"rbs_aj_inline_subscribe(this, '261');\">Subscribe<\/a> to this blog and never miss an insight.<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever read something and had your mind trail off into a funny scene or odd picture? Surprised as you might be when that happens, even more surprising for me was that happened while studying this passage \u2013 specifically when reading the phrase: \u201cHe is not the God of the dead, but of the [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text"],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[2],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Not the God of the Dead: Luke 20:27-40 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reflectivebiblestudy.com\/gospeladventure\/not-the-god-of-the-dead-luke-20-27-40\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not the God of the Dead: Luke 20:27-40 - Reflective Bible Study Gospel Adventure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever read something and had your mind trail off into a funny scene or odd picture? 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