It Is Written

The Allure of Death

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001338


00:06 It has stood the test of time.
00:09 God's book.
00:13 The Bible.
00:16 Still relevant in today's complex world.
00:22 It is written sharing hope around the globe.
00:37 It seems hard to deny the fascination that exists
00:39 in today's society with the subject of death.
00:41 Look in the media - books and television programs
00:45 abound on the subject of death and the hereafter.
00:49 And people consume them like they're going out of fashion.
00:53 In 1997, a new program began airing on what was then a new
00:57 television network, drawing as many as six million
01:01 viewers per episode.
01:03 Buffy The Vampire Slayer was the story of a teenage girl
01:07 who battled against demons and vampires.
01:11 Vampires are said to be corpses that periodically come back
01:14 from the dead to disturb or harass the living
01:18 - and Buffy went toe-to-toe against the best of them,
01:21 as well as against ghosts and zombies, other 'things'
01:26 that are said to be 'back from the dead'.
01:29 In recent years, vampires have become big business.
01:32 Huge business, in fact.
01:34 In 2005, the first of the series of four Twilight books
01:40 was released telling the story of a teenage girl
01:43 from Forks, Washington who fell in love with a 104 year
01:48 old vampire.
01:50 In 5 years more than 120 million copies of the Twilight books
01:54 were sold worldwide and they spent more
01:56 than 200 weeks on the New York Times best-seller lists.
02:00 They were extremely popular with children, even young
02:03 children, in spite of the fact that the books were,
02:06 in the words of one writer, one long, bodice-ripping
02:10 romance.
02:12 Maybe that's a story or a discussion
02:14 for another time.
02:15 The author of the Twilight books said that idea for the series
02:19 of books came to her in a dream.
02:23 Now, of course, the Twilight books aren't the first books
02:26 written on the subject of somebody coming back
02:29 from the dead.
02:30 Years ago, Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights
02:33 had Wuthering Heights had Healthcliff communicating
02:37 with the ghost of Catherine.
02:39 Go back even further.
02:40 Shakespeare's writings featured ghosts and spirits
02:44 left and right.
02:45 It's like Shakespeare never met a ghost he didn't like
02:48 or at least didn't want to write about.
02:50 But what we have got today are the mainstreaming
02:54 of books, and movies about the subject that has become
02:59 cultural phenomena.
03:02 Now someone is going to ask: Is there a problem with that?
03:05 From a Biblical point of view, you bet there is.
03:09 I will tell you what the problem is in just a moment.
03:14 It is written is dedicated to sharing the gospel around
03:16 the world.
03:17 To discover more about It Is Written, I invite you
03:19 to visit our website itiswritten.com and browse
03:23 the dozens of pages that describe what we do
03:25 and how we do it.
03:26 Let's get to know each other better.
03:28 Visit our website itiswritten.com today.
03:33 There is no doubt an increasing fascination in society today
03:36 with death, and life after death, and the occult.
03:42 Many people are more than happy to part with their hard
03:45 earned money to be entertained by books and television programs
03:49 and movies which deal with subjects which,
03:52 when you really think about it - are pretty bizarre.
03:55 A teenage girl fighting off vampires and werewolves?
03:59 That was the theme of a very successful television
04:03 program.
04:04 Well what about the idea of a young girl barely out
04:06 of her teens getting...
04:08 intimate with a vampire?
04:11 That idea was behind one of the most successful series
04:14 of books in all of literary history.
04:18 Hollywood has been playing to society's fascination
04:21 with death and the beyond for decades.
04:23 In 1990 the late Patrick Swayze starred in the movie
04:28 Ghost, which promoted the idea of a dead man coming
04:32 back and communicating with his grieving wife.
04:35 Now I am not suggesting that that movie was a documentary
04:39 or was supposed to portray life as it really is, but what
04:43 it did succeed in doing is causing millions of people
04:48 to contemplate the idea of communicating with people
04:53 who have passed away.
04:55 That same year, 1990, another movie was released,
04:58 this one featuring a host of up-and-coming hot, young
05:01 Hollywood stars.
05:03 Now the idea behind this movie, flatliners, was this:
05:06 a group of medical students experimented with experiencing
05:09 clinical death and then they were brought
05:13 back from clinical death so they could talk about
05:16 what death was like.
05:18 Here is what you are going to find.
05:22 More people than ever before have encouraged, have been
05:27 educated to think about this idea that it is possible
05:30 to communicate with those who are dead and gone
05:33 on to the other side.
05:35 Here is something else that is true.
05:38 I'm pretty sure you know this from experience.
05:40 There are many, many, many people who would be very
05:43 uncomfortable in a situation like this - they'd be
05:47 uncomfortable in a cemetery.
05:50 Why?
05:51 Because they have watched programs, read books,
05:54 seen movies about people that come back from the dead
05:57 or about ghosts or gouls or goblins or vampires,
06:00 the werewolves and this sort of thing.
06:03 Are the people here in this cemetery really going
06:06 to hurt anybody?
06:07 I think we both know that the answer to that question
06:10 is "No!"
06:11 I've told people many times before, "it's not the dead
06:14 you need to worry about, it's t he living.
06:16 But there has been an education process that has gone on,
06:21 causing people to become very comfortable with the idea
06:24 that people really do come back from the dead.
06:28 Now let's consider this from a Biblical perspective.
06:32 Does the Bible comment on it?
06:34 Oh yes, the Bible does.
06:35 We read now from Job 7:9 & 10.
06:40 "As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he
06:45 that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.
06:48 He shall return no more to his house, neither shall
06:52 his place know him any more."
06:55 So if we're going to take what the Bible says on this subject
06:58 as the guide for what we believe, we would have
07:00 to conclude that the dead do not come back to visit
07:04 the living and they certainly don't come back to suck blood
07:08 out of the necks of unsuspecting victims.
07:11 Yet society is fascinated with this idea of the dead
07:15 coming back to visit the living.
07:17 Where did this allure of death come from?
07:21 There are some societies who embrace this idea very, very
07:25 enthusiastically.
07:26 Every year November the 2nd is in Mexico known as "Dia de
07:32 los Muertos", or, the Day of the Dead.
07:36 It's treated somewhat like a National Holiday.
07:38 It's held very close, or it's related to All Saints'
07:42 Day and All Souls' Day.
07:44 Altars are erected where offerings are left
07:47 for the spirits of dead people.
07:49 Candied skulls are made and left and eaten.
07:54 Various food and drink items are presented as offerings
07:58 for those who have departed and passed over
08:01 to the other side.
08:02 The roots of the Dia de los Muertos go back hundreds
08:06 or even thousands of years, to the traditions practiced
08:09 by indigenous cultures.
08:11 Today, people will visit cemeteries.
08:14 They will go down there in the hope that their prayers
08:17 and conversations will be heard by the spirits of the departed
08:22 who would then come back and tarry and visit with
08:26 the living.
08:27 For a dead child, a gift of a toy may be purchased
08:31 and given, maybe alcohol will be bought as a gift
08:35 or an offering for a dead adult.
08:38 This homage to the dead penetrates Mexican culture
08:42 so far that even government-run schools
08:46 and government buildings have small altars erected
08:49 in honor of Dia de los muertos.
08:53 Skulls and skeletons are commonly seen.
08:56 It is believed that these symbols can be used to honor
09:01 and pay respect to those who have passed on.
09:06 But what was it Job said?
09:09 Job said: "The dead...do not return no more to their
09:14 houses anymore."
09:15 So the Bible comes at this subject from an altogether
09:21 different angle.
09:23 Now North of the border, in the United States, there
09:26 is a different annual homage to the dead.
09:30 So what is it with Halloween?
09:33 We'll talk about that in just a moment.
09:39 In Matthew 4:4 the Word of God says "It is written
09:42 'Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word
09:46 that proceeds out of the mouth of God'."
09:48 Every Word is a one minute Bible-based daily devotional
09:52 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw and designed
09:55 especially for busy people like you.
09:58 Look for Every Word on selected networks or watch
10:02 it on-line everyday on our website itiswritten.com.
10:06 Receive a daily spiritual boost.
10:09 Watch Every Word.
10:10 You'll be glad you did.
10:13 Death is a pretty serious business.
10:16 It's also pretty ugly business.
10:18 Death causes people to experience intensely painful
10:23 emotions.
10:24 Anguish.
10:25 Grief.
10:26 Death brings a whole lot of difficulty.
10:30 And there is a reason for that.
10:32 When God created Adam and Eve back in the beginning,
10:35 he created them with the idea that they would live forever.
10:39 Death was not a part of God's original plan.
10:44 Adam and Eve were created to experience joy and peace
10:48 and gladness and happiness and contentment.
10:52 Death came into the picture as an intruder, and brought
10:56 emotions that were foreign to the human family.
10:59 Emotions that today, we still wrestle with some real
11:04 difficulty.
11:05 You see, God told Adam and Eve that everything would
11:07 work out if they simply followed his perfect
11:10 prescription for a happy life.
11:12 He said in the Garden of Eden they could do anything
11:15 they wanted, pretty much, and eat absolutely anything
11:17 they liked, except for the fruit that grew on the tree
11:20 of the knowledge of good and evil.
11:22 God said "if you eat that, then you will die."
11:25 Death will come.
11:27 Today, we are still bearing the consequences of what
11:32 Adam and Eve did long ago in the Garden of Eden.
11:35 What they did proved Paul's words to be true.
11:38 Paul said" The wages of sin is death."
11:43 So what, about the subject of Halloween, which
11:46 glorifies death and makes death almost something
11:51 to be laughed at, enjoyed, something of sport and fun?
11:56 You see the houses in the United States, and perhaps in some
11:59 other parts of the world, towards the end of every
12:01 October.
12:03 Now, you've got the run of the mill Halloween
12:05 decorations: the jack-o-lanterns -
12:07 they're the carved out pumpkins - and then
12:09 maybe some fake cobwebs on the sides of houses
12:12 or on doors, something like that.
12:14 But then you've got the homes that really.
12:16 And on the front yard there are fake caskets
12:20 and there are tombstones on the lawn and there might even
12:23 be life-size witches hanging from trees or fixed to the
12:27 sides of homes.
12:28 I have seen them up on roofs.
12:30 Halloween celebrates that idea that there is life
12:33 after death in another dimension on the other side.
12:37 Halloween celebrates the idea of the dead coming back
12:41 and not only communicating with but bothering those
12:45 that are living.
12:47 Is that really something that you think God smiles
12:49 upon and blesses?
12:50 Is that something that Bible-believing Christians
12:53 could really, conscientiously participate
12:55 in, knowing that they have got the blessing of God?
13:00 I'd like you to consider this.
13:04 Halloween really muddies the Biblical waters.
13:09 I'll tell you why.
13:10 Halloween celebrates the idea that people live
13:14 on after death, but what does the Bible say?
13:19 Consider these allusions in Bible verses from the Old
13:22 Testament.
13:23 You will read about King "so and so".
13:25 He lived and died and then what does the Bible say?
13:28 He slept with his fathers.
13:30 This other king lived, died, was buried and he slept
13:33 with his fathers.
13:34 The Bible uses that phrase in relation to the kings
13:37 many times.
13:39 Now remember the story of Stephen, the martyr
13:43 of the book of Acts, right around
13:45 the end of Acts Chapter 7, beginning of Acts Chapter 8.
13:48 Stephen was stoned with stones.
13:50 The Bible says " after he had spoken with God, he fell
13:54 asleep."
13:56 Now, what did that mean?
13:57 You know that he didn't fall asleep, that "I'll see you
14:00 in the morning sleep".
14:01 This was a sleep that you would call a sleep of death,
14:07 where Stephen would sleep in his grave until Jesus comes
14:12 and wakes him up in the resurrection.
14:15 You know, the Bible says things like this: "I would
14:18 not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them
14:22 which are asleep."
14:25 What does the Bible mean when it says that?
14:28 It certainly doesn't mean a person lived and died
14:31 and went to heaven.
14:32 How can you be sleeping when you are in heaven?
14:35 Ah, and somebody is going to say - the body is sleeping
14:37 but the spirit is in ......
14:39 Do you know what the Word of God teaches?
14:42 The Word of God teaches that a person is a combination
14:45 of body plus breath.
14:47 You go back to Genesis 2.
14:49 God made the body Adam and then he breathed the breath
14:54 of life into his nostrils and the Bible says Adam
14:57 became a living soul.
14:59 The Word of God does not say God gave Adam a soul, which
15:04 then would depart his body when he died.
15:08 Instead, the Bible says Adam, like everybody else
15:11 from Adam down to here, with the exception of Enoch
15:14 and Elijah, who were taken straight to heaven ...
15:16 everybody else lives and dies and sleeps.
15:20 A dreamless sleep.
15:22 Sleeping in the grave or wherever the final resting
15:25 place might be, waiting for the resurrection.
15:30 Have you ever wondered why there would even be
15:33 a resurrection if people, when they die, go to heaven
15:38 or hell or purgatory or some other place?
15:42 I remember as a child, wrestling with that.
15:44 Standing at the graveside while someone is being
15:47 buried and the officiant saying, "Well, now we commit
15:50 this person's body to grave where it waits
15:53 for the resurrection.
15:54 But back in the church, that same person celebrating
15:57 the funeral service had said "now we can all be glad
16:02 because Mr. or Mrs. So and So, Brother or Sister So
16:05 and So is in heaven."
16:07 How can they be in heaven and in the grave at exactly
16:10 the same time?
16:11 No.
16:12 The Bible says that a person lives, dies and sleeps.
16:18 A dreamless, peaceful sleep waiting for the resurrection.
16:23 That's the only interpretation of what
16:25 happens in death that can possibly make sense.
16:28 If people go to heaven or go to hell when they die
16:31 or that makes communication with the dead possible,
16:34 that breathes life into Halloween celebration
16:37 and one says, well, maybe that's kind
16:40 of what happens.
16:41 But no.
16:42 God has got a better plan.
16:43 His people live.
16:45 They die in faith in Christ.
16:46 They sleep the sleep of death and wake up in the resurrection
16:50 when Jesus comes back to take them home.
16:54 In recent years, the idea of communicating with the dead
16:57 has gotten a big boost through the resurgents
17:03 of spiritist mediums.
17:05 We'll talk about them in just a moment.
17:09 Perhaps something in today's program has sparked your
17:12 interest in greater Bible study.
17:14 We invite you to visit our website itiswritten.com
17:17 where you will find a host of inspirational resources
17:21 including free Bible study guides, there's also a complete
17:24 archive of past television programs and special video
17:26 seminars that you can view on-line or download.
17:29 Discover more at itiswritten.com The subject of death
17:35 and life after death really seems to have gone
17:38 mainstream in the last few years.
17:41 The media, and I am referring to books, movies
17:44 and television have really strongly promoted the idea
17:47 that spirits from the other side can come back
17:50 and communicate with the living.
17:52 And something else that has gone strongly mainstream
17:55 in the last few years is the popularity of spiritist
18:00 Mediums.
18:01 People who claim to be able to put the living in touch
18:05 with the dead.
18:07 What a comforting thought.
18:08 A grieving, lonely spouse might be able to receive
18:12 a visit from a departed spouse.
18:14 Maybe surviving children can receive communications
18:17 from their departed parents or living parents might be able
18:20 to receive visits from their dead children.
18:23 It's easy to see how that thought might be
18:25 comforting to some.
18:27 I was watching a popular television program a few years
18:30 ago in which a well-known spiritist medium offered to put
18:35 somebody in contact with her departed sister.
18:37 This somebody was Denise Brown and her departed
18:42 sister was Nicole Brown Simpson who had been the wife
18:46 of O J Simpson and who had been tragically murdered
18:50 a few years before.
18:52 The crowd watched on with real interest as the medium
18:55 started to, in just a short amount of time bring
18:59 messages purportedly from Denise's dead sister.
19:04 Denise was very impressed.
19:07 She said that the medium was bringing back messages
19:10 that could only have come from Nicole.
19:12 Some of the details were very personal,
19:14 known only to Nicole and the surviving Denise.
19:19 But how could that be when the Bible says that the dead
19:24 do not communicate with the living.
19:26 As a matter of fact, the prophet Isaiah stated
19:29 strongly that God is against people communicating
19:33 with the dead.
19:34 He said that God was against people going to those
19:37 that have familiar spirits.
19:39 That would be going to people who are spiritist
19:43 mediums.
19:45 Again and again, Denise said: Well, what I'm hearing
19:48 could only come from Nicole.
19:53 She is the only one who could have known that.
19:55 The crowd looked as though they wanted to know
19:57 more and more.
19:58 And I am referring to the studio audience.
20:00 Were they ever impressed.
20:02 That must be Nicole, Denise said.
20:05 Only she knows that.
20:07 Well, what I couldn't figure is that if she was really
20:09 Nicole, how come Nicole couldn't tell Denise whether
20:13 O.J was the real killer or not?
20:19 So, let's ask the question: If communicating with the dead
20:24 is something that God does not sanction,
20:26 can this communication really have come from God?
20:31 If God has outlawed human beings speaking to the dead
20:36 via the instrument of a spirit medium, could this really have
20:41 been something that came with God's blessing?
20:44 You know, I've read where one spirit medium said,
20:46 "My work is very powerful.
20:49 It is God's work."
20:50 Now, if you're not familiar with what the Bible says
20:54 about this subject, you might think
20:56 it is God's work.
20:57 But if you are familiar with what the Bible says,
21:01 you might have to come to a different conclusion.
21:04 And what conclusion might that be?
21:08 I think we need to admit that the Devil is more than
21:12 capable of communicating with the minds of people
21:15 and of pressing them with certain thoughts
21:18 and certain ideas.
21:20 You know, one of the movies I mentioned earlier
21:22 in today's program had a promotional line
21:24 which said, Some lines shouldn't be crossed.
21:29 And that's very good advice.
21:30 Some lines shouldn't be crossed.
21:34 While vampires, werewolves and zombies aren't true,
21:39 aren't real and are simply the product overactive
21:43 imaginations, do you think it's safe or right that we
21:47 should treat them like harmless playthings?
21:50 If people don't really come back from the dead,
21:54 if people don't really communicate with the other
21:57 side, if that's not good, if that's not right, if that
22:00 doesn't have God's blessing, is that the sort of thing
22:04 that we want to make our entertainment?
22:07 Is it really appropriate that people ought to be
22:09 reading books, watching movies and television
22:12 programs that deal with those themes and treat those untrue,
22:17 unbiblical ideas as though they are accurate and right?
22:22 Is that the sort of things we want to bring
22:24 into our minds?
22:25 It's hard to imagine that that would be appropriate
22:29 or healthy.
22:30 It's hard to imagine that it would be harmless.
22:33 And it's pretty easy to imagine that it might
22:36 be harmful.
22:39 It's pretty hard to imagine that vampires are God's gift
22:43 to the literary world, not so hard to imagine that they
22:47 might have sprung from some other place.
22:51 Now look - I'm not suggesting that if somebody were to read
22:53 one of the Twilight books they are automatically
22:55 going straight away turn into the devil.
22:57 That's not what I am suggesting at all.
23:01 I know that people want to be entertained and I know
23:03 that people want to have fun, but what the Bible
23:05 is suggesting is that it is not harmless for us to
23:09 entertain ideas that are directly opposed to the truths
23:12 of God's word.
23:13 It isn't safe for us to get away from the platform,
23:17 the strong foundation of the Bible and then go
23:20 and live our lives entertaining ideas and feeding our minds
23:25 with ideas that don't come from God but instead
23:31 come from the enemy.
23:32 and wander onto ground that God does not bless.
23:34 You see, there's One who conquered death, and His
23:37 name is Jesus.
23:38 If we are going to be celebrating anybody at all
23:41 coming up out of the grave, we ought to be rejoicing
23:44 today that Jesus has triumphed over the grave,
23:47 that he has come out of the grave and that today
23:50 he is not dead but he is alive.
23:53 Anything else that you might be celebrating regarding
23:56 somebody coming back from the dead, that's a deception
24:00 and that's a counterfeit.
24:02 The Bible teaches that death and the grave will one day
24:07 be cast into the lake of fire.
24:09 Revelation 21:4 says this: "God shall wipe away all
24:15 tears from their eyes.
24:16 And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
24:22 nor crying."
24:23 (Rev 21:4.) When Jesus died on a cross 2000 years ago,
24:28 he died to pay the penalty for your sins and mine.
24:32 Jesus died after having lived a perfect life.
24:35 And he died and then says to us: If you will accept me
24:39 you're your life, if you will trust me then my death
24:44 will stand in the place of your death and I will give
24:48 you as a gift the everlasting life, not that
24:53 you deserved, but that I deserved, I will give it to
24:56 you as a gift so that you can live with me forever.
25:00 That's a gift God wants you to accept.
25:06 You can have it today.
25:07 The demons, the zombies, the vampires, the ghosts,
25:15 the goblins-- Distractions.
25:18 Designed very purposefully to lead us away from
25:22 the wonderful truths of the Bible.
25:25 Yes, somebody came out of the grave.
25:27 Jesus.
25:28 He went to heaven where he was at the right hand
25:32 of the Father, interceding for people like you and me.
25:36 And one day he is coming back.
25:39 He is coming back for you.
25:41 He wants to take you with him to be with him forever.
25:45 By choosing Jesus today, you're saying "Count me in.
25:49 I'd like to trust in you.
25:50 I thank you Jesus, that you are the resurrection
25:54 and the life.
25:56 Let's pray together.
25:57 Father in heaven, we thank you today for the truth
26:01 that Jesus has triumphed over death, that Jesus has conquered
26:06 the grave and that one day there will be no more death
26:10 and we will be able to live in a place where there is life,
26:15 where there is life and only life
26:19 forever. Lord, by your grace thank you
26:20 that we can be part of that and we pray in Jesus'
26:23 name, Amen.
26:28 Perhaps our program today has touched your heart
26:30 and impressed you with a personal need for deeper
26:32 Bible study.
26:33 If you desire to listen to God and follow where
26:36 he leads, we've got a wonderful resource that can help you
26:39 do that in a systemic way, the Discover Bible Guides.
26:43 These study guides will take you through the essential
26:45 truths taught in Scripture.
26:46 They give you the big picture showing how it all
26:49 fits together.
26:51 The Discover Bible Guides are a wonderful way for you
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27:40 Thank you for your letters and continued support.
27:45 Thanks for joining me today.
27:47 I hope you'll join me again next time.
27:49 And until then, please Iremember: It is written,
27:52 Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
27:56 that proceeds from the mouth of God.


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Revised 2015-02-05