It Is Appointed Once to Die

It is appointed to a man once to die. Some people believe that is an absolute; in other words, Lazarus died once, but Jesus resurrected him, so He either has been translated, or he is still alive on this earth, somewhere. Certainly it is a fact that Jesus only died once, and later He ascended into Heaven. I think that it’s safe to say that has more to do with who He was than that He was appointed once to die.

Well, to be honest, I’m not sure that the rule is absolute. For one thing, Enoch and Elijah never died, so there are at least two exceptions. It seems to me that, if some men are allowed not to die at all, then it is not a stretch of the imagination that some men might die twice. Even if I did believe that the rule was absolute, I would have to presume that Lazarus was translated, rather than still breathing. I think a two-thousand year old man would attract some attention. If he is still alive, then I hope that he will read this and contact me, because I’d love to sit down with him and spend a few days (or weeks) getting him to tell me what he has seen.

Let us consider, though, Enoch. We are told in Genesis that Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him. In Hebrews, we are told that he was translated that he should not see death, because his faith pleased God. The Bible doesn’t tell us what Enoch did that he so pleased God, other than the simple statement that he walked with God. Considering how many other people in the Bible have walked with God, though, without being translated, Enoch’s walk with God must have been pretty extraordinary.

On the last day of Elijah’s life on earth, Elisha refused to be separated from him, even for a moment. Twice the sons of the prophets asked Elisha if he knew that his master was to be taken away from him that day, and Elisha responded, “Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.” The Bible gives us a number of examples of the kind of things that Elijah did in his lifetime, but the fact that everyone in Israel with the gift of prophecy knew that it was his last day on earth tells us something about the kind of man he was.

Of course, Lazarus was not the only one in Scripture that was brought back from the dead. In 2 Kings 4, Elisha revived a boy that had died suddenly. In 2 Kings 13:21, a young man was revived by touching Elisha’s bones. In Luke 8, Jesus revived Jairus’ daughter after she died. There was a young man that Jesus brought back from the dead during his funeral procession…Interestingly enough, out of all of these, Lazarus is the only one mentioned by name (of course, the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is the only parable that has a character with a name—I don’t think that is a coincidence, particularly since the tag line for the parable talks about one being raised from the dead).

The bottom line is, that in general, any given person will die only once. I guess it would be safe to say that it is only possible for a man to die once. God, however, does the impossible on a fairly regular basis, and to resurrect a person from the dead would then make it possible for them to die again. I personally think that I would rather not be resurrected than to have to die twice; I just don’t think I would want to go through that again.

What Happened to Jonah?

There are several points that I would like to cover with regard to Jonah and the whale. First off, was Jonah swallowed by a whale? Some people say that he was not; it’s impossible, the way a whale’s digestive tract is set up, no whale can swallow anything as large as a man. Even if it could, no man could survive being in the stomach of a whale for three days, the digestive fluids would cause him to die a slow and painful death (although not three days worth of slow). Of course, God does the impossible; in fact, the Bible tells us that God prepared the whale for Jonah, so this wasn’t an ordinary whale.
Secondly, was it a whale that swallowed Jonah? The book of Jonah actually says it was a great fish. Biologists tell us that whales are not fish, because they are mammals. Of course, biologists also tell us that tomatoes are not vegetables, because they have seeds, making them, technically, fruits. They aren’t particularly fruit-like, though, so most of us just refer to them as vegetables, anyway (The US Supreme Court has actually ruled that tomatoes are vegetables, so that they can be taxed as vegetables—there is no import tax on fruits). My point is that, in simpler times, people just referred to anything that swam in the sea as a fish, whether it had gills or a blowhole. So, yes, the book of Jonah says it was a great fish, in the Gospels, Jesus says it was a whale. There is no contradiction there.
Thirdly, did Jonah actually survive the ordeal, or did he die and get resurrected? There are a couple of indications that he might actually have died: One, he said himself that he was in Hell, and two, Jesus makes reference to the story of Jonah as the archetype of His own resurrection. Now, was Jonah speaking literally or figuratively? In context, there’s not really any way to tell, that I can see, although it certainly highlights another Messianic prophecy, when David said, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell.” Now, in the reference in the Gospels, Jesus said that there would be no sign given unto “this generation” but the sign of the prophet Jonah, that “as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” To be honest, that doesn’t sound to me like Jesus is suggesting that Jonah died and resurrected, more that He is comparing His own entombment with Jonah’s unusual mode of travel. In fact, it further seems to me that, God put Jonah in the belly of the whale to keep Jonah from drowning, and to give him a chance to consider his own actions. It seems to me that, when Jonah was first swallowed, he figured his time was up. He was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it. It’s possible that, when he said he was in Hell, he was still alive and didn’t realize that he was still alive. After a few days, realizing that he not only wasn’t dead, but, that, against all probability, he wasn’t even dying, he came to an understanding that God wasn’t going to let him off that easy. I don’t believe that Jonah died in the belly of the whale, I think God kept Jonah alive specifically because He wasn’t through with him. I am honest enough to admit that my reluctance to accept the idea that Jonah died and was resurrected may be a result of my own feeling that once one is dead, then one is dead, and there is nothing more that can be done. I feel a certain finality with death, which isn’t necessarily true when God is involved. I can’t help but think that, if God was willing to let Jonah die, and then resurrect him, then the whale was a huge waste of time and energy: Let Jonah drown, explain to him face to face exactly what he needs to do, resurrect his body on (or near) shore, and turn him loose. And if Jonah tries to run to Tarshish again, then drown him again (I don’t really think that would be necessary—a face-to-face with God should straighten anybody out, even more effectively than being in a whale’s belly).

Baptism for the Dead

In First Corinthians, Paul finds himself in an interesting position. The church at Corinth was apparently in a sorry state, they were calling themselves Christians, and worshipping together, but somehow had missed a great deal of what makes a Christian a Christian. Paul admonished them about many things, not the least of which was the fact that many of the Corinthians did not believe in the resurrection.
There are some who refer to Paul’s question, “Why are they then baptized for the dead?” as evidence that, in the early church, people were sometimes baptized by proxy. In other words, one could go to their pastor and say, I just know that if my Aunt Sally were alive today, if I could show her what I’ve been shown, then she would want to get baptized. Can I get baptized for her?” and presumably, the pastor of the church at Corinth would say, “Why, sure, just step on up into this tank and we’ll take good care of Aunt Sally.” I don’t think that is what Paul is suggesting at all. I think that he is reminding the people of Corinth that they were baptized into Christ, and if Christ did not rise from the dead, then their faith is useless. If Jesus wasn’t resurrected, then what hope do the rest of us have of a life to come? What is the point of living the life that we live, if we have no hope of a better life to come?
If you read the whole chapter, it becomes fairly clear that they had an argument with the idea of resurrection from the dead. Paul reminds them that they have been taught the resurrection story; they know that Peter saw Christ (the Aramaic equivalent of the name Peter is Cephas), and then the rest of the disciples, and then others. For whatever reason, these people have decided that this can’t be true. The whole chapter is devoted to the idea that Jesus rose from the dead to show us the way. It wasn’t about getting baptized for the sake of someone else.