Thoughts on the Divinity of Christ

The Good Shepherd - Coptic Icon

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:11-16).

The confession of Christ's divinity is the rock upon which the Church is founded, the confession which gives eternal life (Pieper, 1951).

Rationalists deny the true deity of Christ. Jesus is God, they might argue, only in the sense that the Father's will was active in Him. Worship of Jesus as God, therefore, comes from "pious sentiment" rather than the scriptures, since Jesus didn't really claim to be God or command worship (Pieper, 1951). Rationalists, generally, object to the literal deity of Christ. This is because they generally discount anything supernatural or miraculous. And, if the deity of Christ is figurative, we don't have to accept the miracle of the God-man (Pieper, 1951).

But, Jesus does call Himself God.

We might not be able to recognize it immediately. Those people with whom Jesus directly interacted sure did. That's why the Jews wanted to stone Jesus to death when He told them, “I and the Father are one.” This is Jesus Himself claiming literal union with God the Father. Jesus says that He and the Father are made of the same material (Pieper, 1951). To claim to have a divine nature is to claim to be God. Scripture also calls Jesus God in other ways. It says that He is before all things. It says that Jesus is the creator of all things. It describes people worshiping Jesus as God, and He does not stop them. The opening verse of John's Gospel call Jesus God: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God (John 1:1). Jesus is the word of God incarnate. John says here that Jesus, the Word, was God. Whether or not you believe what John writes is another matter entirely. You cannot dispute the plain meaning of what he wrote.

In John 10, Jesus says, "I am the gate for the sheep," and "I am the Good Shepherd." Speaking in this way, Jesus intentionally applies God's name to Himself. This is a name so sacred to the Jews that they would not even say it out loud in order to avoid unintentionally misusing the name of Lord. It shocked them to hear Jesus describe Himself in messianic terms while using God's name.

He was essentially saying that the Messiah was God Himself, and that He, Jesus, was the Messiah (Baumler, 1997).

Jesus is simultaneously the Good Shepherd and the Passover Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (Baumler, 1997). If Jesus is just a man, His death can be described as a tragic but notable example of self-sacrifice for people to copy. If Jesus is God, then His death is the propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world. It is the Good Shepherd dying for His sheep.

Moreover, the title Good Shepherd says to us that Jesus is God. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God said that He Himself would rescue His sheep. When Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd who will die for His sheep, He is making two very important statements. First, He is saying that He is the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophecy. Second, He is claiming to be God and asserting His authority over all the earth (Englebrecht, et. al., 2009).

Jesus is also calling the Pharisees, the religious leaders of His day, the bad shepherds whom Ezekiel describes. They were being removed and replaced by God Himself (Englebrecht, et. al., 2009).

Ezekiel wrote that God would get rid of the bad shepherds who do not care for God's flock. God would not, however, replace them with earthly rulers, as the people of Jesus' day perhaps expected. Those bad shepherds would be replaced with David. God Himself would enter humanity to rescue His flock. He would lay down His life to redeem them. He would unite all His sheep into one fold. He would rule them by His servant David. All this was accomplished in Jesus, God in human flesh, great David's greater Son (Englebrecht, et. al., 2009).

Without the literal deity of Christ, Jesus becomes a mythological object lesson teaching people to be nice. Being nice is great, but if there are eternal consequences for our sin, then some more is necessary. Nice won't take away the guilt of our sin. And, Jesus' words can be twisted so that “nice” means whatever you want it to mean. It also means that nothing is required of us. Or, at least, we are able to do whatever God requires of us. Men like that idea. It makes them responsible for their own destiny. It makes us all our own god.

If, however, mankind's salvation can only be completed by God becoming human to be the propitiation for the sins of the world, then our own efforts to earn God's favor, or to appease His wrath are worthless.

Thanks be to God that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. ###

 

 

 

Works Cited

Pieper, Francis. 1951. Christian Dogmatics, vol. 2 of 3. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Baumler, Gary P., 1997. The People's Bible Commentary: John. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Englebrecht, Edward, et. al., eds. 2009 The Lutheran Study Bible. Notes on the Book of Ezekiel. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Thoughts on Death, the Soul, and Soul Sleep

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:20-28).

Watching TV the other day I saw a commercial for a religious program. One of the intriguing things the presenter said was, if you think you're destined to just go to heaven when you die, think again. He talked about the concept of "sleeping in death" and what this could possibly mean.

Doing a few minutes research on the internet, I found that the program, Beyond Today, is supported by the United Church of God. On their website, they say that those who have died are unconscious and in a dream state awaiting the resurrection, and that popular concept of hell where the wicked suffer eternal torment is not found in Holy Scripture (Beyond Today, 2022).

That got me thinking, "What does scripture say about the human soul, and death?"

The Athanasian Creed summarizes scripture's teaching about what a person is by saying that a man consists of a reasonable soul and human flesh.

God created man's flesh from the dust of the earth, and that He breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, thereby joining soul to flesh (Genesis 2:7). To tear apart this union of body and soul is unnatural (Pieper, 1953). When He created man, God did not intend for man to experience that separation of soul and body. Death was brought into the world as a result of man's sin (Genesis 3:17-19) (Pieper, 1953).

People are not reincarnated, or born again into other physical forms. Such teachings are contrary to God's word. The destiny of man since his fall into sin is to die once, and then to face the judgment of God (Hebrews 9:27-28) (Luther's Small Catechism, 1986).

At the time of physical death, the dust of the body returns to the ground. The body is buried and experiences decay. The spirit returns to God, who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The body "sleeps" while the soul goes to heaven to be with the Lord. Paul, writing to the Philippians, explains that his death is desirable to him, because it would mean that, though Paul would be away from the body and physically dead, he would be at home with the Lord in the heavenly paradise (Philippians 1:23-24). Jesus also promises the thief on the cross next to Him, not that his body and soul will lie dormant in the grave until the Judgment. Jesus assures the man, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42) (Luther's Small Catechism, 1986).

Jesus promises that if we keep His word, we will not see death. We will still, however, die physically, but not eternally. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has removed the sting of death. Physical death is but a slumber to those who are connected to Jesus' death and resurrection by their baptism. Though our bodies will sleep for a while in the grave, our souls will be in Christ, and we will wake to eternal life on the Last Day at the resurrection.

Christ will return to raise the dead on the Last Day. He will raise the same bodies that went into the grave. This hope of the resurrection is taught throughout the scripture. Job says he will see God in his own flesh, and with his own eyes, even after Job's flesh has been destroyed (Job 19:25-27). Jesus explicitly says that, one day, the dead who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out (John 5:28-29). Paul explains to the Thessalonians that, when Christ returns, it is the dead Christians who will rise from their graves first (1 Thessalonians 4:16) (Luther's Small Catechism, 1986).

All people, however, will be raised and will stand before Christ on the Last Day. Christians will rise to eternal life. Christ will transform their bodies to be like His glorious body, though God's word does not give a lot of information about what that will be like. People who do not believe in Jesus will be told to depart to the eternal fire. Believers will experience life everlasting. Unbelievers will experience everlasting death (Luther's Small Catechism, 1986).

There are three types of death described in Holy Scripture: physical, spiritual, and eternal. Physical death is the separation of body and soul. Spiritual death is to be dead in sin and separated from God (Ephesians 2:1-10). It is not believing in God's words of promise. Eternal death is to be cast into hell and suffer eternal separation from God. Jesus, as part of His salvific work, suffered both physical and spiritual death for us (Petersen, 2021).

In spiritual matters, man does not have a free will. This is one of the results of the Fall, and Original Sin. This is part of the spiritual death Adam and Eve experienced when they disobeyed God and passed on to us (Pieper, 1950).

During the time between the death of a person and Christ's return, the souls of the unbelieving people are kept in "prison". This is clearly a place of punishment. Souls of believers are with Christ in paradise. Paul says that this "departing to be with Christ" is far better than our current state (Pieper, 1953).

Questions about such things as soul sleep can be a hindrance to the Gospel. Satan likes to tempt men into worrying about, and arguing over "useless questions" questions such as this. The more people become fixated on these secondary things, the easier it becomes to lose the primary things (Pieper, 1953).

The soul of the Christian, between that believer's physical death and bodily resurrection, is alive, it is at rest, and it is with Christ. That is what scripture says conclusively. We can talk of the soul of the departed being asleep, but such a sleep could not exclude the enjoyment of God (Pieper, 1953).

Scripture doesn't say a lot about what happens to the soul between physical death and the resurrection on the Last Day. Instead, scripture focuses us on that Last Day of judgment, and Jesus' return (Pieper, 1953). ###

Works Cited

Beyond Today, 2022. "What Happens After Death?" United Church of God. www.ucg.org/beyond-today/bible-study-aid/what-happens-after-death .

Luther, Martin. 1986. Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. The Apostles' Creed: IV. The Resurrection of the Body, 187-189.

Pieper, Francis. 1950. Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1 of 3. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Pieper, Francis. 1953. Christian Dogmatics, vol. 3 of 3. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Thoughts on Psalm 50

Christ the Lightgiver

Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before Him, and around him a tempest rages. He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that He may judge His people: "Gather to Me My consecrated ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice." And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is judge (Psalm 50: 3-6).

Christ summons the earth from Zion (v. 2), that is, through His body the Church. Christ, the incarnate YAHWEH, calls the peoples of the world to take refuge in Him.

God took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary as the God-man Jesus. He came to earth to make a covenant, which He did by shedding His blood on the cross (v. 5). God Himself, Our Lord Jesus, is indeed judge.

Jesus proclaimed salvation to the people by God's grace through faith in Him rather than by sacrifice. He condemned the wicked, those who would despise God's word, who would praise God with their lips but whose hearts were far from Him.

In addition to describing Jesus' first coming and judgment, Psalm 50 also illustrates the judgment of the wicked on the Last Day.

God calls the wicked to repentance (v. 16-23). If the wicked continue to despise God's grace, they will be torn to pieces with no one to rescue them (v. 22). Those who honor God through faith in Christ will be shown the salvation of God (v. 23). Indeed, they have already been shown that salvation in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus.

But He is also calling His own people to repentance (v. 7-15).

If trust in riches is useless, so is trust in empty ritualistic worship. The Psalmist is talking about people who think they have forgiveness, life, and salvation because of the ceremonies they perform.

(Or because their name is on a church membership roll because they were baptized there 45 years ago.)

This is the kind of religion or worship done out of habit to earn God's love and favor. God doesn't need our works. They are filthy rags to Him (Isaiah 64:4-7). He owns the cattle on 1,000 hills (v. 10). He doesn't need for us to feed Him (v. 12).

Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). He is the one who, when He lifted up on the cross, would draw all men to Himself (John 12:32). No one comes to the Father except through Him, who is the exact representation of the invisible Yahweh in human flesh (Hebrews 1:3). The One who longed to gather Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks, but they would not (Matthew 23:37)

Worship that is true is to be joyful and willing service to God. After the Old Covenant, that looks like not despising preaching and God's word, but holding it sacred, and gladly hearing, and learning it. It looks like gathering together with God's people around His word to receive the gifts He gives to us through that word: forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (James 1:27). ###

Thoughts on Psalm 11

In the Lord I take refuge. How then can you say to me: "Flee like a bird to your mountain. For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:1-3).

David is not afraid when the evil men of this world do evil. In Psalm 11, he appears to be answering those around him who lament their seemingly hopeless situation - righteous men in an unrighteous world. David reminds them that God is in charge when they say to flee to the mountains. God will destroy the wicked.

It doesn't look like that, though. David realizes that. He doesn't deny that evil is in the world, or that wicked men do wicked things and even prosper. David knows, however, that the wicked things they do, even if they harm him, will not go unnoticed by God.

In His discussion with the disciples about the signs of the end of the age, Jesus tells them that the temple will be destroyed. He tells them that they should leave Jerusalem when they see this thing about to happen. "...then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains..." But the foundation of those who believe in God. It is in Him they take refuge. This catastrophe that looks a lot like the end of the world will not destroy you, even if God allows it to kill you.

God is in His holy temple. The real one is in heaven. He is on His heavenly throne. God's kingdom is not of this corrupt and fallen world. And that God is the Lord Jesus.

God observes man from His throne in judgment. The Lord observes the righteous, but He hates the wicked. Who are the wicked? Who are the righteous? It is important because the wicked will be destroyed at the judgment on the Last Day. Upright men, however, will see God's face.

Jesus says that the pure in heart are blessed because they will see God. But we know that there are no pure in heart. There are none who are righteous, no, not even one. All have sinned. All have fallen short of the glory of God. So who will get to see God's face? Who will avoid the judgment of which David writes?

All of the people who saw Jesus when He declared, "Blessed are the pure in heart" saw the face of God because Jesus is God in human flesh. He is the image of the invisible God. He put on that flesh so He could rescue men from sin and death. He endured the punishment for our sin that we wicked men deserve so that we could see His face on the Last Day, and be saved from the fiery coals, burning sulfur, and scorching wind. ###

Thoughts on Psalm 46

The Last Judgment - Cranach the Elder

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging (Psalm 46:2-3).

God isn't going to stop the earth from giving way, or the mountains from falling. Not ultimately.

In fact, He is going to cause it to happen on the Last Day, when Our Lord Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead. He will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. Those who are alive at His coming will be caught up to meet Him in the air. "And so we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

That's when the earth will melt, and the mountains will fall, and seas will foam, and why we won't be afraid.

We don't have to be afraid because we are in Jesus. We are part of His body. We are safely concealed inside the fortress, the God of Jacob, by our baptism into Christ.

This is the help God gives His people at break of day. His city, Zion, wherein He dwells is set apart. It is holy (v 4). When Jesus lifts His voice and the earth melts, the city of God's people will not fall. This is also how He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth (v. 9). He doesn't do it by diplomatic means. He doesn't put a magic spell on everyone to suddenly make them nice. He judges the wicked. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire.

Knowing the heavens will disappear with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare, we should look forward to this day of God. We should wait for it eagerly, living godly lives that are set apart from the unbelieving world (2 Peter 3:10-13).

But living life soberly isn't being afraid.

We don't need to be afraid. Not of the end of the world. Not of war. Not of economic collapse. Not of disease. Not of our death. Not of anything. We belong to Christ. He bought us with His holy, precious blood, and by His innocent suffering and death on the cross. We will live under Him in His kingdom. We will serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. No more sin, no more death, no more devil.

We will look on from inside His mighty fortress as He carries out His judgment, and throws the devil, death, and all the wicked into the lake of fire (Revelation 20: 7-15).

We will rejoice as He remakes creation anew. ###

Women's Ordination?

Herman Sasse was one of the foremost confessional Lutheran theologians of the 20th Century. Sasse was born in Germany in 1895. He survived service in the Great War and went on to earn a master's degree in theology. He taught at the University of Erlangen in Germany, where he participated in the ecumenical movement. Sasse, Bonhoeffer, Niemoeller, and others opposed the Nazis and spoke out about their mistreatment of the Jews. He survived the Nazi era because he was a popular lecturer, and the dean of the university where he worked was able to protect him. After World War 2, Sasse left Germany for Australia, where he was instrumental in creating the Lutheran Church of Australia. He died in 1976.

Sasse was committed to the idea that scripture is the divinely inspired word of God. Throughout the debates on the role of women in the church during the 1960s, Sasse did not pull any punches. In his essay, "Women's Ordination?", he briefly discussed the development and spread of women's ordination throughout the church in Europe and Australia and why it needed to be resisted.

Sasse wrote that the so-called liberation of women has been good for society. It has also influenced the Church in many good ways. Now there are female teachers, physicians, and women working in a wide range of professions who previously would have been excluded from those jobs by virtue of their sex. Now that women have access to other areas previously denied them, the movement has focused on the pastoral office, something perceived to be one of the last strongholds of male superiority. The office of Pastor, however, is different from other vocations. There is a scriptural prohibition against women holding that office.

In America, groups like the Salvation Army, the Quakers, some Pentecostal, Methodist, and Congregational churches had female ministers. In Germany, the first step down the path to women's ordination was taken with the introduction of female vicars. Their job was "to minister to women in institutions" and assist pastors. However, the female vicars crept into full ministry roles during the war when men were not available.

Acceptance of female pastors happened in the German Protestant church by years and years of decay and compromise and by the loss of Biblical authority. Because of the influence of rationalism and the acceptance of the higher critical method of Biblical interpretation, Sasse says that the pastoral office was changed. It became an academic office instead of a spiritual one. The pastor gradually became something more like a professor or philosopher rather than one who cared for souls. While there were indeed some hold-outs, the matter of women's ordination has been settled in the German Protestant churches for a long time.

In the Swedish state church, where pastors are considered civil servants, there was a disconnect between the bishops, the government, and the laity. They are appointed by the king. Liberal politicians worked to change the law to allow for female pastors. Less radical church leaders did not fight against the changes because they thought such a contentious debate on the role of women would destroy the church. The moderates figured if they could preserve the church's structure, it would remain a means for proclaiming the Gospel, even with women's ordination. This faction consoled itself by believing that the ordination of women did not hinder the Gospel and that only a man-made law was being removed.

Contrary to the Swedish bishops, however, the laity reacted strongly against the ordination of women. Confessional clergymen organized against women's ordination. There was still disunity among the confessional Lutherans and confusion about their actual goals. At the lay level, however, the issue was simple. The average laymen might not have been able to understand precisely how a given heterodox preacher was deviating from scripture and the confessions when delivering his long and erudite sermon. When, however, he saw a lady at the altar in contradiction to the plain reading of God's word, he knew that something was wrong.

This apparent contradiction between the concept of women's ordination and the plain reading of scripture, which was clear to the average layman, is the foundation of Sasse's argument.

It is to this idea which, in good Lutheran fashion, Sasse appeals. He says there is no need to make human arguments against women's ordination. God's word plainly excludes women from the office of the holy ministry. Paul explicitly excludes women from the ministry in his first letter to Timothy. He makes clear that this prohibition is universal, i.e., binding for all Christian congregations of all times, in his first letter to the Corinthians.

To those who would cite Galatians 3:28 to try and justify the ordination of women, Sasse says it is a twisting of God's word. Galatians 3:28 is talking about salvation, not the pastoral office. It does not do away with the difference between male and female, in the sense that the differences between male and female are meaningless and that all roles are now unisex. There is no contradiction between Galatians 3:28 and 1 Corinthians 14:32-40. In terms of His saving grace, Christ makes no distinction between male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free, etc. In terms of the Church carrying out its functions of proclaiming the Word and administering the Sacraments, Galatians 3:28 does not apply.

It all comes down to whether or not you believe God's word is true. The words of scripture are plain and simple to understand in the vast majority of cases. The corrupt mind of a sinful man can rationalize any explanation he wants to make him comfortable in his sin. We human beings are adept at twisting God's word to explain why what we do contrary to God's commands is OK. With issues like women's ordination, scripture is clear. The pastoral office is forbidden to them. But we want to ordain women, so we say Paul was a misogynist. We twist Paul's words and make him argue against himself. That was a cultural prohibition, not a theological one. Sure, his words are plain and meant what they said when they were written, and in that particular place, but they don't mean that for us today.

Doesn't that sound like Satan's original lie to Adam and Eve? Did God really say...?

Sasse concludes that female pastors are deceived and misled. He calls on all to pray for them and that Christ would abide with us and cause the light of His word always to shine among us and illumine us.

God can and does work for the good of those who love Him. God can bring blessing from unlawful ministerial acts. However, that does not make the ordination of women contrary to God's word acceptable. We should not count on such a blessing, especially when we deliberately and knowingly act contrary to what God has told us. Sasse warns faithful Christians not to attend churches that have embraced the ordination of women to the pastoral office, even out of curiosity. They certainly should not kneel at their altars for the Lord's Supper.

At who's altar you kneel, their doctrine you confess. ###

I Am the Alpha and the Omega

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8).

This is Jesus telling John that He is Yahweh. Yahweh, often rendered in our Bibles as the Lord, is who we encounter in Genesis 1:1: In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth...

John already knew this, of course. John's Gospel, like the other three Gospels, is littered with accounts of Jesus confronting His people with this fact. Jesus is telling John so that John can continue to tell us.

Jesus told the Jews to whom He came that He was God in many different ways. One way Jesus does this in John's Gospel is by saying "I am". I am the true vine. I am the bread of life. I am the door. Before Abraham was, I Am. This is significant because God revealed His name to Moses as "I Am Who I Am". In other words, He is God, the self-existent one. He is the one who is, who was, and who always has been.

The Jews understood that Jesus was calling Himself God by calling Himself "I Am" and they tried to stone Him for it. That was the penalty for such blasphemy, recorded in Holy Scripture.

Except that it isn't blasphemy if Jesus claims it, because He is Immanuel, God with us. 

This is the same message Jesus and the disciples preached: God came into human flesh as a man and died on the cross for us, as the ransom for our sin, so we could have forgiveness and eternal life.

This message is what Christianity is.

That Jesus is God incarnate is the only reason what He says is binding. If He were not God, His words would have no more weight or authority than those of other teachers. If Jesus is just a man, then His commands are just opinions. You know what they say about opinions.

So, do we listen to Jesus? If He is God, we had better. Jesus' resurrection proves that He is. 

But what He tells us is not a list of rules to follow to please Him. He doesn't give us tasks to accomplish to make ourselves better, or to atone for our own sin. He tells us that He is God, and He has taken away the guilt of our sin by the shedding of His own blood. He offers that gift to us when we hear people proclaim His message, when people are baptized into Him, His death, and His resurrection, and when they eat His body and drink His blood in the Lord's Supper. He empowers us, through His Word, by the working of His Spirit, to believe it, and to turn away from our sin. He makes us who were dead in our trespasses - really and truly spiritually, damned-for-all-eternity dead - alive.

Only God can do that. ###