THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME

Do I have to tell you about the confusion that exists over the kind of music churches use in their worship services? No, I do not have in mind the controversy over the use of mechanical instruments of music in worship. But there is disagreement over the types of songs churches should use. Some churches, especially the churches that primarily appeal to young people, use what are commonly called "praise songs." Some of these songs are scripturally sound and edifying. However, a substantial number of these songs seem designed to appeal to the emotions of the singers and of the listeners. Have you noticed how many of those songs repeat a word or a phrase over and over and teach practically nothing? Some churches seem to avoid the great hymns that teach the fundamentals of the faith. But are not hymns supposed to teach? Paul commanded the Colossian Christians: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (CoI. 3: 16).

Albert E. Brumley from the state of Arkansas was a very popular songwriter among churches of Christ. He wrote dozens and dozens of songs. I learned recently that his 1932 song, "I'll Fly Away," has been recorded more than any other song ever written. In 2007 alone it was recorded over 800 times. In 1937 Brumley wrote another very popular song: "This World Is Not My Home." I shall take the time to read only the first stanza and the chorus. "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing thro', My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; the angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world any more. 0 Lord, you know, I have no friend like you, if heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do; the angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore."

This song may not have the depths of theological meaning like songs by Johann Sebastian Bach or Ludwig van Beethoven, but it has been a great inspiration to millions of Bible believers. I suspect you know that not all songs - not even all good songs - inspire all people in the same way. For example, the "Hallelujah Chorus" is one of the most loved hymns ever written, but some faithful Christians are not prepared musically to understand it and to benefit from it. That is not being critical of the song or of the people who do not necessarily appreciate it. We come from different backgrounds and have different views of what songs are appropriate in the worship services of the church. I do believe we should be very careful of the songs we use in worship, but we also must be careful of criticizing the songs that help others to live for God. As long as a song does not teach error, we must refrain from being too critical of songs that others enjoy and from which they profit spiritually.

The title of the song, "This World Is not My Home," will serve as the basis of our study today. I remember reading from some theologian who was critical of the song. He argued that we place too much emphasis on heaven and not enough on this earth. Dr. Peter Kreeft's beautiful little book, Heaven the Heart's Deepest Longing (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1980), quotes Teilhard de Chardin, a controversial Roman Catholic priest, as asking, "How can the man who believes in heaven.... believe seriously in the value of worldly occupations" (p. l03)? That is a ridiculous question. I have a better one. How can the man who believes in heaven fail to take seriously worldly occupations? Even though this world is not our home, we must use our time and talent to attend to our earthly duties to our families, to our neighbors, and to all others. Our Lord demanded: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Mt. 6:33). But did he not also command us to take care of the sick, of prisoners, of the disenfranchised and of the lonely? The word of God stresses that we do good in this life as preparation for the life to come. In fact, Jesus himself said: "These (that is, the disobedient) shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Mt. 25: 46). It is impossible to read with any understanding Matthew 25:31-41 and not know who the righteous are. They are the ones who do the will of God. Paul urged the Galatians: "Let us not grow weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we therefore have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who of the household of the faith" (Gal. 6:9-10). Bible believers have almost always been in the forefront of movements to help those who were in need.

You may not believe the faithful children of God have a home waiting for them on the other side. But there is one thing that is absolutely sure: All of us are going to die, unless the Lord returns before that time. When Adam and Eve rebelled against the will of God, the Lord God of heaven and earth said to Adam: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it you were taken: for dust you are, and unto dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). Ecclesiastes 12 provides a classic discussion of the aging process. He speaks of the silver cord's being loosed, or the golden bowl's being broken, or the pitcher's being broken at the fountain, or the wheel's being broken at the cistern. He then referred to the passage I have read to you from Genesis. "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it" (Eccl. 12:6-7).

The language of Ecclesiastes is highly figurative, but the verse I shall read to you from Hebrews is as plain as words can be made. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). I should not need to explain the word "once" (hapax in the Greek), but the word means once for all, once never to repeated. The author of Hebrews uses the same word in reference to Christ's death for the sins of the world. "So Christ once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them who look for him shall he appear a second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28). Does it bother you to think that you might slip into nothingness when you die? That is the view of atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and other unbelievers.

Are you aware that some people in our world, especially adherents of the New Age movement, argue that death is an illusion? I have news for those people. I have stood by the open graves of many individuals. I have witnessed the interment of those people. When I was a graduate student at Harding Graduate School of Religion in Memphis, I heard Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross speak on death and dying. I was definitely impressed by her great knowledge and by her compassion for the dying and for their families. Dr. Kubler-Ross spoke with a heavy German accent, but her message came through loud and clear. She travels all over the world teaching people how to deal with their own deaths and with the deaths of their loved ones. She has made it easier for some people to talk about death and to think about their own mortality.

The Tennessean (Sunday, January 22, 1995) published a brief article with the title, "Expert on dying denies death." The article raises two questions: "Is Elisabeth Kubler-Ross deconstructing her life's work on death? Or is she just in denial?" According to the article, Dr. Kubler-Ross's latest book, On Life after Death, death does not exist. She said in an interview of the New York Times Magazine that her views of death quietly evolved as she heard the life-after-death experiences of her patients (p. 3A). Now that she is dead, I wonder if her views have changed again.

I have two questions I must ask you to consider. Has Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross discovered some truth that Jesus Christ - God manifest in the flesh - had never learned? Or has she accepted the original lie Satan used to deceive Adam and Eve? God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of the tree in midst of the garden. He told them that eating of the forbidden fruit would bring death on them. But Satan said: "You shall not surely die" (Gen. 3: 1-4). God was right. The sin of Adam and Eve brought death on the entire human family. Now we are suffering the consequences of our first parents' grievous sin, regardless of Dr. Kubler-Ross's foolish observations.

Dr. Kubler-Ross's view of death basically agrees with that of many people in the New Age movement. I shall give you some examples of the beliefs of people within the New Age movement. For a number of years, Shirley MacLaine, a prominent Hollywood actress and dancer, was the leading guru in the American New Age movement. She wrote a number of bestselling books. Her book, Out on a Limb (New York: Bantam Books, 1983), maintains that human beings create their own reality. These are Shirley MacLaine's own words. "LIFE, LIVES AND REALITY are only what we perceive them to be. Life doesn't happen to us. We are creating our reality every moment of the day. For that is the truth of the ultimate reality and the ultimate responsibility" (p. 6 of the Introduction). "Perhaps," she says, "there is no such thing as death" (p. 9).

In another of her books, Dancing in the Light (New York: Bantam Books, 1985), Shirley tells her mother: "Mom, you know that you'll never die, even when you go. If you feel they (the spirit guides) are real, they're real" (p. 74). The so-called "spirit guides" are either real or they are not real. Whatever anyone thinks about them or any other idea does not alter their reality or unreality. The truth is: they are figments of over-active imaginations. And if we create our own reality, what if Shirley's mother thinks death is real? Would that mean death was real to Shirley's mother but not to Shirley? Incidentally, they buried Shirley's mother, whatever her view of death.

You may have heard of a New Ager named J. Z. Knight, the inventor of an entity named Ramtha, who is supposed to be a 35,OOO-year-old discarnate spirit. In one of her books, A State of Mind: Ramtha-My Story (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1987), J. Z. Knight asked Ramtha: "If someone murders someone else, you mean the victim wanted to die?" She quotes Ramtha as having said: "That which you term victim doesn't die, entity. No one ever dies, that be a great truth" (p. 328). If you will pardon my technical language: The words of Ramtha are silly and the idea that no one ever dies is a great lie. If no one ever dies, why did Christ say to his disciples: "Lazarus is dead" (John 11: 14)? I have an idea that Christ, the Son of almighty God, knows more about death than a 35,OOO-year-old discarnate spirit.

The so-called "life after death experiences" that Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross mentioned in the article in The Tennessean are not genuine and have absolutely nothing to do with the truth about death. But there is great news for all who believe in Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh. If you are a faithful Christian, you will be raised to life eternal. Our Lord told Martha on the occasion of the death of her brother Lazarus: "I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes me shall never die" (John 11:25-26). As any open-minded person will have to admit, Jesus was not denying the reality of physical death. He was standing in the very presence of death. He was specifically and emphatically teaching that physical death is not the end of man. At the end of the age, "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.... Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:52, 57).

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens .... Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (for we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him" (2 Cor. 5:1, 6, 7-9). The apostle Paul looked forward to enjoying the eternal home of the soul. In his letter to the Philippians, he expressed the desire to depart, and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23).

Tillit S. Teddlie, a faithful gospel preacher and another very popular songwriter among churches of Christ, expressed the same desire Paul discussed in Philippians 1. Brother Teddlie's song, "Heaven Hold All to Me," should be an inspiration to all who sing it with understanding. "Earth holds no treasures but perish with using, however precious they be; yet there's a country to which I am going: heaven holds all to me. Out on the hills of that wonderful country, happy, contended and free, loved ones are waiting and watching my coming: heaven holds all to me. Why should I long for the world and its sorrows, when in that home o'er the sea, millions are singing that wonderful story? Heaven holds all to me." The chorus reads: "Heaven holds all to me, to me, brighter its glory will be; joy without measure will be my treasure: heaven holds all to me."

I know you remember the conversation between Thomas and Christ. Jesus promised all of his disciples-and not just Thomas-to go to prepare a place for the faithful. He said: "And where I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas says unto him, Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus responded with these remarkable words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:5-6). Very briefly, let me sketch what Christ taught about the way to have our sins forgiven and to be on our way to our eternal home.

Our Lord continually emphasized faith as a necessary step to have our sins forgiven. Jesus told his disciples: "He who believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he who believes not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36). I have no idea why the King James translators used the word "believe" in the second part of that verse. The Greek word is apeithon and means obey-not believe. In fact, virtually every translation in my study uses the word "obey." For example, the New American Standard Bible renders the second part of that verse: "But he who does not obey the Son shall not see life." This and many other verses refute the doctrine of faith alone. Jesus also taught: "If you do not believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins" (John 8:24). If the doctrine of faith alone were scriptural, why did the Lord ask his disciples: "Why call me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say unto you" (Lk. 6:46)?

And what were the things Jesus commanded men and women to do to be saved? Jesus began his personal ministry by declaring: "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 4: 17). Jesus made it very plain that repentance is absolutely essential for a person to avoid being eternally lost. Luke records our Lord's teaching on repentance. "There were present at that season some who told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, No; but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, do you think that they were sinners above all men who dwelled in Jerusalem? I tell you, No: but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish" (Lk. 13: 1-5). If men do not repent of their sins, they shall perish forever from the presence of God.

Our Lord also taught the necessity of confessing him before men. "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Mt. 10:32-33). Can you imagine anything sweeter than to have Christ confess you to God in that final day? Can you think of anything more dreadful than to hear him say to the Father, "I never knew him?"

When you confess faith in Christ, you are ready to be baptized for the remission of sins and to be added to the Lord's church (Mk. 16:15-16; 1 Cor. 12:13). When you are baptized, God will forgive your sins and add you to the church where salvation, redemption, election, inheritance, and all other spiritual blessings are located (Eph.1: 3).

I close our lesson with this question: Since this world is not our home, are you preparing for the home Jesus Christ has promised to the faithful?

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334