Human Imperfection - Teboho Kibe (read novels website TXT) 📗

class began to be lifted out of deadness in trespasses and sins and to be seated “together in the heavenly places in union with Christ Jesus”. (Acts 2:1-42; Matt. 16:19; Eph. 2:1-6, NW) So how could the parable describe Lazarus as in Hades, Sheol, hell, or the common grave of mankind? It could not.

But as for the “rich man” class: By refusing Jesus and stubbornly holding onto the works of the Law to justify themselves to life they proved themselves cursed by the Law. So they died to the privilege of being associated with Jesus Christ as the promised Seed of Abraham. Till their physical death they lived on in the flesh, just like the gadabout woman of whom the apostle wrote: “The one that goes in for sensual gratification is dead though she is living.” (1 Tim. 5:6, NW) The Law to which they held proved to be death to them, condemning them to death as accursed sinners. (Rom. 7:9-11) Living on in the flesh, though they were dead in God’s eyes, they could see what happened with the Lazarus class and could be chagrined by it.

As far as the Jews are concerned, the “rich man” was buried three and a half years after Pentecost. Why then at the latest? Because then the good news of God’s kingdom was preached to the despised uncircumcised Gentiles for the first time, at the home of the Italian centurion Cornelius. The “rich man” class among the Jews were not the ones to do the preaching. No; they were not the ones proving to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth in harmony with Jehovah’s promise to Abraham. The one preaching to Cornelius was a member of the despised Lazarus class, the apostle Peter equipped with the “keys of the kingdom”. (Acts 10:1 to 11:18) The “rich man” class was without any life-giving message and was inactive in God’s service, and hence was as dead and buried.

But, you ask, how is it that the rich man is pictured as talking in hell if it is just the common grave of mankind? It is because this is a parable. So dying, being buried and being in hell are used in a symbolic way. This fact shows that it is a parable, because if the “rich man” class were actually in the Bible hell, they could not talk or see a thing. “Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol” (AS)—“be silent in the grave” (AV)—“be brought down to hell” (Dy). So says Psalm 31:17. (Ps. 30:18, Dy) And at Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 we read: “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing more, . . . Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell [(Dy)—in Sheol (AS)—in the grave (AV)], whither thou art hastening.” If one is in the condition like Sheol, hell, or the grave, he is not active in God’s service nor learning any of the truth. There the “rich man” class find themselves and can see the Lazarus class’ change of condition and can talk and complain. It is as when the psalmist despondently said concerning himself: “My life draweth nigh unto Sheol. I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no help, cast off among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me.”—Ps. 88:3-7, AS.

HOW IN TORMENTS

But if Hades, Sheol, or hell is the common grave of mankind, where there is no sensation, knowledge or activity, how is it that the parable says of the rich man in Hades, “he existing in torments”? In the next verse he says it is due to a “blazing fire”. Does that not show there is fire and torment of conscious human souls in Hades, Sheol, or hell? Not at all. This is a parable, and Sheol or Hades is used to picture the condition of the “rich man” class while still here among us on earth. Hence this class can be pictured as being in Sheol or Hades or hell and at the same time existing in torments from a blazing fire. The rich man could not be pictured as in Gehenna, because then he could not be pictured talking, for Gehenna or the “lake of fire that burneth with brimstone” symbolizes “second death”, utter destruction from which there is no resurrection.—Rev. 19:20, AS; 20:14. See footnote.

ABRAHAM SEEN AFAR OFF

The “rich man” class, although living in their religious realm, were dead to God and were as buried in Hades or hell as far as his active service is concerned. For this reason they could be pictured as dead and buried in Hades or the grave and yet be alive and able to look up and see afar off and also to experience torment. What they saw helped to contribute torment to them: “he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in the bosom position with him.” That means the “rich man” class saw they were not getting the blessing as Abraham’s natural seed. They saw the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, far off from them and his favor going to the Jewish remnant and Gentiles who believed on Jesus and followed him. Far from being the promised seed of Abraham for a blessing to all the families and nations of the earth, they were a curse to them. Said Paul: “They are not pleasing God, but are against the interests of all men, as they try to hinder us from speaking to the nations that these might be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins.” (1 Thess. 2:15, 16, NW) Both Paul and Barnabas said to them: “It was necessary for the word of God to be spoken first to you. Since you are thrusting it away from you and do not judge yourselves worthy of everlasting life, look! we turn to the nations. In fact, Jehovah has laid commandment upon us in these words, ‘I have appointed you as a light of nations, for you to be a salvation to the most distant part of the earth.’”—Acts 13:46, 47, NW.

So they see the Lazarus class in the bosom position with Abraham, hence at meal or at banquet with Abraham and on the first couch with him, to betoken being in his special love and favor. (John 13:23, 25; Deut. 13:6; 28:54, 56; 2 Sam. 12:3, 8; Mic. 7:5) That means they are in the bosom favor of the Greater Abraham, Jehovah God, and are having fellowship with him. They have been adopted as sons of God to be associated with Jesus Christ, the true Seed of Abraham, and so they are feasting at the “table of Jehovah” on the Kingdom mysteries and truths and on the pure worship and service of God. (1 John 1:3, 7; John 4:34; Jas. 1:27) But the “rich man” class are on the outside of all this favor, afar off. The Lazarus class are like Isaac, Abraham’s son by his beloved wife Sarah, the son who was made Abraham’s heir. As God said: “It is in Isaac that your seed shall be called.” (Rom. 9:7; Gal. 4:28, NW) But the “rich man” class are like Ishmael, Abraham’s son by the slave girl Hagar. God rejected Ishmael as the seed and he was therefore cast off and sent away so as not to threaten Isaac’s life. So, although those in the “rich man” class might be Abraham’s natural descendants, they were cast off from God’s favor. So they persecute the Lazarus class in envy and revenge, as Ishmael did.—Gal. 4:22-30, NW.

No wonder the “rich man” class are in torments. In Jesus’ day his message tormented them. After he exposed their religious traditions and precepts as contrary to God’s Word and commands, the disciples said: “Do you know that the Pharisees stumbled at hearing what you said?” When he pronounced woes upon them for their religious hypocrisy and self-righteousness, one of them said: “Teacher, in saying these things you also insult us.” This did not quiet Jesus, but he went on further to tell them they had taken away the key of knowledge from the people. Tormented at the report that Jesus was teaching in the temple, they dispatched officers to arrest him, but the officers refused to do so and came back with the tormenting confession: “Never has another man spoken like this.” When he spoke his parable of the vineyard and they saw that the murderers in it meant them, they tried to seize him in their mental anguish, but did not do so, for they feared the people there.—Matt. 15:12-14; Luke 11:45; John 7:32, 45, 46; Matt. 21:45, 46, NW.

Thinking to reduce their torment, they finally had him killed. But their torments were only renewed through the Lazarus class from Pentecost onward. For example, the priests, temple captains and Sadducees were annoyed because Peter and John taught the people in the temple about Jesus and his resurrection. But arrests and imprisonment did not intimidate and silence the apostles. They became bolder and the preaching in Jerusalem was intensified, exasperating the religious heads still more. At Stephen’s testimony before them they felt cut to the heart. Gnashing their teeth and shrieking they rushed on him en masse, threw him outside the city and stoned him to death. Saul of Tarsus, who witnessed this, pushed a rabid persecution of the Lazarus Christians. Being extremely mad against them, he breathed threats and murder against them. But for him it was like the kicking of an ox against the goads and getting deeply pricked. When Saul changed and became the apostle Paul and he and Barnabas preached to great crowds of people, the religious leaders were filled with jealousy and blasphemously contradicted what these said to the people, and then persecuted them for turning with the message to the non-Jews. Repeated are the reports of their uprisings in rage against Paul and his missionary companions. What a torment they were in! How the heat of the flaming message of denunciation and exposure scorched and sizzled them!

MODERN COUNTERPART

The religious officials and leaders of Jewry who made up the “rich man” class of that first century find their modern counterpart in the clergy and religious leaders and supporters of Christendom today. They represent systems that have become entrenched among human society and have great antiquity and age-old traditions. So with their wealth and their influence with the rulers of this world, they have gained for themselves a place of great prominence, respect, influence and control over the people. Outwardly they have appeared very righteous and sacrosanct to men, so that to criticize them seemed sacrilegious, blasphemous and irreligious. They have basked in the favor of the wealthy and the rulers and have wielded mighty political influence. They have appropriated to themselves the Kingdom promises of God’s Word and imagined they were first in the favor of God, the Greater Abraham, and that through them God’s kingdom was to be established over the earth. They have gone in for educational, social and political advantages and have looked down upon the common people as the laity, unlettered, and utterly dependent upon the betitled, educated clergy and their religious systems for Scripture information.

They have given the people little of God’s Word and service and have deceived them with the sectarian traditions and pagan philosophies, leaving them in their spiritual hunger and ulcerous disease. They have taken away the key of knowledge opening the meaning of God’s Word. They have turned the people away from God’s kingdom as humanity’s sole remedy and turned them to the political schemes and policies of worldly rulers and blessed them for engaging in the sanguinary combats of the