A Spiritual-Scientific Poser: How Can Life Rise Again from Ashes Someone Asked?

Dear Dr Lim

 

My name is Brian, an Australian working in Singapore. I have been following your very informative write up on all sorts of subjects with great interest, your latest was whether or not Jesus arose from the dead and how?

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/09/did-jesus-arise-from-dead-and-how.html

 

I am a Christian myself, and in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 it speaks of those who were already dead in Christ, and when he comes again those who were dead and buried will rise first. Then those who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

 

I have always questioned myself how it is possible for those Christians who were not buried, but cremated and their ashes scattered and washed away into the oceans and dissolved in the water could rise up again from the dead to meet with the Lord? 

 

I can understand if they are buried with their bodies still intact in the ground for them to rise up, but not for ashes thrown all over the place especially already washed away into the seas. I have asked this question to a lot of other Christians including several church pastors, preachers and church leaders for an explanation, but none have been able to give me a satisfactory answer. They tried to evade this question and doubt of mine.

 

Now that I have you, and have read all you wrote with such beauty, I seek your wisdom to help me understand. It will be a great help, and thank you

 

Arthur Brian  

 

 

-----------------------------------

 

Thank you Brian, for your very interesting and challenging question.  Thank you for having me to help other believers, non-believers and doubting Thomas as well.  

 

I am really sympathetic for you Brian, but it would be my pleasure in your earnest quest to understand God better. I shall try my level best with His forever guidance on how to pen this answer you wanted.

 

I think it is easy to answer if we accept that a living body is made up of 3 parts like the trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to represent eternal life.  

If we accept this, then we have already answered our doubts as it has already long been explained at the very beginning in Genesis itself.

 

Here’s the answer:

 

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”.

 

There are three parts that make us alive. These are:

 

Th Dead Body from the soil (1) + Breath of God (2) = A Living Soul (3)

 

(Genesis 2:7)

 

Did you get the answer Brian, or are you still unable to understand? Let me try it again in the form of a parable.  

 

We only need any soil, not necessary the ashes from our cremated body already washed away, or already seeped into the soil those who were buried to rise up from dead again. They are the dead soil with no life in them.

 

Once the soul resides inside a living body - this includes bodies of all animals of God creation, the soul then copies exactly what the body does, every movement, action, every thought, and even everything we write as in this sentence when we are still alive.

 

This is the template, spiritually copied. This template as soul cannot be erased, destroyed or die. It is just an exact spiritual copy of the physical body.

 

This copy is not physical or material and we do not realize it has been silently copied into our soul every movement of our lives as evidence for or against us when it leaves our physical body.

 

On death, our soul will combine with the soil - any soil will do to reproduce us with all our actions copied into it. It would be presented before God to read exactly like a computer programme all the things, thoughts and actions we did on earth.

 

God is the Intelligent Designer and the System Programmer of our lives. Everything, every move, everything we write or tell, every thought we execute is instantly and automatically copied and transferred into our soul inside this body-soul system. There is no way we can escape. He is the Supreme Designer and Programmer unless He erases all of them to forgive us in our repentance through Jesus Christ our Lord  

 

This copy has nothing to do with the physical and chemical ashes of cremation already washed away into the oceans as you mentioned.

 

It will also have nothing to do with the soil of burial. It will be the soul with all the programmes already copied, and stored inside that would be read.  

 

The soil is just the building materials that are used to form our body just like the building blocks of amino acids from proteins in food for the synthesis of the flesh of our body to be passed on to our children through our genes.

 

Only our souls that cannot be destroyed by burial, fire or cremation will be used as evidence of our lives here, all we did or even just think for or against us.  That soul is the only ingredient needed for us to rise up again, not the soil from which we shall return.  

 

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”

 

(Genesis 3:19).

 

In Matthew 10:28, it also clearly assures us this:

 

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”.

 

However, if we still cannot understand, we can use our earthy science to illustrate. It would be like this:

 

When a somatic or body cell divides by mitosis to produce daughter cells it makes identical copies of itself. Mitosis is the process of cell division in eukaryotic cells - cells or organisms that clearly have a defined nucleus. The DNA in the cell is duplicated and chromosomes containing the DNA split equally into two daughter cells. The daughter cells become genetically identical to the parent cell. The somatic cells then maintain genetic truthfulness to create exact copies of themselves.  

 

In other words, the cell makes a carbon copy of itself by dividing by using the sugars and proteins (nitrogen) from any food we eat to form the DNA which is then duplicated before the old cell dies.

 

Likewise, our invisible souls that are much higher than our visible DNA footprints of life will also make exactly a copy of ourselves by using the soil – any soil will do, not necessary from your ashes of cremation already washed away as you fear. We will then duplicate ourselves from any soil to become whole once again on death to be with the Lord.

 

If you still cannot understand my simple illustration in the form of a parable, please then go to my other article below. 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=dna+as+soul

Evidence 

 

Once you understand, you may then pass this on to your friends, and also to your church pastors who have been evading your question all these years. I am sorry for this.

 

I hope I have been of help

 

 

I hope you are now more spiritually and intellectually comfortable, and thanks a lot as it has been a great pleasure for me to answer through God’s guidance and grace.

 

Amen!

 

Ju-boo lim

Did Jesus Arise from Dead and How?

 

Dear Barry,

 

Thank you for your comment under this article here:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=spARK+OF+LIFE

 

Indeed, nobody this far has tried to explain how Jesus arose from the dead after being crucified? It is a good question I was wondering myself.

 

I have not heard this explained before, either by any church or by anyone. Everyone tried to avoid giving the answer, except all merely believed Jesus arose from the dead which I too believe in faith.  

 

Let me try to offer an explanation. Hopefully I will not be spiritually and scientifically misled in thoughts.

 

But first let us look at these verses moments Jesus died, and also the account when He raised up Lazarus from his grave:

 

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

 

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

 

Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.

 

And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink.

 

The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

 

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

 

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose”

 

(Matthew 27: 45-51).

 

The way I see what was written, Jesus had a soul in Him before releasing it temporarily for some 3 days or less before it was reunited with His dead body just as much as Jesus managed to return the soul of Lazarus to his body after he was dead for 4 days.

 

Jesus Raises Lazarus

 

“Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

 

Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 

 

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead were laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.  And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 

 

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.  And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go”.

 

(John 11: 38 – 44)

 

It was written in the King James Version of the Bible that Jesus gave up His ghost and died. In other versions the word ‘ghost’ was written as ‘spirit’ which to me was His soul, an entity yet to be defined, detected or measured by science.

 

Yet, we know life exist in a living body made up of nucleic acids or DNA, proteins, sugars, hormones, enzymes, electrolytes, muscles and skeletons, etc, to cause them to strangely be able to feed, creep, reproduce itself, breathe, respond to stimuli by themselves, and when it leaves the body all these chemical components that makes up life stopped immediately and become lifeless. There must be something living residing in these life molecules to make them come alive. But what is it?

 

We need to ask ourselves why something that was living moments ago, suddenly dies moments later? The most mystifying question we need to ask is, where did that life disappear moments later?

 

Like matter and energy that cannot be destroyed, but matter can be converted into energy, so neither can time, space and life be extinguished. It has to go somewhere, perhaps returned to the Universe from where it first originated

 

See “Does a soul exist?”

 

See “How Do We Explain if Ghosts Exist?” under “Evidence that Ghosts do not exist” here:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2020/05/evidence-that-ghosts-do-not-exist.html

 

 

When Jesus physically died His soul, ghost or spirit temporary left Him but was reunited with His dead body once again 3 days later in physical form - at least clearly to me here in these verses:

 

Jesus Appears at the Sea of Galilee

 

“After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. 

 

This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. (John 21:1 - 14)

 

^“And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

 

And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

 

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet…it went on till verse 51 where it says “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven”

 

(Luke 24:36-51)

 

All in Jesus appeared to His disciples at least 10 times in human physical form after His death. See this slide:

 

https://aleteia.org/slideshow/how-many-times-did-jesus-appear-after-his-resurrection/6/

 

The only verse where Jesus told Mary Magdalene

not to touch Him was when Jesus first came out from His tomb

(John 20:17)

 

Most people believe ghosts are some kind of apparition, spectre or the spirit of someone who has departed. Most would agree ghosts are some kind of non-physical non-material beings. Others believe they are restless souls of dead people roaming on earth in certain haunted places. But does life exist after death, and do the dead come back?

 

Here’s some discussion:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/08/does-life-exist-after-death.html

 

Almost all believe once someone dies, they do not return anymore, except in a few exceptions when they experienced clinical death during attempts to resuscitate them.

 

In such cases, they suffer temporary clinical death, but not biological death. They are unlike Jesus and Lazarus who came back in bodily form after 3 – 4 days.  

 

In very rare cases there is an occurrence called “Lazarus phenomenon” in which when someone who seems to be dead shows signs of life again, typically several minutes after doctors and paramedics stopped giving them cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and presumed they are dead.

 

In the case of Jesus there were many whom He raised from the dead, such as in Mark 5:21-24, 35-43, Matthew 9:18-26 and in Luke 8:49-56.

 

We read about the 12-year-old daughter of a synagogue leader named Jairus in Capernaum who was raised from the dead. In these cases, their souls were reunited with their dead bodies, but in all other cases, once a person dies, his / her soul leaves the body forever.

 

In Jesus case, His ghost left Him when He was crucified as in Matthew 27:50, but it was reunited with His body once again after 3 days in His tomb when Sabbath was over, first witnessed by Mary Magdalene.

(Mark 16:1–4)

It was the same when Jesus raised up Lazarus and others by bringing their souls to join back with their dead bodies.

 

It is quite apparent to me that Jesus appeared in physical body form again, and not in the form of a spirit or ghost after His death so that His disciples could touch Him and even ate with them, and that His ghost or spirit was actually His indestructible “life energy” residing inside a physical body made up of nucleic acids, proteins, hormones, enzymes, sugars, fats, water, eletrolytes, etc. 

In other words, 'life forces' in a living body is like matter and energy that are transmutable and transformable.

 

I gave this a thought in the bathroom when I went in to bathe a short while ago after reading your comment a few hours earlier, and came out from the bathroom with this answer. 

I hope I am guided to write correctly and truthfully as I always seek God’s guidance first.

 

May this always be so.

 

Amen. 

Why is it Diffcult to Enter into Heaven

Some two weeks ago I WhatsApp to friends in a chat group the reasons why I think it is very difficult to enter heaven, following another question someone asked me a question what would I like to be if I was given another chance to be a king, queen, president of a country, prime minister, millionaire, a professional as a scientist, doctor and researcher once again here:  

Question: What Would I Like to Be If Given a Chance to Be Born Again?

I replied I would prefer to be any animal running, creeping and flying freely without any worry or requiring any material needs in the wild here: 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/09/i-received-this-question-from-friend

I also explain why it is very difficult for a human animal to enter heaven. 

Following that, I received a reply seeking permission from a friend by the name of Mr. Hor Meng Yew in the chat group if he may give his reply in the same WhatsApp chat group? I assured him it is definitely fine with me, as ours is to share.

 

Here’s what he replied:

 

I refer to the post by Dr Lim JB some time ago about the conversation between the rich young ruler and Jesus in the New Testament in Matthew chapter 19 verse 16 to 22. The concluding remarks of the post was that it is quite impossible for us to enter heaven. It was rather discouraging. So, I looked up the passage and read it through. I noticed that Jesus had a discussion with His disciples following the conversation from verses 23 to 30.

 

In verse 25 the disciples had the same feeling of not being able to enter heaven  " When the disciples heard it they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?""

 

Jesus replied in verse 26, " But Jesus looked at them and said to them, with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.""

 

Moreover, in Luke chapter 23 verse 16 Jesus said to one of the thieves who was crucified next to Him, " And Jesus said to him," Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise."" All the thief did was to humbly admit his sins and through faith sought Jesus' help and he certainly had no opportunity to do any good works. This is not to say that we do not need to do good works but to illustrate that salvation is not earned by doing good works. Salvation is God's free gift to us which we receive by confessing that we have sinned against God and profess faith in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Thus, we receive eternal life from Jesus Christ. After having done this, we submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who guides and empowers us to live the new life in Jesus Christ. 

 

Jesus also said in John chapter 10 verses 28 and 29, " _And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."

 

Jesus said in John chapter 14 verse 16, " And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever."

And in verse 18," I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."

 

We as believers in Jesus Christ are not meant to make it alone. As we journey on our new life in Jesus Christ, He will walk with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. This is why it is important to cultivate a close relationship with God. 

 

In the model prayer that Jesus gave us in Luke chapter 11 verses 2 to 4, He included this, ". . . And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."

So, Jesus anticipates that we will not be perfect and have a need to confess and repent of our sins on our journey of sanctification which will make us more and more like Jesus Christ and good works will be produced.

 

So, God with our side we will surely make it to heaven.

 

----------------------------

 Here’s my reply to Mr. Hor.

 

Thank you for your views Hor Meng Yew

 

This will give us hope if these were the words actually came from the mouth of Jesus. Unfortunately, most of the books and verses written in the Bible were not written by Jesus as Jesus did not write a single word by Him or about Him.

 

All the books in the New Testament were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and later after Jesus died it was Paul or one of his followers or an apostle who wrote all those love letters (epistles) to the early churches throughout the Mediterranean and Asia Minor.

 

For instance, it is often believed that Jesus changed Saul's name to Paul on the road on his way to Damascus when the Lord Jesus commissioned him to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1–19). However, at the time of Saul’s conversion, Jesus still addressed him as “Saul.” Later, Jesus told Ananias to find “Saul” in Damascus and restore his sight. Acts 9 goes on to describe “Saul” as increasing in spiritual strength and understanding of Jesus as the Messiah. So, it was not Jesus who changed his name on the road to Damascus. But it was and still believed it was Jesus who changed his name from Saul to Paul. Actually, Paul's Jewish name was "Saul" and I do not think it was Jesus who changed his name

 

Unfortunately, most of those verses you mentioned were written by Paul when Paul was just another preacher to the early churches similar to all the preachers, pastors, elder brothers, workers, etc, in today’s modern churches.

 

Just like Paul all of the churches today have their own personal versions of what Jesus taught. That's why all the churches today take their own way, and change the names of their churches differently from others just like Saul changing his name to “Paul”.

 

Furthermore, what was taught and written by all the four books of the gospel by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were different from what were written by Paul, and I do not think Jesus gave all those easy promises into heaven as Paul did as well as the current modern churches do the easy way.

 

I think it is still very difficult to enter heaven unless we are prepared to give up everything material, especially our wealth and possessions and follow Jesus with nothing

 

As far as I am concerned, I don’t think I have the slightest chance as given in Luke 18:24-34 here:

 

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.' ²⁶ Those who heard this asked, 'Who then can be saved?' ²⁷ Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with men is possible with God.'

²⁸ Peter said to him, 'We have left all we had to follow you!' ²⁹ 'I tell you the truth,' Jesus said to them, 'no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.'

 

‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it’

(Matthew 7:13) and I don’t think Paul will wish to write and remind the early church members these. So, Paul made it easier for others to enter heaven as the first preacher. I am always reminded that Satan is not sleeping and is always active to cause humans to stray away taking the easy way, many not even believing there is a God, let alone Jesus.

 

Somehow, something made me write to tell that 99.9999 % of everything we buy and possess in life except only food and water we don’t even use at all or use only once and twice and hang up somewhere in the house to collect dust till we die to forcefully release every atom of what we gather here in this world.  

 

I think we need to be extremely, extremely careful not to take the easy way thinking that it is the grace of God through Jesus that any Dick, Tom, and Harry who merely believe that Jesus is the Son of God and do nothing else than just believing will enter heaven.

 

Personally, I don’t think it is as easy as that for sure, and I don’t think I have that chance. Our question is, are we willing and prepared to give up everything in life, everything that is material except food as much as Jesus did who had nothing in life when He came to this world to tell us how to enter heaven. I am strongly reminded of the rich man and Lazarus who had nothing in life and was rewarded in heaven, and I think this belief is also held by Chinese traditional cultures who have nothing to do with Christian beliefs. I don’t think I have a chance by taking the easy way as was clearly said by Jesus in the 2 or 3 above and other verses elsewhere.  

 

The example of the thief whom you quoted who was crucified along with Jesus may not have anything in life to cause him to steal. It could also be an exception or a grace given personally by Jesus in their last moments in life on earth.

 

All they send in the chat group is about local politics, or about covid or about damaging effects of vaccines all the time with no other fresh ideas using their own knowledge  

 

Nevertheless, I thank you Meng Yew for your views which I appreciate and perhaps we need to consider. But we still need to be extremely careful not to take the easiest way, which of course is the path of the least resistance, and I don’t think going to church every Sunday to hear the easy way to heaven is going to help (Matthew 7:13). Jesus has never asked us to go to church made of bricks, stones, bricks, cement and concrete, let alone on Sunday, and I have no clue who wrote that instructions – definitely not Mathew, Luke, John, Mark or even Paul

 

But I know that Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 this:

 

‘And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’. 

 

I think Jesus was referring to a living church, and not one made of bricks, sand, cement and concrete.

 

The word ‘living’ here means our hearts to surrender to all we have in this life and temporary world, and NOT a non-living church made of bricks, cement and stones the easy way.

 

That was the reason why I wrote that I want to be a just a simple animal living in the wild than to be a human animal living here in this temporary world if given a chance to be physically born again

 

I wrote my reasons here:

 

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/2022/09/i-received-this-question-from-friend-in.html

 

My problem wanting this is that we ask for unnecessary things in life, and the risk of losing our soul after that, when none, absolutely none of all other non-human animals need all those things that only human animals like myself need

 

I have much to write that even animals and all living creatures too have a soul and all of them will be transferred to another world to live happily there as they are now here in this world except human animals like myself. None of the animal’s sin like us, and none of them need a prophet or Jesus to come down to teach them how to live, in order to enter into another world or heaven after death 

 

Somehow all those things I wrote and did for the last few years seemed guided by His Hand and were not my own since as a child I have always ask for vision and wisdom to be guided. I have never asked for wealth or to strike a lottery. I only asked for wisdom to be guided 

 

They all seemed to fall in line since my working days and especially before this Covid pandemics started in 2018 I was unknowingly guided to study how life started and evolved and on completion went to study astronomy especially on life elsewhere in this Universe.

 

Then came all these verses in the Bible that fell in line with all that I learned at Cambridge and Oxford in 2018 till 2020

 

I think God has guided me all along in this world, but I am unsure if this will give me a place in heaven? 

 

I personally think is extremely difficult to enter heaven as I have just written in reply to Mr Hor Meng Yew views which I have also posted here along with my reply

 

Lim ju boo