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inaccessible to man. This revela–
tion is called the Holy Bible. In it
we read of a man of great renown,
the patriarch Job, who considered
the question of the resurrection.
" l f a man die," he asked, "shall he
live
again?"
H e answered the
How Many Americans
believe in
knowledge of- and capacity for–
space exploration. This very capac–
ity, of course, was given man when
he was created "in the image of
God."
Though the human spirit is capa-
ble of envisioning and planning
toward space travel-and,
unfortun ately, potential
"star wars"- man's bodi–
ly needs are rooted in this
earth. For man needs
LIFE AFTER DEATH
food from the earth, oxy–
gen that is available in the
right amount only in this
earth's atmosphere, a di–
mate that only this earth
provides adequately.
Nationwide
Males
Females
Ages 18-24
25-29
30-49
over
50
82'1»
58 '1>
88%
59'1»
80 '1»
82 '1»
85'1»
Man is endowed with
the incredible mental ca–
pacities to envision inter–
stellar space travel but not
the physical capacities to
express this tremendous
ª
potential. Why ? Even the
~
very
distance
in light years
~
makes it impossible for
~
mortal man to travel to the
tl
nearest star beyond our
~
solar system.
L--------------------.....1
But will interplanetary
question in an address to his Mak–
er:
"AII
the days of my appointed
time will 1 wait, t ill my change
come. Thou shalt call, and
I
will
answer thee: thou wilt have a
desire to the work of thine hands"
(Job 14:14-15).
Job knew something that is miss–
ing in this world's education-that
after
death God would caJI forth
the "work" of his hands to fu lfill
his purpóse. For God had said, as
he created man: "Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness:
and let them have dominion ... "
(Gen. 1:26). Man was created with
powers unlike any animal. He was
created with the abili ty to exercise
"dominion."
But for what great purpose?
Be tter Than " Star Wars"
Tens of millions have seen the films
Star Wars, E.
T.
and other Holly–
wood space films. These cxciting
films are ext remely popular. Thei r
unu sual popularity stems from
man's yearoing to know what is
goin g o n "out there" - out in
space.
Even apart from God , man is
swiftly increasing in his scientific
14
space travel become a reality-in a
life after death?
The apost le Paul begins to reveal
the answer in these words: "For the
Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout , with the voice
of the archangel , and with the
trump of God: and the dead in
C h r ist shall rise first: then we
which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord" (I Thess. 4: 16-17).
The Lord- the once dead and
now resur rected Jesus Christ–
rocketing t hrough space?
Perhaps we have not thought of
the resurrection and our awesome
human potential in terms of space
travel befare. But it is certainly
there!
Our Awesome Potentia l
Now look at this awesome descrip–
tion of mankind's potential: " T hou
madest him a little lower than the
angels; thou crownedst him with
glory and honour , and didst set him
over the works of thy hands: thou
hast pul all things in subjection
under bis feet. For in that he put all
in subjection under him,
he left
nothing that is not put under him.
But now we see not yet all things
put under him" (Heb. 2:7-8).
Think of it! The enti re
UNIVERSE
is to be subject to man. The trans–
lator Weymouth indeed renders the
middle sentence of verse 8: "For
this subjecting of the
UNIVERSE
to
man.... "
Man was created to rule t he
earth and, later, to rule over angels
and ultimately share with God in
the rule of the en tire universe!
" But now we see not
YET
all
things put under h im" (verse 8).
Majar
lessons
have to be learned
by humanity fi rst.
The true purpose of life-and
why mankind has not yet attained
it- is both exciting and awesome.
Man was made in the very image
of God because
God is reproducing
himselfl
When Jesus, the pioneer,
the
fi rstborn.
was boro from the
dead (Col. 1:18), he was boro to be
/ike
his Father, Goo.
Ye t he is also the elder brother
of true C hrist ians, the captain of
our salvation (Heb. 2:1 O), the
di rect
example
of what
we sha/1
become.
J
happen to have four sons. My
sons are totally human just as
J
am human. They are on the
human
leve) of existence-just as
1 am.
What makes us think that the
great God who set in motion al l
laws- like the law of biogenesis–
causing
everything
to reprod uce
after its own kind-would
sudde n–
ly vary from this principie when it
comes
his
t ime to reproduce?
Notice
I
John 3:2: "Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we
shall be: but we know that, when
he shall appear, we shall be like
him; for we shall see him as he
is." Yes, though now, as humans,
true Christians are only
begotten
of God, we shall be boro of God
in t he resurrection and be
GLORI–
FJED
like Jesus is! We shall be
able to look on the g lorified faces
of God and Christ. For, as J ohn
states, we
sha/1 be like him!
How does Jesus look now? The
answer is clearly given in Revela–
tion l: 13-16. Here t he resurrected
Christ is pictured as having t he
(Continued on page 38)
The
PLAIN TRUTH