Why do you want me to witness your pain?
Why do you want me to see every hurt?
Why is it important to you that I agonize with you?
I can't understand why.
To see your grief, watching every single tear fall, why?
Your pain would be my pain.
I would ache in the very core of my being to see you suffer.
My heart would break if I had to see all the agonies of life heaped upon you, upon your children, upon their children…
You say things like- I'm glad they are no longer suffering,
Yet you say I am where I can see you, watch over you, and see you suffer.
What horrific pain it would be to watch and not be able to help.
To see your every action, to witness every step.
To watch you draw near to danger over and over, and never be able to stop you.
How can I not suffer terribly to see you suffer terribly.
I would need to be made of stone to watch without my heart breaking over and over again.
Tell me how I could smile as you cry?
Convince me of the happiness I feel when you live in pain?
Shout out that I am at peace, all the while I see you at war.
Why do you want me to witness your life as it marches on towards death?
Why must you place me as one viewing it all, just so you can believe I know how much you love me?
How do you find comfort knowing I see your anguish every day?
I am given no reprieve from the tortures of life if I must watch yours.
I would rather endure my own endless pain than have to see you suffer, unable to stop any of your pain.
But I can no longer hide, if you believe I am a witness, then I do endure endless pain as I am forced to see yours.
Why, I ask, can't you imagine me at peace, unable to see, unable to know the agonies of the life you have left to live?
Does it sadden you to know I'm missing the joys of your life so much that you think I should endure the pain just to witness the joy?
How is this different from life?
How is this better than life?
How is this not something much worse?
How can you call it heaven?
Tell me, do you want to watch your loved ones suffer- is that your idea of joy in heaven?
Is that your idea of a better place?
The ultimate viewing box uncensored in any way for all those I love.
I get to see it all, and by all, I mean all.
You cannot pause heaven's view at will.
If you seek comfort from me when you hurt, I hurt to have to comfort, I hurt because you hurt.
And you call that joy.
And you call that happiness.
And you call that peace.
And you call that love.
For me to be able to see it all is evil.
I am not the Creator.
I am not the Redeemer.
I am not the Father God.
I am not able to endure, I am not given the power of God to know the end from the beginning.
I do NOT become a god!
What if…
What if I have to watch you slip from God's embrace into Satan's claws, and I can do nothing but watch as you are forever taken from me?
Let me sleep.
Let me be at peace.
Let me rest now.
Find your comfort in knowing I know nothing.
Find your comfort in knowing the next thing I will know is my Savior waking me from my sleep, calling me to be with Him- and with you as you join us on that great day of Jesus' return for all His children!
Let me sleep.
Do not keep me awake.
Let me sleep.
I knew you loved me.
God has you, look to Him, not me.
I am at peace.
I trusted God to keep you, and He will.
Let me sleep now, knowing my God has you.
Let me sleep in peace.
Let me know nothing - peace.
Let me sleep undisturbed by the lives that continue on after I'm gone.
Let me sleep.
Ecc_9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing
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(Excerpt)
2. ANGELS ARE NOT THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD
We cannot admit that the spirits of dead men ever come back to communicate with the living. And we affirm, upon the authority of the Holy Bible, that they know nothing concerning their friends here or of what is done in this world. Thus Job says: "Thou destroyest the hope of man. Thou prevailest forever against him, and he passeth [i. e., dies]; thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them." Chap. 14:1-21.
This testimony shows that after a man dies he has no knowledge of what befalls his friends here. It plainly contradicts the idea that our dead friends become our guardian angels, watching over us, sympathizing with us in our sorrows, and rejoicing with us in our prosperity. It plainly declares that after a man is dead he knows nothing of what befalls his children in this world. Here is Another testimony still more decisive; "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything. . . . Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9:5, 6.
This text declares positively that the dead know nothing concerning things in this life. They have no part in anything that takes place under the sun. So says the word of the Lord, and so we believe. Indeed, it would be the source of the keenest anguish to a mother, after death, to see her children left destitute, abused, and led into crime and to degradation, as orphan children frequently are. How much of a heaven would this be to her? What good could result from consciousness in heaven under such circumstances? But there is neither reason nor revelation to support such a theory. Spiritualism is one of the greatest schemes that Satan ever devised for the deception and destruction of the human family. It is based upon the supposition that all the spirits who communicate are the spirits of the dead. We propose, therefore, to enter into a Bible investigation of this subject.
3. THE HEAVENLY FAMILY
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph . 3:14, 15. By this we learn that there is a family in heaven.
Who compose that family? Not the spirits of our dead friends, but the holy angels who were created in heaven before man was made upon the earth. We read in many places of the angels in heaven. Thus in Rev. 5:11: "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands."
Spiritualists claim that these angels are the souls of the departed ones who once lived on this earth. As a man cannot die till he is created, of course if angels are only the souls of dead men, there could have been no angels until after the sixth day of creation; no, not even then until one or more men had died. But angels did exist before man was created, or even the foundations of the world were laid. If this be proved, the theory above named, that angels are the spirits of dead men, must fall to the ground.
In Gen. 3:24 we read that God placed cherubim to guard the way of the tree of life when Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden. Cherubim are a high order of angels. This was before any man had died; therefore they were not the souls of dead men. The word of the Lord to Job was: "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" Job 38:3-7.
By this we see that when God laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. This proves that the heavenly family did exist before man was created; therefore they are not disembodied spirits.
Furthermore, men and angels are not of the same nature. Thus, the Psalmist says: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? for Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." Ps. 8:4, 5.
Speaking of Christ, Paul says: "For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham." Heb. 2:16. Then in their very nature angels are different from men, and of course are not men.
But does not the Bible say that at the resurrection we shall become angels?-It does not. Jesus says that the saints shall be equal to the angels, in that they can die no more. Luke 20:36. But this does not intimate that angels and men are of the same nature.
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Angels: Their Nature and Ministry
(Excerpt - for continuing study) Revised by J.H. Waggoner. 1891 by Pacific Press Publishing Co.)
