Immortality (Everlasting Life): The Ultimate Gift from Jesus Christ

By Michael Soh

This book is the only book that runs forward to tackle the biggest mystery facing us today. Michael Soh combines facts, charts, and Bible verses to give readers a deep understanding that death is already destroyed two thousand years ago.

Readers can now make a difference with this victory in their life by staying as immortals in this world tending to His fields. There are many revelation with Bible references to discover renew youth and immortality. Immortality start in the spiritual realm and manifest into the physical realm. This book inspire readers of all ages to turn the tide against the spirit of death that has robbed human race of immortality. It helps to make our world that we live in lives up to its majestic name, the kingdom of God.

In addition to inspiring readers to overcome sickness, it encourages everyone to get going with immortality. You will find lots of road maps that show immortality is achievable and is in accordance with Gods will. Readers can be confident to remain alive till rapture comes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Feb 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543743876

Michael Soh

MICHAEL SOH a fervent Christian who enjoys unravelling the ultimate Bible mystery of overcoming death. He shares many revelations that are unheard off by using Bible verses. He is not shy to openly share the immortality gospel. Nothing about him is orthodox. Neither is he a conformist to human traditions.

Book preview

Open Invitation

C hristians believe the existence of the Tree of Life. It appeared right upfront in the Bible. They also believe that whoever eats from this tree will live forever (Genesis 3:22). Immortality is freely given by God from the beginning of mankind. Thus it follows that if God can send Jesus, the most precious gift from heaven to die for us, surely He will not hold back the tree of life (immortality) from us. This is clear when we read Roman 8:32: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

The problem that we face today is that we ask not. We do not ask for immortality as we are brainwashed not to do so. We dare not and would not because it is generally accepted that it is not God’s will to give us immortality. In addition we are taught everyday by our parents and teachers that death is unavoidable. And everywhere we go, the media plays to the same tune, reinforcing what we are taught. What we are taught are consistent with what we see personally. It is a grim picture of many people dying helplessly and at a young age. But all these are far from the truth. This book will unlock the true heart of our Heavenly Father who wants to bless us with life abundantly. I sincerely trust when the reader reaches the end of this book, he or she will understand that an abundant life can only equate to immortality. Anything short of this will render immortality as more precious than Jesus. Our Heavenly Father holding dearly to immortality over Jesus would be a gross misrepresentation of His character. Reading this book will show you that He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is His will to give us the Tree of Life yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This book is filled with road maps on how you can discover the Tree of Life easily and effortlessly. No more false expectation. No more qualification to get your immortality other than to believe in Jesus. See the beauty in how our Heavenly Father package the Tree of Life together with Jesus and had Him personally send to us. We can never miss out on this gift anymore. There are no more excuses for not knowing that we have access to the Tree of Life. We cannot choose not to take delivery of this ultimate gift of Jesus. He fully paid for this gift with His own blood. The ball is on your court. Decide to be an immortal is what I am trying to get you to commit to Jesus. Do Him proud by living an immortal life and wait for His second coming. Be alive and remain (1 Thessalonians 4:17) in this world till He comes again.

Chapter 1

Do You Believe?

H i! My name is Michael. Let me shake your hand virtually (spiritually) and briefly introduce myself. I am an ordinary believer who loves reading the Bible. I believe I have read the Bible over a hundred times end to end, and I still feel so inadequate in understanding it.

You do not know me, but I am determined to share with you that you do not have to die a physical death, since Jesus conquered death on the cross. I do know that it would be hard for you to believe me if I just showed up in front of you and shared with you this belief that you will not die a physical death if you only believe in Jesus, which is found in John 11:26. Surely you would not engage with an absurd, irrational, nonsensical, ridiculous, or senseless discussion with me, as you hardly know me. You probably would consider me delusional and insane to say that Jesus succeeded in destroying physical death.

Yes, I am claiming boldly that Jesus totally removed physical death from this world. My boldness comes from the Bible itself. Each time I read it anew, end to end, a new piece is placed in the revelation jigsaw revealing His plan for man to attain immortality. There are over a hundred Bible verses that I mysteriously stumble into when I read the Bible over and over. I believe that He came to us in this world called planet Earth to undo what Adam and Eve messed up, leaving us having to die a physical death.

The mess created has ravaged and destroyed the peace and tranquillity that the Garden of Eden used to provide. Gone are the days of peaceful strolls around the garden in the presence of our Lord with no rush, no worries of being late for appointments, no traffic jams, no speed traps, no hassles, and no pollution. Back then, work was easy and enjoyable. Adam’s only task was to name all of God’s creation in the Garden of Eden. He had no sales target, cost control, people issues, declining demands for goods, low production, quality issues, raw-materials availability, and pressure to deliver goods on time. Adam’s key performance index was easy as child’s play. There was total peace and happiness back then in everything that Adam did.

The same cannot be said today, as chaos and death seem to rule in everyone’s life. My claim that Jesus successfully reversed death and that death no longer rules for the new converts who believe in the complete work of Jesus is, therefore, a tough sell. You might categorize such a notion as absurd, irrational, nonsensical, ridiculous, or senseless.

However, if I were to rephrase my statement—that if you believe in Jesus, you will not die, with no mention of physical death—you will probably be more amicable and inclined to chat with me and listen to my explanation. Am I saying that we won’t die a spiritual death? You might make provision in our discussion that we will still die a physical death. Like many faithful, you may propose that believing in Jesus will not absolve us from a physical death but will keep our spirit alive after death. We don’t have to go through the second death that we were told to fear (Revelation 20:14: And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire). The first claim that we will not die a physical death would be too offensive, and you might just end our encounter by walking away. The second is more palatable and amicable for us to continue our discussion.

It is safe to say we are quick to find a meeting point that is not contentious in nature—the level at which we can get connected and discuss an issue amicably without feeling awkward, uncomfortable, or even angry at each other. You would, however, have a different face-to-face experience if it was Jesus with you on a one-to-one basis sharing the same discussion. Would you agree with Him? Or would you give Jesus the same cold, awkward treatment?

You do know that Jesus cannot lie. If He lied, He wouldn’t be the perfect sacrifice that God promised He would send to redeem us (Hebrews 10:14: For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy). Likewise, if He intentionally misled, oversold, or overpromised something that He had no intention to deliver, it would be a sin and would make Him an imperfect sacrifice.

I would like to make a personal appeal to you to make your reading of this book worthwhile. I ask that you change your old ways of thinking and be different for once. This appeal is personally written by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

For once, be a child of God. Feel reborn with a new spirit inside you that behaves differently, as written in Colossians 3:9—Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and Ephesians 4:24—And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

A newly born baby does not comprehend what lying is. A baby is innocent at birth and has no way to understand the concept of lying. As for putting up a new self successfully, it is to feel so righteous and holy that you can confidently say that you can never die. Death cannot coexist with righteousness and holiness. God Himself cannot die. He cannot experience death, for He is righteous and holy. God cannot be righteous and holy only to be defeated by death. And we are like Him, according to 1 John 4:17: This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

I would like to put you on notice that this book can only be of great benefit to you if you are a believer of Christ and refuse to carry the old self, the old thinking, and the old understanding that the old evil spirit has bound to the world so deeply. It is time now to break away, and you will do so with His words and not anyone’s advice or experiences.

I am not asking for blind faith or blind understanding. I am asking that you drop the old thinking and restudy the scripture with an open mind. Ask Jesus to reveal the truth of the scripture to you in a personal way. Be bold enough to reassess all your old understanding of the word with simplicity. Consider a new, simple perspective without clouding your understanding with traditions or norms of life that have always been the acceptable standards, rules, models, patterns, or customs.

All these traditions or norms of life have formed a code, a belief, an attitude, an opinion, a value, a rule, or a guiding principle in our life. This make it hard for us to break away and be different from the norm, and to understand new truths from His word. One cannot help but feel robbed by our own traditions and norms of life. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (Colossians 2:8).

Do not subject what you read from now on to all these old norms of life called traditions of understanding. Do not filter what you read and erase what is not acceptable to your values of understanding. Don’t push what you read into a ready cupcake mould so that it comes out the other end harmoniously consistent and not disruptive to your life. Be prepared to experience changes in your life. Experience a big difference in your life from now on.

I pray from now on that Jesus will challenge all believers to test their boundaries of understanding His word. I pray that Jesus will allow believers to see what He really means in His word. May He reveal to all believers what He says literally, factually, accurately, plainly, exactly, and evidently. Let Jesus shake our traditional perspective to a new perspective filled with life without death. Let this shaking be as big as in Luke 14:26: If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. Jesus is not encouraging us to dishonour our parents. He is not a confused God. Jesus in fact reiterated the commandment to honour our parents in Matthew 15:6: And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

So where do we draw the line? Where do we draw the boundary of understanding what Jesus really wants to tell us? I believe He wants us to push our boundaries farther back by discarding boundaries written by tradition or our limited understanding of life. This is what Jesus did in Mark 7:11–13:

¹¹But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) ¹²then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. ¹³Thus you nullify the word of God by your traditions that have been handed down. And you do many things like that.

So let us now dig deep into His word by looking at it with simplicity and an open mind. Let us ask what Jesus is trying to tell us without being bound by traditions and norms of life. Throw away all man-made codes, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, values, rules, or guiding principles in your life and move away from acceptable standards, rules, models, patterns, or customs. Be free from all these dark spiritual chains that stop us from being bold enough to step out of our comfort zone and believe totally in Jesus.

Pause and meditate now on John 11:25–26:

²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; ²⁶and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

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What is your stand now after pausing and mediating on these two verses? Would you answer Jesus immediately after He posts you the question Do you believe me? (as per John 11:26). In your meditation, can you see a revelation that Jesus is saying something drastically different from all His previous teachings? He is effectively saying that now you have victory over death. This victory is not tomorrow or when He comes back again. He is saying to you that you do not have to die in this world now if only you believe in Him.

There is only one condition for seizing this gift of not having to die a physical death. And that condition is to believe in him. Is this a high price to pay? Is this difficult for you? Is this beyond your means of understanding? Is it going against the normal belief of 7.2 billion people in this world? Is it too difficult to believe in Jesus just this once?

Our tradition dictates that we are born to age and grow old. At a certain point of our old age, we will die a physical death. Our codes, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, values, rules, or guiding principles confirm that we all will age and die. We may have some allowance when we consider our acceptable standards, rules, models, patterns, or customs in prolonging our life by carefully controlling our food intake, exercising to stay healthy, and staying away from smoking or drinking. But by the same acceptable standards, rules, models, patterns, or customs, we ultimately still face death.

This conclusion robs us of the ability to move out of our comfort zone and reap the benefit of belief in Christ. This world we live in is likened to a huge veil of death covering all our faces (Isaiah 25:7). This veil can only be torn up when we understand the complete mission of Jesus in this world almost two thousand years ago. One by one, starting with you, we can turn the tide backwards. We can together push the boundary to a new boundary of no death when we unveil death’s spirit covering our face.

Verses 25 and 26 Describe Mutually Exclusive Categories

Let’s try to understand John 11:25–26 and make a fresh push on our boundary of understanding of His word. Many will reason that the word die in John 11:26 means a spiritual death. They will reason with strong conviction that verse 26 is about living spiritually perpetually. They will reason that we do not have to die a spiritual death but we do die a physical death. But this cannot be true, as you read in the verse prior to 26. When you read them both together, you will realize in context that verses 25 and 26 describe two distinct groups of believers.

In verse 25, we have believers who don’t believe that they will never die. They believe that they will die and experience a physical death. Sadly, what they believe will come true as written in Proverbs 18:21: The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. They will surely die according to what they believe. Whatever they believe, they will confess with their tongue. Throughout their lives, they confess without knowing the true consequence of what they confess. They confess with their tongue that they will die, they are old, they are losing their memory, they are losing their eyesight, they are frail, and they are weak. Yes, this group of believers will taste death exactly the way they say it and believe in it—a slow death by sickness called old age. Old age is a form of death in slow motion.

This group is no different from the Jews in the presences of their Pharisees in John 8:52. They exclaimed: "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death." Death in verse 25 is perfectly consistent with death in John 8:52.

But the believers in verse 25 are different from those in verse 26. These two group of believers are mutually exclusive. If all of us have to die a physical death, we don’t need to have verse 26 at all. Have you ever wondered why Jesus would confuse us with a new category of believers—a new breed of believers that are alive and will not die—if we all have to die and be resurrected? If the truth is told, He is not trying to confuse us, nor is He confused. There are really two distinct groups of believers.

If you choose to believe you belong to verse 26, as described by Jesus, you will not taste death. You can be in the group that feels victorious and truly reigns in life (Romans 5:17) with Christ in this world with your two feet firmly grounded on Earth. Verse 26 describes a group that is not known to have been discovered by many believers. Verse 26 teaches believers that they do not have to die a physical death. This is not taught in churches today, nor do any scholars or pastors dare to teach such a thing.

It is pretty scary to talk about verse 26 as meaning no physical death. Currently, no one dares to believe that we can stay alive forever until Christ comes again. Would you dare to join these verse 26 believers? Their belief comes from the bold unencumbered claims that we are alive and believe in Jesus. The two simple, clear conditions to qualify for this blessing of not having to die a physical death are to be alive and believe.

This belief is within the reasoning of a true child of God. The reasoning is sound and comes from the fact that if we all have to die, then verse 26 is redundant and truly unnecessary. If all of us will have to die a physical death, verse 25 perfectly fits the order of death, and it is sufficient to stop at verse 25. The very fact that Jesus did not stop at verse 25 but proceeded to describe a new group of believers as alive and believing in Him points clearly to a hidden jewel—a jewel that many have been blinded to by the spiritual warfare Satan has engaged in from day one of our mere existence in this world.

I daresay that the numbers are few if not only one—me alone—believing that we don’t have to die a physical death. This group will be mocked and made fun of. It is so hard to share John 11:26 on its own and on grounds of the simplicity of Jesus. No one will stand on your side and pray for you. No one will dare to confess these words, and you will be going against the tide to believe that you will not die a physical death.

Everyone surrounding you will be quick to come forward with words of caution that you will age and die. The spiritual war to stop this blessing from being accepted is so strong that it can even make you overlook many other Bible verses that clearly support and assure you that John 11:26 is true. It will stop you from even considering that death is no more for all mankind in this world.

Consistency of Choice of Words

Verse 25 begins by saying that if we believe, we will live even though we die. It already sets the stage that man will die and will be raised. It is called resurrection. This is already the understanding of the Jews before Christ came to planet Earth.

Isaiah 26:19 says, "But your dead will live, LORD; their bodies will rise—let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy—your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead." In John 11:26, however, Jesus is speaking about believers who are still alive and need to decide if they want to stick with verse 25 and die a physical death or skip verse 25 totally. He only sets two conditions for the surviving believers to skip verse 25, they are to remain alive and believe in Jesus.

There is consistency in the choice of words that Jesus used. He is obviously referring to a physical death in both verses 25 and 26. Jesus cannot be speaking of death as physical in verse 25 and spiritual in verse 26. It is out of sync and disconnected.

Imagine I explain that when someone dies, the face loses its colour quickly. If the person is alive, the facial colour is vibrant and will not lose its colour. Can you comprehend if I rephrase my statement as follows: When someone dies, the face loses colour quickly. If the person is spiritually alive, the facial colour is vibrant and will not lose its colour. Can you see it does not gel? One refers to real-life dying a physical death and another confusingly mixes spiritual with colour that can only be seen in physical life in the physical world.

I pray that by now, you are not blinded by the veil, but the veil is lifted up and you can see immortality through the consistency of words chosen by the Holy Spirit in verse 25 and 26.

When Jesus Himself Asks You to Trust Him

We do not know exactly when Christ will come back again. I am 33 years old, and assuming Jesus Christ will take two hundred years from today to make His Second Coming, I would need to stay alive until my age is 233. This would be something impossible and unreasonable for you to accept. No sane person will be able to accept what I just said. It is hard to accept, as we were taught since we were young—in school, in university, in the news media—and have seen with our very own eyes that many men live, grow old, and eventually die. Not many can reach 80 years old, and it is quite impossible to go beyond 120, as written in Genesis 6:3: "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. Many will also quote Hebrews 9:27: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" to brush aside the belief that we cannot die a physical death.

With these understandings that point to no escape from death in our lifetime, would you still want to continue believing in Jesus? He did challenge you to believe Him that you will not die a physical death. He did say in John 11:26 "and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" But by the same token, you have been bombarded with suggestions in Genesis 6:3 and Hebrews 9:27 that you cannot escape death.

Do you still have the faith to believe in Jesus and keep on reading this book—or at least read the next few chapters to find out how Genesis 6:3 and Hebrews 9:27 are consistent with John 11:26? Do you have the faith to simply believe His word and not go by your feelings and worldly understanding? In your meditation on John 11:25–26, did your inner self speak to you to trust Jesus? Do you have peace in trusting Jesus that you will not die a physical death?

Another way to look at this issue is to consider it from the cost perspective. It costs you nothing to be different from what the world believes. It won’t hurt you, and you won’t be penalized if you believe in Jesus that you will not die a physical death. So why not take the bold step forward to believe in Him and live a life with no death? After all, living a long life until Christ comes only glorifies Jesus, as He is the author of life and death, and He commands us to choose life: I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (Deuteronomy 30:19). Your mere presence in this world in your old age in an able vintage body will point many nonbelievers to Christ.

Don’t Join the Pharisees; They Chose Not to Believe

When did the Pharisees ever get anything right? More importantly, would you agree with Pharisees over Jesus? I guess not. As you wrestle with the facts that physical death can no longer rule today’s believers, consider carefully how the Jews in the presence of the learned Pharisees responded to Jesus when He spoke plainly to them in John 8:51–53. Jesus said, "⁵¹Truly I say to you, ‘if a man keeps my word he will never see death.’ ⁵²The Jews said to him, ‘Now we are certain that you have an evil spirit. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead; and you say, If a man keeps my word he will never see death. ⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead: who do you say that you are?’"

It is very clear to me that in these confrontations of words, Jesus is talking to the Jews and Pharisees about a physical death that we need not experience. Pharisees are learned people who read the scriptures. They are knowledgeable about the scriptures and can expound on scriptures like university scholars with PhDs. They teach the Jews in synagogues and are deemed to be super-qualified to speak on religious matters. They are engaged with Jesus on the subject of physical death.

In Greek, the word death found in John 8:51 and 52 is G2288 thanatos, (than’-at-os) From G2348; (properly an adjective used as a noun) death (literally or figuratively): - X deadly, (be . .) death. The Greek word for dead and die found in John 11:25 and 26 respectively is G599 apothnēskō (ap-oth-nace’-ko) From G575 and G2348; to die off (literally or figuratively): - be dead, death, die, lie a-dying, be slain (X with). The use in both John 8:51–52 and John 11:25–26 means the same, but one is a noun and the other is a verb.

I am certain from John 8:51–53 that we do not have to die a physical death because we know that Jesus won’t lie and cannot lie. Jesus won’t accidentally or intentionally mislead the Pharisees with lies or wrong teachings. How can we be assured of this? We are assured of this because we know from the scriptures that Jesus is with no sin (Hebrews 4:15), has no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), was without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:19), was pure (1 John 2:1), and was righteous (1 John 3:3). He cannot have any malicious or nonmalicious intention to mislead the Pharisees. He cannot stay true to His mission to redeem us if He has sin on Him.

Jesus spoke plainly to the Jews and Pharisees. They responded in the same lingo that Jesus was using with them. The Pharisees knew that Abraham and the prophets were not spiritually dead but physically dead. The Pharisees knew this from Psalm 9:17, 31:17, 49:14, and Isaiah 5:14. Unrighteous deaths are in a conscious state in Sheol. Likewise, according to Genesis 37:35, Job 14:13, Psalm 6:5, 16:10, 88:3, and Isaiah 38:10, the righteous dead are also in a conscious state in the same place called Sheol. Obviously, Jesus was not trying to mislead them or tell them a lie in John 8:51: Truly I say to you, If a man keeps my word he will never see death [Thanatos]. And He was not speaking in parables. He was indeed speaking plainly to the Jews in the presence of the Pharisees. The learned Pharisees clearly understood Him and did not rebuke the Jews who responded with accusations that Jesus had an evil spirit inside Him. They not only accused Jesus of having an evil spirit but also rebutted Jesus’s statement as illogical and insane—illogical as Abraham and many prophets before Jesus all died, and insane as they further questioned how Jesus could be greater than Abraham and the many Old Testament prophets.

Effectively, there was no meeting of the minds between Jesus and the Jews who were guided by the Pharisees. This confusion and disagreement was foretold in a prophesy in Isaiah 6:9: And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. The Pharisees are learned scholars, and they should know that much more is demanded from them to understand and be accountable for what they know. They should have spoken up to correct the Jews who responded to Jesus. Their silence when the Jews accused Jesus of demon possession makes them accomplices. They will have to deal with Luke 12:48 when Jesus comes back again: "But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." Their silence has caused confusion to reign. Their open endorsement of the choice of words used by the Jews has caused many believers to be blinded to the truth that they need not die a physical death.

Do You Believe Me?

Do you? With the above explanation laid out in the open, would you believe me when I relate to you that if you believe in Jesus, you don’t have to die a physical death? There will be no Thanotos for you. You can enjoy a long life until Jesus Christ comes again.

I believe if Jesus was standing in front of you, asking you, Do you believe me? you would say yes to Him and would not join the Pharisees to tell Jesus that Abraham died, Paul died, Peter died, James died, Matthew died, Luke died, and so have many of your ancestors who were mere men. Who are you to say that we don’t have to die a physical death? Dare you admit to Him your disbelief?

Chapter 2

God’s Word against 7.2 Billion People

I am glad you are still reading on, and I rejoice with your spirit that you have the hunger to find out the truth. I personally believe you will be blessed tremendously, and you will rise up for Christ to shame the devil for holding back this wonderful truth about immortality. I believe we are all on a victory journey on which we will finally get to live out what Christ won on the cross. I pray that He will pour out His Spirit onto us to enable us to believe that death is already conquered. I pray that His Spirit will stir us further to believe that we will not have to experience a physical death anymore.

We are immortals, just as Jesus is. Immortality is the victory that will pave the way for us to experience His true love in us. We will be so victorious with our immortality in this world that Rapture has to take us out of this world to allow the end time to come into play. Our mere existence as immortals in this world is keeping the end time from happening. Removing death from us will make us the stopper of end time. If we remain in the tribulation period in the end time, we will not die. And if we cannot die in the tribulation period, the end time will never come to an end. If we die during the tribulation period, God is made to look like a liar. Immortality in this world creates a stalemate situation that can only be unlocked by Rapture.

I would like to quickly lay out some Bible verses that give us a strong understanding that we don’t have to die a physical death. Before I can do so, we must first understand firmly that whatever He said and recorded in the Bible will not come back void. He will not lie, and He will definitely fulfil His words: "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11).

I hope you can bear with me for now and picture this Isaiah 55:11 verse as a frame that holds upright a picture painted by Jesus. The frame will enable the painting to be displayed proudly for us to view and enjoy. It will display the thousand words painted on it. The frame gives body to the painting and sets the boundary of our discussion.

Inside the frame we have the fabric that holds the brushstrokes that form and shape the painting. And inside the painting is a drawing that captures all His words intended for us to savour. Inside His words, reality may seem to be absent. Such a painting has a view that normally defies gravity and goes beyond any human comprehension.

A painting can set out ten thousand words describing everything you can read in one book, yet a few brush strokes can change what you understand about a painting. At times, you see a painting that opens a new dimension of your life that you never thought existed. It may be a door that leads you to accept an old belief that existed a long time before but was rejected as insane back then as an acceptable Christian belief. It made no sense at first, but now as it is laid out with its full colours in play together with the aggressive brushstrokes, it makes perfect sense to welcome an insane belief as sane. The painting allows the details and specifics that make the difference in defining the Christian belief to be visible.

Just at a glance, the painting allows us to see two directly opposite views that we read but do not comprehend. Wisdom and foolishness are direct opposites that we can see clearly when we place them together in a painting. After all, 1 Corinthians 1:18–20 states, "¹⁸For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. ²⁰ Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world."

A painting foolishly is not a combination of thousands of brushstrokes but a combination of a thousand words from Him that will leave in us a lasting impression. Likewise, the frame can hold a foolish painting that destroys wisdom and understanding in an unenclosed environment. The frame does not enclose a painting within a boundary; to the contrary, the painting takes its place outside the boundary of the frame. It allows us to enjoy the painting much more in a foolish way. Being foolish gives us room to break away from traditions and culture that are deeply rooted with worldly origin (Colossians 2:8). The frame allows us to take council from His words unhindered.

Personally, the frame of Isaiah 55:11 allows me to reap a great deal of pleasure in my biblical understanding. It brings me closer to His words, to Him, and in Him. It gives me assurance that what is painted with His words will come to pass. Each time it comes to pass, it draws me nearer to Him. The painting holds His words up as the truth. His word is Him, and His word can come upon me in the form of flesh (John 1:14).

No one wants a painting that does not tell the truth. A true painting will bring great joy when we see His words have been fulfilled. A good frame (Isaiah 55:11) plays an important role. This frame preserves the truth and see that the truth comes to pass. It makes the real stuff that matters visible in a painting. The frame gives reality to the painting. It does all these by enriching and deepening our understanding of the world around us.

Without the proper frame (Isaiah 55:11), we end up with a weak visual image of the painting clouded with crumpled fabrics that hide the true image. We won’t be able to enjoy the painting, and we will struggle to see the truth in the painting. We will be in the wilderness going in circles trying to look for the real thing inside the painting—something that we can place our hope in to materialize. We end up with disappointment after disappointment on every outcome. The outcome is uncertain and temporal in nature compared to what we thought we saw in the painting. We may not even be sure what we saw in the painting.

Without knowing exactly what we saw, we will be uncertain of what will come to pass. Uncertainty gives rise to constant changes to the picture that we thought we saw. This increases anxiety, and anxiety allows fear to creep in. With fear, we will find it harder to believe in Him. Faith will take a big dip when we find it hard to believe in His words.

In summary, without the frame (Isaiah 55:11), we struggle to live life to the fullest according to His words. When we struggle to believe in His words, they will not come to pass. We end up seeing promises not fulfilled. We see ourselves defeated and in retreat mode inside His kingdom. We definitely miss the opportunity to serve Jesus in this world with His glory. And all this seems to confirm that Satan’s game plan is working. He is having a field day every day. He could not have it any better. He is seen at the victory party despite the fact that we are told that Jesus won all on the cross.

Jesus’s victorious cry of It is finished! does not in any way reflect the current world we are living in. This makes Rapture look more like a withdrawing in defeat than a victory. Rapture is made out to be a face-saving escape for defeated Christians. We are chased out of this world as alien of this world. We are the losing party, the criminal party on the run. We are made to look like the defeated Germans withdrawing from Russia. But we know historically that neither Germany nor Russia has gone down in world history as the valiant party.

Too Long Out in the Wilderness Without a Frame

There are so many great promises in the Bible, but we do not see them fulfilled. We do not see them fulfilled because we do not know the end picture. We do not know the end picture because we are unable to see the end picture. We cannot see the end picture because we do not have a frame (Isaiah 55:11) to hold the picture upright for us to enjoy.

For too long, we have been seeing paintings without a frame. We obviously struggle to see the truth in any painting if we do not have the drawing in the painting clearly laid out with a frame (Isaiah 55:11). Without the frame, a painting is without the assurance that His words will come back fulfilled. If His words will never come back fulfilled, what is the point of seeing the painting in the first place? An unfulfilled painting is an unfulfilled promise. An unfulfilled promise is effectively an empty promise. An empty promise is effectively a lie.

What is the point of seeing a painting that is a lie? What is the point of possessing a painting that is not the real stuff? A painting is worthless if it is not desired or sought for its truth. A painting loses its value when there are no buyers. Likewise, promises not fulfilled will only make us lose faith in God. This will result in God losing us as His believers. Such a painting will only fuel us to accuse God of empty promises. Such an accusation will only destroy us.

This, in turn, will make Satan a happy devil, increasing his assault on us to make sure that we will never use the frame (Isaiah 55:11). He does this by showing us more paintings that implicate God as a God of empty promises. He is very successful in taking the frame out from our belief system. Over a period of six thousand years, this progressive assault strategy has eroded our belief in Jesus’s words. Satan believes that by taking His words out of our belief system, he will be successful in taking God out of us. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Without the word, we do not see the beginning was with God, we do not see the word was with God, and we definitely do not see God, as we do not have His word with us.

Satan, however, is not celebrating yet. He is reinforcing his claim on us with further assault on His words. He wants us not only to accept defeat but also acknowledge that there is no other option left except to join him. He does this by going all out to gain control of all physical infrastructure that can provide distorted paintings to instil fear into our mind. Internet, news media, movies, television news, newspapers—he controls them all. He even moves upstream to control Hollywood and Bollywood. These infrastructures spew out Satan’s doctrines that will edge out His word completely. Satan adopts this same strategy in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and mainland China. They all act in collusion, assaulting us continuously to remove our faith in Him. They stop us from believing His promises by stopping us from believing in His words.

With this infrastructure in place, Satan goes downstream. He works on cementing death into our life that is heavily tainted with traditions and cultures. Both traditions and cultures have worldly origins (Colossians 2:8: "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ"). Worldly traditions and cultures are contaminated with evil beliefs that took form and shape over the last six thousand years. The final form and shape we see today is a world boxed in with a seemingly unbreakable belief that we all will grow up, age, and die quickly. It is reinforced constantly with caveats that we do not have an option to choose or to change this belief. This runs contradictory to the choices that we have in John 11:25 and John 11:26.

Choice is a fundamental Biblical doctrine. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God explained that he is the creator of life and death. He commands us to choose life, but it is our choice to obey His command or not to. We can go even further back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam had the choice to eat from the tree of life or the tree of knowledge. This perverted belief that we do not have a choice is burned into our brain cells, reinforced by years and years of the same teachings from our parents, schoolteachers, university lecturers, and friends. All these beliefs are captured in television, radio, newspapers, magazine, and online media. They run these captured experiences over and over again until they settles into the world as the generally accepted beliefs, with no alternative belief allowed.

After solidifying our core belief that we do not have a choice, Satan bombards us daily with headline news and stories with the same message that we will all grow up, age, and die quickly. This is done in greater intensity in diverse form and shape but with the same flavour. The objective of such bombardment is to accelerate death without us knowing it is happening. This bombardment goes into overdrive with drawings not captured in any frame of truth. These drawings take new breath as technology advances. Drawings are multiplied in nanoseconds into trillions of digital images and fed back into the world without any frame of truth.

Satan does not want you to see the true picture of what is fed into our brains. These images are far more descriptive of death but in a very subtle way that we will not object to. They leave a powerful spirit of fear inside us that will auto-erase everything that is not consistent with the underlying flavour of death: growing up, aging, and dying young. It will make us fear the worst will soon happen to us, just as it has happened to Job: "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me" (Job 3:25).

Fear of death is spewing out more images of death itself and allowing us to savour death intensely on a spiritual level, bombarding our brains with hundreds of thousands of images per second of crumpled paintings. A crumpled painting will not allow you to see the truth in His words. Death refuses to be framed up but chooses to be in loose form and in disguise as a gift of life. Death is being carried out in your mind so much that you see your picture and yet in that picture you don’t see you yourself. A deceptive picture of life without you in it is as good as death. It is a real war, a war not out there but inside our lives.

Frameless paintings of death mount attacks on us daily without us knowing. Frameless paintings, now in digital image form, deprive us of a true image of life. Without seeing the true image of what we are bombarded with, we are defenceless. We will not be able to correct what is wrong with a distorted image presented to us. How can we correct what is wrong if we in the first place do not know what the correct image is? A correct image must originate from a painting that is properly framed up with a solid frame (Isaiah 55:11). A painting that is not properly framed up with His words is a poor-quality painting.

If you stretch out the painting and put it in a proper frame, you can see lifesaving opportunities—opportunities to restore life by changing the brushstrokes consistent with His words. These brushstrokes are His words that are proven to be lifesaving. Depriving ourselves of His colourful brushstrokes is like depriving our physical body of minerals and vitamins essential to keep us living continuously in our prime.

The above assault strategies adopted by Satan have been so successful that if anyone appears to tell a different story, we would call that person insane. We will not believe in the gospel of immortality even when it is prophesied by many prophets. One example is found in Habakkuk 1:12: "Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. This disbelief is recorded in Acts 13:41. Paul said, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." Sadly, because they do not believe, they will wonder and perish.

The Long Overdue Counter-Attack

This journey to counter-attack may seem daunting. After all, 7.2 billion people are infected with death images imbedded in their mind. The situation seems bleak, and life is certain to be defeated by death. These 7.2 billion people innocently pronounce death onto their own lives, welcoming death prematurely and shortening their lives unknowingly. Believers, however, retreat in comfort with one correct belief that they will be resurrected when Christ comes again (John 11:25).

Sadly, this is generally the understanding of most believers today. They choose to believe the half-truth and ignore the other jewel that is lying openly for all to pick up. John 11:26 is just one verse after John 11:25. They are intimately next to each other, and yet many refuse to accept John 11:26, as they are unable to see the picture at all. It is not that they purposely refuse to see it. They are unable to see this picture of life because it is frameless (without Isaiah 55:11 attached to it). Without that frame holding it up, they are unable to see Him clearly at work with His words that will not come back void.

This half-truth belief is so strongly ingrained in them that it would be hard for anyone to change the way most of them think. Anyone who says otherwise will be thrown out as cult or branded as having a demon inside them. Interestingly, they are not accused of lacking in boldness in believing in His words literally.

The best counter-attack against Satan’s strategy on death is to make it blatantly obvious that His word can neutralize death. His word is God Himself (John 1:1). His word can take form and shape in us (John 1:14: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."). Yes, let us feed ourselves with His words that are life-giving. I intend to do this in the rest of this chapter and the rest of this book. It will help you to get rid of the paintings that are filled with lies and half-truths.

Let us start painting pictures of a life full of Christ in our minds. Place His word like an antidote in the centre of the frame (Isaiah 55:11),