Peter Jennings and recurrence

Last year a famous American national news anchorman - Peter Jennings - announced he had lung cancer and died about four months later. He was about 61.

I bring this up to illustrate a point about why people don't convert even on their death bed.

Peter Jennings was a vain man, very successful and happy in the vain world of success and money and fame. He lived the lifestyle. He was not particularly well-educated, but affected being well-educated. And regarding Christianity he would say, even after being diagnosed as terminal, "born again to me is learning something new everyday." I.e. he had quaint ways to justify his lack of faith, or lack of interest in the faith.

A person like this is like a dog described by a friend of my mom's. We had two dogs that died. The first was a beagle who I speculated would be born again as a dog; the second was a bigger dog, a mix, and intelligent and sort of long-suffering towards adults and children, and I speculated this dog was going to "be a human" in its next life. My mom's friend described the first dog as "still being interested in being a dog."

Peter Jennings at death was still interested in being Peter Jennings. He was rather fond of Peter Jennings and rather fond of Peter Jennings' life and lifestyle; and rather fond as well of the world and what the world has to offer.

Calvin said: "...God does not receive what is his own, unless He is preferred to all things..." (I got that off a forum where a person was using it as a quote, but with no reference to where it came from.) I.e. unless God is "preferred to all things" a person will stay dead in sin (in recurrence) and -- recur. Often happily.

The Bible does NOT say what happens to unregenerate people when they die. It says they go to Hades and leaves it at that in mystery (it doesn't describe Hades or what they do there until the Second Coming). This is not hell. Hell is where you go after you are judged at the second coming of Christ and you face the great white throne judgment. Hades is like what the Greeks described it as. A 'land of shades' where people cycled down into and up back into life and so on. Plato's Myth of Er describes this, sort of a 'reincarnation', but not really. It is very legitimate to see it as recurrence into the same life. The Bible allows for this. IT DOES! I know the Bible, and I know hardcore, no-nonsense theology. Unregenerate at death is not necessarily reprobate at death. Reprobates eventually end up in hell. But there is recurrence happening until that great white throne judgment. (Which is why you can't know if someone is 'going to hell' when they die. I.e. if you know someone who was not a Christian when they died it doesn't mean they are going to hell. They are in recurrence. They may awaken in recurrence. Your own influence on them if you have ANY connection with them in their circle of time may play a part in them eventually awakening, which is why when you are awakened you need to "run the race to the finish line" because you effect other people 'through time' -- even if they are currently 'dead'.)

[Note: what I mean by the above paragraph is when you increase consciousness that is like a current that travels through all the circle of your 'time-body' and it effects people in contact with your circle of time as conscious influence effects a person. It is literally 'C Influence' in their life (because conscious is conscious, and if you attain it it is real consciousness and hence real C Influence). Even when your efforts are being made now it can effect a person who has literally died, but it effects them in a part of the circle of their life in recurrence where they may have connection with you in some way, even via other people. Family members, including dead ones, are like this. So, when you are awakened, and you know rare knowledge and you make real efforts to increase consciousness, real will, and understanding you are NOT just doing it for yourself but for your very family line and ancestry and circle of friends and anybody connected with your life in any way. This is, when pondered and remembered, third force for making real efforts and -- running your race to the finish line.]

Regenerate people, on the other hand, are glorified at death and go to where God is, which is heaven. They escape recurrence. But unregenerate people go to Hades at death (which is not hellfire). The Bible just is not forthcoming on what happens to unregenerate people (unbelievers) at death. The Work says they recur. They are dead in sin anyway. They are in the grips of the adversary Death. Recurrence is death. A person can be developing in recurrence, or staying the same, or the opposite of developing, yet it's still all death. Without regeneration, which only God can do, you are dead. Dead in recurrence. Perhaps ultimately in hell.

Something explains the difference in people. The difference in level of being. Different interests, different abilities, different talents, etc. Recurrence explains this.

Recurrence is also biblically legitimate when you look at human lives from the perspective of God's time, which is eternity. (I won't go into all that, but human time would be recurrence from God's perspective.)

This is ALL biblical.

Peter Jennings felt no qualms about not converting at death because he was like the beagle who 'still was interested in being a beagle' and not like the other dog who seemed to be tired of being a dog and ready to be something else.

But the example of the other dog (who was tired of being a dog) is not a good correspondence to regenerated humans. Regenerated humans might very well still feel the pull of the world and all that, but the fact is they know where their true home is now. They have been made capable of knowing and seeing the truth. They don't want to go to heaven merely because they've 'had enough' of being human, but because they've literally been awakened and given a new heart and new life. A new birth. And they don't belong in a human body.

So, anyway... It's remarkable actually that the Word of God uses the same word - Hades - that Homer and Plato used to describe where people go when they die (unregenerate people). Remember, though: regenerate people go to heaven when they die. They WANT to go to heaven. Peter Jennings wants to be Peter Jennings again in this world, on the other hand...