NOTES OUT OF THE CATECHISM CLASSES Of Rev. J. Fraanje using the Catechism Book

Of Man’s Latter End

Lesson 39 Part I

Gradually we are nearing the completion of the lessons in our question book. At the beginning we learned of the knowledge concerning God; then the knowledge concerning man and after that the knowledge concerning the Mediator. Now our lesson this afternoon deals with the latter end of man; not the latter end of an angel or of the Mediator. Was man actually created to have a latter end?

He was created to serve God, to be obedient and finally to live with Him glorifying and praising Him in eternal bliss. But man broke his probation resulting in the threatening sentence being pronounced: “Thou shalt surely die.” That is, a threefold death, physical, spiritual, and eternal!

To which death do the questions we have learned refer to? Spiritual, physical or eternal?

Answer: The physical death.

That is clear enough. The first question bears that out: Is man to live forever?

Answer: No, Hebrews 9:27, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.”

Doth every part of man die?

Answer: No, the soul is immortal.

Can this be proven from God’s Word, that the soul is immortal?

Answer: Matt. 10:28, “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.”

The soul is that part of a person whereby we are able to live and reason; that part which God infused into Adam directly, without use of means, after he had formed his body by use of means. When we speak, then, of physical death, or of man’s latter end, or as we usually speak of it, of death, what takes place at that time?

The soul is the life of a person. Without a soul a body is a dead mass, a form which God had made from the earth. “Dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return” speaks God’s Word. What takes place when life, that is the soul, departs the body? Is it removed visably or audibly?

No, a person sees nothing. When a kerosene lamp dies out, the light gradually becomes dimmer and dimmer until it is a faint flickering light and then dies out. One can see it but not hear it. It is different with the soul. A person can see a body gradually diminish and life die out, but one cannot hear or see the soul leave the body. Dying itself, comes about in various ways, but it is always visible. The body becomes cold and stiff, movements cease and when the last breath is there, it is announced, “The end is come, death has entered in.”

I have seen many people die, but very few in the same manner. I stood at the death bed of a strong intelligent man lately. He was a young man and sick but a short time. He had always been a farmer and enjoyed his work. He employed all his strength with heart and soul in his work involving horses, cows, land and fields. That was his pleasure and his life.

But now he was at the point of death. I was at the bedside where the family was standing, some of them were crying. I said to these people, “Do you see now what takes place when the Lord comes carrying out the punishment of sin? God first took the strength from this man, he had been healthy and strong but suddenly he became weak and was unable to do anything. Then the Lord took away the desire for working; with horses, cows, plows, and sowing. What had taken all his attention means nothing to him anymore.

Then there is the loss of mind. He is no longer rational and says all sorts of strange things.

Now the Lord will come very soon to take the soul away. That is the last. Then it is brought to an end because the body cannot live without the soul.”

It was plain to see that this man’s life became weaker just as the flame of a candle becomes smaller and finally, when the wick and the wax are consumed, it flickers out.

But death does not always comes as calmly as that.

No, I have experienced seeing it other than that. It happened to a boy who had lived an extraordinary wicked life in the world. He had known how he should live, but he broke all restraints. He suddenly became ill and was to die in the prime of his life. But just prior to dying his conscience struck him fearfully. He pulled the fair from his head and bumped his head against the wall.

It was at though he had a vision of the damnation awaiting him and the devil standing at his side to drag him as the prey into it. It was so terrible, hardly anyone dared to remain in the room with him.

Thus it is, that the way it can also go sometimes when an unregenerate person dies. The Lord is sovereign in all things, also in the manner He allows someone to die.

Now Hellenbroek asks: How many places of abode are there for souls after death?

Answer: Only two, hell or heaven. Matt. 7:13, “Wide is the gate and Broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; but strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

We shall return to enlarge on this later. Then follows the question: Do souls depart thither immediately after death?

Answer: Yes, as appears in Lazarus and the rich man. Luke 16:22, 23, “The rich man immediately lifted up his eyes in hell, and Lazarus was carried into Abraham’s bosom.”

The length of time it takes the soul to pass from the body to its predestined eternal home is impossible to determine with certainty.

God’s Word does not say anything about it, and the hidden things are for the Lord so we must not involve ourselves with this. The small number of God’s children who have been deeply exercised in this mystery say, “It is only a moment.” Even Jesus refrained telling the murderer, merely saying, “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.”

Now Hellenbroek puts forth another peculiar question: “Is there no purgatory?” “No”, says he. The Spirit instructed John, “Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.” So, it is without an intervening time of purgatory. And Jesus’ word to the murderer was plain in this respect. He said, “Today”; not “After a brief stay in purgatory.”

What has this question reference to; do you know who they are who believe in purgatory?

Answer: The Roman Catholics.

Right. These pitiable people believe that there is a vestibule between death and their entrance into heaven. They call this vestibule purgatory. Literally, it means refining or purifying with fire. And do you know who enter there, according to their belief?

They are souls which have received grace and , as such , appointed for heaven, but have not yet made complete reparation for their actual sins. Very wicked people, then, do not enter purgatory but go directly to hell.

But it is, supposedly, a place of purification for the faithful where they must bear their last punishment for sin before they can enter into heaven. If the family of such a deceased send up much prayer and have the priest say the mass for them, the duration of purgatory can be shortened. The more money given by the survivors to “the church” the sooner they can go to heaven.

Of course, it is a frightful mockery. A person reads nothing of this anywhere in God’s Word. Yet they think they can prove it from the words of Jesus. When the Lord said, Matt. 12:32 “—but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come,” they interpret it to mean that other sins can be forgiven in purgatory! But the Lord very plainly intended: These sins are not pardonable here on earth and since heaven and hell are beyond the point of forgiveness this blasphemy is never forgiven. Throughtout the entire Word of God it is plain that there are but two ways described. This doctrine of purgatory, along with the entire religion of popery, is and assault upon the work of the Mediator; as though His work was not complete and a person must suffer punishment to supplement it! It is too wicked to even talk about, because it is a repudiation of God’s Gift of His Own Son for the work of redemption.

(to be continued)

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