Joseph Finkelstein Resurrected
Dec 30, 2022 17:19:26 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Dec 30, 2022 17:19:26 GMT -5
The Resurrection of Joseph Finkelstein
The day had gone like clockwork for the short, silver-haired, middle-aged, undereducated Joseph Finkelstein. Up early to work at the car-wash, lunch at 12, and now on his way back to his dilapidated public housing- projects eleventh-floor apartment where his wife would prepare dinner as usual before both headed for church.
Yet, despite all outward appearances, it would indeed prove to be a very eventful day. You see, this would be the day that Mr. Finkelstein would die and go to heaven.
It happened suddenly and was over quickly. Joseph had been driving home from work in a blinding snowstorm, was ravenously hungry, and knowing that there was a bottleneck traffic-jam ahead, he decided to take a short-cut through an ally leading to a road running parallel to New York City's Hudson River. There were signs that the road needed de-icing of course, but he figured he'd simply be extra careful and ignored them. As it turned out, it wasn't enough. Trying to avoid hitting a pedestrian he swerved left, and the car skidded onto a boat-ramp and plunged into the freezing cold murky, river.
The next thing Joe knew, he was submerged in the ice-cold waters, running out of air, and furiously struggling to get out of the car in order to reach the sunlit surface as the vehicle slowly sank to the bottom. But it was all for naught. Suddenly as he was forced to inhale, there was a sharp sensation of freezing water spearing into his lungs, followed by a brief nothingness, and then, a sudden emergence into light. He found himself standing at the end of a line of people dressed in glowing white garments. So he assumed that he had died and had been resurrected to heaven in what the Bible describes as a twinkling of an eye.
Being a Christian, of course, Finkelstein wasn't one bit surprised nor frightened of being in heaven. In fact, he was grateful that he had been deemed worthy. Yet, there was something that began seriously troubling him. You see, Joe, although a regular church goer, had neglected Bible Study, and as a consequence, he had certain unscriptural expectations. Based on his own understanding of what little he had managed to read, Finkelstein had understood much of the book of Revelation literally, and so expected to be immediately provided with a golden harp to play, a personal cloud, on which to sit in order to play it for eternity, and a pair of wings.
So upon finding himself in heaven, attired in what seemed like an ethereal, luminous white garment, albeit without having any of these things, he was shocked.
“So where are my cloud, my golden harp and my wings?" he asked a man who was waiting in front of him in the same line of newly-arrived resurrected ones as he. The man, this elderly white-bearded man with a ruddy complexion, who reminded Finkelstein of a slim Santa Clause he had once encountered in a department store as a kid on Christmas, gazed at him with a mixture of compassion and amusement."
“Pardon me sir?" the man responded softly after a while, not entirely believing what he had just heard.
"I said, where is my cloud, my golden harp, and my pair of wings?" Finkelstein repeated slowly and carefully.
“Well sir, although I am also newly-arrived here in heaven, I honestly doubt that we will be getting any of those items!"
"But why?" Finkelstein immediately shot back. “Why am I being deprived? I have lived a pretty clean life! No theft, no adultery, no lying, no drugs no idolatry. In fact, my wife and her family, especially my mother-in-law, consider me almost a saint."
"Well sir, it has nothing to do with our pre-death behavior or reputation." the recently-resurrected man. who had been a zealous Bible Student while back on Earth, patiently told him.
“Then what is the problem?" Finkelstein asked.
“There is absolutely no problem, as far as I know!" the man responded.
“Well, maybe not for you. You probably know for sure that you have your cloud, your golden harp and your wings reserved-right?"
"Not at all sir. In fact, as I said, I don't expect to get any of those things"
“Why?" Finkelstein asked incredulously, while taking a slow cautious step away from the white-bearded fellow. "Are you expecting to get transferred to the other place?" Finkelstein added, while pointing a quavering index finger downwards towards where he believed that unforgiven souls were being forever tormented by the Devil and his demons in a lake of fire.
“Not at all sir. I simply just don't expect to be getting those things because as a Christian, I have absolutely no scriptural foundation to believe that I will get them! No offense intended, but how is it that you don't know this, sir? It's supposed to be common knowledge," the man said with an amazed expression on his ruddy, glowing face.
"Bah! you are obviously totally unqualified to answer any of my questions. I want to speak with someone in authority. Someone knowledgeable." Finkelstein shouted, causing the rest of the resurrected-ones in line to turn and gaze at him.
"What seems to be the problem?" uttered a tall male figure who had suddenly appeared before them as if from nowhere. He was attired in the same glowing white garments. He was smiling benignly down at Mr. Finkelstein as a father patiently smiles at an ignorant child when a child has assumed something absurd.
"Finally someone in the-know," Joe said,
"The problem is," he continued, "that I am not getting what I am supposed to be getting."
“And what might that be, Mr. Finkelstein?" the tall man asked.
“My cloud, my golden harp, and my wings!"
“Oh, I see! I understand?"
"Well if you understand, then please direct me to the authorities here who will see to it that I am treated with the same respect as everyone else."
“I assure you Mr. Finkelstein, nobody who is resurrected to this heavily realm is ever treated with disrespect."
"Then give me my cloud, my golden harp, and my wings so I can do what I am supposed to be doing here for all eternity."
"And what exactly might that be? Mr. Finkelstein?" the man asked rhetorically, and waited patiently for the answer that he knew already.
"Sitting on my cloud, playing my golden harp, and using my wings to get around."
"Well, Mr. Finkelstein, you will be glad to know, that nobody who enters the kingdom of heaven receives any of those things that you are so fervently demanding."
"They don't?"
“No Mr. Finkelstein, they definitely do not."
“But if I can't play a harp on a cloud, and move around via my wings, then what will I do here for all eternity?" Finkelstin's said looking frantically about for some evidence of something to do.
"Well Mr. Finkelstein, if you had only studied the scriptures, then you would know that your responsibilities as a resurrected follower of Christ, include doing much more than that. Here, your responsibility involves ruling the universe as a co-ruler with Jesus."
"Rule what? The whole Universe? Me? I only have a third-grade education!" Finkelstein said bowing his head humbly in shame.
"True Mr. Finkelstein, that indeed was your meager intellectual capacity as a mortal man on Earth. But once your glorification is complete, you will be intellectually elevated and fully qualified to take on any and all responsibilities that you will be assigned by our heavenly Father. You see Joe, there are vast regions of the material universe needing meticulous attention, and our God chooses to delegate. Is that not far better than your idea of floating on a cloud for all eternity, playing a golden harp, and flitting about aimlessly by flapping a pair of wings?"
"Yeah! I guess it is!" Finkelstein said, feeling enormously foolish for the way he had behaved for the first time since reaching heaven. He also felt greatly relieved. "To be honest," Finkelstein added sheepishly with eyes averted, I wasn't looking forward too much to all that harp-playing on a cloud for all eternity anyway."
"We know you weren't Mr. Finkelstein. We know." the man responded while placing a comforting glowing hand on Finkelstein's shoulder and guiding him towards the pearly gates to be embraced by his heavenly Father, who would imbue him with the necessary wisdom to be a co ruler of the universe with Christ.
Revelation 20:6 ESV
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.