HOW TO BE A SPACE MAN

Photo by B Smith from the Patio

155 - HOW TO BE A SPACE MAN

MAY 26, 1963

Pastor Henry F. Kulp

 

I Thessalonians 4: 13 - 18  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

There is a day coming, and it could be at any time, when the Lord will descend from Heaven, and the church will be caught up to meet Him…Both the dead and the living. What a wonderful day that will be. Man right now, is playing around with outer space, man has a dream of sending two men up to the moon, and then bringing them back again. And then they will go beyond the moon to Venus and Mars and Jupiter, and points beyond. Certainly, I am not an authority on man’s plan for invading outer space. However, I know that I am going to be a space man someday. Just last week, in one of the New York papers, the inquiring photographer asked boys whether they would like to be space men, and almost all of them thought that they would, and thought that they would qualify as space men. However, I know that one of these days, I am going to go up into outer space.

1/  Take the matter of man going to the moon. It is approximately 240,000 miles distance from the earth. And we are told that when man gets to the moon, he will find a dead planet, a hunk of rock without air…No wind, no oxygen. One day and one might take exactly one month long. There are two weeks of daylight and two weeks of night, and since there is no air there will be no twilight, there will e no dawn. There will be no rain, no clouds, no water. The daylight will end in instantaneous darkness, and full daylight will appear in a second. During the day the temperature rises to 212 degrees F, and at night plunges to 238 degrees below zero. It is a drip of 450 degrees F. What a place to go to. What is there when you get there? A barren rocky land. They can keep it.

2/  I am going to be caught up to meet the Lord and go to Heaven. Heaven is certainly a much better place than the moon. It is a place of perfection, it is a place where no sin is permitted to enter. It is a place of ideal existence.

3/  God intends us to be spacemen, but spacemen for Him to be caught up into Heaven. Let us compare Heaven —our ultimate home—with the moon and the other planets that man wants to reach. 

Genesis 1: 14, 15 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from night and so on, now you will notice that four things are mentioned here—the sun and the moon were appoints for (1) to divide the day and the night, (2) they were to be for signs. (3) they were created to control the seasons days and years (4) they were created to shine upon the earth.

Notice, they were made for the earth. They didn’t just accidentally come into existence. Notice, the Bible says the sun, moon and stars were created for the earth, to shine upon the earth.

4/ There is not one single hint, or the least fain suggestion that man was ever meant to invade these planets.

Genesis 1: 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Note carefully the details given here. The Lord gave man dominion. Control over fish, birds and animals upon the earth. The phrase “upon the earth” is used twice in this one verse. Since God speaks of man’s dominion, why did He not mention the moon and the planets? There is not one hint that man’s dominion was to be extended beyond the earth. Then notice, Genesis 1: 28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Notice carefully how God emphasizes the dominion of man and being limited to this earth. Four times in two verses, God says to man, you are to have dominion over the earth. Nothing is said beyond that. God said, replenish the earth—not Mars. He said, subdue the earth, not the moon.

5/  Acts 17: 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Not notice a number of things are stated here. All nationalities and men on earth have one common ancestor, they are of one blood. They are the result of a creative act, not of an evolutionary process. #2, they were created to dwell on the face of the earth, not in space. Notice, they are to dwell—not on Mars, not on Venus, not on the moon, but on the earth. Then #3, God has determined man’s time. He has limited man’s day of bungling. Man is running out in his race of man killing other men. Just how far a man will go, I do not know, but God has already determined how long He will permit man to go on before He steps in and puts and end to his plans. #4, finally God says that He has set the bounds of man’s habitation. The word, bounds, in Acts 17: 26 means a limit or a frontier. 

I don’t know how far man is going to go on in his dreams of space travel. They tell us that within the next few years we’ll be on the moon—I don’t know, but we shall see. But I know God has said He has limited the bounds of man’s habitation. Notice, that word, habitation.

6/  Who was the first one to go into outer space? You might be amazed when you find out who it is. You might say, right away, Enoch—no, he wasn’t the first one, at all. The author of the first space project to invade the heavens, was one of God’s highest creatures, who once lived upon the prehistoric earth. But he was not content to be confined to this planet and aspired to conqueror space. And he met the judgment of God and was banished from his beautiful home on earth. This great creature was called Lucifer—the shining one—he was the leader of the great angelic host who God had placed on the prehistoric earth, to have dominion over it, and everything upon it. However, he was not satisfied with his dominion of this tiny planet, he had aspirations to invade and conquer the universe. 

Isaiah 14: 12 - 14 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Here we have his plan. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning—how art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations. 

There was an original creation—prehistoric creation—there were nations and there were angels upon this earth, and Lucifer was in charge of it, and he was cut down because he wasn’t satisfied to stay there. Notice, he was successful to a certain degree in his invasion of the Heavens. He evidently got up into the planetary heavens, but there he was stopped, and he was cast down. Notice, the details of Lucifer’s plan which led to his downfall.

7/  Lucifer said, I will ascend. Notice, he wasn’t satisfied where he was. He said, I will ascend. His goal was beyond the stars, not only above the stars. Lucifer was no peanut operator, he was no piker. He didn’t talk about putting an angel on the moon, or he didn’t say anything about an angel on Mars or Venus—oh no, he said, I will go up to the third Heaven, the very limits of the universe. He was no small-time operator.

8/  Notice, how he laid his plans in verse 13 For thou hast said in thine heart—this word heart is used in Jonah 2: 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

He said In the midst of the angels, I will ascend into Heaven.

9/  And evidently he got to a certain point, and then God judged him and cast him down. And God not only judged him but He judged the original creation, the prehistoric earth.

Genesis 1: 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Where it tells us the earth was without form, it was waste, it was void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. This was the result of God’s judgment upon the earth. The word, “was” is the word “became” and something changed the earth from its perfect state in Genesis 1: 1 to the chaotic condition in Genesis 1: 2 for we have it clearly brought out to us in Isaiah 45: 18 that God did not create the earth in this condition. 

For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.

Something happened to it, and it was because of Lucifer’s sin.

10/  Who is the god of this age? It is none other than Satan. This world is in the lap of this wicked one. 

II Corinthians 4: 3, 4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

And what is he doing right now? He is trying to get man to say, Let’s not be content where we are. Satan himself failed the first time, and now man says, we do not need this rapture, we do not believe in that. We have a religion of uur own. and so they say, we’ll get into outer space by ourselves. But where are they going to live, and how are they going to live, in bulky space suits, carrying their own oxygen about, what a way to live? I’d much rather be caught up into the third Heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ and not have to have a space suit I am going to have a body like the Lord Jesus Christ. A body that evidently does not need oxygen to exist, it does not need blood, and I am sure it will not need oxygen, because remember what happened to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 1: 9, 10 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

And here we have the disciples looking at Jesus Christ and it says He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight, and while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel. They didn’t have a great blast-off for the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn’t need a mighty Mercury rocket. All He did was to go up into Heaven of His own volition, of His own power. Remember, this is bodily. And He went up and He went through outer space, where man today says he is weightless, and he needs to have his own oxygen. Jesus Christ went right through this without a problem at all.

11/  We have another man who was a space man. He was the first man in history to be a successful space man. His name was Enoch. One day he was walking with God, and all of a sudden God said, “Enoch, let’s go home” and without a mighty rocket to carry him there—without any oxygen being supplied, without any jet propulsion—in a twinkling of an eye he went into the presence of Heaven. No noise, no risk, no danger no discomfort. You do not think that this is exciting? To me it is ten thousand times more exciting, more thrilling, more breath-taking than all the trips of man up into outer space.

Genesis 5: 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

12/  There is another equally exciting account of a man who made the trip and it is given to us in II Kings 2: 11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

There was a prophet of God by the instructions to his successor, Elisha, and he was ready to go home. After casting his mantle upon Elisha, he was ready to go. God separated them with a fiery chariot of horses, then all of a sudden the Lord didn’t send any atomic weapons or load him into any craft, or capsule, but He just created a whirlwind, just as easy as I take a breath, and Elijah went straight up in that whirlwind, all the way to Heaven. That is exciting. I admit I was thrilled when Gordon Cooper was shot into outer space and all was successful, but that was nothing along side of what happened to Elisha, this was thrilling. Elisha didn’t take one change. There was not a question that he might fail to get to Heaven. He reached his destination safely, and he didn’t need any medical check-ups afterward. And incidentally, this space man, to show us it wasn’t any fluke, came back 900 years later to prove the success of his journey.

Matthew 17: 3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

He came back to this earth.

13/  But now, imagine what it tells us in I Thessalonians 4 We shall be caught up. A great body of people that no one can possibly imagine will be caught up into the heavens. 

I Corinthians 15: 51, 52 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

It says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the speed of light—that means nothing. We are told there are planets at least two sextillion, 932 quintillion, 848 quadrillion, miles from the earth. And we are going to be caught up in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. if we travel at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, it will take 500 million years to get there. But we will not go up in the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. We’ll go up in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we’ll be caught up and be with the Lord Jesus Christ.

14/  Then we have another wonderful fact brought out to us. The world today is interested in the ecumenical movement. They want the churches to get together. They want religion. They want all who call themselves Christians to be band together and, of course, this is an impossibility. Even all the Bible-believing folks will never get together down here upon this earth. But there is a day coming when it will truly be the ecumenical movement of God. The ecumenical movement today, is the one of Satan, the god of this age. But this one will be the ecumenical movement of God. Listen to it. 

I Thessalonians 4: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

We shall be caught up together. Here will be real union. The church that has been separated by petty arguments, by quirks of personality will be gathered together and the body will be in one. What a glorious marvelous day this will be when we are caught up to be with the Lord.

AMEN

Ref: 05/26/1963 / 155 - HOW TO BE A SPACE MAN / 03/24/2022