Receive my condolences and also of The Great Tent Cathedral, for the departure of our brother and friend Israel Alvarez Perez, his family members; his wife Rosa Figueroa Rodriguez and his daughters as well, Marilyn Alvarez Carrasquillo, Israel Alvarez Carrasquillo and other family members and brethren in the faith in Christ.
We know that he is alive because the only thing that dies of the believers is the physical body; and Christ will give him a new one in the resurrection He has promised.
The human being is soul, spirit and body, and has come to this Earth to be here for some time, to be sprinkled with the Blood of Christ and cleansed of all sin; and when those days and his work are over on Earth, God calls him to rest in Paradise, which is the sixth dimension, the dimension of the angels, who are in theophanic bodies.
And just as Jesus said to Martha, Lazarus’ sister: “Your brother will resurrect,” we can say at this moment: Our brother and friend Israel Alvarez will resurrect, he will return to Earth in a new body. It is the promise of the Lord for all of His believers.
As the one we have in John, chapter 6, verses 38 to 40, which says:
“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
These are words of Jesus Christ; and this is the will of the Father: everyone who believes in Christ, He will resurrect him at the Last Day, if he departed; but if he remains alive until the resurrection, He will transform him.
The Scripture also says, speaking to us of that resurrection, comforting words; it tells us in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, verse 13 and on:
“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.”
For which, may your hearts be comforted, your souls, with these words of Christ and of Saint Paul.
May God bless you, keep you, and always continue holding on to Christ, knowing that there is no other hope for the human being. Christ is the only hope of eternal life for the human being.
I leave Reverend Jose Benjamin Perez with you again.