Life After Death
Introduction
Believe in Immortality Destroys the Cross
The Need for Consistent Bible Study Methods
The New Testament Soul
Sheol and Hades
Thoughts or Answers to Questions of Visitors
What about this explanation ...
When the Thief on the Cross Arrives in Heaven
Absent from the Body - Present with the Lord
How to deal with out of body experiences
The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus
The robe-clad souls under the altar explained
What about those ‘spirits' in prison?
Example of a fill in the blanks Bible study The Bible emphasis
Notes and References
For many people thoughts about the ‘Beyond' are perplexing and many prefer just to go along with traditional concepts on what happens to a person after death. Can we know anything for certain about the ‘Beyond'? People use all sorts of methods to try and penetrate the barrier and get a glimpse behind the ‘veil'. Some occupy themselves with Astrology, Satanism, Spiritism, Re-Incarnation or Ancestor Worship. "Ancestor worship, known as the Spiritualism of the East, survives as the exponent of immortality." [100] But now we realize that the Bible is the only source which can shed light on this age old question on the mortality or immortality of the soul. [105] And so we approach the subject by starting with the biblical assertions of the beings of the ‘Beyond'.
All these non-Christians believing in a being like Satan may make it
surprising that some Christians don't seem to believe in the existence of a devil, Satan, the arch enemy of God, of whom we read:
"... I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven." Luke 10:18
It was Satan's rebellion and consequent deception of man and their fall which caused the first war in the universe and it took place in heaven. When Satan killed Jesus Christ, he was cast out of heaven:
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in heaven." Revelation 12:7,8
There was ‘War in Heaven'! It is bad enough to have war on earth among nations, but in heaven too? [120]
What was the outcome of that war?
"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Revelation 12:9
This war was between Christ and the angels of God, and Satan and the angels that followed him. Satan and his angels were cast - thrown and shut out of heaven as this sweeping view in the Book of Revelation intends to show.
From then on peace could reign again about the throne of God:
"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.'" Revelation 12:10
For us it is important to recognize that it was Jesus Christ who overcame
Satan and cast him out of heaven, and for us it is also through Jesus Christ that we can overcome Satan and sin today.
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Revelation 12:11
This is referring to the martyrs of Jesus through the ages who overcame Satan and his snare by giving their lives for their belief in Christ.
As Satan, the devil, Lucifer was cast out of heaven, he hissed his wrath and vengeance back to God, and made it known that he was determined to fight God to the bitter end. Satan hates God, and everything that pertains to God. He hates God's truth, and endeavors in every way to pervert it. He works through all possible means to corrupt the truth of God, and to corrupt those who have been created by God in the image of Himself.[150]
Satan and his angels were driven out of heaven by Jesus and all the holy angels with Him:
"... Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time." Revelation 12:12
Many and varied are his deceptions. Because he has such a short time, he is working today as never before to deceive all who will ‘listen' to him.
We also know that Satan has no scruples against using the lowest forms of deception to lead men astray. Jesus told the Jews who sought to kill him:
"You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44
Having been a highly placed angel in the government of God, Satan was created as a beautiful being, full of wisdom, shrewdness, and cleverness. He is a master of deception and goes about like "a roaring lion" who succeeded in deceiving 1/3 of the angelic host to follow him. If he could deceive the holy angels dwelling in the presence of God, who are we to discern his temptations? He is still powerful enough to perform miracles the Bible says:
"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and to the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Revelation 16:13,14 It certainly sounds that Satan has a very large following which ought to give us pause to consider these scriptural references. From verse 16 we learn that there will be a battle of Armageddon close to the end of the history of this world, as a climax of the lying wonders and deceptions of the spirits of devils.
"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." 2.Corinthians 11:14
Satan and his evil ministering spirits can appear very righteous. Jesus warned of great wonders of miracles in the last days before His Second Coming to end the reign of sin which will deceive many.
In other words, do not think those places where great miracles happen are those which have the blessings of the God of heaven. Miracles are not a God given test on how he presents where truth can be found. Instead, God instructs his faithful people, to search in the quiet of their homes for Him in the pages of the Holy Bible. Do not attend the meetings where large loud speakers and television
cameras present what is described as miracles. Stay home and study the Bible instead and you will find that Satan will do everything in his power to discourage you in doing so. As soon as you get weary of studying, you know Satan is on your case [500] and you must
call upon the Lord and prevail and drive, by the power of Jesus Christ, the evil angels from around your habitat as you do not stop praying and continue to daily spend time in studying the great themes in the Bible.
What in essence happens is, Jesus buys us back from the grave.
"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." Hosea 13:14
"The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45
"Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." 1.Timothy 2:5-6
What is the power of the grave? It is the power of bondage. Unable to resurrect ourselves, the grave is a long sleep and no end in sight. Since we have sinned, death owns us. Jesus came to serve us by dying for us and redeeming us. He came to give His life.
The next Bible truth is that Jesus did not just die; He arose from the grave.
Life After Death
"I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you." Matthew 28:5-7
"Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here." Mark 16:6
"He is not here, but is risen." Luke 24:6
"This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead." John 21:14
"We are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4
In these scriptures we simply read, ‘Jesus ... was crucified..." and "... he is risen." There is no allusion that a soul of Christ, meanwhile, went to heaven and returned just before his resurrection to reoccupy his body. We learn the opposite of this unscriptural view when we read the words addressed to Mary Magdalene by Christ himself, "I am not yet ascended to my Father." John 20:17. The Bible teaches no split personalty between a body and immortal soul - the snake does.
Because Jesus did not die on the cross to sanctify another day to keep holy but to redeem us out of a world of sin, and because we are not to keep the day of crucifixion or resurrection holy but only preach about these events to lead people to accept Jesus as their redeemer, Christianity is challenged to reconsider. Communion service was given the early Christian church to remember the cross and the empty tomb. Baptism was given to mark the day when, for a new convert, faith was professed and is likened to the broken body of Jesus on the cross, who rose again.
Because He is a risen Saviour, we have hope. Our Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son in our behalf. The fact that Christ has risen from the grave means His sacrifice is accepted. It means Jesus can move from the ‘prophet phase' to the ‘priest phase', and from the ‘priest phase' to the ‘king phase'. He longs to receive us to Himself, that where He is, we may be also. He is watching to see whether we will be captivated by His goodness and show our acceptance of His sacrifice by manifesting a like character in the world that needs His witness.
But there are lying spirits still working to sow doubt.
Those among you who know something about ‘spirits' contacting people should know this: Anyone who has such an experience were dead people seem to appear and seek to contact you or someone you know, you must challenge them and say:
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, tell me who you are!"
You will be very surprised what the answer will be and must continue to trust in the written Word of God which we study today.
The devils are skilled but miserable deceivers. They know that there will
be a day ofjudgment and they dread it and will lie about it. Do not follow
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them in their resistance to the truths in the Word of God. The lies of Satan come to us not in the guise of unfriendly people but rather more likely in the form of those we thought we could trust -- people, who may council that the Law of God was nailed to the cross and that, at death, the soul goes to heaven.
How the believe in immortality destroys the death of Jesus on the cross
For Christians the following should be an eye opener of what the belief of a soul ‘winging its way to heaven' at death does to Jesus having died on the cross. If our dead, our mother, father or children truly go to heaven right after death, then Jesus must have too and He didn't really die such an awful death knowing that he would spend the weekend in heaven. That would be the logical consequence of the believe in an immortal soul. Where does that leave the sacrifice He made for you and me? If He really didn't have anything to lose, why should His death on the cross have any special value? Wouldn't that make Jesus merely "a visiting missionary" and not one who was tormented and tested more than any human being? Did Jesus just change from one to another existence? Did He really give up everything when He became man and died?
These considerations should remove for us the sly distortions and lies Satan put up successfully to hide the truth about what happens to us after death and the death of Jesus on the cross. The ‘doctrine of the immortality of the soul' casts suspicion on the events at Calvary and paralyzes the faith of Christians in comprehending how the cross can teach the love of God for us.
Christ bore the iniquity of us all on the cross, Isaiah 53:6. These iniquities separate us from God and hide His face from us, Isa. 59:2. Christ bore our feelings of guilt, loneliness, fear, confusion, despair, hate and emptiness. Jesus did not bear our sins on His shoulders as we carry a burden on our shoulders. He bore the agony, the load which killed Him in His mind, in His nervous system. Jesus did not die the ‘sleep death' on the cross, He tasted the eternal, second death on the cross - the death which has no hope of resurrection, Rev. 2:11; 20:6; 21:8; Hebr. 2:9. He experienced the full and bitter cup of despair and ruin that is the eventual wages of sin. Realizing this in the Garden of Gethsemane caused Jesus to recoil from what was to come, Matthew 26:38-39; Psalm 69:20. Hanging on the cross Jesus had no way to close His ears from the taunts of those below the cross. ‘If you are the king, come down from the cross now (Matth. 27:4043)', they yelled. We ought not to think that these words spoken below Him didn't affect Jesus, they did. These derisive remarks weight heavy on His mind. Hanging there, the only thing He could do was pray. But He had no sensation that anyone was listening to Him, Psalm 22:2.
He couldn't wipe His brow or stop the running blood. He couldn't stop the itching of the perspirations and the pain of the tearing of the flesh. At last
He felt forsaken even from His Father, sinking Him into the second death.
Satan's lie about death would make His death on the cross something less than the great sacrifice it really was. Scorn and incomprehension clouded the mind of many and hides the true significance of this event even today. His nature<!--[700]!--> was weighed down with a shuddering, mysterious dread. He had tasted the sufferings of the second death for every man. It
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was the innocence of Jesus, His sinless life, which broke the power of the death He died and He rose again. The cross teaches the immutable truth of the Word of God, that body and soul is one and the same and there is no difference between them, for Christ did not ascend into heaven until after His resurrection. To make this into meaning that only His soul went to heaven at death is a twisting and doing violence to the Word of God and ultimately of Satanic, pagan origin. Those who teach this view are aiding the errors of false teachers on this subject.
The Need for Consistent Bible Study Methods
One of the most perplexing and confused subjects in the area of Bible studies, is the topic on ‘What happens to us after we die.' In this section we want to point out a logical approach which should help you to arrive at sound conclusions. This method of presenting the topic should include the following definitions and criteria:
The scriptural definition of spirit (Hebr. ruach, Greek pneuma ) includes the following observations:
The ‘spirit' is explained as: Click here for the Bible texts
In the New Testament pneuma can have the following meanings: Click here for the Bible texts
Life After Death
When God gives ‘his breath', it is more than air, it is life and becomes the chemistry of the body.
The scriptural definition of soul Hebr. nephesh shows that nephesh is translated
The word nephesh never means a conscious, ever living entity capable to exist apart from the body.
In the New Testament the Hebrew nephesh is equivalent to the Greek word psuche and means "life" or "soul" and is translated:
‘Human beings were created as an indivisible whole wherein such component as the physical body, mind, soul, spirit, emotions, and the will interact, influencing each of the other components. Components are interdependent and all are needed for human beings to survive in a healthy state. Thus, people do not possess immortal souls that live in physical bodies for a short space of time. When they physically die, they do not continue to live somewhere in a spiritual, disembodied state. They "sleep" (in Biblical terms) awaiting the call of the Life Giver. Because human beings are not composed of three units (body, spirit, soul) separate from one another, the well-being of the physical body directly affects the health of the mind (including the emotions and spiritual values), and vice-versa. Each person's health depends on the optimal interacting of all that contributes to a healthy body and to a healthy mind.' [http://www.greatcontroversy.org/orientation/gcmotif.html]
The meaning of the Hebrew word ‘sheol', translated into the Greek word ‘hades'.
These words carry the meaning of grave. Death is the punishment for sin,
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not some type of period of torture as some believe. The scriptures intend to show that the death of a righteous, knowing he is at peace with God, can be peaceful while the death of the wicked, not knowing what awaits him, can be fearful. [See Champions on conditional immortality for the historic view.] We also must understand that the grave is not "the heart of the earth" (Mt. 12:40) but rather the church (with Christ in it) is in the spiritual sense the heart and the life of the earth. The grave is not the generator of life, but the container of death, and therefore can never be called "the heart of the earth", not more than a man's carcass can be called his soul.
The apostle Peter explains what and where hell is:
"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1.Peter 4:17
The Bible contains the answer to that question already since Old Testament times.
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Psalms 9:17
The wicked, unlike the redeemed, do not have life:
"He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth in him." John 10:10
"Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 2.Thess. 1:9
The denial of eternal life with God, ending in their destruction, the second death, from which there is no resurrection, is the punishment of sin. "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (killing the "soul" means ‘life', they cannot take away the life eternal of the redeemed) : but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Matth. 10:28
Fear them which can destroy the unrepented person by making him suffer the second death where he loses the gift of eternal life. The verse underscores the understanding that body and soul are an unseperable unit - a body in which the spark of life is, is a life body or person. One does not exist without the other.
"Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezekiel 18:4
Since in Hebrew there is no direct word for "it", we must understand the
context to decide how to read a sentence. That is why the word "it" above should read ‘he' as the following verse shows:
"But the wicked perish (they, he, she), and the enemies of the Lord shall
be as the fat of lambs: they (he, she) shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away." Psalms 37:20
The sin of Adam and Eve led to the fact that they were denied eternal life:
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." Genesis 3:22-23.
Sending Adam and Eve out of the garden cut them off from the ‘Tree of Life' which is an added verification that man does not have an immortal
Life After Death
soul. Man was locked out of the Garden of Eden so he would surely die, all of him, and not become an eternally living sinner not even having passed through judgment.
"What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." Nahum 1:9-10
The fire which destroys the already dead (stubble) wicked is said to be everlasting because its effects are everlasting, or eternal.
But when does the punishment take place?
"Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." Matth. 13:30 Jesus teaches here that the "harvest" is the end of the world; therefore the wicked are not being punished now. Matthew continues:
"The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels." Matth. 13:39
These verses destroy the view that at death something like a ‘soul' is released from the body and goes to heaven, according to teachers of the immortality of the soul, or to a place of punishment. ‘Hades' is a word for ‘grave' and that is all it is. It is wrong to teach that the body of Jesus was in the grave but his ‘spirit' in heaven. It is even a greater error and not biblical to teach that the body of Jesus did not start decaying from the moment of his death. Such views of the immortality of a soul are presuppositions in the mind of those who teach these ideas. They read the scriptures, with these ideas already in their thinking. The Hebrews did not believe thus.
‘Life after death' is a biblical teaching and comes only through Jesus. The Bible makes no distinction between the death of a ‘righteous' or ‘wicked' person, that is so, because that ‘distinction' comes into play only on resurrection day when Jesus returns again and His shout wakes up his faithful people from the grave while those who did not follow His invitation will not be resurrected until a much later time. Immortal life is received only through Jesus - John 1:4; 3:16; 17:2.
John 3:16 is here of particular interest:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Greek word for ‘perish' means "to utterly destroy", "to blot out", "to vanish into nothingness." It refers to the end of all unrepentant sinners, and of Satan himself, all of these will perish. Comparing two opposites, ‘perish' and ‘everlasting life' is a common Hebrew way of writing. We find the same in the words, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23. This ‘perishing' is not the sleep death, but the second death.
The reading of 1.John 5:12 "He that has the Son has life..." should read He that has the Son has the life ..." and refers to the eternal life of verse 11 leaving the time spent in the grave unmentioned. This is the sense in which Philippians 1:23 must be understood where Paul says:
"... having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better."
Paul knew very well that before ‘being with Christ' comes the resurrection, therefore, quoting only one of these two verses may be misleading in todays confusion of the doctrine, for we read in Phil. 3:10-11:
"That I may know him and the power of his resurrection ... If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
Paul believed that the ‘righteousness by faith in Jesus' (the giving up of self), he talked about in verse 9, is essential for a follower of Christ. The same meaning is conveyed in 1.Corinthians 5:1-6 which must be compared with 1.Corinthians 15:51-54. This ‘life' mentioned above begins with the Christian's new birth (John 3:7) and continues throughout all eternity.
Thoughts or Answers to Questions Visitors Asked Q: Why do we die when we go to God anyway?
A: To put it in a few words. It is important to remind us of the biblical distinction on the subject of death. According to Jesus when people get sick or old and "die" Jesus does not call it "death" but "sleep", the consequence of sin. Why? Because ‘dying, or death', as distinguished from the ‘going to sleep' kind of death Jesus spoke of, is the death, according to the Bible, which those die who have turned their back on God, rejected Him and chose to not want to be part of the Kingdom of God. This group made that choice during their natural life span in this earthly world. We have only this life to choose between a life with God, which He promises those who obey Him, or a life without Him. This underscores again that we have two choices, for or against God. While we all die the ‘sleep' death, only those who accept Christ as their Savior can inherit eternal life, while the rejecters of God's grace will die the second death from which there is no resurrection, the consequence of their willful separation from God.
But what about this explanation on death and eternal life by those who believe in an immortal soul? "When we receive the free gift of eternal life, we are passed from death to life (John 5:24). But because the whole creation is still suffering from bondage to decay (and will continue to groan until the day of redemption, Acts 3:21), we still physically die to shed our mortal sin-filled bodies. As Paul said, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1.Cor. 15:50-53), although we are already heirs of God (Romans 8:17); we must shed our perishing bodies in order to inherit eternal life. Until Christ comes again and brings about the new heavens and earth, physical death is, for those who believe, their usher into eternal life with the Creator in their free-from-the-Curse bodies (1.Cor. 15:35-58). Although we still die, Jesus removed the "sting" of death for His children (V. 54-57) with the promise of life eternal. Those who reject the free offer of eternal life will die the second death (Rev. 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8). Physical death is the merciful way that God has given us to pass into His presence, instead of living forever in our sinful state with sin-filled bodies that are suffering from 6,000 years of the curse." [underlined by us] The shedding of our mortal body - What does the Bible mean by that? Explaining the underlined phrases: 1. The concept underlying the phrase "are passed from death unto life" is explained in the following verse. "When the dead shall hear the voice of |
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the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."
But then there are those who say, ‘You don't put saints in the casket, only their remains.' How is that answered in the Bible?
The fundamental Bible truth on who has inherent capacity for eternal life is this, God ... "who only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto ..." (1.Tim. 6:16). To say, at death something immortal of man escapes to heaven wars against this Bible assertion that only God is immortal. Paul, under inspiration, underscores this assertion by saying that no one can approach God for the brightness of the light surrounding Him. Why, does the immortal soul have a ticket to penetrate this light barrier? Folks, be careful about such putting man on an equal platform with God. In the early church it was an understood factual truth, that man dies, is buried and all of him is in the grave. Nothing ascended or escaped to any other realm. Get real, folks, man dies and is dead - period - until resurrected on the Day of His Second Coming, John 11:14; Mark 12:25.
4. You may ask, doesn't the phrase "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom ..." proof that the soul goes to heaven at death? Such a conclusion can only be reached when one reads this scripture out of context. Paul crafted this 15th chapter in a certain sequence: the crucifixion and Christ's death, resurrection, his appearances, Paul's way of disspelling the doubts about the resurrection, there is a natural body (made of earth, a living soul) and a spiritual body (a quickening spirit - the Lord from heaven - in the sense that our body is also spoken of as a temple). The natural and spiritual body dwell both in the same body, you and me. In Verse 50 Paul is saying, before any of the saints get into heaven their bodies have to be made fit for heaven [1000], as it shall occur on the day of the Second Coming, when all the saints, dead or alive at the time, will be resurrected and translated, that is made fit for the journey to heaven. To make the underlined phrase into something to support the immortality ideas is reading things into the Bible which are not taught anywhere.
5. "... death is ... their usher into eternal life". Is that true? The Bible teaches that death as a result of age, disease, accident, is our enemy for it separates us from our family and friends. But this death is also described as ‘rest', in the grave where we cannot be tempted by Satan. The phrase ‘ushered in' in this context is not found in all the [KJV] Bible and therefore represents jumping to a conclusion. At death no one is being "ushered" anywhere. The dead are buried, decay and await the Trump of God while "resting" in their grave as we show elsewhere in this topic. Those who say there are only two things which are eternal, the Word of God and the soul of man, are correct on the first point but wrong on the second for only God has immortality and is eternal. Man's soul dies at death, Ez. 18:4.
6. The author of the quoted paragraph fails to take other comments of Paul, like that in 1.Thessalonians 3:16-17, into consideration which would have given reason not to use past tense, "removed", and instead use future tense ("shall ... then"), as in Thessalonians and future perfect as displayed in the actual verses, "shall have" in Corinthians. As a ‘promise' made in
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the past the sting of death, we know, will be removed but the consummation of the ‘promise' does not take place until the Second Coming. It is out of context to state that the sting of death is "removed" at death (except for individuals whose pain is over) when it is not removed until the Great Day of the Lord for all - since no one arrives in heaven before another.
7. "... pass into his presence." The Bible teaches this takes place on the Second Coming. All those resurrected by the prophets, Jesus, the disciples and God's mighty evangelists over the ages, died again. Therefore, we ought not to make this doctrine of an ‘immortal soul' into a vehicle where these people died, according to their doctrine, got into heaven, and then back to earth again without so much as a word of their heavenly journey. Such journeys we may find in books like the ‘Book of the Dead' and similar writings, but not in the Bible.
Additional Explanations: The "hearing of the voice of the Son of God" takes place on the day of His Second Coming when the trump of God wakes up those from their sleep death who are written in the Book of Life to be with the Lord for ever more. We learn here two truths: (a) no immortal soul is implied, (b) since God already knows who are worthy of receiving eternal life when He comes again, the decision (‘judgment') who shall be part of the first resurrection occured before that day.
2. On this topic of the ‘shedding', the crucial difference is to discover at which time this ‘shedding' of our mortal body occurs. Two choices are offered: a) At death, b) On the day of His Second Coming. Paul begins his 15th chapter in 1.Corinthians by testifying to the fact that Christ was seen by Ce'phas (another name for Simon, Luke 24:34), the 12 disciples, by over 500 followers, James, the brother of Jesus, all the apostles and by Paul himself after His resurrection - and we know that His resurrection body was of flesh and blood to the touch of the disciples. Note: No mention is made in 1.Cor. 15 and all the Bible of Christ's immortal soul having ascended to heaven. A close reading of the account in John 20:17,27-28 indicates that the time frame for the short ascension of Christ to the Father took place after his resurrection and before he met his disciples in the upper room. Vers 12-18 teaches the resurrection which was a point of contention in Paul's days. Vers 23 teaches when this reuniting of Christ with His faithful people takes place, "... at his second coming." Until now we read no word about a soul getting into heaven before the Second Coming. In fact we read that the "last" enemy is not defeated until the day of the Second Coming. Question: If Satan, the enemy, is not defeated until the Second Coming, how come some teach that souls arrive in heaven all along, presumably since Abel died.?. Please think this point through. The Bible teaches, on the day of the Second Coming two groups receive eternal life: a. the righteous who are alive at the time, b. the dead who rested in their grave and are resurrected then. Both of these groups next meet the Lord in the air, 1.Thess. 4:17; 1.Cor. 15:51-54. This is the moment of the shedding of their mortal body. All the redeemed shed their mortal body and receive their immortal body at this time. It happens to both groups at the same time. Paul says, "... when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption ..." The sentence construction uses future perfect which happens when "Death is swallowed up in victory." V. 54. ‘Death' is here in capital letters and descriptive of Satan. We already mentioned that Satan will reign until the day of the Second Coming (leaving the Millenium unexplained for now). We ought to recognize that before Satan, Death, is conquered, no human being (except the ‘first fruits') arrives in heaven since the victory is not fully, gloriously
Life After Death
demonstrated until the day of the Lord's Return in Glory. All those resurrected by the prophets, Jesus, the apostles and God's mighty evangelists, died again after having been resurrected. |
But then another question is asked, ‘We know that the body dies, but doesn't the spirit go to heaven to be with the Lord?'
Some commentators express the view that Hebrews 12:22-23 talks about the "spirits" as if they are alive and in heaven. The 12th chapter of Hebrews talks about that believers are compassed by a "cloud of witnesses", holy angels. It talks about "... the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven' (Note: they are written in heaven, not bodily present) ‘and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." Who are these ‘just men'? Of course they are the faithful people, those whose names are written in the book of records in heaven.
James, the brother of Jesus, tells us about these "‘pneuma/breath/air' spirits" only a few pages later. James wrote: "... the body without the ‘pneuma/air' spirit is dead ...". (James 2:26) James just expresses a biological fact. What does this unity imply? When air breathing, living creatures die, they cease to breath air. For the ancients that was the test of death.
When God created Adam, we read:
"And the Lord God formed [1500] man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7
The components of creation are: A body + breath = a living soul. Take one of these away, death results and death is the opposite of creation. This word ‘soul' is scripturally explained to be a complete human being underscored by the Bible which states that a soul can die. In addition we note that God ‘breathed into his nostrils', not his heart or brain. The nostrils provide a path for air to pass into the lungs. Are we to assume the soul resides in the lungs? Of course those who defend the notion of an immortal soul may object and claim the soul is not a substance, it is immaterial. Still, if such an imagined soul really is immortal, wouldn't God let us know that and how he breathed it into the body of Adam where we would assume the essence of his personality resides?
But it is true. The soul certainly is immaterial. It is nothing. For the only particle or thing remaining of a human being is memories and an entry in the ‘super computer record book' maintained in heaven. The Bible teaches that man was created a little lower than the angels, Psalm 8:5; Hebrews 2:7. That is so, because man is not a spirit being like the angels.
This is what biblical revelation teaches and there is no reason that we should think of the soul as anything else but a complete, flesh and blood human being. All biblical texts which deal with these words, ‘soul (psuche=life)' and ‘spirit', are explained this way. Those who speak of man possessing an immortal ‘soul' or ‘spirit' are not establishing that on the basis of a biblical definition [1600]. According to Genesis man is created of a body plus the breath to make a living soul or spirit, referring to his mental qualities.
Life After Death
That is why we read:
"Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:9-10.
"And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him." 1.Kings 17:17.
"And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived." 1.Kings 17:21-22.
We read in these scriptures that in Old Testament times the soul is equated with the breath of a living human being.
A List of Texts:
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezekiel 18:20
"And that day Joshua ... smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king therefore he utterly destroyed ... and all the souls that were therein." Joshua 10:28,30,32
At the moment of death, when a living person suddenly ceases to have this divine quality of life some perceive that something like a soul leaves a body. But that idea occurs only in the thinking of the person who was taught the immortality of the soul whereas the Bible teaches the mortality of the soul. In the dying person, the cessation of breathing marks the moment of death, one part of the above equation does not function anymore. The person falls ‘asleep' in death and only God's resurrection power can raise him or her again.
The truth of this matter may be illustrated by the following consideration. How people die has many causes. How can something like an immortal soul escape from someone being instantly incinerated in a nuclear flash? Or if someone should fall into a crucible full of molten metal? The answer is, no ‘immortal soul' needs to escape, for the ‘spirit' or ‘soul' of a human being or animal is the whole living person with a thinking mind or functioning brain. In every case God miraculously recreates the dead from the elements recorded of the person. When Jesus and Lazarus rose, their body was not anymore in the tomb. Neither had they decayed to a skeleton or evaporated in a fiery flash, but to some that can happen and God can raise those too.
Jacob and countless others expected to rest in their grave as the following scriptures reveal:
"And Israel (Jacob) dwelt in the land of Egypt ...seventeen years ... and the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. ... And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers." Genesis 47:28-30; 48:21
Jacob had nothing to say about knowing anything after his death that would enable him to watch the life of his children from heaven. Only God could do that. Jacob expected to rest in the grave.
But what about these verses?
"David perceived that the child was dead ... now he is dead ... can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." 2. Sam. 12:19-23.
When would David go to be again with his infant son? When he dies? No. All God's people are reunited on the same day, at the same time, when Jesus returns in glory the Second time. That is the event, David knew, he was looking forward to.
Here is the other Bible passage,
"O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit." Psalm 30:3; 86:13; 89:48
So, what about it? David was glad that he didn't die, got killed, when enemies where at his heels. He got ‘spared' one more time. But why should anyone be glad if something like an immortal soul would go to heaven at death? Well, we are glad we escape death because death is an enemy, not a friend and we do not see God or be with God after death but rest in the grave until resurrection day, just like Jesus rested in the grave and did not go to heaven until after his resurrection.
Jesus resting in the grave is a picture for us that sees death as a span of time, a respite, though unnoticed by those who are dead, during which sin cannot afflict them. "Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same." 2.Chronicles 34:28
Did Jesus and the thief on the cross meet in heaven the day Jesus died?
"And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43
Setting the comma after "today" presents this meaning:
"And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise." [1900]
Our modern, non-ancient-Greek Bibles have a comma but the original Greek did not use commas or sentence dividers. So the comma in modern translations is added by the publishers and set according to their idea what the meaning of the sentence should be. If one believes that some sort of immortal soul goes to heaven at death, they put the comma before ‘today', if one believes that at death a person goes to the grave only, the comma is set after ‘today' where it belongs. The Hebrews did not believe that at death an immortal soul goes to heaven, the Egyptians did [2000], in time popularized in Greek philosophy.
We know Jesus died on the cross on Friday, Luke 23:39-45. We also know that the thief lingered quite a bit longer before he died (John 19:31-37). The Bible states that the two thieves were still alive when the soldiers came to break their bones just before sunset on crucifixion day. Where is
Life After Death
heaven? We read that the tree of life is in the midst of paradise (Revelation 2:7). The tree of life is by the throne (Rev. 22:1,2) Paradise is therefore a third heaven where God is (2.Corinthians 12:1-4). We read that three days later Jesus states that he had not yet ascended to heaven to His Father (John 20:17).[2025]
What about Daniel 12:2:?
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
If life with God is everlasting, why shouldn't ‘contempt (Hebr. der'on)', meaning ‘abhorrence', Isaiah 66:24, be everlasting? A parallel word for ‘contempt' in the OT Bible is the word ‘scorn' (Ps. 123:3,4), or in Arabic it is ‘dara (to repel)'. Daniel is not making a specific reference to the state of the dead as talked about in the New Testament. The Hebrew word for ‘everlasting' is not exactly synonymous with the English word ‘everlasting'. It can have more than one conceptual interpretation as we already showed. Therefore, we must always understand it in context. Basically the verse is better explained during NT times after Jesus provided more understanding on this topic. ‘Life' in hell fire is not of the same type as ‘life' eternal. There is an end to the former when the flames go out and no end to the latter. After witnessing the awfulness of sin during the millenniums of the great struggle on earth and in the universe of heavenly beings, the inhabitants of the universe will regard sin with a feeling of strong revulsion. When the struggle is finished and God's name is fully vindicated, a mighty abhorrence of sin and of all it has contaminated will sweep through the universe. It is this abhorrence that makes possible the assurance that sin will never again mar the harmony of the universe.
"And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die. neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." Isaiah 66:24
God is a God of love and not an overseer of an eternal torture scene as some teach.
Occasionally one can hear also that the Bible describes our bodies as "tents" in which we live (2.Pet. 1:13f). But who is ‘WE'? Above we showed that in Genesis the ‘body + breath = a living soul, a living human being. If the body gets destroyed or we stop breathing, the once living soul, the ‘ME' or ‘YOU' is dead. Dead does not mean, for a second only, and then alive again. The Hebrew concept of ‘soul' is a living, flesh and blood human being and not some foggy something inside of us. The dead, once living human beings, or living souls, are now in their grave. Only their memory remains and their records in heaven. We are appointed, once to die - after which we are dead in the grave. Time goes by of which the dead are totally oblivious and at some point the heavenly judgment begins. At the second coming of Christ He and His angels know who belongs to His heavenly family and those who are part of it shall rise from their sleep death. They had no sensation of time spent in the grave. For them it was just the twinkling of an eye before they see Jesus. When Jesus comes all those who are His, from Adam to the last person who died in Christ, will be resurrected by a shout and the sound of the trump of God - that is mass resurrection and the glorious day God's people wait for.
There is no disembodied soul of dead people in heaven. This is the error the snake suggested to Eve. It gives credence for Satanic agencies to
Life After Death
appear in the guise of dead people suggesting what they should do. Such a believe, thus, opens a door for the evil one to impress his messages on people. But the Bible states that the dead are dead in their grave and those who believe thus will not be deceived by such apparitions or appearances. The doctrine of human souls in heaven is unfortunately long engrained in many "Christian" circles but its origin is a tradition, not biblical. In that it is a similar error as doubting that God created everything. It is also the reason we repeatedly stated, that the Protestant Reformation was incomplete in discovering the pure gospel in its time. Later preachers and church leaders did not continue to search the scriptures sufficiently but rested largely on the laurels of the original reformers who in turn were influenced by the ‘church fathers' who taught false traditions.
Among believes in Christian circles we have these contradictory statements, that, yes, we die, but no, our soul lives on. That is not death. God's Word means what it says about ‘death'. We are gone and exist nowhere but that he shall recreate us on resurrection morning. The Bible assumes we understand this view of the state of the dead as the Israelites and Hebrew people believed it. We have to look at the time of Christ, the apostles and the time before Christ, to learn what God's people believed, because the later church incorporated many erroneous teachings which are still with us today. But the Christianity the Bible teaches is a "... doctrine, not of (natural) immortality, but of resurrection."[2050]
This is what is taught from Genesis to Revelation. See Revelation 16:3.
To reiterate once again, at death of course we stop breathing. Though before that we were a living soul made up of our God given body plus the breath. Now we become completely lifeless and our body starts decaying and the ‘worms' start devouring us right away. The Bible states that at the time of the apostles their revered patriarch, royal father David was still in his grave, Acts 2:29. That is all of him and there was no part of him anywhere else. At the time of the Second Coming of Jesus, the apostle Paul states:
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 1.Thess. 4:14
Some preachers say, ‘See, God brings those believers which accepted Christ with him from heaven to be there when the dead shall be raised from their sleep.'
Hold it, hold it. Which direction is this verse talking about? Are those,
which were asleep in Jesus, are they being brought from heaven to earth or are they being brought from earth to heaven?
Well, the whole biblical context testifies to the fact that God does not bring a sleep train of snoozing saints from heaven to earth, but those that are sleeping in their grave he will raise up and take up to heaven - wide awake and in possession of their now glorified body. Their death-sleep will seem to them just as the twinkling of an eye. There was no immortal something inside of them during their life on earth for it is only God who is immortal. When Jesus Christ comes as King he will come in the glory of his father and in the glory of the heavenly angels - notice no disembodied souls are mentioned - and they will take up the faithful to God to their heavenly home.[2100]
Life After Death
At funerals we should hear then said, ‘Rest peacefully in the recesses of the earth until that glorious day of the Lord." Or as we read on another gravestone, "Here lieth the body of (name) who departed this life on (date). My life is hid with Christ in God when this my Saviour Dear does Come Again then with Him in Glory I Shall Appear." We notice this gravestone quotes the Apostle Paul where he writes:
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4.
During funerals, therefore, it should not be said, ‘We shall meet you on the other side,' if it means when we die we also go where you are. These reunions, according to the Bible, do not happen until the day of the second advent of Jesus Christ when He shall raise the dead from their sleep death.[2150]
The ancient Egyptians believed that man had an immortal soul. They were pagans. Moses led Israel out of Egypt to remove them from these erroneous teachings. Christians are not to hang on to this pagan believe that man at death has something inside that keeps on living. That is paganism. Always remember, Only God has immortality,
1.Timothy 6:15,16.
To put it another way, the answer to the first question is that becoming a part of God's Heavenly Kingdom occurs at the same time for all who believe, at the day of His glorious Second Coming, no one will get there before another except those who God chose as his First Fruit. Today, all of God's people rest in their grave to be woken up on that day by the ‘Trump of God' as the Bible puts it. The ‘Trump of God' is nothing silent or secret except that we do not know the hour when Christ comes again. We are to be ready for it every day, for if we should unexpectedly fall to ‘sleep' in
death, we have abundant life awaiting us upon the first resurrection and seeing Christ in the clouds of throngs of heavenly beings. This will be the noisiest, most welcomed event for the saints of all history [2200]. The rejecters will not rise until much later in the second resurrection to receive their judgment, acknowledge the justice of God
and become like dead stubble and sin shall rise no more. - The sermon
above admonishes us to study His Word daily to grow in faith and learn
about salvation.
[Supporting Texts: John 11:11; Acts 7:60; John 5:28; Acts 2:29,34; Revelation 20:6; 1. Thess. 4:13-18.]
Life After Death
How do we deal with explanations of those who believe in immortality: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." 2.Corinthians 5:8?
Doesn't this scripture proof that our soul goes to heaven?
To decide that question we must read this scripture in the context in which it was written (being an example of easily distorting its meaning when reading this verse all by itself) for the apostle Paul is explaining it himself in the previous verses.
In Verse 1 and 2 Paul expresses his hope for the future, and describes life and death in relation to eternity:
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven."
The apostle is speaking here of our present body figuratively as our "earthly tent-house" by using images of the Israelite tabernacle. He then says, since this our body temple starts to dissolve, of course after death, we have another - an eternal one, "our house which is from heaven". This is so because true believers in Christ Jesus can look forward to eternal life with Jesus in heaven, in which we are to accumulate ‘treasures,' aspire to live a godly life to become citizens of God's kingdom while living in our ‘tent-house' body. Therefore, we earnestly desire to be clothed with this ‘new house (body)', for if our present house is dissolved (decayed) and we do not put on ‘the house' "from heaven" (our resurrection body) we shall be found naked (dead, Job 1:21), verse 3, we were found out to be unworthy, have neither body, as a result of rejecting God's way.
Paul illustrates 3 conditions:
From verse 6, "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are home in the body, we are absent from the Lord."
We can see that the phrase our ‘earthly house' means our present, temporal, home body.
From verse 4, "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan - (wishing we were already in heaven) -, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed (‘naked', that is dead), but clothed upon (having received the resurrection body), that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
Three stages are here presented the third of which, being ‘naked', is a reference to our dead body - death, In death we have neither the earthly nor the resurrection body. We have to wait for the resurrection body until Jesus comes again and raises us up from death - re-creates us, reassembles our genetic (DNA) information and makes us whole again. As our body is remade so also our mind (the ‘soul') starts to function again [2300]. Our ‘soul' is part of our body and can't fly away without it for a soul can die and animals are also spoken of as having a soul. It is important to get what Paul says, we do not get ‘our house from heaven' until resurrection day and there are only three stages, not a fourth stage in which a soul reunites with the body as immortality teachers claim. That is reading things into
Life After Death
this verse which are not there. (For a word study on ‘soul' click here).
What the apostle Paul wanted most of all was to be changed from mortality to immortality without experiencing death (being unclothed). In other words he wanted for Jesus to come again in his life time - he was perhaps a bit impatient (groaning) to be with God? He wanted the experience of Enoch and Elijah when they were taken to heaven (Genesis 5:24; 2.Kings 2:11; Luke 9:35). But please note this observation:
If the condition between mortality and immortality had been one where his disembodied ‘soul' (falsely understood by many as capable of life without the body) was already in heaven in the presence of God, Paul would not have had such earnest desire to avoid dying. Paul explained in other Bible passages, the time, when he expected immortality to be given, 1.Corinthians 15:51-53.
When studying the subject on the immortality of the soul, we need to be aware that in these words and concepts a number of unstated understandings of the time of Paul are of importance. This is particularly relevant with respect to the wording in Phil. 1:23 and 2.Cor. 5:8:
"For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh [is] more needful for you. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit." Philipians 1:23-27
"Therefore [we are] always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him."
When does this, our presence with the Lord, take place?
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to [answer] them which glory in appearance, and not in heart." 2.Corinthians 5:5-12
The answer is, our presence before the Lord does not take place until after the judgment. Studying all of the Bible, including the Hebrew Old Testament, understanding of what happens to us after we die [2350], as also emphasized by Jesus in Matthew 16:27 in the New, is important. We read:
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;
and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Matthew 16:27
"And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Hebrews 9:27.
"Be not be amazed at this: for the hour is coming, when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned." John 5:28-29.
Life After Death
All of God's people do not receive their reward, eternal life, until after the Second Coming. No one will hear the voice of God before then. All the just (Luke 14:14; they are pronounced just after judgment), redemmed of the ages, will hear this voice at the same time. [2360]
These ‘understandings' of the time of Paul, that the time spent in the grave from the moment of death until the Second Coming, is as the blinking of an eye (1.Cor. 15:52- Note: The dead are raised, reassembled to be living individuals as only God can do it - implying that up to this moment they were not alive, anywhere!) and the biblical usage of the words ‘soul' and/ or ‘spirit' as a complete, living human being, are key issues on the doctrine of the state of the dead. Until the day of the general resurrection the dead are in the grave, their bodies are decayed, turned to dust, awaiting their resurrection at the last trumpet. Not until their resurrection will they put on incorruption and immortality, but until then they rest in the grave just like Jesus did after He died on the cross.
What about those who put the idea of anthropomorphism in this passage of ‘The Rich Man and Lazarus', Luke 16:19-31?
Note: It would be very instructive to study Matthew 27:52-53 on this subject.
"And the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."
This scripture reflects the truth about what happens to us at death and where the dead are as few other scriptures do. There is no sign of an immortal something in this account. These resurrected people "slept" in their tombs. In other words, no part of them existed elsewhere separated from the body. The evil snake said that lie, ‘Ye shall not surely die', Gen.3:4.
In fact the Bible states that the rich man lost his soul for we read:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36.
This scripture we may continue with the words, "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works." Matth. 16:27 As we are told here, our reward does not occur at the time of death but on the day of His Second Coming - the day poor Lazarus would be received into heaven by Jesus and His holy angels and eat freely from the Tree of Life by the River of Life as it were, sitting in the bosom of plenty of Abrahm, Rev. 22:1-2,17. While poor Lazarus, now rich in being blessed to be among the redeemed in heaven, may be understood as a type for those who accepted Christ, the Rich Man, who was spiritually poor, according to the Bible would not be resurrected until after the Millenium in the second resurrection. The impenetrable chasm separating these, exists for all of those, who chose not to accept Christ as their personal savior. That in Hebrew beliefs ‘the soul' is also equated with ‘life' we have already shown above.
One of the main arguments for the notion that disembodied human souls arrive in heaven is this parable of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus. The immortality believers explain the parable by saying that the rich man and poor Lazarus are not in heaven in their resurrection body but in the ‘spirit' body (anthropomorphism). This argument we have already shown to be untrue by the word study above on how the Bible uses these words ‘spirit' and ‘soul'. With the idea of anthropomorphism a plethora of doctrines
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could be upheld which the Bible never intended to teach. Where do we stop to apply anthropomorphism? It is not a biblically ordained method of interpretation but is used to proof what they can't proof without using such ideas. There is no reason not to believe that Moses and Elias (Jude 9; Lk. 9:30) were bodily taken up into heaven as a ‘first fruit' just like Jesus was and thus could appear to Jesus in the Garden before the sufferings and the death of Jesus on the cross for his encouragement. For who is God that he should do something in vagueness and in secret? Not so. God does not split people into bodies and ghosts, pagans did that.
Those who view the New Testament to teach that the expressions, "body and soul" and "body, soul, and spirit" indicate that man is composed of three divisible components, and that at least one of them is immortal, should consider this:
Jesus is saying, the powers which can harm life would never affect the souls (minds) of the Apostles, which His own resurrection proved. The body can be injured without the consent of the soul because as one suffers he can still think, but the soul cannot experience pain without the body being still alive. Therefore, the only thing to fear is losing, not our human life, but the life with God after resurrection day.
What about the robe-clad souls in the Book of Revelation?
"And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held ..." Revelation 6:9
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In order for us to get the whole picture, lets read on
"... and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, Holy and true, doest Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them [They were pronounced pure and holy]; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Revelation 6:10-11
Again, these verses were not written to explain the state of the dead. We read about these scenes, part of the fifth seal, that they belong to a period of time in the future from the time of John. The following observations and questions may come up:
We believe, to all these questions satisfactory answers can be found in the Word of God.
1. Answer: Like the seals before this fifth seal, they have historically been understood to cover a period of time. The first was seen to approximate the period of the first church, Ephesus, the triumph of the gospel. The second was understood to cover the period during which the pure gospel was being corrupted and persecution ensued. The third seal was interpreted to mean settling spiritual darkness. The taking away of Bible based faith, moral corruption and the rise of superstitions which we cover here. The fourth seal covers the period of church history where the blood of martyrs flowed freely. The fifth seal covers the period during which the persecuting power started to be restrained; the effect, we know from history, which was caused by the Protestant Reformation.
2.- 5. Answers: The souls under the altar are popularly being regarded as strong proof that disembodied spirits exist and that the dead have consciousness. Those, who teach this, point to the souls seen by the apostle John in a disembodied state, and yet they had knowledge of passing events, for they cried for vengeance on their prosecutors.
This view is, however, inadmissible for several reasons.
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passed off the stage of action, and according to the doctrine of hell fire were being tormented and made to suffer right there - before the eyes of the souls under the altar - if we remember how those who interpret these things as real - present the parable of the ‘Rich Man and Poor Lazarus'. But these souls under the altar are represented as if they cry to God as though He was delaying vengeance on their murderers. What greater vengeance could they want? If they thought that their persecutors were still alive on earth, they must have known (since some say they can think) that in a few years at most, these wicked would join the vast multitude of those suffering in hell.
Therefore, the popular doctrine on the condition of the dead cannot be correct, or their interpretation of these verses is not correct, for they are mutually exclusive.
c) But it is urged on seekers of truth that these souls must be conscious, for they cry to God. This argument may be valid, if we could find such a figure of speech as ‘personification' elsewhere in the Bible. Please be reminded that the blood of Abel is represented to have cried to God from the ground, Gen. 4:9-10. The stone cried out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber answered, Habakkuk 2:11. The hire of the laborers kept back by fraud cried, and the cry enters the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, James 5:4.
Conclusion: Therefore, while the souls under the altar could ‘cry', does that not proof consciousness after death.[2400]
The word ‘soul' means a complete, living human being and is not infrequently translated as ‘person' as a look in Young's Concordance will demonstrate under "person, nephesh", with quotes from Gen. 14:21; Num. 25:30; Jer. 43:6; Ez. 16:5, etc. demonstrate.
These souls were burned on stakes, beheaded or otherwise killed for their faith, but they trusted in God to raise them on that day of His Second Coming from their grave. Their words, their testimony, survived them and seared the conscience of some of their persecutors.[2410]
6. Answer to ‘Their white robes and when do they rest for a little season?'
These persecutions took place largely in the old world, Europe. But they also followed into those areas of the world where members of this persecuting power journeyed to. While the reformation slowed their terrible work, it did not altogether stop it as the events in the awful ‘Bartholomews Massacre' showed. Besides the events of that night, multitudes suffered death in various other places. They themselves, over those long centuries, had come out of the ranks of their persecutors, persuaded by the Bible to follow the Lord in keeping His commandments and His doctrines. Their lives had been misrepresented, their reputations tarnished, their names defamed, their motives maligned, and their graves covered with shame and reproach, as containing the dishonored dust of the most vile and despicable characters. This way the persecuting power which then molded the sentiment of the principal nations on earth, spared no pains to make her victims an abhorrence to all people.
But the Protestant Reformation began its work.
The full vindication of their cause was delayed for a season. But the spirit
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of persecution was finally restrained. the cause of the martyrs vindicated, and the "little season" of the fifth seal came to a close.[2450]
What about the spirits in prison?
"For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (capital ‘S', Holy Spirit): by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." 1.Peter 3:18-20
The Explanation: We learn here that all sinners find themselves in the "prison house of sin" (He suffered for sin), Romans 7:14 "sold under sin"; Galatians 3:22 "all are under sin"; 5:16,17 ‘the conflict', (verse 1, "liberty"); 2.Peter 2:19 "liberty, corruption, bondage".
When the Saviour walked this earth some 2000 years ago, He liberated prisoners from the prison of sin by His preaching, Luke 4:16 quoting Isaiah 61:1.
When Jesus finished reading this scripture he said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears", Luke 4:21. That very Sabbath day, this prophecy of Isaiah 61 was fulfilled. The prison was open and the prisoners loosed from the fetters of sin and condemnation, John 8:32,36. Jesus Christ, the pre-existent one [2500], by His Spirit preached through Noah to the people in the prison house of sin in the days before the Flood: "And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eigth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." 2.Peter 2:5 (See also Hebr. 11:7; Rom. 8:1,2; Gen. 6:3) Notice: The "spirits in prison" are not disembodied spirits. For we read in Hebrews 12:9,23
"Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?"
"To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits ofjust men made perfect."
Conclusion: We notice after reading these Bible texts that all references point to people who are alive on earth - for they are only "written in heaven". To Hebrew listeners, the word ‘spirit' and ‘soul' meant, more often than not, a complete, alive, air breathing human being. Only in this life can people hear the gospel message and accept salvation, for we read in Hebrews:
"And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Hebrews 9:27; Ecclesiastes 9:5,10.
Interpretation: Perhaps we may read the text in Hebrews this way in a free rendition:
‘Additionally we had ancestors, our forefathers, which raised their children as parents would and they were honored by their offspring over all generations, so, if we obeyed our parents and they obeyed their parents, should we not even more so obey God, our heavenly Father and live?' ‘To the congregation and church of Jesus Christ, the firstborn, whose names are written in the record books of heaven, and to God the judge of all of us, and to those people who lived a godly life and thus are considered perfect by God.' Hebrews 12: 9,23
By using for the word ‘spirit' the word "our", that is "me" or "us", as in ‘my or our heavenly Father' and then, in the second example, use for the
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word ‘spirit' the word "people" we try to preserve the deep down meaning of these Bible verses.
Right after death with God
What about John 10:27-28? "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand." John 10:27-28. Doesn't this scripture indicate that man has eternal life, he shall never perish and that death is the release of the soul? What stands in the way that after death we shall be with God? |
Right after death first asleep in the grave and then with God
In the words of Jesus himself, He said, the dead are really dead. "Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." John 11:14. Elsewhere Jesus underscores that the dead shall rise when He returns as king in might and power. Jesus never speaks of a soul existing apart from the body, "Then come ... the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, ‘Master, Moses wrote ... If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him ... last of all the woman died also. ... In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? And Jesus answering said ... Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven. ... He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err." Mark 12:18-27. Man, after death, has not another existence waiting for him as a ‘spirit' being like the angels. This won't come about until the Second Coming. Christians know that there is a different relationship between God and the person who accepts His love and His will then there is between God and one who rejects him, Acts 17:28-29. Jesus made a sonship possible, Jhn. 1:12; Ro. 8:14-16; Gal. 4:1-7. This relationship is made possible by the new birth - a spiritual rather than a physical experience, Jhn. 1:13. |
Group I: those texts that reveal
characteristics of God
Group II: those texts showing spiritual relationships
Group III: those texts showing specific promises
In the following section we classify roughly three groups of texts:
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| in relation to the believer |
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| Matth. 6:4: "That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which sees in secret himself shall reward thee openly." "... your Father knows what things you have need of, before we ask him." | John 10:25-29: "I told you and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. ... ye believe not ... ye are not of my sheep ... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, My Father which gave them me, is greater than all ..." | John 14:22-23: "Judas (not Iscariot) said unto him: ‘Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?' Jesus said ...: If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and make our abode with him." |
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The Character of God and the Destruction of the Wicked Tony's Testimony
The critical question is this: When does this togetherness with God Father alluded to in John 10 take place?
Those who argue for man's soul going to heaven right after death will view these texts as meaning this togetherness takes place right after death. Those who argue for sleep death in the grave until the resurrection at the Second Coming understand that this togetherness happens after that event.
So what is the difference?
The Bible teaches that before man gets into heaven, receives eternal life, there will be a judgment, Hebrews 9:27. This text underscores the much misunderstood theology that no soul wings its way into heaven before it passes judgment.
We explained the pertinent scripture (2.Cor. 5:5-12) already above.
One explanation we may add at this point is this: People do not become ‘sheep', true followers of Jesus Christ, until they hear his voice. That voice knows each sheep by name and knows each sheep in the fold. No wolf dressed in sheep clothing will be among them. They have already been examined, judged, and found to be worthy to be counted among the sheep. While the idea of ‘judgment' is not stated in John 10, the application can be derived.
This is what Job affirms:
"And though after my skin (worms) destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Job 19:26
The day when Job expected to see God was not the day of his death, but the day when he would be resurrected. For Job also said,
"Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I
came out of the belly? ... For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest." Job 3:11,13
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"So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens [be] no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:12
There is no such thing as a soul going to heaven at death and then, on top of that, a resurrection where that soul comes down to reunite with the body. Such a doctrine is nowhere found in the Bible and just conjecture and forced interpretation to justify the erroneous belief in the immortality of the soul.
Something on the lighter side. Little Joe asks his dad, ‘Where did grandpa go?' Dad replies, ‘He went to heaven.' Little Joe thinks for a moment, then asks, ‘Why did Jesus raise Lazarus, the little girl and why did he save the three friends of Daniel? Wouldn't they rather have gone to heaven then live through a fire and live through more years of work and hardship?' Dad, surprised, says, ‘Well, I don' know, I don' know.' Yeah, Lazarus and the little girl certainly had nothing to say about their short stay in heaven.
How are we to deal with out-of-body experiences?
The above gives you the main points on the state of the dead. When a person claims reincarnate experiences, we believe in such cases it would be helpful to find out if the person is on medication or chemicals without trying to be too nosy. The fact is that some types of medications can be the cause of vivid dreams or imaginations. If not, then influence of ET spirit mediums ought to be considered or both.
Consider this grave stone heading
"Stop my friend, as you go by, As you are now, so once was I, As I am now, you soon shall be, Prepare yourself, to follow me."
A passerby wrote underneath
"To follow you, I'm not content,
until I know, which way you went."
Spiritualism, the belief in the immortality of the soul, can bring people under the influence of Satan's deceptions. The great deceiver himself may feign that he is converted, after the modern order of things. The Bible says, that he will appear in the character of an angel of light (Rev. 12:12). Through the agency of Spiritualism, miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and many undeniable wonders will be performed. And as the spirits will profess faith in the Bible, and manifest respect for the institutions of the church, their work will be accepted as a manifestation of divine power.
What we see happening today is that the line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church-members love what the world loves, and Satan determines to unite them in one body, and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of Spiritualism. When Christians cast away the shield of truth they will easily be deceived and accept a form of godliness without the power.
As one studies the history of the Christian church, he cannot help but see the destructive results of unraveling even one thread (one doctrine) of the
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coherent fabric of truth. The inner consistency of truth is one mark of its authenticity. When a person takes one doctrine–for instance, the nature of man–and imposes upon it an unscriptural definition such as the immortal soul notion, other doctrines are affected in some way. When one removes conditionality from the plan of salvation, human responsibility is diminished and the sovereignty of God is misunderstood.
Truth is not the sum of paradoxes. Truth is a union of harmonious components. Its components interconnect in such a way that when one part is removed, something serious is missing because of that incompleteness. Truth is a whole–and it changes people as they respond in regard to it. The Spirit of God has a work to do within us to change us and prepare us for heaven; this is not an optional work. Truth has been given to meet our emergency and our necessity; while truth alone does not save us, it plays a crucial role in the inward motivations and attitudes that cause us to be saved by grace through faith. We are changed by beholding, and so when we behold only a part of God's truth, we are only changed in part–and that part, being isolated, means the change is distorted. Distorted people present a distorted picture of God. A distorted picture of God lengthens the great controversy by lending the appearance of credence to Satan's claims about God.
The Great Controversy Theme ties together the plan of redemption, Bible truth, and the peril and triumph of Jesus' entry into humanity and His death upon the cross. It holds together Christ's death for us with the application of His power within us. It shows why God purposes to demonstrate through His end-time people the ultimate fruition of what His grace can do, and clarifies how Satan's charges will be finally negated. At the end of time God has called a people to understand, live out, and present to the universe God's love through our individual opportunities in the climax of the great controversy. [3000]
Example of a Bible Study on the subject
How would you react if someone handed you the telephone and the voice at the other end was that of your mother who had died and was buried just six weeks before? Would you believe your mother could speak to you now? Or would you be positive that, no, she rests in her grave?
When a person dies, is that person really dead? We may have heard the saying, ‘Dead men tell no tales', but do they? Millions of people believe they are in touch with the dead. Government officials all over the world seek counsel from those who supposedly communicate with the dead.
Is this a gigantic hoax? Or is it one of the greatest blessings we have in this world today? The lives of people and governments are at stake the world over. Even more sobering, your own life and future could be in jeopardy. There is no defense for guess work when results can be so far reaching and final. We must obtain the facts.
Thank God, Jesus, the Star of the drama in Revelation, has the answers. He was dead, but is now alive forevermore. Every person ever raised from the dead has been raised by Him, and He will soon gloriously raise millions on the day of his appearing. He knows all these answers, in fact, he holds in his hands the keys of death.
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Prepare for some surprises as we review His Word on this most important subject.
Fill in the blanks!
Champions of Immortality
Revelation 1:18 refers to Jesus as "He that lives, and was dead." What does he have in his hand? |
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1.
2.
Note: Thank God! Jesus has the keys, or answers, to the mysterious questions and problems regarding death. And since He, only, has the answers, we must go to His Word for information. No other source is reliable.
What was Jesus called in Revelation 1:5? |
| Answer: "The ___begotten of the |
Note: Jesus was the first begotten from the dead in the same sense that He was "slain from the foundation of the world". He was also "first" from the standpoint of pre-eminence, or importance. His resurrection was "first" in the same sense that the president's wife is "first" lady.
Why is Jesus' resurrection so important to me as a person? 1.Corinthians 15:20-22 |
| Answer: "Even so in___shall__be made____." | |
| Note: His resurrection is important to you and me because His resurrection has made all other resurrections possible. | ||
4. | How did God create man in the beginning? Genesis 2:7 |
| Answer: "______man of the_____of the_______and_______into his_______the_______of______." |
| Notes: |
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5. | What happens at death, according to the Scripture? Ecclesiastes 12:7 | Answer: "Then shall the_____ to the as it was: and | |
| Note: Two things happen at death: the body returns to dust and the spirit returns to God. | ||
6. | What did Jesus say where the dead are? John 11:14 |
| Answer: "Then said Jesus unto them plainly, |
is______." | |||
| Note: This scripture says it all form the highest authority in the universe, The dead are really dead! | ||
7. | What is the ‘spirit' which returns to God at death? James 2:26; Psalm 104:29. |
| Answer: |
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Note: To say it with words we can understand today: The ‘spirit' or ‘breath' which returns to God is the essence of the living, feeling human being, his or her cellular existence - the complete information contained in the genetic, chemical code. It ‘returns' not as a substance but when a person dies, that person knows by faith that God has this genetic code on file and can recreate him or
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her on that great day of the Lord (Ps. 104:30) by infusing once again the spark of life which only God can give.
9.
8. What happened when God placed the breath of life in man's nostrils at creation? Genesis 2:7 |
| Answer: "Man a living______." |
Note: God formed man of the dust and made a body. He then combined breath with this body and man became a living soul. Therefore, the Bible definition for "soul" is: Body + Breath = Soul. A living, breathing being is a soul. The Bible, in this text, is saying that we are souls! The truth is we do not have souls, but we are souls.
Do souls die? Ezekiel 18:4,20 |
Note: Strangely, the Bible does not agree with the widely used term "undying soul". Rather, the Scripture teaches that the soul has a very short life.
Answer: "The soul that sinneth it
shall ."
10.
At death, the body returns to dust, and the breath (spirit) returns to God. What happens to the soul? Where does it go? Psalm 104:29,30
Answer: The soul goes nowhere. It simply_______to exist. |
Notes: Please be reminded that the Hebrew word for ‘breath' is the same word translated as ‘spirit'. The Bible does not present ‘breath/spirit' as capable of living apart from the body except in allegory to illustrate some other message, the ‘Rich Man and Poor Lazarus', an allegory which does not use the word ‘breath', ‘spirit' or ‘soul', but only the word ‘died'.
Answer:
11. Jesus and Job both tell us where the bodies of the dead are. Where are they? Job 21:32; / John 5:28,29
Note: They are not in heaven or hell, but rather in their graves. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said that David was in his grave and had not gone to heaven. Acts 2:29,34. But the Scriptures clearly teach, Hebrews 11:32, that David will be saved in God's Kingdom. David is not yet in heaven because God's plan is that the dead wait in their graves until Jesus returns and resurrects them, Hebrews 11:39-40.
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| Can dead people think? Psalm 146:4 |
| Answer: |
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Notes:
13. |
| Do dead people know what their loved ones on earth are doing? Job 14:12,21 |
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Note: The following Scripture passages are very specific: Job 7:9,10 - The dead can't go back and haunt their houses.; Psalm 6:5 - The dead do not remember or give thanks.; Isaiah 38:18,19 - The dead can't learn truth.; Psalm 115:17 - The dead do not praise the Lord.
14.
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In death, doesn't some part of man know something? Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6,10
Answer: "The_______know
not ."
Note: Words would not be coupled together in a sentence to be more understandable, "the dead know not anything." The passage says the dead do not love, hate or envy. They have no wisdom or knowledge. They do not work and they are in no way involved with anything that is under the sun. They cannot contact the living.
Resurrection from Death
Answer: At the coming of
15. When will the righteous dead, who are now in their graves, be raised? 1.Corinthians 15:20,23; 1.Thessalonians 4:15-17
Notes:
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| How did Jesus speak of death? John 11:11-14 |
| Answer: "Our friend Lazarus ." |
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Notes:
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| Do people have immortality now? 1.Timothy 6:15,16 |
| Answer: |
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Note: Man is mortal or subject to death. Job 4:17. Only God has immortality.
18. |
| When will God's people receive immortality? 1.Corinthians 15:51-55 |
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| Answer: When they are at Jesus . |
Note: Jesus will give immortality to His people as a free gift, when they are translated at His second coming. Until then, no one but God has immortality. Immortality means not subject to death, Luke 20:35,36. The concept of the undying, immortal soul of man, so often spoken of at funerals today, is contrary to the Bible. Scripture cannot be found to support it, because the Bible teaches just the opposite. It is Satan's plan to nullify Jesus' wonderful promise to give immortality at the resurrection by claiming that men already have it.
19. |
| God's people do not have immortality now, but, do they have eternal life? 1.John 5:12; John 6:54 |
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Notes:
Satan's Hoax about Death
20. |
| What lie about death did Satan tell Eve in the Garden of Eden? Genesis 3:4 |
| Answer: "______shall_______surely |
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| ." |
Note: Contrary to God's word, Satan said that death is not a fact. "You won't really die, if you disobey" is what he was saying to Eve.
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| Why did Satan want people to believe that the dead are |
| Answer: So his angels can pose as spirits of |
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25.
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alive and can be contacted? Revelation 16:14; 2.Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 13:13,14.
the______and people. |
Note: Satan wants people to believe that the dead can be contacted so he can send his angels to pose as the spirits of the dead, and thus deceive them. His masterful delusions will deceive all but the very elect, Matthew 24:24. Notice that these evil angels also deceive the "kings of the earth", Revelation 16:13,14.
Fallen Christendom is referred to as Babylon in Revelation. What does God say is largely responsible for its fall? Revelation 18:2,4,5
Answer: "Babylon is______.... is become the habitation of_______and the hold of every foul_______."
Note: Christendom is falling because Satan has gained access to the churches through his falsehood that the dead are alive. In all too many cases, messages from Satan's emissaries, who pose as spirits of the dead, are welcomed as marvelous counsel to the churches from the redeemed in glory. This gives Satan full power to deceive, and he makes every contact count. No wonder the apostle Paul so solemnly warned against such deception in 1.Timothy 4:1,2.
23. According to Revelation, these same evil angels, posing as spirits of the dead, approach the kings and leaders of earth. What is the result? Revelation 16:13,14; 18:23
Answer: a) Revelation 18:23 "By
the were____nations ."
Answer: b) Revelation 16:14 "______them to the_______ of that great_____of_____Almighty."
Note: These angels, claiming to be the spirits of the dead, will be the powers which will influence the rulers of the nations of the world and lead them into that final battle of Armageddon, which will end in their total destruction. Tragically, leaders of many nations today, consult with those who claim to receive messages from the dead before deciding any important issue. No wonder this planet is in such disarray. Satan, himself, is being given access to call the signals.
24.
An Important Test
From what sources, only, should I receive my information on the subject of death? Isaiah 8:19,20
Answer: a) "Should not a people seek unto their_______"? Answer: b) "If they speak not according to this_______it is because there is no_______in them."
Note: This passage plainly states that we must refuse to listen to those who claim to speak for the dead and, instead, obtain our information from God's Word only. Messages, which supposedly come from the dead loved ones, are never from these loved ones, but, rather, from Satan. That is a sobering thought!
Revelation says those who obey God will enter His Kingdom. Who will be
Answer: "For without are dogs,
and and
whoremongers and murderers and
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among those shut out? Revelation 22:15 |
| idolators." |
Note: Those who consult the dead (sorcerers) will be shut out of heaven. In Moses' day of the theocracy, God commanded that such be stoned. Leviticus 20:6,27, because it represents direct Satanic influences.
26. Witchcraft, which claims to contact the dead, is called, in the Bible, one of the works of the flesh for which people will be shut out of God's Kingdom. How should I relate to it? Galatians 5:1921; Ephesians 5:11.
Answer: "Have no with the unfruitful of darkness, but rather them." |
Note: I should stay as far away as possible from anything that in any way resembles witchcraft. Presumed contact with the dead as virtually always contact with Satanic forces.
27. |
| Why are the godly dead called blessed in Revelation 14:13? |
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| Answer: "The may_______from their ". |
Note: Notice the prophet does not say that they simply transferred their labors to heaven. No, their work is done. Ecclesiastes 9:10 also says clearly that the reason all work ceases at death is because there is no work in the grave where man goes at death. Man simply sleeps in the grave until the resurrection.
28.
What finally happens to the terrible curse of death? Revelation 20:14
29.
Answer: "It is cast into
the of fire."
Note: Death ends in the fire. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." Revelation 21:4 The Apostle Peter testifies to the fact that even the evil angels are "reserved unto judgment" and "The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day ofjudgment to be punished." 2.Pet. 2:4,9. They are reserved to receive their punishment in a future time. They are not now being punished.
Read again the great passage of scripture on Jesus' return and the resurrection found in 1.Thessalonians 4:16-18. What does the verse 18 say these words should bring us?
Answer: " one another with these words." |
Note: The Bible emphasis is not on an immortal soul, winging its way to heaven at death, as many have thought. The scriptures do not focus on death as a means to go to heaven. Death is not a comfort. The focus of scripture is always on the second coming of Jesus and the resurrections, 1.Corinthians 15:12-26. Because He rose again, all who sleep in Him will rise again. What a blessed comfort indeed!
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| What inconceivably great power is promised to God's |
| Answer: "The of His ." |
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people today? Philippians 3:10
Note: What a joy to be reunited with friends and loved ones who died believing in Jesus Christ. Truly, the second coming of Jesus will be a grand and glorious event for those who love and serve Him. Praise God! He offers me the same miraculous power in life that raised Jesus from the dead. How can a Christian fail with such fantastic power available. It is yours for the asking.
31. |
| Will you accept Jesus' offer to give you this resurrection power for victory in your life today? |
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| Answer: |
Notes:
Notes & References
[0100] James H. Hyslop, Contact with the Other World, p. 14.
[0105] Pro Immortality Contra Immortality
Satan, Genesis 3:4, contradicts God, Genesis 2:17.
The pagans fall into false teachings of: ancestor worship, cultic ceremonies for the dead, human sacrifices and construction of eternal abodes like the pyramids and mummifying the dead. It leads also to the worship of relics - body parts, pieces of items, etc.
The Greeks as voiced in the words attributed to Plato and Aristotle believed: the body is the confining container of the soul, death is the release out of this confinement.
Philosophy: Goethe's ‘Fichte' (Spruce tree): "... I have grabed eternity for myself."
The church: In the 3rd century A.D. penetrated the Platonic teaching of the immortality of the soul the Church of Rome. The apologists for this apostasy were men like, Athenagoras, Tertullian, Clements of Alexandra, Origen, Augustin. It was Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century who put this teaching in a final dress. In December of 1513 this dogma was confirmed and
God teaches the truth, Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10.
The Jews know that they must wait till the end of the world before they stand up from their death sleep to see God, Daniel 12:13.
Same as above
Jesus, death was not the release of his soul out of confinement about which he ought to have been full of joy, but he suffered death, John 6:40. Not until after his resurrection and return as king, will eternal life take effect.
Bible Christians: The early church fathers rejected the teaching of the immortality of the soul. They included Justin der Martyr, Tacian Clements of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp and Arnobius. Justin declared, those who believe in the immortality of the soul, ought not to be considered as Christians. Pope John XXII, 1331, declared: "do you know, when they
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some Protestant churches began to accept it. | (the souls) shall enter in? When their bodies rise up." Luther could say: "We shall sleep until He comes ...", but he is a bit uncertain. Well known theologians wrote on the subject. Karl Barth wrote: "No soul remains." Eberhard Jüngel said, "total break down of relationship." Paul Althaus said, "When the soul is without the body, she itself is taken too." |
The Consequences of the Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul Includes:
| 1. Teachings not known from the Bible made possible through the teaching of the immortality of the soul:
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2. The waning of Christian teachings
3. It casts suspicion on the character of God
Because of infant baptism, members of churches who practice it, may have no idea what the church they consider themselves part of really teaches and why. Without diligently examining the reasons of "their faith", they cannot discern truth from error.
Life After Death
[0120] War in heaven would not be a shooting or blood shedding war. Heaven is inhabited by spirits whose nature may be guessed at in a small way from what the Bible says. Being cast out of heaven my be something like being locked out, separated from God the source of all life, which in itself is very serious since it leads to death.
[0150] Some adore Satan and are known as Luciferians, meaning they turn the truth on its head in that they worship Lucifer rather than Jesus. Satan, by using sly slogans and concepts of which Hegelian Dialectic is one, produce error by wanting to put together a ‘thesis' (the truth) and mix it with the ‘antithesis' (error) you end up with the synthesis (a mixture of truth and error), which, they hope, will be accepted by the biblically illiterate, gullible public as a new truth. [Juan Maler, Sieg der Vernunft, The model of free masonry. The book also reveals certain secret signs of those involved.] These appear to be wicked plans being put together. [0500] Because we always have time for what we really want to do (things like watching tv, or going to shows) no matter what, but when it comes to Bible study weariness can set in right away, which can also be a sign of sleep deprivation, triggered by the action of reading small letters in a quiet setting. Therefore, Bible study also requires getting your daily sleep. [1000] ‘Made fit' for heaven is a short way of describing the path of a Christian. How a Christian first hears the gospel, is converted, confesses his sin and repents, is baptized and becomes of follower of Jesus Christ. How God's grace works in him and keeps him in a co-operative attitude to keep growing in Christ and considers the flair of this world as nothing and God's promises as everything. The ‘natural' body is not designed to live in the heavenly realm. The ‘spiritual' body is not ours until after the resurrection at the Second Coming of Christ. However, we can be spiritually minded today on earth.
[1500] As Matthew Henry commented on this word ‘formed', "Of the other creatures it is said that they were ‘created' and ‘made'; but of man that he was ‘formed', which denotes a gradual process in the work with great accuracy and exactness." [The Bethany Parallel Commentary of the Old Testament]
[1600] How the error of an ‘immortal soul' is implanted in verse 7 as a foregone conclusion can be seen by a remark of Adam Clarke [Ibid., ref. 1500] who wrote, "In the most distinct manner God shows us that man is a compound being, having a body and a soul distinctly separately created, the body out of the dust of the earth, the soul immediately breathed from God himself." This in contrast to viewing the meaning of verse 7 not to be one of distinctness but rather as a union, one cannot exist without the other. Those teaching the immortality of the human ‘soul' may state that, yes, the soul can die, and, yes, the soul is immortal at the same time citing the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus and some Paulinian verses in which Paul in his sweeping way talks about departing and being with the Lord leaving the conditions in between a bit open but explains them in other verses. For the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a parable because not all its parts are meant to be understood literally, that ought to be a none brainer. Dear reader, when the Bible says that only God is immortal, that is all we need to know, with that statement we should gage such erroneous teachings as the immortality of the soul.
[1900] There is at least one Bible version which renders this verse as given here, it is the 1930 Revised Edition of the Concordant Version. We should also know that commas were not used in the early manuscripts. They were not invented until 1490 AD. For these reasons we can be quite certain that the comma in Luke 23:43 has been misplaced.
Life After Death
On this topic consider also this about the word ‘paradise.' According to Revelation 2:7 the ‘tree of life' is in paradise and from Revelation 22:2 we know that the ‘tree of life' is located in the ‘New Jerusalem' which is described as descending from heaven after the 1000 years, the millenium, Revelation 21:2. From this we learn that the thief on the cross would join Jesus in heaven, in paradise, in the New Jerusalem for the millenium and that this has not yet taken place but will take place on the day of His Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead.
[2000] "The Egyptians ... were also the first people to put forward the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and to maintain that after death it enters another creature at the moment of that creature's birth. It then makes the round of all living things - animals, birds, and fish - until it finally passes once again, at birth, into the body of a man. The whole period of transmigration occupies 3000 years. This theory has been adopted by certain Greek writers, some earlier, some later, who have put it forward as their own. Their names are known to me but I refrain from mentioning them." Herodotus, The Histories, Book II, Sec. 123, S. 131. The publishers reference states (assumes) these ‘writers' to be the Pythagoreans and Orphics. But the last part of the emphasized sentence produced here in italics and color is noteworthy with respect to the ‘Cultural Foundations of the Western Civilisation'. In Jewish services in the synagogue at times the ‘Kaddish' may be read. In it we get a glimpse what Jews believed about death, "May his great name be magnified and sanctified in the world that is to be created anew, when he will revive the dead, and raise them up unto life eternal ... ." "... as soon as he dies he is restrained from the Torah and good deeds, and the Holy One ..." [Joseph Heinemann with Jakob Petuchowski, Literature of the Synagogue, N.Y., 1975, p. 84, 145.] As we can see, there in no thought on immortality found in their long held understanding on this subject. From the NT we know that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but not the Sadducees, Acts 23:7-8. This is presented to show that the believe in the immortality of the soul is not derived from faith in the Creator God.
[2025] Additional bible texts how the word ‘today' is used are these: Zechariah 9:12; Hebrew 3:7,15; 4:7; 5:5.
[2050] Dr. William Temple, former archbishop of Canterbury, in a Drew lecture on ‘Immortality', October 1931 at Sion College in London, England. The beliefs of the Hebrews are well put by the words of Jesus when he said, "... I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2-3) and the thief on the cross when he said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Luke 23:42.
[2100] On the question of where the dead go, what about the parable of the rich man and poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)? This parable is one of a series of parables which are not to be understood literally. Why?
Therefore: The Bible teaches that sinners are not punished until the day of judgment, 2.Peter 2:9; Rev. 20:15, and that the righteous are not rewarded until the resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Christ, John 5:28-29; Rev. 22:12.
In the parable, the words: "They have Moses and the prophets" (Luke 16:19-21), show that the writings of the Old Testament give the true
Life After Death
teaching on the question of ‘where are the dead', for the rich man's brothers were referred to them. As we showed already, the Old Testament teaches: the dead are not conscious (Ps. 146:3-4; Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10). Conclusion: The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not intending to teach the answer to ‘where are the dead' but was given by Jesus to underscore that in this life we settle our eternal destiny, after death, the great gulf is fixed and no man is valued merely for his possessions. Compare related parable like scriptures: Lk. 16:19-31; Judges 9:8-15; 2.Ki. 14:9; Lk. 15:11; 16:1. It is an accepted principle of Bible interpretation that a doctrine of faith is not to be built on a parable or allegory alone. This is especially true when details of the parable contradict other scriptural teachings. Only the fundamental teaching of a parable as conformed by its context and supported by the general teaching of the Bible may be considered as a basis for doctrine.
[2150] ‘Be risen with Christ' could be a reference to the day of baptism of Paul's converts, since at baptism, the baptismal candidate is buried in memory of Christ in the water and lifted out of the water, as a symbol of the resurrection. The phrase "... your life is hid with Christ in God." should be put through the biblical screening procedure and we would find out that the word ‘hid' in its 125 occurences, without exception, always means that something is being ‘secreted away' in the sense of not wanting to be noticed. In the 3rd chapter of Colossians ‘hid' means the same as in Colossians 2:3. In context with verse 2, the word "‘mystery' has its usual New Testament meaning. It describes something once hidden but now disclosed, ... they are hidden in Christ as in a treasure house ...". [Charles Erdman, ‘The Epistles of Paul to the Colossians..', p. 68.]
Should we then assume that immortal souls are existing under such secretive, hidden conditions in heaven? This idea of an immortal soul is a rather ill conceived erroneous doctrine. What the apostle wants to say by using the word ‘hid', that only God knows where all the graves of his faithful people are and only He can raise them from their first death-sleep.
[2200] Describing the Second Coming of Jesus Christ this way, accompanied by throngs of heavenly beings, or, as the Bible says, in the clouds of heaven is sometimes criticized. Critics point to Isaiah 19:1: "Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt ..." The metaphor of the Lord riding upon a cloud in this passage of Isaiah is usually understood to mean, the arrival of the Assyrians in Egypt which causes "... the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it."
Isaiah's description is something that happened in the past, an event on earth among nations and people. Does that mean whenever we read about ‘the Lord coming in the clouds' we should think of it as a symbol for political, earth bound events? The image of ‘a cloud' is frequently used in various ways in the Bible including the Book of Daniel. The type of interpretation with an immediate historical fulfillment is used by Daniel and illustrates the effectiveness of God's sovereign dominion over history. The second type of interpretation with distant historical fulfillments is more often found in the Book of Daniel and most often relate to the very end of time. The Bible employs a common sense approach and presupposes the overall goal of God is understood, namely, the resolution of the sin problem in His universe. All scripture relates somehow to this overall goal to cleanse all of God's creations from the influence of sin. The culmination toward this goal will begin when Christ returns the second time as king of kings.
[2300] When Adam and Eve sinned, their physical body changed. Having
Life After Death
no access to the ‘Tree of Life', their body cells began to age and over many years led to their death. The brain is part of the physical body just like the heart, lungs, liver and intestine are. When our organs begin to experience loss in functionality with age, so does the brain. The brain, seat of our mind, is an organ. In it resides what we know and who we are. It is our ‘spirit', our personality. There is no immortal part to it. We are 100% mortal. At the moment of death, microscopic events starting decay set in right away exemplifed by cessation of breathing and blood circulation. And so it is that Lazarus and Jesus were dead. But God knows our genetic code and therefore can recreate us on resurrection day. Tracing the origin of belief in an immortal soul we may mention the following spread of evidence:
[2350] The Old Testament understanding of where the dead are is particularly well expressed in this passage if we just let these words speak for themselves, "He will swallow up death in victory ... and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth ... And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us ..." and "O Lord ... Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Isaiah 25:8-9; 26:17,19. The Bible teaches the resurrection of the righteous patriarchs, Mark 12:26-27. The Sanhedrin and the scribes knew that the fathers of Israel were still in their graves. The Jews taught their sons,
"He will send the Messiah at the end."
"God will raise the dead according to the multitude of His mercies." When shall they live? After the indignation, the judgments of God, Isa. 26:20-21. Notice: The dead arise all of them together in their now glorified body. There is no separation between the body and a soul. The
Life After Death
living body ‘Is The Soul.' As Christ arose in His body, so shall we - after having rested in our grave until the shout of God wakes us up at His Second Coming. At the end there are two classes of people:
There will be a reception in the air. Jesus will ascend with the righteous to His Father's home and to the heavenly throne - John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11; Matth. 16:27; 25:31; Isa. 40:26; 26:2; Matth. 25:34; Rev. 22:14. The notion of an immortal soul was foreign to the Hebrew faith.
[2360] The words of Jesus underscore also the judgment aspect of the "just" being with him in heaven not until after the judgment in the following scripture:
"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do ... For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. (Jeus could raise the dead) For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (as did the raising of Lazarus to demonstrate the power of God in Jesus Christ) For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." John 5.
Eternal life is a promise which we can be assured of and savor in our mind while alive but which is not in actuality fulfilled until the day of His Second Coming, 2.Timothy 4:1 and 1.John 2:25; Hebrews 9:14-15,27. Eternal life comes only through Jesus, Romans 6:23; Joh. 3:36; 5:24; 1. Joh. 5:11,12. In funerals where the immortality of the soul is taught, most everybody is said to go to heaven - without having first to go through judgment as the Bible teaches. Of course that is exactly why people love this false teaching, they put their loved ones in heaven without God having a single vote. A classical example of deception. Like Adam was deceived by the course of his first sin.
[2400] Albert Barnes, Notes on Revelation, pp. 190-191, comment on Revelation 6:9-11: "We are not to suppose that this literally occurred, and that John actually saw the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar - for the whole representation is symbolical; nor are we to suppose that the injured and the wronged in heaven actually pray for vengeance on those who wronged them, or that the redeemed in heaven will continue to pray with
Life After Death
reference to things on earth; but it may be fairly inferred from this that there will be as real a remembrance of the wrongs of the persecuted, the injured, and the oppressed, as if such prayer were offered there; and that the oppressor has as much to dread from the divine vengeance as if those whom he has injured should cry in heaven to the God who hears prayer, and who takes vengeance."
[2410] Famous names of martyrs are recorded in John Knox's book of ‘The Martyrs'.
[2450] We are fully aware that some interpreters (Adam Clarke at al.) tried to place these events into the time before the destruction of Jerusalem. That view would crowd a lot of prophecy into a narrow space of time with dubious fulfillments and leave large eras of history blank and without guidance by the prophetic Word of God. It is the Preterist viewpoint, invented to free the persecuting power from its unflattering, condemning involvement of the events described in the Book of Revelation. See The Bethany Parallel Commentary on the Old/New Testament, Minneapolis, 1983.
[2500] The pre-existence of Jesus Christ is taught in the Old and New Testament: John 17:5, Micah 5:2, John 1:1-4,15, John 8:58, John 17:24, Philippians 2:6-8, Colossians 1:17 and Hebrews 1:8.
[3000] Herbert Douglass, ‘Messenger of the Lord', pp. 256-263.