“He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him” (Luke 20:38).
There are two extremes that are used by Satan to distort the Biblical doctrine of the afterlife
Spiritism teaches everyone has an afterlife in heaven, so it doesn't matter at all what you believe here on earth. Within this is the belief that we can contact the dead. Those who die have not really passed on into another place away from earth, but they are living in the spirit world, a world which is a dimension right here on earth which we cannot see. In other words, they are among us, they are watching and helping us. The Bible clearly denies this by showing that there are two destinations in the afterlife, and makes it absolutely clear that we cannot contact them and they cannot contact us (Luke 16 & Deuteronomy 18:10-12).
The other extreme is Darwinian Evolution, that this is all there is and that there is no afterlife, so we needn't consider what happens when we die. This is what atheism teaches, that there is no eternality to our soul and we all just go back to the ground since that's what we're made of and there is no spirit or soul in man.
The Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching is quite similar to this since they believe that when you die both the soul and body are extinguished, the body taking longer to cease to exist, yet the soul is immediately snuffed out. Atheism also believes in annihilationism. The Devil, who invents these views, will use both ends to distort the truth with just a hint of truth to make it palatable.
Now let's look at Annihilationism
Now let's look at Annihilationism
The general idea is that when someone dies, his personality, soul, spirit and life are (somehow) indistinct from the body, so that person ceases to exist. This occurs not only with believers, but also with non-believers and even with Jesus, so God has to re-fashion everyone by memory. This view doesn't see the distinction between body, soul and spirit.
What we're actually dealing with here is re-creation. What they have is not a resurrection, because the individual's body and soul are carbon copied to exist later. The original person no longer exists and instead a cloned being has taken his place! Of course, none of this is a biblical answer for how God deals with the after life of the soul, the spirit and the body.
Mysteries revealed
Mysteries revealed
We need to understand that there are a number of mysteries in the Bible that were not fully revealed until Christ came. This doctrine comes under the heading of 'progressive revelation'. There are a great many things concealed in the Old Testament, being given only in part and revealed in more complete detail the New Testament. What most people do is look to the Old Testament Scriptures to validate annihilationism such as,
or Psalm 146:4,
or Psalm 115:17,
or Psalm 6:5,
And of course, Ezekiel 18:4,
"For the living know they shall die: but the dead know not any thing";
or Psalm 146:4,
"His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish";
or Psalm 115:17,
"The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence";
or Psalm 6:5,
"For in death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?"
And of course, Ezekiel 18:4,
"the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
By isolating these Old Testament scriptures from the rest of the Word of God some people make their case that death is a “sleep” for the soul.
When someone does a study on this or any other subject, they need to take all the body of literature and weigh it out and see which covenant these things were spoken under: is it a metaphor, is it a hyperbole, is it poetic? To make biblical sense out of this serious issue, we need to look at all of the relevant scriptures of that particular subject.
Because this is not just a spirit sleeping, waiting for the resurrection that is being promoted, this doctrine actually affects other crucial doctrines, such as eternal punishment and eternal life.
Soul-Sleep
Soul-Sleep
Let's look at the word “sleep”, because that's what's crucial here. What does sleep mean? The Bible uses this term when speaking of death in that the physical body, a dead body, looks very similar in this state. It's always referring to the physical body and never the soul. It is the appearance of the body that is sleeping, for no one is able to see the spirit . It is also a term used exclusively for believers.
This is a crucial point. The term sleeping, in reference to death, is not used for unbelievers. I find that to be crucial in understanding what the Bible is trying to portray to us when it says that the dead in Christ are “sleeping”.
Believers and unbelievers do not experience the same afterlife
Believers and unbelievers do not experience the same afterlife
Why would God allow a believers spirit to go to the same place as a non believer ? He didn’t do this before the resurrection of Christ (see Luke 16). Now we are told paradise is in heaven and we are to be with the Lord, so it is illogical, not to mention unbiblical to think that we are to all sleep in the grave until a resurrection - what “sleeps” therefore is the body, what stays alive is man's spirit which was created in God’s likeness and contains the qualities that God gave man to be similar to Himself.
The Bible is very clear that the spirit can live outside the body. Angels can and do function outside a body and yet, they can also function within a physical body. (Angels physically dragged Lot out of the city.) We see they (the fallen ones) can possess people and actually there can be more than one spirit or fallen angels inside a body. Although this alone does not make a strong case for a continuation of an afterlife, it does show that a spirit can operate and function outside the body.
Examples from Scripture
Examples from Scripture
There are numerous passages that teach that humans are conscious after their death, such as Matthew 17:1-8 and Luke 9:28-36 where we find Moses and Elijah appearing on the Mount with Jesus and a few of His disciples. Elijah was taken to heaven alive while Moses died a physical death, yet, Moses is consciously alive just like Elijah. Moses couldn't have been resurrected because Christ is to be the firstfruits of the resurrection and He hadn't risen yet. While Christ raised many from the dead they were people that recently died, not old Testament saints dead for hundred of years. There were others raised to life on earth by Jesus only to die again later. (So technically these cases weren't a 'resurrection', but rather a 'resuscitation' since resurrection bodies are perfected and therefore immortal.) But, here is someone who is dead for 1,500 years, so it isn't Moses' decomposed body brought back out of the ground as a resurrection; this was a spiritual appearance.
Paul himself in 2 Corinthians 12:1-4 stated, fourteen years before, that he was caught up to the third heaven. This is the place where God dwells. He called this place Paradise and he was awed by the experience and the things that he heard but, he wasn't sure if this occurred in his body or without his body, so he wasn't sure if he was alive or dead when this event occurred. Now obviously, his corruptible body could not enter heaven since all must go through transformation to be able to function there. Mortal flesh is unable to enter heaven, as Jesus said; flesh and blood cannot enter, so there has to be some kind of transformation to enter in there.
Also in Philippians 1:23-24, Paul states that he desires to depart to be with Christ, which is far better. Then Paul goes on to say, “nevertheless, to be in the flesh is more needful for you,” so he wanted to stay to help out the saints in the church and fulfill his ministry.
We also find in 2 Peter 1:13, Peter talking about putting off his tabernacle, or tent, calling it a temporary dwelling place. James 2:26 tells us the body without the spirit is dead. He doesn't say the spirit also dies, he says the body without the spirit dies.
In Genesis 35:18, speaking of Rachel, it tells us, her soul was departing and she died. The spirit exists afterwards and gives us life, but when he leaves the body it dies. The body dies and goes back into the ground, yet the spirit continues on.
Ecclesiastes 12: 6-7 describes (in poetry) the shattering of life, that the dust returns to earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Yet context is important as earlier, in verse 5, Solomon writes,
"Man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.”
So Solomon is speaking about those who turn to God as he started off this chapter, stating,
And then he speaks about our eternal home. If it is sleep in the grave, as people are claiming, then to be consistent that means we are going to stay in the grave, the ground, forever. Of course, that is not what it means or says.
"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before difficult days come”.
And then he speaks about our eternal home. If it is sleep in the grave, as people are claiming, then to be consistent that means we are going to stay in the grave, the ground, forever. Of course, that is not what it means or says.
In Hebrews 9:27 we read,
in other words one goes either to heaven or to hell, and it is determined at death, not afterwards. So we go to rewards, to rest, or to punishment and eternal separation. Death is not a “cessation” of existence, but a “separation” of existence; that is the very meaning of the word 'death' in fact.
We were made to be immortal
“After death comes the judgment”;
in other words one goes either to heaven or to hell, and it is determined at death, not afterwards. So we go to rewards, to rest, or to punishment and eternal separation. Death is not a “cessation” of existence, but a “separation” of existence; that is the very meaning of the word 'death' in fact.
We were made to be immortal
Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 15: this mortal will put on immortality, speaking of the resurrection of our bodies, not our spirit. Likewise, in 1 Timothy 6:16, he's speaking of Jesus as the immortal God/man. Spirit, by its own nature, is a deathless entity. God is spirit, and so are angels. God fashioned man in the image of Himself, and, while God has always existed, no beginning or end, he has given mankind a limited similarity, like Himself, something that lives on.
While the body is described as mortal the soul is never described in these terms. Paul states this mortal must put on immortality, speaking of a resurrected body just as Peter said, in 2 Peter 1:13, to put off this tent as a temporary dwelling. In Romans 6:9 we learn:
Therefore 1 Tim. 6:16 means he alone has immortality as his nature and being the first fruit raised in the resurrection.
"Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him."
Therefore 1 Tim. 6:16 means he alone has immortality as his nature and being the first fruit raised in the resurrection.
In Revelation 6:9-10, we see souls who have been slain, under the altar of God, asking the Lord to avenge them. We find they are conscious and they are speaking. The soul and personality of each one of us lives on. Jesus taught, in Matthew 10:28,
(Again the Bible teaches a distinction between the body, soul and spirit.)
“Fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
(Again the Bible teaches a distinction between the body, soul and spirit.)
1 Thessalonians 5:23 is also an important scripture in this regard:
Judgment results
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Judgment results
The Greek word for “destruction”, aplollumi, has numerous meanings. We have to look at the context it's put in. It can mean perish, lost, destroy, to render useless, or to give over to eternal misery, and I believe that is the correct rendition when we look at where he's saying the soul will be in the afterlife of those who do not come to Christ in repentance for their sins.
In Matthew 25:46, there are those in the judgment who go into everlasting punishment and those who go into everlasting life. The same Greek word means eternal and forever. If there is no eternal punishment, then the same word that is applied for eternal life means there is no eternal life, ever. So the Greek, appropriated to both these places that are destined for those who either believe or not believe, means eternal. Likewise in Luke 16, that recounts the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus always used real-life situations to illustrate His teachings. In this account it's not a mere parable, for the very reason that He actually names a person, which He does not do in His parables.
The New Covenant has revealed what was unclear in the Old Testament writings. 2 Corinthians 4:16 & 18 tell us that,
Now here, Paul applies the outer man to the temporal and the tabernacle we live in, and the inner man to the eternal. In the following verse he states,
"though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
Now here, Paul applies the outer man to the temporal and the tabernacle we live in, and the inner man to the eternal. In the following verse he states,
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Here is the scripture that is often neglected and, put in context, we find it fully elaborating on the continual existence of man (2 Corinthians 5:1-8). He sums it all up in verse 8 saying, we are always confident knowing that while we are home in the body we are absent from the Lord. And he goes on to say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When all our earthly tent is dissolved, we can be assured that we will be in the presence of the One we serve and we love here on earth We will be further clothed. This is the Scripture that is consistently neglected, ignored and overlooked unanswered by those who promote “soul-sleep.”
Likewise, in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, we are told that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. Then he states, those who are alive will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The Lord from heaven will come down with a trumpet call and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then those who are alive will be caught up together with them in the air with the Lord forever.
Since the resurrection did not occur before this event, who is Jesus bringing with him from heaven? They don't have bodies, the resurrection hasn't occurred, so they are immaterial souls that will be united with their perfected bodies at this resurrection event. They existed fellowshipping with the Lord in heaven. Jude says the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints. Paul describes this event in 1 Corinthians 15:51,
When? At the last trump. The dead are raised incorruptible, and then he goes on to describe that mortal will put on immortality. So he's talking about our bodies. Then death, he states, is swallowed up in victory; our souls are not dead because we were made alive in Christ.
"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed".
When? At the last trump. The dead are raised incorruptible, and then he goes on to describe that mortal will put on immortality. So he's talking about our bodies. Then death, he states, is swallowed up in victory; our souls are not dead because we were made alive in Christ.
Romans 8:11 says,
“But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who dwells in you.”
There is a day of uniting with those who fell asleep in Christ, when their bodies will be transformed and live forever, and the hope of the believer is that, whether we live or die, we are to be with the Lord. It is stated in the Scriptures,
Is 'spirit' merely 'breath' or is taking
Text out of context pretext for prooftext?
“I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, death, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Is 'spirit' merely 'breath' or is taking
Now let us address the argument that some claim the spirit is just another word for breath since this is what the Hebrew word Ruach means. That is, when someone dies, their breath leaves them. Let us substitute the word breath where Spirit is and see if it makes any sense scripturally?
Matthew 12:43 states:
When an unclean Breath, (spirit) 'goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.'
Just as man can have the Holy Spirit live within him alongside his human Spirit so (the unsaved) can have an unclean spirit live in him.
Luke 4:36: “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean Breaths, (spirit) and they come out.”
Acts 5:16: “Bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean Breath,” (spirit), and they were all healed.”
Jesus cast out spirit entities not people's breath.
James 5:20: “Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a Breath, (soul) from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
Can breath be saved or a sentient person?
2 Peter 2:8: “... for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous Breath, [spirit] from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds”.
Ezekiel 18:4: “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Can breath die? Obviously this means something other than just air in the lungs.
1 Samuel 30:6: “... because the soul (breath?) of all the people was grieved.”
Numbers 21:4: “... and the soul (breath?) of the people became very discouraged on the way.”
Proverbs 21:10: “The soul (breath?) of the wicked desires evil”.
Can breath do any of these things, or rather is scripture communicating will, emotion, intelligence and personality?
Pnuema means wind in Greek; it also means breath and spirit. Ruach in Hebrew means wind; it too also can mean breath and spirit. Since Hebrew and Greek have only one word for wind breath and spirit one needs to discern what is meant by certain passages. The context defines the meaning.
Elaborating on 'death'
Elaborating on 'death'
The term “death” which is “thanatas” in Greek, does not mean to be non-existent or unconscious, it rather means to be separated. Since this is the Biblical definition, any other application is erroneous and must be discarded as such. And as always, context is critical:
Colossians 2:13: “And when you were dead (separated from God-NOT “unconscious”) in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh ...”
Ephesians 2:1: “And he made you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
This is addressing the spiritual state of someone who was in sin and then made alive spiritually in Christ. (Also Revelation 3:1.) The unregenerate are spiritually dead but they are not unconscious or non-existent.
The prodigal son, in Luke 15:24, is said by the Father that “this my son was dead and is alive again.” Jesus was not talking about a bodily or soul resurrection in this context but of one who left fellowship with the father.
Jesus in Matt. 26:38:
He was not saying his soul was going to die and go to sleep.
Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.”
He was not saying his soul was going to die and go to sleep.
Jesus, in Luke 23:46, said to the Father,
“Into your hands I commit my spirit”.
This clearly shows He is having his spirit received into the Father's hands while his body is to be laid in the tomb. This is the very same thing Stephen states in Acts 7:59,
“Stephen cried unto the Lord, saying, 'receive my spirit.'”
Revelation 6:9-11: “And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.”
Notice the timing is at the fifth seal. God gave them white robes and they were told to wait for the rest of their brethren who would be killed. This consummates in Revelation 7:9-15, where they are gathered before the throne of God serving him day and night in his temple. Yet again, this would be impossible if one is asleep or out of existence.
The Bible therefore teaches “death” is not a cessation of existence, but a separation of existence. The soul is our intellect, our personality, our identity. The real person will live on.
“... For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient ...” (1 Peter 3: 18-20).
“... But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore He says: 'When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.'"
(Now this expression, "He ascended" - what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things - Ephesians 4: 7-10).
Conclusion
All the Old Testament passages need to be interpreted through the New Testament revelation. Without the New Testament teaching what was unrevealed in the Old Testament would stay a mystery as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:51:
He was speaking of the resurrection of the body.
“Behold I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
He was speaking of the resurrection of the body.
Other revealed mysteries not made clear by isolating verses from the Old Covenant are found in Matthew 13:11, 35; Romans 16:25; I Corinthians 2:7; Ephesians 3:4-5 and 3:9 – these Scriptures give us a definition of a mystery as something that was unrevealed in the Old Testament and now revealed for the first time in the New Testament.
Heaven was not explained in the Old Testament, the immortality of man, the resurrection to eternal life, the forgiveness of sins as permanent. There is the New Testament mystery of the revelation of God in Christ, and the triune nature of God.
1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.”
None of these were explained until we had New Testament revelation. Likewise so is the revealing of what actually transpires after death through the teaching of Christ and the apostles.
Post Script
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes [were] as a flame of fire, and on his head [were] many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he [was] clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses" Revelation 19:11-14).
Who is this “army”? The Bible already gives the answer a few verses earlier:
"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints” (Revelation 19:7-8).
Furthermore scripture gives other descriptions of the Second coming with corroborating details which remove all doubt:
“Thus the LORD my God will come, And all the saints with You” (Zechariah 14:5).
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 1:14).
Now, logically, the only way the saints can come with Christ when He returns is if they were present with Him before He returned which necessarily entails that Christians upon physical death live on in disembodied spirit states to meet Him in heaven (awaiting the resurrection when we receive our resurrection bodies) - just as Stephen and Paul said (Acts 7:59 & 2 Corinthians 5:6-8).
P.P.S.
P.P.S.
I have deliberately not gone into great detail about the nature of hell and the lake of fire (there is a difference between the two) since it is closely tied with the above. For if I can establish the biblical reality of consciousness after physical death from the Bible (which I believe I have), then it follows that to remain consistent with the rest of scriptures which deal with hell and the lake of fire, one must believe those accounts as saying what they mean and meaning what they say as well.
Denial of the existence of hell and the doctrine of eternal punishment, is actually denial of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus affirmed that Jonah was swallowed by a fish, and He also affirmed that there was a flood that covered the whole earth, and He said that Adam and Eve were really created. So to be consistent and honest we must take His affirmative teaching on Hell as literal, too, if all these other teachings are literal. Any objections at this point (as past experience has taught me) would therefore be based on emotion (e.g. the alleged “unfairness” of hell or the erroneous concept of hell being “tortuous”) and not logic and/or Biblical-fact based.
However, for the sake of interest, I'll give an example from Jesus who made a most revealing comment in Matthew 11:24:
"Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you."
Also, Luke 12:46-48 tells us the difference between servants who obeyed and disobeyed, where one will be given few stripes, another will be given many in punishment. For the Pharisees who took advantage of widows and showed off their religion publicly they will receive the greater condemnation.
Let us follow this logic: Punishment necessarily entails suffering and suffering necessarily entails consciousness. And furthermore it is logically impossible for someone to be more or less in a state of annihilation than Sodom, or receive more or less punishment in the form of unconsciousness than those Pharisees. Thus there cannot logically be degrees of annihilation in hell, which therefore necessarily makes the Biblical account literal.
As the cardinal rule of deductive reasoning says:
“Once you have eliminated that which is impossible, that which remains, no matter how improbable (or unpopular) must be true!”
Footnote:
The author acknowledges LetUsReason.org for the use of selected material in this article.
Edited by KT.
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