It is impossible to become doctrinally grounded and settled on the issue of death if you:
insist on believing “traditional church teaching,”
insist on believing that the word of God contradicts itself on this issue, or
try to consider this issue without first being born again.
[Fact: almost everybody has at least one of these handicaps.]
QUESTION: Who benefits from the idea that “We shouldn’t talk about death because . . .
it’s “morbid.” or
it makes people “uneasy.” or
it “gives people nightmares.” or
it “scares the children.”?
ANSWER: Satan.
THINK:
If its “morbid and wrong to talk about death” then the Lord is morbid and wrong, because he does so repeatedly
(Only Satan and those that belong to him accuse the Lord of wrongdoing.)
If talking about death “scares the children” then it’s because
(a) the children you’re talking about do not know of the Lord or of his power over death,
(b) and the obvious solution for frightened children is
(i) NOT for you to keep quiet about death, but
(ii) to shout from the rooftops everywhere that the Lord Jesus Christ has overcome death!
The certain knowledge of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the grave is the solution for everyone’s “uneasiness” and nightmares (taking away all fear), but the real solution is rejected:
(i) by the wicked and ignorant parents of children that do not want their children to know of the Lord, and
(ii) by the wicked persons running government who do not want anyone’s children to know of the Lord;
(iii) by everyone who hates Jesus Christ,
(Proverbs 8:36 “. . . all they that hate me love death.”)
(iv) so they all want you to cooperate with the Satanic agenda and keep your mouth shut about death.
You want your children, and everyone else, to know what the Lord has done for us in overcoming death.
QUESTION: What are the most taboo subjects in modern “churches”?
ANSWER: death, sin, and hell
NOTICE: These three things are very closely related: the act of “sin” brought “death” into the world and dying in sin earns for every man “the lake of fire”.
Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. . . .”
QUESTION: Who benefits from our talking about death?
ANSWER: The Lord benefits, and all those who will hear us.
Psalm 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
QUESTION: What is the value of understanding (or being reminded of) the reality and finality of death?
ANSWER: Consider that:
(A) The Lord has literally rubbed our faces in death: you can’t even eat unless something else dies.]
Genesis 9:3 “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”
Acts 10:13 “And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.”
(B) It is a doctrine of devils to try to escape this constant reminder (by being a “vegetarian”).
1st Timothy 4:1-3 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils . . . commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
[Many lost but self-righteous people find death abhorrent because they do not wish to be reminded of death.]
(C) To worship the Lord according to his way was a constantly bloody business.
Exodus 12:5-7 “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.”
Hebrews 9:19 “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats . . . and sprinkled both the book, and all the people. . . .”
(D) The reality and reason for death would have to be understood in order for the necessity of the Lord’s death for man’s sake to be understood.
Romans 5:12-14 “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”
1st Corinthians 15:21-22 “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
UNDERSTAND: In serving the Lord as an Israelite, the idea was not that you would come to love death and the shedding of blood, but that through loving and fearing God, you would obey him, and suffer yourself to be part of the sacrificing of bulls and of goats, immersing yourself in understanding death and shedding of blood as necessary for the forgiveness of sins, which was the purpose.
Hebrews 10:6 “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.”
QUESTION: Who first brought up the subject of death?
ANSWER: The Lord did, warning Adam of the consequence of disobeying him.
Genesis 2:15-17 “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
From the Beginning, the Lord Told Man the Truth about Death.
Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. . . .”
QUESTION: Is there more than one kind of death considered in the word of God?
ANSWER: Yes, there are several uses of the word: first there is a physical death and a spiritual death. (verses follow)
QUESTION: Which kind of death is first dealt with in the bible?
ANSWER: Spiritual death is the first “death” dealt with. (verses follow)
[The Lord and Satan understood this, although Adam and Eve may not have).
From the Beginning, Satan Has Lied to the Human Race about Death.
Genesis 3:1-4 “Ye shall not surely die. . . .” (Somebody here is a liar, and one of these statements is wrong!)
(John 8:44-45 “. . . for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.”)
[Satan has lied about both spiritual and physical death – yet the “churches” believe him.]
(A) For Example, Most “Men of the Cloth” Believe it is Their Job to Bury Dead People
Matthew 8:21-22 “But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”
QUESTION: What kind of death is being referenced here?
ANSWER: Both kinds: “. . . let the [spiritually] dead bury their [physically] dead.
[OBVIOUSLY: This is the only way this saying could be understood, because the physically dead could not bury anyone and the physically alive should not be buried at all.]
(also:) Luke 9:59-62 “Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”
(This Study Is Not about Spiritual Death, yet, spiritual life and death must be understood in order not to confuse scripture concerning “spiritual death” with scripture concerning “physical” death.)
QUESTION: Who is spiritually dead?
ANSWER: Those who are without the Spirit and spiritual life of the Lord in them.
Romans 8:9 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
v. 14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
[Before Adam could DIE spiritually (which he did), he had to have been spiritually ALIVE before.]
CONSIDER: (1) Adam, in the beginning, was created with spiritual life.
(2) Adam died spiritually on the day he sinned, just like the Lord said he would.
(3) All men since Adam are born spiritually dead.
(4) Some become “born again” in Jesus Christ (becoming spiritually alive), regaining what Adam through away.
NOTICE: Adam did not “loose his salvation” (like Calvinists and Baptists are always saying we claim), he gave his gift away, exactly like Esau did his birthright, TRADING IT FOR SOMETHING TO EAT!
QUESTION: After death, who will get “a spiritual body” at his resurrection?
ANSWER: Everybody!
1st Corinthians 15:35-58 (44) “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
There is the “first death” and there is the “second death.” (not to be confused with the above two “kinds” of death)
(A) The term “first death” is not stated in the bible, but is implied (as used here) by the term, “the second death.”
(B) The term “second death” is stated four times in the bible and clearly defined.
Revelation 2:11 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”
20:6 “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
v. 14 “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
[As it is said, “Born once, die twice; born twice, die once.”]
The Following Concerns Physical Death and the State of Death.
Ecclesiastes 9:3-10 “. . . the dead know not any thing. . . .”
Psalm 146:3-4 “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. . . .”
3:17-19 “. . . and unto dust shalt thou return.” (You don’t return to an “immortal state!”, etc.)
Proverbs 22:2 “The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.” (They all meet in the dirt.)
Job 21:23-26 “They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.”
vs. 29-33 “Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.”
2nd Samuel 12:18-23 “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”
12:7 “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
QUESTION: What is this “spirit” that returns unto God who gave it?
ANSWER: It was given before in Genesis:
[Again] Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Psalm 104:29 “. . . thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”
James 2:26 “. . . the body without the spirit is dead. . . .” (Is that clear enough?)
(This “spirit” is the “spirit of man” which was given by the Lord in the first place:)
Zechariah 12:1 “The burden of the word of the Lord . . . which . . . formeth the spirit of man within him.”
(This “spirit of man” is also many times referred to as “the ghost”:)
Genesis 25:8 “Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age. . . .”
Job 3:11 “Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?”
(This “ghost” is not the “Holy Ghost” which is given at the second birth:)
John 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
A Man Cannot Believe in the Resurrection If He Does Not Believe in Death!
Psalm 6:5 (A Question:) “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
115:17 (An Answer:) “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.”
John 5:28-29 “. . . all that are in the graves . . . shall come forth . . . good . . .and . . . evil. . . .”
John 6:39,40,44,54 “. . . and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Acts 2:29-34 “. . . David . . . is both dead and buried . . . [and] is not ascended into the heavens. . . .”
[Lots of “Christians” think they’re more important than David.]
Job 14:11-14 “. . . all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.”
1st Corinthians 15:22-23,49-52 “. . . in the twinkling of on eye . . .we shall be changed.”
1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 [This passage says it all on the doctrine of death.]
(DEFINITION: John 11:11-14 “sleep” refers to death.)
Acts 13:35-37 “sleep” meaning death (concerning David)
Daniel 12:1,2,13 “. . . them that sleep . . . shall awake. . . .”
1st John 3:2 “. . . but we know that , when he shall appear, we shall be like him. . . .”
Psalm 17:15 “. . . when I awake, with thy likeness.”
Job 19:26 “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. . . .”
1st Corinthians 15:35-44 “All flesh is not the same flesh. . . . There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
The Dead are Hidden From Evil
Isaiah 57:1 “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.”
Christians Should Not Be Undertakers
Matthew 8:18-22 “But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”
or, in other words, “. . . let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead.”
At the least, this is a clear statement of what your priorities should be.
Taken to the greatest extent, this would preclude those who have been given spiritual life from being in the business of tending to funerals, or of even participating occasionally in the typical “funeral ceremony.”
Historical Summation:
(A) In the garden, at the beginning: there was NO DEATH in the world and NO SIN with man.
(1) For Adam and Eve it was DIFFERENT than the rest of the human race in that:
(a) they began their existence having the fellowship of the Lord,
(b) they started with NO SIN,
(c) they started with eternal life,
(d) they started their existence spiritually alive
(2) For Adam and Eve it was the same as with some of the human race in that:
(a) having the fellowship and knowledge of their Lord, they nonetheless were deceived and acted foolishly,
(b) then they die spiritually (born again folks trading away their gift of life for something “better”),
(c) and then they die physically, later.
(B) There was the spiritual death in the garden of Adam and Eve resulting from their sin and the promise of the Lord.
(C) Physical death enters into the world and God curses the earth for Adam’s sake. (Genesis 3:17)
(D) Death reigns.
(E) The Lord as sacrifice, pays the bloody price, of man’s sin, redeeming all who will come to him.
(F) Physical death still reigns, but has now lost its awful power. There is hope and resurrection in the Lord.
(G) The door is still open
Verses Used By The Deceived as “Proof-Texts” To Show That The Dead Are Not Dead
(1) parables or visions [Parables and visions have certain limitations when used for doctrine. Not everything about a parable is true, although powerful to convey a certain truth. A parable cannot be used to prove truth about doctrine which it did not intend, as is obvious when the conclusion would contradict sound doctrine clearly given elsewhere on the subject.]
(a) 2nd Samuel 12:1-7 The man with the one sheep. “And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.”
[David is the man in a figure, but he never actually stole anyone’s pet sheep to slaughter for dinner, he unlawfully took a loyal man’s wife when he himself had plenty of wives.]
QUESTION: Is Nathan a liar by saying , “Thou art the man.”?
ANSWER: No, Nathan told a parable which effectively conveyed the concept of David’s sin to David, but the details of the parable were not factual, and did not need to be factual to be effective.
(b) Matthew 21:33-45 the Lord to the Pharisees about the husbandman who went into a far country
QUESTIONS: Is this a true story? Are the specific details true as given? Does it matter if the details are true? Is the Lord a liar? Is the meaning and lesson of the parable understandable? Do you know what a parable is? Is the truth found in the details of the parable or in understanding the meaning of the parable overall?
Luke 16:19-23 Lazarus and the rich man.
[In verses 24-31 the purposes of this parable are:
(1) to show the horror of hell, and
(2) to show that the time to escape hell is now, not later, and
(3) to show that the method to escape hell is through repentance and belief of the truth.]
Revelation 6:9-10 (souls under the altar)
20:4 Here John sees “the souls of them that were beheaded” and, of course, they don’t even exist yet.
Genesis 4:10 “. . . the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.”
[This statement is spiritually and figuratively true: it is not physically true at all.]
(2) Dead raised to life before the resurrection. (Many people think that if the dead are raised it proves they weren’t dead.)
1st Samuel 28:3-16 Saul bringing up Samuel (a proof text)
1st Kings 17:17-23 Son of the widow of Zarephath (soul)
2nd Kings 4:32-37 Shunammite son
13:21 young man laid in Elisha’s sepulchre
Luke 7:12-15 widow’s son
8:49-55 Jairus’s daughter
John 11:11-44 Lazarus coming out of the grave
Acts 9:36-42 Dorcas
20:9-12 Eutychus
Hebrews 11:35 “Women received their dead raised to life again. . . .”
Matthew 11:5 “. . . the dead are raised up. . . .”
Matthew 27:50-52 “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. . . .”
(3) showing that time is relative to the observer. (Einstein knew this was true, and he was spiritually blind.)
Luke 23:43 “. . . Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
(This was “today” for the thief, not for anybody else who may have heard the Lord say it to him.)
John 20:17 “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father. . . .”
2nd Corinthians 5:8 “. . . willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
[This is true in the awareness of the person who is “absent from the body,” but it is not true for the guy burying him.]
(Time is relative to the observer of the event.)
(The bible is filled with scientific truth, which was utterly unknown by anyone when it was written.)
(Job 26:7 “He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”)
(4) suggesting that people are in the lake of fire (“or someplace like that”) before the resurrection:
Revelation 20:13 “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.”
[“Hell” is here a reference to “the grave”.]
See: v. 14 “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.”
[Clearly “hell” in this case can NOT be “the lake of fire.”]
(See again: John 5:28-29 “. . . all that are in the graves . . . shall come forth . . . good . . .and . . . evil. . . .”)
(See again: John 6:39,40,44,54 “. . . and I will raise him up at the last day.”)
Statistics on the biblical use of “hell”: (from Strong’s Concordance)
Number of times used:
in the old testament: 31 times (always “Sheowl” or “Sheol” referring to “grave,” “hell,” and “pit.”)
in the new testament: 22 times from:
(1) “Geenna”, a name for the place (or state) of everlasting punishment,
(2) “Hades” as “the grave” or “hell,” and
(3) “Tartaroo” as a reference to the lowest parts of Hades.
Examples of the word “hell” referring to the grave (or similar), and NOT referring to the lake of fire:
Psalm 16:10 “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
[This is not a reference to any such fictitious place as “purgatory.”
Jonah 2:1-2 “. . . out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”
Ezekiel 32:18-21 “Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down . . . unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. . . . go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword. . . . The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.”
Matthew 16:18 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [In other words, the bonds of death (“the gates of hell”) shall not prevail against the church.] (That is, the Lord shall resurrect his church and the power of death shall not prevent it.)