Death: A New Beginning?
Have you ever lost someone you loved?
When this happens, we find ourselves trying to make sense of it all. Why did this happen? We begin to blame someone or something – God, self, circumstances.
Losing someone reminds us that we were created to love - Not solely to be loved.
When we lose someone, we usually aren’t saying “I wish they were still around to tell me how much they love me.” Instead we often say to ourselves “I wish they were here so that I could tell THEM how much I love them.”
When someone dies – where are they?
Does their soul or spirit or essence float away to another realm?
Are the dead really dead?
When we die do we go to Heaven? Hell? Purgatory?
Are the dead looking down on us? And why does any of this matter?
Why Does It Matter?
The reason it all matters is because it’s about God’s character and Lucifer’s character. At the end of the day, we have to choose to follow one of two individuals, one of two political campaigns, one of two ideologies. Jesus or Lucifer, Love or Selfishness, Kindness or Covetousness.
What brought my mom to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus was the truth about death. She lost her mom to cancer and she couldn’t find any peace with the idea that her mom was looking down on the family from heaven. How could that be peaceful seeing a suffering family mourning the loss of their mother, wife, and friend. If this was happening could we really say the dead are ‘resting in peace?’
Have Christians Always Believe That The Dead Immediately Go To Heaven?
No! There was a day when Christians believed in the biblical teaching of death (sleep) vs. the pagan teaching (immortal souls). As you’re about to find out, this is no longer the case.
The Bible says that souls are not immortal, but that they were given life by God.
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.
Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
In the above two verses, we learn:
That a soul is actually who we are, not what we have.
Our consciousness and a soul aren’t two separate entities.
Think of a light bulb and electricity. If the bulb is our body and the electricity is God’s power – together they make for light. But separate they aren’t light.
These and other verses in scripture show us that the concept of an undying, immortal soul is not found in the Bible
What Do The Dead Know?
Ecc 9:5 For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.
Ecc 9:6 Indeed their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.
Ecc 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
Psalm 115:17 The dead do not praise [a]the Lord,Nor do any who go down into silence;
Job 14:12 So man lies down and does not rise.Until the heavens are no longer,[a]He will not awake nor be aroused out of [b]his sleep.
Psalms 104:29 After death a person: returns to dust
The dead aren’t aware of anything after that last breath. They aren’t in paradise, they aren’t being tortured, they don’t have any emotions like love or hate.
Why Does It Matter?
This understanding of what happens when we die opens up a whole set of new questions. If when we die we are dead, then who are these beings we see and communicate with that appear to millions around the world claiming to be dead ancestors and loved ones?
When we are grieving, we are often longing to be with our loved ones again. We say “I’d do anything to see them, hug them, hear them, talk to them…”
Some turn to the pagan practices to conjure up the dead– seances mostly –
Mary Todd Lincoln was famous for this. Another story is of Israel’s King Saul in 1 Samuel 28 and his encounter with a spirit that he thinks is Samuel the prophet but in reality is a fallen angel sent to deceive him.
Scripture tells us that all have sinned and that the wages of sin is death. But Jesus says that He has come to give us life – that He is the resurrection and the Life. We have a choice to make - either believe we need Jesus to save us from eternal loss or believe the lie of the serpent in Eden when he told Eve that even if she rebelled against God, “you shall not surely die”.
Is There Hope?
Yes! We know that on that day that Jesus has already overcome the grave, and that on that day when He returns, then we will meet Him in the sky and live in heaven and on the new earth!
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Corinthians `15: 50-56
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[h]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the words of Paul, Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory!