The Truth About Death
What Happens When You Die?
Table of Contents
The Reception of the Lie by the Church
The Truth About Immortality and the Believer
Will God Send Unbelievers to an Everlasting Burning, Torturous Hell?
The idea of living forever is a popular one. Nobody wants to die. If we could remain healthy, most of us would undoubtedly prefer to go on living well beyond our normal expected lifespan. Woody Allen, popular actor, writer and producer, summed it up quite succinctly when he said, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying." Most of us would concur.
Yet, this is precisely what Elohim ("God") originally intended for the human race - to live forever! Elohim created man in his own image and put him in a garden where man would have all he needed to live. It wasn't until after man sinned in that garden that Elohim took away from him the ability to live forever:
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever" (Genesis 3:22 NIV).
That man was made to live forever is suggested in the above text where Elohim banished man from the garden so that he could no longer "live forever."
In fact, Elohim expressly stated that if man did sin, that he would most assuredly die!:
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die" (Genesis 2:16, 17 NIV).
Elohim was not joking. When man did sin, Elohim had to be faithful to His word. So, Elohim removed from Adam the opportunity to prolong his life forever.
Satan would have us believe that in our sinful state we can live forever. In fact, Satan has been deceiving since the beginning. About the devil, Yahusha' preaches,
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is not truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44)
In the beginning, when the first man and woman were still without sin, the devil as a snake deceived the woman. Elohim had told the first couple that when they ate of the fruit of which he told them not to eat, they would surely die. But that old serpent told Eve, "You will not surely die...for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God" (Genesis 3:4-5). Incredibly, that first lie amounts to saying that human beings have immortality just like Elohim, whether they obey Elohim or not. This, of course, is not what Elohim said.
The man and
woman could have partaken of the everlasting life which Elohim offered them
if they had remained obedient to his word.
They had no inherent
immortality in them, but Elohim would have given them access to
everlasting life if they had obeyed his commands. Elohim alone, and no one
else has immortality. Paul told Timothy that "God...alone is
immortal" (1 Timothy 6:15-16). Elohim's creatures do not have
immortal souls. The Scriptures are numerous which bear out this truth.
Satan is the source of the insidious lie that when a man dies, a part of
him goes on living.
Satan, the deceiver, would have men believe that the death of the body is not the end of the life of the individual - that the real essence of life, that is, the soul, keeps on living after the body dies. But the Word of Elohim instructs its readers of something quite different. The writings of the prophet Ezekiel almost single-handedly refute the misguided notion that the soul goes on living after the death of the body. Elohim says through Ezekiel that "the soul who sins is the one who will die" (18:4,20). Of particular significance is the prophet's use of the word soul here which refers to the intangible part of human life. When Elohim made the first man, he "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). So the soul - the living essence of a man - and not just the body, will die on account of his sin.
The Holy Scriptures also plainly state that the dead have none of the characteristics of conscious life. They have no knowledge:
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5). In the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
They have no emotion:
Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished (Ecclesiastes 9:6).
They have no thoughts:
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish (Psalms 146:4, KJV).
The dead, even the righteous dead, are unable to give praise to their Creator:
For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living - they praise you (Psalms 28:18,19).
No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave? (Psalms 6:5).
It is not the dead who praise the Lord (Psalms 115:17).
The fact that the death of the body marks the end of all conscious actions and functioning of the mind indicates that there is no real life at all after death. The soul does not leave the body after death as many contemporaries mistakenly believe. But Elohim's Word is true when he clearly told the first couple that they would surely die. When a person dies, his whole being dies - his body, mind and soul.
The Reception of the Lie by the Church
Heinous is that lie which says that the soul of a human being lives on somewhere after the death of the body; that, in fact, when you sin you shall not surely die. Satan told that lie in the garden and he continues to tell it today. He has even cleverly adapted that lie to the minds of the Bible believing community by distorting several key passages of Holy Writ.
The lie has been made palatable to New Testament believers by an emotional appeal at the death of a believer to the Christian hope of being with Jesus. The saint, Satan asserts, is not really dead, but rather his soul is very much alive in the presence of Yahusha' in heaven. And many sincere, unsuspecting people are swallowing this lie - hook, line and sinker.
However, the doctrine which teaches that the soul of the believer goes to heaven at the death of his body finds no direct scriptural support. In the biblical record, every individual who has ascended into heaven has done so in his body! For example, Yahusha' went to heaven in his body:
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven (Luke 24:50,51).
Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven in their bodies also (see Heb.11:5; 2 Kings 2:11). And the two witnesses of Revelation are taken up bodily into heaven:
But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on (Rev.11:11,12).
Popular, indeed, is this belief that the souls of those Christians who have died are now in heaven with Yahusha' awaiting the resurrection when they will be united again with their body. But the doctrine, adhered to by only a few, that the soul does not go on living after death, is very unpopular. In fact, many who claim that their own doctrines are bolstered by the authority of the Bible consider this teaching to be heresy. Some even question the salvation experience of those who hold to this teaching!
Little known is that many notables of the past believed the Bible-truth that the dead really are dead. Walter Martin points out that
many noted Christians of the past believed in conditional immortality, among them Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and John Wycliffe, all of whom were competent Greek scholars. Luther even stated that he could not support the doctrine of immortality of the soul, which he called one of the "endless monstrosities in the Roman dunghill of decretals." (The Kingdom of the Cults (Bethany: Minneapolis, 1985), p.447)
But, as Martin also correctly assessed, mere human opinion should not determine for us which view is the correct one to hold. Our sole authority on truth is the Scriptures. These alone dictate truth.
As we have already begun to see, the Scriptures are amply clear that the Christian does not ascend into heaven when he dies. Proponents of the view that the soul lives on after death appeal to Paul's alleged teaching that to be absent from the body is to be at home (in heaven) with the Lord. But, as we shall now see, Paul is not suggesting at all that the believer goes straight to heaven at death. Just as some distorted Paul's writings in the first century of the Christian era, others today twist his words to say something he never intended to say (see 2 Peter 3:16).
The Truth About Immortality and the Believer
According to the Bible, when will the "dead in Messiah" be with Yahusha'? At death, or at the resurrection of the righteous dead? The prophet Daniel was speaking about the end of the age when he said that
at that time your people - everyone whose name is found written in the book - will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life... (Dan.12:1,2).
Without a doubt, the prophet was describing in the above text the end-time resurrection which takes place at Christ's post tribulation parousia. That some of those sleeping in the dust awake to everlasting life suggests that they will not experience everlasting life until they awake from their "sleep."
The prophecies of Revelation depict that same resurrection scene. John testifies that in a vision he
saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God...They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years...This is the first resurrection (Rev.20:4,5).
We have already belabored the point that the Scriptures teach that the death of the body is the death of the whole person. John's vision confirms this conclusion. He affirmed that the souls of the sleeping Christians, not just their bodies, come to life at the first resurrection.
Paul's writings are in perfect harmony with the teaching of these other passages. For Paul, the Christian will be "with Yahusha'," not at the believer's death, but at Christ's coming. This is the comfort the apostle offered to the grieving Thessalonian believers with regard to their "sleeping" loved ones. If the dead Christians were in heaven with Yahusha' then the Thessalonians would have had no reason to grieve, because those "sleeping" ones would not have really been dead. And if they were in heaven with Yahusha', Paul would surely have comforted the grieving ones with an explanation of how wonderful things were for their "sleeping" loved ones in heaven.
But Paul says nothing of the sort. The hope he holds out is in the future coming of Christ and its corresponding resurrection of the just. The apostle describes how Yahusha' will first raise the sleeping saints to life and then he will "catch up" the living saints together with the resurrected saints to "meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Those who are "dead in Christ" can not now be with Yahusha' in heaven because, according to Paul, they will "meet the Lord in the air" at his parousia. Only at that point in time when they meet their Lord in the air at his coming will the dead in Christ be with their Lord.
To put it another way, how could Paul have accurately stated that those asleep in Christ will meet the Lord in the air if they had already been enjoying his presence in heaven? Clearly then, the popular theory that the Christian goes to be with Yahusha' at death and the teaching of Paul about death are mutually exclusive views. So in light of the above considerations, I submit to the reader that 1 Thessalonians 4 assumes the Old Testament teaching that the righteous who have died are not now in heaven, but are asleep in the grave awaiting the resurrection.
That this is Paul's understanding of the state of the righteous dead is confirmed by plain statements in his discussion of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. With respect to the time of the resurrection, Paul teaches us that
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" (1 Corinthians 15:54).
Just because believers are "in Christ" does not mean that they now possess practical immortality. Immortality will be given to believers at the resurrection, according to Paul.
It is adequately clear, then, from Paul's uncomplicated teaching about the hope believers have for their sleeping loved ones in 1 Thessalonians 4 and in 1 Corinthians 15 that at the resurrection at Messiah's parousia, all faithful followers of Yahusha', living and dead, will meet the Lord to be with him forever. By keeping in mind this overview of Paul's teaching about when the faithful will be with Messiah, some of the more difficult statements of the apostle can now be understood.
One such "hard-to-understand" teaching of Paul is in 2 Corinthians 5:8, where he explains that he "would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." When this isolated statement is read in its context, however, it is quite simple to harmonize it with the apostle's other writings. Chapter 5:1-10 is steeped in allusions to the resurrection. In it, Paul is comparing two different tents; the one we live in, which is the "earthly tent," and the eternal house, which is "in heaven." The question raised is, "When will we inhabit that 'eternal house'? At death or at the resurrection?"
The key to discovering the true answer to that question is in the metaphoric language Paul utilizes. Paul goes on to discuss our "longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling," the result of which is "so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (5:3,4). These two metaphors, the metaphor of being clothed and the metaphor of the mortal being swallowed up, are reminiscent of the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:54 which was discussed at the top of this page, in which Paul describes the resurrection of believers at Messiah's coming. One can hardly read through 2 Corinthians 5 without realizing that Paul is talking about the hope of the resurrection at Messiah's coming when all believers will be "clothed with immortality" and "death will be swallowed up in victory," because Paul's use of these same two metaphors in 2 Corinthians 5 implies that he is referring to that same resurrection event.
Furthermore, Paul alludes to the resurrection when he points out that we have the Holy Spirit "as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (5:5). In Ephesians 1:14, Paul notes that the Holy Spirit is "a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession". And clearly, redemption will be complete and our inheritance will be gained at the resurrection of the saints, not at the believer's death. So Paul concludes that when Yahusha' comes, "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10).
In view, then, of the heavy flavoring of "parousia of Christ" imagery and vocabulary in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, we conclude that Paul's desire is for the arrival of the day of Messiah's return. His preference "to be away from the body and at home with the Lord" (vs.8) is not to be understood as a desire for death, but as a longing for the arrival of Messiah at His parousia, when Paul will be away from the body ("the earthly tent we live in") and at home with the Lord ("and so we will be with the Lord forever," 1 Thessalonians 4:17).
Next to 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, the second major "state of the dead" passage which most contemporary interpreters twist and distort is Philippians 1:23 in which the writer confesses his "desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." Again though, his other writings clearly delineate that Paul's expectation to "be with Christ" would be fulfilled at Messiah's coming when all Elohim's elect are gathered to meet the Lord in the clouds to be with him forever. Therefore we must interpret this passage to harmonize with the other Scriptures which describe when the disciples will be with Yahusha'.
An important clue in the text of Philippians 1:20-26 which will help the interpreter understand Paul's intended meaning is found in verse 20. Paul says, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage...." Paul's resolve to feel no shame is linguistically rooted in other New Testament passages which have a "coming of Christ" context. Yahusha', for example, told his disciples, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26). John also writes, "and now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:28).
It seems evident, then, that Paul's ambition to continue unashamedly to preach the gospel is motivated by his desire to be confident and unashamed before Messiah at his coming. And his commitment to serve Messiah would be unwavering in the face of death. If confronted with the decision to live and serve Messiah or to die for Messiah, Paul is not sure which he would choose. He desires to depart in death for Messiah's sake and to be with Yahusha', but he knows he is still needed and is accordingly convinced he will remain alive to help the saints in Philippi.
The rub of the passage, though, is in coming to grips with Paul's intended meaning of the phrase, "to depart and to be with Messiah." Because of our previous understanding of when Paul expected all believers to be with Messiah, and because of the "coming of Messiah" background of the word ashamed, we conclude that the apostle must have had the parousia of Yahusha' in mind when he expressed his desire to depart and be with Messiah. For Paul, departing and being with Messiah are closely linked, not because at death he would go to heaven, but because at death, the next conscious moment for him would be at Messiah's coming and the resurrection of believers. Death and resurrection are only a moment apart from the vantage point of the dead, because there is no sense of the passing of time in death, just as in sleep hours fly by as though only a moment has passed.
An illustration may aid us in understanding Paul's language. I may express my desire to depart (from my home in Ohio) and to be with my relatives (who live in California). But my desire to depart and be with them does not mean that upon my departing I am instantaneously there with them. In fact, there is a long interval of time before I will actually be with them (especially if I decided to walk the trip). In the same way, Paul's desire to depart and be with Messiah are separated by a long interval of time. But the "departing" leads to the "being with Messiah."
Paul's deep desire to attain the resurrection is amplified in chapter 3 of Philippians where he reveals his longing to
know Messiah and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead (3:10,11).
The apostle's eagerness is not for death as an end in itself, but for death as a means of attaining to the resurrection. Resurrection, not death, was Paul's goal. If at his death, Paul expected his soul to rise to be with Messiah, then death would have been his desire. But clearly, resurrection is the finish line for him, not death.
Erickson notes that
Philippians 3:11 speaks of eksanastasin teen ek nekron, literally the "out-resurrection out from among dead ones," a meaning that is generally lost in English translations, which say something like; "a resurrection from (or of) the dead." Paul seems in this text to have been aspiring to a resurrection that will, in effect, result in a separation from dead persons. (Erickson, p.100)
The fact that Paul describes his resurrection as resulting in a separation from dead persons naturally implies that he expected at his death to be in company with dead persons until the resurrection when he would part company with the dead. The apostle obviously assumes by this that all dead persons are in the same state of existence; namely, unconsciousness, and that at the resurrection, he would come out from among those who are dead.
Many in the "Bible-believing" world are unwilling to accept this truth, but there is ample evidence in the Scriptures that this is so. The Old Testament abounds in references to the unconsciousness of man in death. And the New Testament builds on this foundational truth, amplifying on it primarily with regard to the believers hope of having victory over death at the coming of Christ.
Satan wants
the Christian church to go on believing that lie which says that when a
man dies he does not really
die. And the
Christian Church has been quick to
propagate that lie, because Satan has cleverly wrapped a Scriptural
argument around it. But this lie must be rejected en masse by the true
followers of Yahusha'. The biblical references to the state of the dead are
clear and straightforward, and the New Testament writers when correctly
interpreted are found to be in agreement with the Old Testament writers
that the believer will be clothed with immortality, not at death, but at
the resurrection of saints when Messiah returns.
Will God Send Unbelievers to an Everlasting Burning, Torturous Hell?
The Christian community at large has been duped into believing that when they die, the souls of all who belong to Messiah will go to heaven to be with "Jesus" and enjoy bliss while waiting for the resurrection when their souls will be reunited with their bodies. We have presented Scripture which clearly refutes this popular notion. We have noted that the Bible presents information which indicates that, at death, the believer enters a state of "sleep" and will be awakened in the resurrection event at Messiah's coming, at which time, we will be "with him forever" (see 1 Thessalonians 4:17).
A parallel false notion of many Christian denominations is the teaching that the wicked dead (those not belonging to Elohim's family through the redemption purchased by Messiah) will not ultimately die, but will spend all of eternity burning and screaming in tortured agony in a never-ending blazing fiery hell. According to this teaching, this is God's punishment on all people who do not accept Jesus as their personal Savior. That doctrine, amazingly, is believed and taught by millions of sincere Christians around the globe. Evangelicals use this doctrine to frighten their targeted converts into making a profession of faith so that they might avoid this horrifying fate.
The Christian doctrine of a never ending conscious existence in a torturing fiery hell is the most insidious and despicable teaching about the Creator of heaven and earth ever hatched in the human mind. Christians are actually teaching that the loving and compassionate God of heaven is also the cruelest, harshest, dispassionate and mean-spirited being in all the universe. If God really did send anyone to a never-ending conscious state of enduring horrific burning torture, then he would be incalculably more cruel and hostile than any human being that ever lived.
Even in human terms, the most wicked judge on earth would never even think about sending anyone to a place where they would be in constant torture and pain, with no possibility of end. In the real world, many believe the death penalty itself is cruel and inhumane. Any type of torture is thought to be unnecessary and could result in felony charges against the torturer. Serial killers who extend their torture over their innocent victims over a matter of hours or days are recognized as the worst of all human beings on earth. Yet Christians actually think that their God is a billion times crueler than the worst, cruelest murderer on earth.
This wicked doctrine came from the worst period in Catholic Church history. It is a teaching concocted by the severely corrupted Roman Church in order to scare the populace into conformity and obedience to the Papal authority. Martin Luther even stated that he could not support the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which he called one of the "endless monstrosities in the Roman dunghill of decretals" (The Kingdom of the Cults [Bethany: Minneapolis, 1985], p.447). The teaching became so widespread, that many of the reformers and protestant denominations adopted this as one of their own interpretations.
How could a kind, merciful, loving and compassionate God also be the cruelest being in all the universe? The answer is obvious. He could not be so cruel. Yahuwah, the Creator of the universe, is indeed an Elohim who shows his loving-kindness to a thousand generations of those who love him. And he also is a "jealous Elohim, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me" (Exodus 20:5). But he is never cruel and his judgment is never unfair or excessive.
As we have noted in the study above, those who die, whether believers in Messiah or not, all fall into a state of unconsciousness, called "sleep" by the writers of Scripture. Messiah's followers do not go to heaven, and unbelievers do not go straight to a fiery hell, at death. All fall asleep and will be awakened in the judgment.
At the judgment, all will be paid back "according to their works."
He will punish those who do not know Elohim and do not obey the gospel of our Master Yahusha'. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of Yahuwah and from the majesty of his power (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9).
The "everlasting destruction" is exactly what it sounds like: everlasting destruction - that means that these people will exist no more. The judgment against them is for God to snuff out their existence. They will be no more. This death - the final end of life - is the compassionate thing to do. God does not keep them around to torture them. He ends their existence.
The "second death" written about in the book of Revelation is the final destruction and end of existence of those who have rejected the righteous ways of Yahuwah. Evil and all who embrace it are finally eradicated from the universe, never to rear their ugly heads again.
The popular mythologies about what happens at death nearly all depict life in some altered state in heaven or in hell. Nearly everyone would wish that this life on earth is not "all there is." Thus, people have always put their hope in what they imagine to be rather than in what actually is.
The Scriptures clearly declare a different fate for human beings. Those who sin and rebel against their creator and have no inclination to repent and live life the way the creator intended will die and be no more. But those who have placed their loyalty and trust in Elohim and in his Messiah will be rewarded with a resurrected life to be lived during the Messianic Age.
No one goes to heaven or to hell when they die. At death, everyone dies and their bodies return to the dust from which they were made. There is no mind, no consciousness, nor awareness in death. But at the resurrection, those faithful ones will be given life as a reward for their allegiance and loyalty to the one who made them in his image.
Written by David M Rogers, 1989
www.BibleTruth.cc
Published: 2002
Updated: 2009