Five Facts About Death

15-08-2015 - Posted by Andre Piet

FACT 1: DEATH IS THE OPPOSITE OF LIFE

In the Bible, death is not another form of life—whether higher or lower—but the opposite of life. Quite simply: someone who is dead is not alive (see, for example, Revelation 20:5).

It was precisely the lie of “the serpent” in the garden of Eden that claimed humanity would not die upon eating the fruit God had forbidden. “The serpent” reasons death away. In fact, according to the serpent, the humans’ eyes would be opened…

But the serpent said to the woman: Not to die shall you be dying; for Elohim knows that on the day you eat of it your eyes will be unclosed, and you will become like Elohim, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 3:4–5

To this day, this remains the serpent’s lie. Virtually all religion denies death by teaching that death is another, possibly higher, form of life. Consider the doctrine of the immortal soul or that of reincarnation. It is a fatal lie because it opens the door to demonic deception through spiritism. It also denies the significance of the resurrection. In a “blissful afterlife” – the so-called intermediate state – resurrection would amount to little more than gilding the lily.

FACT 2: DEATH IS A RETURN

This is how death is defined by God Himself. The first explanation given of what it means to “die” reads:

By the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread, until you return to the ground, for from it were you taken. For soil you are, and to soil you shall return.
Genesis 3:19

And the wise Solomon wrote:

And the soil returns to the earth just as it was, and the spirit, it returns to the One, Elohim, Who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:7

The physical body returns to the earth from which it was taken. And the spirit of life returns to God, Who once gave it. Death, therefore, is not a new experience. Rather, it brings humanity back to square one. Just as a person has no awareness before birth, neither does that person have any awareness after death. Hence, death is like nonbeing.

Look away from me, that I may brighten up again, before I go away and am no more.
Psalm 39:13

FACT 3: DEATH IS LIKE SLEEP

Someone who sleeps is in a state of rest and is conscious of nothing. Because this also characterizes death, Scripture frequently compares death to sleep.

As waters depart from a lake, and a stream is drained and dries up, so a man lies down and shall not rise; until the heavens fail, they shall not awake, nor shall they be roused from their sleep.
Job 14:11–12

“Retire, for the maiden did not die, but is drowsing.” And they ridiculed Him.
Matthew 9:24

“Lazarus, our friend, has found repose, but I am going that I should be awakening him out of sleep.” The disciples, then, said to Him, “Lord, if he has repose, he shall be saved.” Now Jesus had made a declaration concerning his death, yet they suppose that He is saying it concerning the repose of sleep.
John 11:11–13

Suppose all kinds of experiences took place in death. We would then expect the few people who returned from that condition – such as Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus – to have reported a great deal about it. After all, they were experts by experience. Yet Scripture’s silence on this subject is deafening! That silence is explained by the statement that the dead “sleep” and, for that very reason, are conscious of nothing.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 that resurrection is the only hope for those who have been put to repose.

Now, if Christ has not been roused, vain is your faith – you are still in your sins! Consequently those also, who are put to repose in Christ, perished.
1 Corinthians 15:17–18

Apart from the resurrection, there is no hope for the dead. Without resurrection, those who have been put to repose in Christ would have perished. This proves that, in the meantime, the dead are not in bliss or anything of that kind.

Scripture states in many different ways that the dead have no consciousness whatsoever.

The dead shall not praise YHWH, nor any descending into stillness.
Psalm 115:17

What gain is there in my blood, in my descending to the grave? Shall the soil acclaim You? Shall it tell of Your faithfulness?
Psalm 30:9

For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the unseen, who shall acclaim You?
Psalm 6:5

For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know nothing whatsoever…
Ecclesiastes 9:5

All that your hand finds to do, do with your vigor, for there is no doing or devising or knowledge or wisdom in the unseen where you are going.
Ecclesiastes 9:10

Indeed the unseen cannot acclaim You, nor can death praise You; and those who descend into a crypt cannot look forward to Your faithfulness.
Isaiah 38:18

FACT 4: ONE IS ROUSED FROM DEATH IN ORDER TO RISE

Being roused precedes rising. Being roused is primarily a matter of the spirit, whereas rising is its effect upon the body. In the same way, a person is first awakened in the morning – passively – and then gets up – actively.

If a person had an immortal soul and continued living outside the body, that person would not need to be roused at all. The truth concerning the rousing of the dead is therefore incompatible with the doctrine of the immortal soul.

Wherefore He is saying, “Rouse! O drowsy one, and rise from among the dead, and Christ shall dawn upon you!”
Ephesians 5:14

For, if the dead are not being roused, neither has Christ been roused. Now, if Christ has not been roused, vain is your faith—you are still in your sins!
1 Corinthians 15:16–17

FACT 5: DEATH IS ABOLISHED

The essence of the Good News in the Bible is that Christ Jesus abolishes death.

…our Saviour, Christ Jesus, Who, indeed, abolishes death, yet illuminates life and incorruption through the evangel.
2 Timothy 1:10

In the magnificent chapter concerning the triumph of Life, 1 Corinthians 15:22–28, Paul explains that just as all people are mortal in Adam, so all people shall be vivified in Christ. Each, indeed, in their own class – but all of them nonetheless.

As long as all people have not been vivified, as the Firstfruit, Christ, has been vivified, death has not yet been abolished. The very idea of “eternal death” denies this. It directly contradicts the Bible’s unconditional glad tidings, in which death, the last enemy, will be abolished.

Only then can God become All in all – that is, All in all who are mortal in Adam.

Just as all life is now swallowed up by death, so one day all death will be swallowed up by Life!

Read also: Q&A on the Condition of the Dead

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