Abundant Life – Page 56 – Write From Karen

Teaching: What is Hell?

September 20, 2009September 19, 2009 Karen

(Whew! So much talk about death and hell. But don’t worry. I’ll be posting positive and uplifting lessons soon. This stuff is very important to understand, but it IS depressing. 🙂 )

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

FAQ: I live in the USA, and it seems that our language is riddled with references to “hell.” I constantly hear that extremely versatile word used in conversations of all kinds. People say: “What the hell?” or “The hell with it,” or “Hell, yes / no,” etc. On occasion, some people, though not travel agents, have encouraged me to “go to hell.” I don’t think I want to, because I’ve heard that the Devil lives there, but if I did want to just drive by, where exactly is it located? Based on what people are saying, I assume that “hell” is a word used in the Bible, and if so, what is “hell”?

Actually, at this time, there is no such place, other than the small town of Hell, Michigan, which, by the way, has, on occasion, frozen over. But it hardly meets the description of the “Hell” that is propounded by so many Christians who erroneously believe that it is a place of everlasting fire where the “living dead” (???) are tormented forever in flames.

Also, the word “hell” is not found anywhere in the original text of Scripture. In the King James Version, you will find it as the translation of the Greek words hades and gehenna, but most modern translations recognize that “hell” is an incorrect translation for hades, and more correctly render it as “grave.” Even modern translations, however, do sometimes mistakenly translate the Greek word gehenna as “hell.”

So how did the word “hell” so permeate our culture? In this relatively brief answer, we refer you to some other resources that will clearly show you, in detail, just what the Word of God says about this most significant issue. Our book, Is There Death After Life?, sets forth what the Word says about death and its aftermath, while The Fire That Consumes, by Edward Fudge (211 pp), is a very thorough exposition of “conditional immortality,” including the origin of the idea of “hell” as a place of everlasting torment for the wicked. We also have a free online seminar called Death & Resurrection to Life.

One of Satan’s ploys to make Christianity look foolish is to introduce ridiculous ideas (that is, ideas that can legitimately be ridiculed because they make no sense) into its theology. In regard to this overall subject, here are two such errors that came into Christianity from Hellenistic (Greek) thought:

* There is no such thing as actual “death” (defined in just about any dictionary as “the end, or absence, of life”).

* When one “dies,” he then lives on in some conscious, incorporeal form called the “soul” or “spirit.”

The lie that man is deathless (introduced by the Devil in Genesis 3:4 and later believed by the Greeks) spawned the corresponding notion that there must be an eternal residence for good people and another address for bad people. Thus arose the following falsehoods:

* A dead person goes either to “heaven” or “hell” and stays there forever.

* “Hell” is a place of everlasting torment in flames.

* Fire is a preservative (who else believes this?).

It is ironic that most Christians believe that Adolph Hitler will have everlasting life. You might be thinking: “What?! No they don’t.” But think again—if Hitler is being tormented forever in fire, does he or does he not have everlasting life? It’s a crummy life, but it is everlasting life, right? On the contrary, Romans 6:23 says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God never says that the wages of sin is eternal torment. No, He says that the penalty for sin is an end to one’s life.

It is important to realize that no verse in the Bible says that the “soul” or “spirit” lives on by itself. No verse says that “hell” is a place of everlasting torment in fire. These falsehoods originated with God’s archenemy, and infiltrated Christianity via mistranslation and the mixing of Greek culture and beliefs with the truths presented in the Word of God.

Thinking logically, does it seem fair to you that God, who the Bible says is love, would forever inflict upon wicked people the excruciating agony of constantly burning? Think about it—if “forever” were likened to a feast, 50 million years of torment is a small hors d’oeuvre (appetizer). Wouldn’t most rational thinkers conclude that, even for quintessential bad boys like Hitler or Bin Laden, that is simply not fair? Sure they would. Justice would not be served by such an egregious atrocity, and how sad it is that this erroneous belief has contributed to many people turning away from the God whom they were told would do such a thing.

The late Sidney Hatch well expressed how twisted is the idea of a just God forever tormenting by fire those who refused to believe in Him:

“A civilized society looks with horror upon the abuse and torture of children or adults. Even where capital punishment is practiced, the aim is to implement it as mercifully as possible. Are we to believe then that a holy God—our heavenly Father—is less just than the courts of men? Of course not.”

And the late Swedish Lutheran Bishop John Persone wrote:

“For me it is inexplainable how a person who holds the orthodox view [of eternal torment] can at any time have a glad moment in this life. He is constantly mingling with people whose final destiny will be to be tormented eternally without end…To me it is even more inexplainable that such an ‘orthodox’ person can expect even a happy moment in eternity, when he knows that contemporaneously with his blessed estate continues the endless torment and agony of innumerable millions of the accursed. Can he, if he loves his neighbors as himself, yes, even if he has just a little bit of human love and is not solely a selfish wretch, have even a single happy moment?”

Well said, wouldn’t you agree?

Think for a moment about fire. What does it do to things it touches? What do you do if you come home and discover that your house is on fire? Do you feel any sense of urgency? Or do you say, “Hey, let’s go to a movie, and when we get back, we’ll call the Fire Department. There’s no hurry, because we know that our home will burn forever.” Nothing burns forever, and a simple word study of “fire” in Scripture shows that its primary purpose is to destroy useless things, like chaff, and evil things, like wicked people, evil spirits, and Satan (Malachi 4:1 is a classic example).

This article about “hell” is not the place to exposit the biblical truth that death is the end of life, and that one who dies no longer exists anywhere in any form. That by itself renders fallacious the notion that “hell” is a place where “dead” people are alive and conscious. In His Word, God artfully chose the metaphor of “sleep” to figuratively describe death. Why? Because sleep is a temporary condition of unconsciousness that ends with an awakening. Ditto for death, for one who believes in Jesus Christ.

Where there is no consciousness, there is no awareness of time passing. Therefore, the Apostle Paul’s next conscious thought will be when he sees the face of the Lord Jesus at his appearing. Until that glorious moment, Paul, like all who have died and “returned to dust,” no longer exists. Nor will he ever exist again unless Jesus Christ actually died, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and comes again to raise Christians who have died. 1 Thessalonians 4:18 says that this truth is the only basis for genuine comfort for the bereaved. How important is this subject? It’s a matter of life and death.

Please read the rest of the article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

You can read more about this subject here:

Is There Death After Life?

Free Online Seminar: Death & Resurrection to Life

Thanks for reading.

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Abundant Life

Teaching: The Consequences of Believing Satan’s Lie

September 13, 2009September 12, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

[This article is taken from Chapter One of the book Is There Death After Life?]

The Father Of Lies

Among other things, Jesus Christ came to expose Satan’s methods. Chief among these is the Devil’s consistent contradiction of God’s Word.

John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do, he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

In John 10:10a, Jesus clearly revealed Satan’s intentions: “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy.” Satan’s ultimate goal is to promote death and destruction, as the Bible makes clear.

Hebrews 2:14
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.

The Devil holds the power of death, and one of his most effective aids in exercising this power is the lie that death is in reality the gate-way to everlasting life and ultimate wisdom. He first told this lie early in Genesis.

Perhaps you recall that Satan’s first recorded utterance in Scripture was a challenge to the veracity of God’s Word. Satan said, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (Gen. 3:1, NIV). This deceptive misquote of God’s revealed Word led to his second utterance, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4), which was just the opposite of what God had said to Adam.

Genesis 2:16 and 17
(16) And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
(17) 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.

God said, “Thou shalt surely die.” Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die.” Scripture makes clear who was telling the truth.

Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Death, both spiritual and physical, was the result of man’s believing Satan’s lie. The idea that there is really no such thing as death is still being promoted today, even within the Christian Church. Satan’s purpose has remained the same: to promote the idea that humans do not actually die, but go on living after their death whether they believe God’s Word or not. In this way, he obscures the light of the good news of Christ and his resurrection, one’s only hope of deliverance from death unto everlasting life.

False Hope

The false doctrine that the dead are alive and already in heaven or hell is so well entrenched in the average Christian’s mind that he has probably never considered its harmful ramifications. Understanding that Satan is the “father” of this lie explains why the consequences of believing it are so serious. The first, and perhaps most serious, consequence of believing this doctrine is that it changes the Christian’s focus from the appearing of the Prince of Life, Jesus Christ, to the coming of one’s own death.

In 1829, the Scottish Bible scholar Edward Irving, in a lecture entitled “The Second Advent of Our Lord,” stated that:

Instead of looking to that glorious event [the Lord’s appearing], and to all the circumstances connected therewith, the church has nearly forgotten it, and instead of it, to take up with miserable substitutes, such as that every man should think but of the day of his death; from which consideration there comes not joy nor strength, but weakness and oppression…. [1]

In contrast, the late Dr. Walter Martin, a noted Christian apologist, in his epochal work The Kingdom of the Cults, which well represents the position of orthodox Christianity on this subject, wrote:

The great hope of the believer, then, is the joy of personal union with the Lord, and this union, the Apostle Paul tells us, takes place at the death of the body. [2]

How sad it is to teach God’s people that the hope of a Christian is his own death, and how opposed to God’s perspective that death is an “enemy,” as 1 Corinthians 15:26 clearly states: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Biblically, death is a thief, not a benefactor. Death takes away life; it does not give a greater life.

In attempting to preserve the traditions of historic, orthodox Christianity, such teaching that the “dead” are “alive” blatantly contradicts God’s Word and further entrenches the Christian Church in this error. Those who have mistakenly propounded this doctrine have apparently overlooked the many verses plainly stating that the focal point of a Christian’s hope is not his own death, but the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. For example:

John 14:2 and 3
(2) In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
(3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

1 Thessalonians 2:19
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

1 Thessalonians 4:16 and 17
(16) 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:
(17) 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.

Titus 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

It is the occasion of Christ’s appearing from heaven that Christians should anticipate as the way of deliverance from the bondage and corruption of death. Jesus Christ is the only gateway to everlasting life and the only means by which believers will have access to God’s presence in Paradise. [3] When Jesus Christ comes again, he will fashion new, glorious bodies for us (Phil. 3:21). Apart from having these new bodies, there is no hope of entrance into the presence of God. Near the end of his life, the Apostle Paul wrote the following about this occasion:

2 Timothy 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Shifting the event that triggers our entrance into the presence of God from Christ’s appearing to our own death is nothing short of satanic subterfuge. In the minds of many, Satan has subtly changed the gateway to eternal life from Jesus Christ to death itself. Considering the past actions of God’s archenemy, this clever trick is totally consistent with his methods. The Christian’s hope is not death, but the appearing of Jesus Christ. When he appears, each Christian who is still alive will exchange his mortal body for a glorious immortal body, and each believer who has died will be raised to glorious and everlasting life.

Who Needs Resurrection?

A second consequence of believing the doctrine that the dead are alive is one that has drastic implications for biblical integrity and harmony. Believing that all the dead are conscious in heaven or hell reduces the great truth of resurrection to virtual insignificance. Death must be true death if resurrection is to be meaningful. If death involves only the body, with the soul and / or consciousness living on, then resurrection has lost at least half its significance.

If all believers have gone into the presence of God at their deaths, the monumental importance of Jesus Christ’s resurrection is negated. If Abraham, David, Job and others were already in heaven as disembodied souls or spirits, enjoying the presence of God in “eternity,” then our enemy, death, had already been vanquished before Christ’s resurrection, and eternal life was available without Christ. In fact, if it were true, as many teach, that Enoch, Elijah and Moses went to heaven bodily, then Jesus is not even the only human in heaven with a body. Such teaching contradicts the Word of God, confuses sincere Christians and dilutes their joy of hope.

It also leads to a question posed by Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther and others during the course of Christian history. If disembodied souls are able to live and enjoy the presence of God in heaven for eternity, then what is the need for a resurrection?

William Tyndale (1492-1536), the heroic Reformation figure chiefly responsible for translating the Bible into English, wrote the following to combat the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church:

And when he [Sir Thomas More] proveth that the saints be in heaven in glory with Christ already, saying ‘If God be their god, they be in heaven for he is not the God of the dead …’ therewith he stealeth away Christ’s argument wherewith he proveth the resurrection, that Abraham and all the saints shall rise again, and not that their souls were in heaven, which doctrine was not yet in the world, and with this doctrine he [More] taketh away the resurrection quite, and maketh Christ’s argument of none effect.

And in like manner Paul’s argument to the Corinthians is worth naught. For when he sayeth, ‘If there be no resurrection we be of all wretches the most miserable …’ I marvel that Paul had not comforted the Thessalonians with that doctrine if he had [known] of it that the souls of their dead had been in joy, as he did with the resurrection that their souls should rise again. If the souls be in heaven in as great glory as the angels after your doctrine, show me what cause should be of resurrection. [4]

Tyndale went on:

And you in putting them [the souls of the dead] in heaven, hell and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection … the true faith putteth the resurrection which we are warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the Pope joineth this spiritual doctrine of the philosophers together, things so contrary that they cannot agree. [5]

If a body is not required for life in the “hereafter,” then God is going to a lot of trouble for no apparent reason by “reuniting” everyone with his body. And the physical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, serving only to allow the disembodied soul or spirit to be united with a body that it obviously can do without, seems to be of little significance.

The teaching that the soul lives on after death destroys the uniqueness of Christian doctrine, that is, that Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection is prerequisite to anyone being given everlasting life. With so much biblical emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, any doctrine undermining it is highly suspect.

That Sounds “Familiar”

A third consequence of believing the doctrine that souls live on after the body dies is that it plays into the hands of those who promote the practice of communicating with the dead. Today many people, both Christian and non-Christian, attempt to communicate with the spirits of the dead, often in seances or via “channeling.” Such practices are similar to ancestor worship, historically a practice of most non-Christian religions. Pagans believe that the spirits of departed ancestors intervene in their lives, both for good and evil. Thus, as godlike beings, they must be worshiped and entreated. Superstition and fear of the unknown are always hallmarks of such false doctrine.

If there really are “departed souls” or “spirits” that are conscious and have knowledge of eternity or other matters of interest to those of us still earthbound, why not communicate with them? Because they are not there to answer. What will answer are evil spirits (fallen angels currently under Satan’s dominion) impersonating the dead. In the Old Testament, however, God expressly forbade communication with such “familiar spirits.”

We are at war, my friends. Do not allow Satan to win.

Please read the rest of the article here.

You can read more about this subject here:

Is There Death After Life?

Free Online Seminar: Death & Resurrection to Life

Thanks for reading.

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Abundant Life

Teaching: A Matter of Death and Life

September 6, 2009September 5, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

Original article can be found here.

Welcome to another trip to the edge of space—your space and mine. That’s right, we are now leaving “The Comfort Zone.” So buckle up and hang on. Actually, the ride won’t be that scary, because The Man will be with us all the way. My comfort zone is any mental or emotional attitude other than where my Lord Jesus is calling me to go with him. It usually turns out to be a simple lack of trust in him on my part.

In this month, during which we this year celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will consider the stark differences between life and death. In that vein, one of my goals is to be more thankful for each day, and even each moment, that I have to live. Surely God and His Son have made it possible for me to live each day to the fullest–spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically. But, of course, the choice is mine whether to do so or not. The Lord does have a personal curriculum for me, but I must do my part in order to advance in his steps and become more like him.

Recently I was talking by phone to my daughter Christine, who is my “second favorite subject” (My fourth favorite subject is food, third is basketball and first is Jesus). As you may know, Christine works with some pretty hard-core juvenile delinquents and “at risk” young people, known in some parts of the country as troubled “yutes.” She is involved with experiential education via wilderness therapy, and was regaling me with anecdotes about a cross-country skiing and ice-climbing weekend with eight teenagers, a relatively harmless but very depressed group.

They went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and climbed the ice-covered cliffs near Lake Superior. It was up to Christine and a male counselor to go up and secure the anchors at the top for the ropes that would be attached to and belay the climbers. After telling me about how careful she and her fellow counselor had to be out on the edge of the cliffs, she said something that was most profound, in the context of her recent stress about her search for a different place to work: “You know, Dad, I realized that when I’m climbing up the face of an icy cliff, I’m not thinking about who will respond to my resumes. It really made me appreciate the benefit of any single-minded activity.”

Her last sentence resonated in my heart, and my mind immediately went to the biblical Greek word haplotes, which appears about eight times and is sometimes translated “simplicity.” It basically means “singleness of mind and purpose.” You might want to look it up, and then also look at what could be considered its counterpart word, merimnao, which means “to be full of anxiety that divides up and distracts the mind.” Christine’s statement reminded me that putting everything I have into doing anything (that is not ungodly) will help me build the habit of similarly intense focus on the most important things in my life. What might those things be? Relationships, first with God and the Lord, and then with the people in my world.

No doubt you have heard it said that a good way to live is by doing whatever you do as if it were the last time you would ever do it. In light of how precious, and fragile, life really is, I agree, even though I can’t say that’s always my attitude. Colossians 3:23 and 24 says it this way:

Colossians 3:23 and 24
(23) “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
(24) since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Jesus Christ you are serving.”

Sounds sort of like 1 Corinthians 15:58:

1 Corinthians 15:58
“Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Putting all we have into what we do as Christians will not be in vain because that is exactly what our Role Model did. Day by day Jesus gave himself fully, even unto giving up his most precious possession, his life. And what did God then do? He kept His promise to His Son and raised his battered, mutilated, lifeless body to newness of life, the same everlasting life that you and I are guaranteed to receive when the Lord appears.

In 1967, early in my life as a committed Christian, I was in the Army, and was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where I met some dynamic saints who had quite an influence upon me. One of them was a dear man named Tommy Tyson, with whom I thereafter lost touch until just last year, when my father sent me a copy of his New Life ministry newsletter, the Easter issue. After reading it, I called him to tell him how much I enjoyed it, and we had a great visit. What Tommy wrote is so wonderful that I want to quote rather extensively from it, and then offer some commentary on it.

With the exception of Christmas, the world and the Church pay more attention to Easter than to any other time in the Church calendar. What is it all about? The Gospel of the Resurrection is not saying that Spring has come, flowers are blooming and rabbits are hopping. Anyone who would let an Easter egg hunt be a prime expression of this aspect of the Gospel has missed the point. [For further study read What is “Easter”?]

Easter is not an emphatic reminder that man has a soul that can never die. The Gospel of the Resurrection is something more than a renewed statement of the philosophical concept of immortality. Consequently, to present Easter as the basis of the soul of man escaping the prison-house of clay, flitting away on wings of faith (much as a butterfly breaks out of its cocoon) has no more to commend it from a Gospel point of view than does hopping rabbits.

What in the world happened at Easter? First of all, Easter declares the open defeat of death. This Gospel is saying that the man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was taken by the cruel hands of man and was given a criminal’s death. He really died; he went through the agony of it. He offered no beautiful pictures concerning death. [For further study read “Why Did Jesus Have To Suffer And Die?.”]

The Easter experience declares the reality of death. Oscar Cullmann, the German theologian, in his book titled, Immortality of the Soul (Resurrection of the Dead), shows a helpful contrast between the death of Socrates and the death of Jesus. Like Jesus, Socrates was rejected by his brethren because he asked too many questions. Like Jesus, he was sentenced to die by his brethren. Socrates chose to die by drinking poison. Just before his death, he called his disciples to him and gave them a beautiful discourse on the reality of life, and convinced them, from a philosophical point of view, that death was not real. Following his discourse, Socrates drank the hemlock and went into a beautiful sleep, leaving his disciples with a peace that came through the assurance that their teacher was not dead.

On the other hand, Jesus comes to his hour of condemnation and selects three of his disciples to go with him into a prayer experience. There are no words of encouragement; there is no attempt to avoid the issue. He simply asks them to watch with him for an hour. Coming to his hour of death, we see and hear the Prince of Life agonizing in prayer.

In painting this contrast, Cullmann raises these questions: “Does Socrates have a better understanding of life than Jesus? Is this the reason for his calmness, and the reason for the agony of Jesus?” No, answers Cullmann to his own question. Jesus’ agony is not because he has a more inadequate concept of life than Socrates. His agony is because he has a more realistic concept of death than Socrates. The New Testament does not present death as a fair-haired angel. It is not the God-given way for man to make a transition from this world to another. The New Testament does not present death as a new birth. Death is an enemy. Anyone who seeks to evade the reality of death and its tragic consequences is failing to seriously consider the meaning of Easter…[It] is not the story of a spirit slipping out between the cracks. This is the story of the total Resurrection of the total man.

And I say, “Amen!” Remember that the anthropology of Scripture, that is, how the Bible defines “man,” is basically given in Genesis 2:7:

Genesis 2:7
“And the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

Despite the fact that most Christians have been taught the Greek fable of an “immortal soul,” God’s Word clearly says that a human is a totally integrated unit—a body animated by an invisible life force. Scripture does not say that a man has a soul, it says that a man who is breathing is a soul, a living soul. One from whom the invisible, animating life force has departed is called a dead soul. A Christian human also has “the gift of holy spirit,” the divine nature of his heavenly Father and Lord Jesus, which, of course, is not a conscious part of him that lives on independent of his body. No, life is life and death is death.

Please read the rest of the article here.

You can read more about this subject here:

Is There Death After Life?

Free Online Seminar: Death & Resurrection to Life

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here, it’s up to you to accept, or deny, it).

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August 30, 2009August 30, 2009 Karen

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Teaching: Making the Dead Alive

August 30, 2009August 29, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

The Bible teaches that when a person dies he is dead in every way. His body is dead, and his soul and spirit die also. He is not alive in any form, in heaven or elsewhere. The human body cannot live without a soul, and the soul and spirit cannot live apart from a body. A “person” is an integrated whole. God has designed us so that our parts work in a totally integrated way, and not by themselves. This is one reason why the majority of the uses of “soul” in the Bible do not mean “soul” in the sense of the life force of the body, but rather the entire person. Thus, when Acts 2:43 (KJV) says that “…fear came upon every soul…,” it means fear came upon every person. Once a person dies, he remains dead until he is raised from the dead by the Lord.

It is not our purpose in this short article to go over the clear verses that show that a dead person is dead in every way, or to explain the difficult verses on the subject of what happens when we die, because we do that in our book, Is There Death After Life and our free online seminar, Death & Resurrection to Life. Rather, we will focus on understanding a major reason why there was so much confusion at the time of Christ about what happened to people when they died. This confusion shows up vividly in the division between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees asserted that after death the soul lived apart from the body and went to a place of either torture or bliss, while the Sadducees thought that death was the end of life totally, and even denied the resurrection.

In order to understand the confusion existing at the time of Christ concerning the state of the dead, we must understand what the Greeks believed about what happened when people died. An important part of the Greek religion and philosophy was the belief that each person has a soul that is immortal. In fact, the modern Christian concept of the “immortal soul” does not come from the Bible, but from Greek philosophy.

We must be careful when we generalize about what the Greeks believed, because they were like modern Christians—there is much we agree about, but there are also very distinct differences in what we believe. In general, Greeks believed the soul was immortal, and some believed that humans, animals, and even plants have an immortal soul. To give us an idea of some of the different beliefs about the soul, let us look at four that were held among the Greeks.

* Some believed that once a person died his soul went to “Hades,” the Underworld, for a period of purification, then entered a new body, a cycle that was repeated for eons until that soul was in a completely virtuous person, at which point the transmigration ended and the soul could enter a blessed place, sometimes known as the Blest Isles or Elysian Fields. (It is important that we realize that for most Greeks, Hades was not a place of torture, but a gloomy place where the immortal souls of the dead dwelled).
* Some believed that when a person died his soul went to Hades and faced judgment. If it was found guilty it was punished, which lasted, like the soul itself, forever (this belief most naturally lent itself to the development of the orthodox Christian doctrine of burning in “hell” forever). If the soul was not found guilty, it might wander in Hades, the Underworld, also called the Land of Shades, or it might return in another person.
* Some believed that if the dead body was not taken care of properly when the person died, the immortal soul would wander the earth, possibly even as a ghost, revenging itself upon mankind.
* Some believed what Homer wrote, that the soul of an especially heinous person suffered punishment in Hades, while the souls of the rest of humanity simply suffered the gloomy fate of wandering endlessly in the dark underworld. [1]

In Greek mythology, Hades was the god of the Underworld, who oversaw the souls of the dead that resided there. Eventually, the name of the god Hades was given to the Underworld itself, so that it was then also called Hades. Greek writers wrote about the Underworld, Hades, but most of the writing was not meant to be a doctrinal presentation. Rather, it was stories and legends of gods and heroes who went there for various reasons, and there are many differences in their stories about what Hades is like. There is, however, one very important similarity: the disembodied souls there were all alive. No immortal soul in Hades was dead. In fact, because the standard Greek belief was that the soul was immortal, no one in Greek mythology ever died. Bodies died, but the “person” lived on in the form of a disembodied soul.

Knowing what the Greeks believed about life after death is very important, because, in 332 BC Alexander the Great conquered Israel, and for more than 150 years the Greeks controlled Jerusalem and Israel. Through the years, Greek thought and religion deeply influenced Jewish culture. By 250 BC there were so many Jews who spoke Greek and not Hebrew that the Old Testament was translated into Greek, in a version we now call the Septuagint. The Greek vocabulary in the Septuagint drove Greek thought even more deeply into the Jewish culture.

One area of Jewish thought and culture that was greatly influenced by the Greeks was the state of the dead. The Hebrew Bible made it clear that the dead were dead in every way. That was the reason the Sadducees believed that when a person died he or she was dead in every sense of the word, and not alive in any form. The real problem with their belief was that it did not take into account the Old Testament teachings of the resurrection from the dead. [2] Thus, the Sadducees had a dismal and gloomy belief system that had no future joyous hope, but they were right about what happened to people when they died—they are not alive in any form.

Please read the rest of the article here.

You can read more about this subject here:

Is There Death After Life?

Free Online Seminar: Death & Resurrection to Life

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Abundant Life

Teaching: The Dead Are Dead Until the Rapture or Resurrection

August 23, 2009August 21, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

When a person dies, he is dead, that is, totally without life. A Christian has body, soul, and holy spirit, so we will look at what happens to each of these components if he dies. The body cannot live without the animating life force of the soul, so when the soul is gone, the body is dead. We have all seen lifeless bodies—the body is there but the soul, the life force, is gone.

Just as the body is not alive without the soul, so the soul cannot live on its own without a body. The soul is not a ghost that lives on after the body dies. Rather, it is the animating force that makes the body alive. God created the soul, the life force, for both animals and man, and it is passed down from one generation to the next. There was no “soul ghost” that God put into us when the sperm of our father and egg of our mother came together.

Every living part of a human or animal has “soul,” that is, life. Every cell of our body has soul in it, which is what makes it alive. A dead cell is a cell without soul—the soul is gone. As with every cell, the egg from my mother and the sperm from my father that became “me” each had their own cell-body and soul, and that soul was passed down to “me” when the sperm fertilized the egg. If the egg were “dead,” the lifeless egg-body would be there, but it could not be fertilized, and if the sperm were dead, it could not fertilize the egg.

When a human cell dies, the life in that cell does not go to be with God, it is just gone. Similarly, the soul that makes the egg and sperm alive does not live on in the presence of God if the sperm or egg dies. Men have millions of living sperm, sperm with soul, that die, and women have hundreds of thousands of living eggs, eggs with soul, which are never fertilized, and die. The soul in all those sperms and eggs does not “go” anywhere if the sperm or egg dies, and certainly not to be with God, rejoicing in His presence. As with the life in any cell, it just dies and is gone. On the other hand, if the sperm fertilizes an egg, then the life in them is passed on and becomes the life of the new baby. [1]

The Bible says that God created the same life force, called “soul,” for both animals and man, but it is hard to see that in most English Bibles, because the translators say “soul” when the verse refers to humans, but use other English words such as “creature,” “thing,” “life,” etc., when the verse refers to animals. [2] The soul, the life, in animals and in mankind does not “go” anywhere when the animal or person dies, it just ceases to be. Interestingly, most Christians recognize that about animals, and realize that animals do not go to heaven or “hell” when they die. [3] Their body decays, and their soul is gone. What we need to understand is that the Bible says people and animals are alike in that when they die, their body decays and returns to dust, and their soul dies too. That is one reason why there are verses, some of which we will see in this article, that say that when a person dies, his soul is in “Sheol,” the grave or the state of being dead.

Just as the soul gives us physical life, the gift of holy spirit from God gives us spiritual life. The holy spirit inside a Christian is not like a ghost with thinking capacity on its own. The holy spirit gives spirit life to the “person,” the body animated by the soul. Our holy spirit was not alive with God before we became a Christian, thinking and rejoicing in His presence, and then somehow came into us, like a ghost possessing our body, when we got saved. Rather, the holy spirit we now have was a part of God’s great reservoir of spiritual life, of which He gave us a part when we got born again. [4] The holy spirit is the spiritual life from God that infuses every cell of our body and, as our new spiritual nature, is part of who we are.

If we die, the holy spirit “returns” to God (Eccles. 12:7). Since God is everywhere, that most likely means that He remembers us and will re-energize our bodies with spirit at the Rapture. Another possibility is that God simply reclaims the spiritual life force He put in us. In any case, the holy spirit God gave us did not have a mind or memory before it was given to us, and it does not have one after we die. It is spiritual life, spiritual power, that we have from God. My “spirit” is not rejoicing with God after “I” die. A person is alive only as an integrated whole before he dies, and only as an integrated whole will he live again, when God raises him from the dead.

The Bible has a significant number of verses that let us know that when a person dies he is dead and awaiting the Rapture or resurrection. [5] Many are self-explanatory, while some need some explanation to get the most from them. It is not the purpose of this short article to replace much larger books on the state of the dead, nor can we mention every verse or argument that supports the teaching that the dead are dead, or give an answer to the more difficult verses on the subject. [6] In fact, we have tried to print only the relevant part of each Scripture section, saving space by leaving out parts of verses, so it will be helpful if you read these verses in your own Bible for a more complete understanding of them in their contexts. In this article we will give some of the important verses and pieces of evidence that the dead are not alive in any form, but are awaiting being raised from the grave.

The dead are in the grave, not in heaven or “hell.”

The verses that follow focus our attention on the fact that the dead are dead, “sleeping” in the ground and turned back to dust. They are not alive in heaven, hell, or Paradise. [7]

Deuteronomy 31:16 (KJV) [8]
And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers…

God told Moses he would “sleep” with his ancestors, not that he was going to heaven to be with God or his ancestors. God made it clear that Moses was going to sleep, a state that, for Moses, will end with the Resurrection of the Just. [9] “Sleep” is an excellent metaphor for death, because a sleeping person is not participating in life’s activities, but will wake up as the same person who went to sleep. “Sleep” is often used of death (Job 7:21; Ps. 13:3, 90:5; Dan. 12:2; John 11:11; 1 Cor. 11:30, 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:14, 5:10). The fuller metaphor of sleeping with one’s ancestors occurs in 2 Samuel 7:12, 1 Kings 1:21, and Acts 13:36 of King David.

Job 7:21 (ESV) [10]
…For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

Job 14:12-14 (ESV)
(12) so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
(13) Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
(14) If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.

When a person dies, he “lies down” in death and does not rise out of that sleep until his “renewal” at the resurrection. Job’s saying he would be hidden in Sheol (the state of death) makes no sense if he believed that at his death he would be with God in heaven or in a good place.

Psalm 6:5 (ESV)
For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?

People who die are not in the presence of God. They are dead in every way, and in the sleep of death do not remember or praise God.

Psalm 16:10 (ESV)
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

Psalm 30:9 (ESV)
“What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

When we die, we return to dust, and that dust does not praise God. The psalmist is asking God to keep him alive, and reminding God that if he dies, He will get no praise from “dust.”

Psalm 49:12, 14 and 15 (ESV)
(12) Man in his pomp will not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.
(14) Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning [at their resurrection]. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
(15) But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah

The “soul” in man is like the soul life in animals. It is not immortal, so it dies when the person dies. Christians who die remain in Sheol, the state of being dead, until God ransoms us from the grave at the Rapture. At that time God re-empowers our bodies, but not with the soul life we have now.

Psalm 89:48 (ESV)
What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

Psalm 115:17 (ESV)
The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.

The dead are not in the presence of God praising Him. They are in “silence” until the Rapture or resurrection.

Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 and 10 (ESV)
(4) But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
(5) For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
(6) Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
(10) Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

These verses are very clear. The dead are not celebrating in the presence of God. They are in Sheol, the grave, and there they have no knowledge, no love, no hate, no work, no thoughts, no wisdom.

Isaiah 26:19 (ESV)
Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Dead people are dwelling in the dust, not in heaven. But there is a time coming when the graves will open and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Please read the rest of the article here.

You can read more about this subject here:

Is There Death After Life?

Free Online Seminar: Death & Resurrection to Life

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here, it’s up to you to accept, or deny, it).

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Abundant Life

Teaching: The Day Christ Comes Back To Get Us

August 16, 2009August 15, 2009 Karen

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

From this article:

I made Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior when I was a sophomore in high school. My uncle, who shared the Word with me, gave me my first Bible, the New Believer’s Bible New Testament (New Living Translation). I loved that Bible! It was so easy to read (partly because it was basically one step up from a paraphrased Bible) and it had helpful commentary.

As a new Christian, I was very excited because I was reading the Bible and understanding it well, and my enthusiasm was through the roof. I remember one occasion where I was invited to a college football game by another uncle and when he picked me up he noticed I had my new Bible. On any other day I would have thoroughly enjoyed watching the game, but instead (much to my uncle’s annoyance) I read my Bible on and off during the entire game. I just couldn’t get enough.

All was well with my new Bible until the day I read the commentary on this section of Scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:6-10
(6) Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
(7) We live by faith, not by sight.
(8) We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
(9) So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
(10) For 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, whether good or bad.

The commentary was titled “When Does a Christian Enter Heaven?” It reads:

“Some people teach that when we die we go into a state of suspended animation. Then later we are called into the presence of God. But this passage clearly explains that when a believer dies, he or she will go directly to heaven to ‘be at home with the Lord’…

The moment you take your last breath on earth, you will take your first breath in heaven. So don’t be afraid of death. Instead, enjoy your life in Christ on earth, and spend the rest of your time here introducing others to the one with whom you will spend eternity.” [1]

I loved reading about heaven and the hope of one day living forever with God Himself, and I was very pleased to learn that upon my death, there wouldn’t be a long waiting period; I would immediately be with God in heaven. Praise God!

But then I started thinking. If Christians are “aliens” in this world (1 Pet. 2:11), if the world is under the control of the Devil (1 John 5:19), if Christians are going to be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12), and if we are awaiting God to “call us home” to be with Him at the moment we die, why not run home? [2]

Suicide started to sound like a quick ticket home, as it seemed the sooner I got to be with God, the better. I never considered actually taking my own life, because I knew in my heart of hearts that death was not good. I had been to a few funerals, seen the tears, felt the pain, and knew there was nothing “good” about death. To my horror, I have since learned that more than a few sincere Christians have killed themselves because they thought they would go to heaven to be with God, Jesus, and their departed loved ones. Some have even killed others so they too could go. What that must do to God’s heart is hard to imagine. Amidst my theological enigma, I went to the Bible and studied the topic of death and its aftermath. First, I found it says that death is an “enemy” (1 Cor. 15:26). How could it be an enemy if it took me “home” to be with God? Then I saw that John 3:13 says that “No man has ascended into heaven… (ESV) [3].” And Acts 2:34 tells us that is even true of David, who was a man after God’s own heart.

Among other Scriptures clearly stating that after death one is not conscious, I came across this rather shocking (at the time) verse:

Psalm 30:9
“What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

I saw that, as per Genesis 3:19, man’s body is basically “dust,” and after death each man returns to dust. It is not at death that one goes to be with the Lord, but when the Lord comes back for us. The following verses tell us exactly that:

John 14:2 and 3
(2) In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
(3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

When do we go to be with the Lord? When he comes back. Notice that he did not say “when you die, we will meet in Heaven.” No, the Lord Jesus Christ has promised to come back and take us to be with him where he is (see 1 Thess. 4:13-18).

Scripture figuratively refers to death as “sleep.” Where there is no consciousness, there is no awareness of the passing of time. Thus, for each Christian who dies, that glorious day of Christ’s appearing will be his next waking moment. Hallelujah!