A biblical study of the state of the dead examining Scripture's teaching about death, sleep, the grave, the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead, immortality, final judgment and eternal life.
For Chapter 1: Quick Facts: Are the Dead Alive or Dead? What the Bible Really Teaches and FULL article click here:
STATE OF THE DEAD — STUDY RECAP
ARE THE DEAD ALIVE IN HEAVEN, OR ASLEEP AWAITING THE RESURRECTION?
Before continuing with Part 24, let us briefly recap the biblical evidence we have examined throughout this study so far.
The central question has been simple:
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE ACTUALLY TEACH HAPPENS WHEN A PERSON DIES?
Are the dead consciously alive in heaven, hell, Hades or some other spiritual realm?
Or does Scripture teach that the dead are truly dead — described as sleeping or resting — while awaiting the future resurrection?
THE FOUNDATION OF OUR STUDY
Throughout this study we have repeatedly found Scripture describing death as:
SLEEP.
REST.
SILENCE.
RETURNING TO DUST.
AND:
WAITING FOR RESURRECTION.
Ecclesiastes tells us:
“The dead know nothing...”
— Ecclesiastes 9:5
The Psalmist says:
“His spirit goes forth, he returns to his earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.”
— Psalm 146:4
Daniel describes:
“those sleeping in the dust of the earth”
who will one day:
“AWAKE.”
— Daniel 12:2
Daniel himself was told:
“you will rest; and you will arise for your inheritance at the end of the days.”
— Daniel 12:13, BLB
JESUS CALLED DEATH “SLEEP”
When Lazarus died, Jesus said:
“Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep...”
— John 11:11, BLB
When the disciples misunderstood Him, Jesus explained plainly:
“Lazarus has died.”
— John 11:14, BLB
Jesus then told Martha:
“Your brother will rise again.”
— John 11:23, BLB
Martha answered:
“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day.”
— John 11:24, BLB
This became one of the major foundations of our study:
DEATH.
↓
SLEEP.
↓
THE LAST DAY.
↓
RESURRECTION.
PAUL TAUGHT THE SAME RESURRECTION HOPE
Paul repeatedly described dead Christians as:
“THOSE HAVING FALLEN ASLEEP.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:13–15, BLB
He did not tell grieving Christians that their dead relatives were already consciously alive in heaven.
Instead he pointed them toward the return of Jesus:
“THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE FIRST.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:16, BLB
Then the living and resurrected believers will be:
“CAUGHT AWAY TOGETHER WITH THEM”
to meet the Lord.
— 1 Thessalonians 4:17, BLB
Paul therefore directs the Christian hope toward:
THE RETURN OF JESUS.
THE RESURRECTION.
AND:
IMMORTALITY.
WHEN DO BELIEVERS RECEIVE IMMORTALITY?
Paul tells us:
“For it behooves this perishable to put on imperishable, and this mortal to put on immortality.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:53, BLB
Notice:
THE MORTAL MUST:
“PUT ON IMMORTALITY.”
Immortality is therefore not simply assumed to be something every human being already possesses naturally.
Paul connects immortality with:
THE RESURRECTION
AND:
THE LAST TRUMPET.
— 1 Corinthians 15:51–54
THE DIFFICULT PASSAGES WE HAVE EXAMINED
Throughout this study we have also confronted the passages most frequently used to argue that the dead remain consciously alive.
We have examined:
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS
— Luke 23:43
“ABSENT FROM THE BODY, PRESENT WITH THE LORD”
— 2 Corinthians 5:8
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
— Luke 16:19–31
CHRIST AND THE “SPIRITS IN PRISON”
— 1 Peter 3:18–20
“GOD WILL BRING WITH HIM THOSE HAVING FALLEN ASLEEP”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:14
THE “SOULS” UNDER THE ALTAR
— Revelation 6:9–11
“THE SPIRITS OF THE RIGHTEOUS HAVING BEEN PERFECTED”
— Hebrews 12:22–24
AND:
“DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN GEHENNA”
— Matthew 10:28
In every case we have asked the same questions:
WHAT DOES THE TEXT ACTUALLY SAY?
WHAT DOES IT NOT SAY?
WHAT DO THE ORIGINAL HEBREW AND GREEK WORDS MEAN?
WHAT DOES THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT SAY?
AND:
HOW DOES THE PASSAGE FIT WITH THE BIBLE'S CLEAR TEACHING ABOUT RESURRECTION?
THE THIEF ON THE CROSS
We examined Jesus' promise:
“Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
— Luke 23:43, BLB
We discovered that the ancient Greek text did not contain the modern comma that determines whether “today” modifies:
“I SAY TO YOU”
or:
“YOU WILL BE WITH ME.”
We also compared Jesus' statement after His resurrection:
“NOT YET HAVE I ASCENDED TO THE FATHER.”
— John 20:17, BLB
And we remembered what the thief himself requested:
“REMEMBER ME WHEN YOU COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM.”
— Luke 23:42, BLB
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS
We examined Luke 16 carefully rather than automatically treating every detail as a literal map of the afterlife.
We considered:
THE PARABOLIC CONTEXT.
ABRAHAM'S BOSOM.
HADES.
THE GREAT CHASM.
THE RICH MAN'S FIVE BROTHERS.
MOSES AND THE PROPHETS.
AND:
THE FINAL WARNING:
“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one should rise from the dead.”
— Luke 16:31, BLB
“ABSENT FROM THE BODY”
We examined 2 Corinthians 5 within Paul's complete argument.
Paul's great hope was not merely:
BECOMING DISEMBODIED.
He looked toward being:
“CLOTHED”
and toward mortality being:
“SWALLOWED UP BY LIFE.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:4, BLB
We compared this with Paul's great resurrection teaching in:
1 CORINTHIANS 15.
THE SPIRITS IN PRISON
We examined 1 Peter 3:18–20 carefully.
We concluded that Christ was:
PUT TO DEATH.
↓
MADE ALIVE.
↓
AND THEN WENT AND PROCLAIMED TO:
“THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.”
We did not identify these “spirits” as dead human souls.
Instead we examined their association with:
THE DAYS OF NOAH
and the wider biblical evidence concerning:
REBELLIOUS SPIRITUAL BEINGS.
THE SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR
We examined Revelation 6:9–11 within the symbolic and apocalyptic nature of Revelation.
The martyrs are:
“SLAIN.”
Their “souls” appear:
UNDER THE ALTAR.
Their:
“BLOOD”
cries for justice.
We compared this with God's words concerning Abel:
“The voice of the blood of your brother is crying to Me from the ground.”
— Genesis 4:10
Abel's blood did not need to be literally conscious in order to:
“CRY.”
The imagery represents:
INNOCENT BLOOD
CRYING TO GOD FOR:
JUSTICE.
“THE SPIRITS OF THE RIGHTEOUS”
We examined Hebrews 12:22–24.
We discovered that the writer tells Christians who were still alive:
“YOU HAVE COME”
to:
HEAVENLY JERUSALEM.
Therefore the passage cannot simply be treated as a literal description of physical location.
We also examined Hebrews 11, where the faithful:
“DIED IN FAITH”
while:
“NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES.”
— Hebrews 11:13, BLB
And the chapter concludes that:
“not apart from us, they should be made perfect.”
— Hebrews 11:40, BLB
“DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY”
Most recently we examined Matthew 10:28.
Jesus says God is able to:
“DESTROY BOTH SOUL AND BODY IN GEHENNA.”
— Matthew 10:28, BLB
This raises a serious problem for the doctrine that the human soul is naturally:
INDESTRUCTIBLE
AND:
IMMORTAL.
Jesus does not say God preserves the soul forever because it cannot be destroyed.
He explicitly uses the word:
“DESTROY.”
THE BIBLICAL PICTURE EMERGING SO FAR
After examining all these passages, a remarkably consistent pattern has emerged:
LIFE.
↓
DEATH.
↓
SLEEP / REST.
↓
THE RETURN OF JESUS.
↓
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
↓
JUDGMENT.
↓
IMMORTALITY AND EVERLASTING LIFE FOR GOD'S PEOPLE.
Paul says:
“THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE FIRST.”
— 1 Thessalonians 4:16, BLB
And:
“THIS MORTAL”
must:
“PUT ON IMMORTALITY.”
— 1 Corinthians 15:53, BLB
The Christian hope is therefore not that:
WE NEVER REALLY DIE.
The Christian hope is that:
DEATH WILL NOT WIN.
GOD RAISED JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD.
AND THROUGH CHRIST:
THE DEAD WILL RISE.
BUT OUR INVESTIGATION IS NOT FINISHED
Several important passages remain.
We still need to examine:
“THE SPIRIT RETURNS TO GOD WHO GAVE IT.”
— Ecclesiastes 12:7
“TO DEPART AND TO BE WITH CHRIST.”
— Philippians 1:21–23
“THE SMOKE OF THEIR TORMENT GOES UP TO AGES OF AGES.”
— Revelation 14:9–11
And finally:
THE LAKE OF FIRE.
THE GREAT WHITE THRONE.
THE SECOND DEATH.
AND:
THE FINAL DESTINY OF THE UNSAVED.
— Revelation 20:10–15
Then we will bring the entire investigation together in our:
FINAL BIBLICAL SUMMARY.
So now let us continue.
PART 24 — “THE SPIRIT RETURNS TO GOD WHO GAVE IT”
DOES ECCLESIASTES 12:7 TEACH THAT A CONSCIOUS HUMAN SPIRIT GOES TO HEAVEN AT DEATH?
Ecclesiastes says:
“the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
— Ecclesiastes 12:7
This verse is frequently understood to mean:
THE BODY DIES.
↓
THE CONSCIOUS SPIRIT LEAVES THE BODY.
↓
THE PERSON CONTINUES LIVING WITH GOD IN HEAVEN.
But is that actually what Ecclesiastes says?
To answer this, we must investigate:
THE HEBREW WORD RUACH.
THE CREATION OF MAN.
THE BREATH OF LIFE.
GENESIS 2:7.
ECCLESIASTES' OWN TEACHING ABOUT THE DEAD.
AND:
WHAT IT REALLY MEANS FOR THE:
“SPIRIT”
TO:
“RETURN TO GOD WHO GAVE IT.”
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.
COMPARE THE TRANSLATIONS.
EXAMINE THE ORIGINAL HEBREW AND GREEK.
TEST EVERY TRADITION.
FOLLOW THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE WHEREVER IT LEADS.
Research by Simon Brown
REAL DISCOVERIES
