Kingdom Ready Blog

What Happens At Death?
When a person dies, the spirit (breath life) is gone and the body corrupts in the grave (“Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.” – Psalm 104:29). Nowhere does it say that they are conscious on another plane of existence. This makes sense when you consider that consciousness and thought are the product of a functioning brain, and the brain is no longer functioning after the breath of life is gone.

Ecclesiastes 9:
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Some have suggested that this passage is only dealing with things “under the sun” and not with spiritual realities. But the phrase “under the sun” is a common expression that refers to everything in life. For it to mean only that which happens on earth in contrast to that which happens in heaven, there would have to be references somewhere to life in heaven. But while heaven is used to describe both the physical space above the earth and the spiritual abode of God and angels, there is nothing in the Bible about the dead going there. Besides, if the dead were alive in heaven they would still have knowledge, but this passage points out that it is perished.

Others say that it is unwise to base a doctrine on something in Ecclesiastes, for it represented Solomon’s complaining and philosophizing, and not divinely inspired doctrine. In a similar manner, some claim that the things Job said represent the words that were spoken by a person, and not necessarily divinely inspired doctrine.

Job 14:
10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

While it is true that one must be aware of who is speaking in a given passage, the determining factor for whether it is true doctrine is that it must fit with other sections of Scripture. These words in Ecclesiastes and Job may not prove anything by themselves, but they are consistent with the view that is presented in other Scriptures.

Psalm 6:
5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Psalm 115:
17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.

Psalm 146:
3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Isaiah 38:
18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.

Certainly if the dead were alive in heaven they would be praising God, but the above verses state clearly they do not. The word for “grave” is the Hebrew word sheol which refers to more than just a physical grave. It is the abode of the dead, and is described as a state of unconsciousness where there is no thought or activity. It is never a place where the dead continue to exist in a disembodied form, nor is there any hint that some other part of the person goes to heaven and is conscious with the Lord.  It says that the whole person dies and at that time their thoughts perish, they do not praise the Lord or give Him thanks.

In addition, death is described as sleep many places in the Bible, such as Psalm 13:3 (“…lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death”) and the many references to the Kings of Israel, about whom it says when they died that they “slept with their fathers.” Jesus described Lazarus as sleeping at first, but then said plainly, “Lazarus is dead” (John 11:11-14). Combine this with the basic definition of man’s soul, which is nowhere described as immortal, but something that can die, and you see a consistent testimony from the Scriptures that death is the end of life and will only be overcome by resurrection. Remember Job said that “man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake…” (Job 14:12). He also said in verse 14 of that chapter, “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” When will Job’s change come?

Job 19:
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Job believed that death was the end of life, and would be permanent except for a resurrection to come “at the latter day.” David, Daniel, and Jesus himself, all described the same thing.

Psalm 17:
15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

Daniel 12:
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

John 5:
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

It was resurrection in the coming Kingdom, not going to heaven, that was the hope of Israel in the Old Testament. And that same hope is spoken of and confirmed throughout the New Testament as well.

Origin of Disembodied Soul

The overall picture of resurrection (especially as described by Paul in I Corinthians 15) is that of dead people being raised to life. The Roman Catholic creed refers to the “resurrection of the body.” This implies that only the body is raised, since the soul has been living in heaven since death. In contrast, Scripture speaks of the whole person being raised. Nowhere does the Bible say anything about living consciously in a disembodied state after death. This whole concept originated from Greek philosophy and was gradually introduced, first into Jewish thinking, and later into Christian doctrine.

From the article, “Christianity” in the Encyclopedia Britannica:
As the Christian movement expanded beyond its original Jewish nucleus into the Greco-Roman world, it had to understand, explain and defend itself in terms that were intelligible in an intellectual milieu largely structured by Greek philosophical thought. By the 2nd century AD several competing streams of Greek and Roman philosophy–Middle Platonism, Neoplatonism, Epicureanism, Stoicism–had to a great extent flowed together into a common worldview that was basically Neoplatonic, though enriched by the ethical outlook of the Stoics. . . The early Christian Apologists were at home in this thought-world, and many of them used its ideas and assumptions both in propagating the Gospel and in defending it as a coherent and intellectually tenable system of belief. Their most common attitude was to accept the prevailing Neoplatonic worldview as basically valid and to present Christianity as its fulfillment, correcting and complementing rather than replacing it. Philosophy, they thought, was to the Greeks what the Law was to the Jews– a preparation for the Gospel; and several Apologists agreed with the Jewish writer Philo that Greek philosophy must have received much of its wisdom from Moses. Tertullian (c. 155/159-after 220) and Tatian (c. 120-173), on the other hand, rejected pagan learning and philosophy as inimical to the Gospel. . . Greek philosophy, then, provided the organizing principles by which the central Christian doctrines were formulated.

Also from the article, “Christianity” in the Encyclopedia Britannica:
The idea of the soul as a mental entity, with intellectual and moral qualities, interacting with a physical organism but capable of continuing after its dissolution, derives in Western thought from Plato and entered into Judaism approximately the last century before the Common Era [i.e., before Christ] and thence into Christianity. In Jewish and Christian thinking it has existed in tension with the idea of resurrection of the person conceived as an indissoluble psychophysical unity. Christian thought gradually settled into a pattern that required both of these apparently divergent ideas. At death the soul is separated from the body and exists in a conscious or unconscious disembodied state. But on the future Day of Judgment souls will be re-embodied (whether in their former but now transfigured earthly bodies or in new resurrection bodies) and will live eternally in the heavenly kingdom. Within this framework philosophical discussion has centered mainly on the idea of the immaterial soul and its capacity to survive bodily death. Plato, in the Phaedo, argued that the soul is inherently indestructible.

From the article, “Plato and Platonism” in the Encyclopedia Britannica:
The object of the Phaedo [written by Plato (c. 428BC - 347BC)] is to justify belief in the immortality of the soul by showing that it follows from a fundamental metaphysical doctrine (the theory of Ideas, or doctrine of Forms), which seems to afford a rational clue to the structure of the universe. [It argues that] Socrates’ soul is identical with Socrates himself: the survival of his soul is the survival of Socrates–in a purified state. For his life has been spent in trying to liberate the soul from dependence on the body. In life, the body is always interfering with the soul’s activity. Its appetites and passions interrupt the pursuit of wisdom and goodness.

From the article, “Soul” in the Encyclopedia Britannica:
The early Hebrews apparently had a concept of the soul but did not separate it from the body, although later Jewish writers [extra-Biblical] developed the idea of the soul further. Old Testament references to the soul are related to the concept of breath and establish no distinction between the ethereal soul and the corporeal body. Christian concepts of a body-soul dichotomy originated with ancient Greeks and were introduced into Christian theology at an early date by St. Gregory of Nyssa and by St. Augustine.

So the original concept in the Hebrew Scriptures did not see the soul as immortal or living in consciousness after death. Such an idea originated in Greek philosophy and gradually entered into Judaism in the century before Christ. Some of the books of the Apocrypha, as well as such extrabiblical writings as the book of Enoch, provide a glimpse of these ideas. This is where the Pharisees and Sadducees and other Jewish sects got their ideas that were common at the time of Christ. The same Greek philosophical concepts crept into the Christian Church eventually, but not right away. The New Testament is in agreement with the Hebrew concept, and there are also early church writings, before the Apologists, which indicate an awareness of the wrong doctrine and a condemnation of it.

Justin Martyr (c. 110-165), From “Dialogues with Trypho”, Anti-Nicene Fathers:
For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians . . . But I and others who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead.

Irenaeus (c. 120-202), From “Against the Heresies”, Anti-Nicene Fathers:
Some who are reckoned among the orthodox go beyond the pre-arranged plan for the exaltation of the just . . . they thus entertain heretical opinions. For the heretics . . . affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above the heavens . . . Those persons, therefore, who disallow a resurrection affecting the whole man and as far as in them lies remove it from the midst of the Christian scheme . . . know nothing as to the plan of the resurrection. For they do not choose to under stand, that if these things are as they say, the Lord Himself, in whom they profess to believe, did not rise again on the third day; but immediately upon His expiring on the cross, undoubtedly departed on high, leaving His body to earth. But the case was, that for three days He dwelt in the place where the dead were . . .’as Jonas remained three days and three nights in the whale’s belly so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.’ Then also the apostle says, ‘But when He ascended, what is it but that He descended into the lower parts of the earth?’ This, too, David says when prophesying of Him, ‘And thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell;’ and on His rising again the third day, He said to Mary . . . ‘Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to the Father’ . . .how must these men not be put to confusion, who allege that their inner man, leaving the body here, ascends into the super-celestial place?
Inasmuch, therefore as the opinions of certain [orthodox persons] are derived from heretical discourses, they are both ignorant of God’s dispensations, and of the mystery of the resurrection of the just, and of the [earthly] kingdom which is the commencement of incorruption, by means of which kingdom those who shall be worthy are accustomed gradually to partake of the divine nature.

From the article, “Death” in the Encyclopedia Britannica:
Among early Christians, delay in the promised Second Coming of Christ led to an increasing preoccupation with what happened to the dead as they awaited the resurrection and the Last Judgment. One view was that there would be an immediate individual judgment and that instant justice would follow: the deceased would be dispatched forthwith to hell or paradise. This notion demeaned the impact of the great prophecy of a collective mass resurrection.

The idea of an immortal soul is derived from Greek philosophy, and is foreign to the Bible.  In the next section, we will look at common “proof texts” used to prove the dead are alive in heaven.
To Be Continued…