What Happens When We Die?

Two competing answers stand in front of the willing reader. The first, by far the more popular in modern Christianity, is that the human being is composed of a mortal body and an immortal soul, and that the soul at death goes immediately either to bliss or to torment. The second, taught plainly by the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, is that the human being IS a living soul; that death is the unmaking of that soul into the dust and the breath from which it was formed; that the dead know not any thing and rest in unconscious sleep; and that the hope of the believer is the resurrection at the personal return of Christ. The two answers are incompatible. The first opens a doorway through which the closing-hour deception walks. The second closes the doorway. This lesson walks the case Scripture itself makes, and lets the reader settle the matter on the documents.

For the deeper treatment of how this question intersects the closing crisis, see the library articles UFOs and the Spirits of Devils and The Spirits of Devils and the Closing Crisis. This lesson stays compact and biblical.

Answer

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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.

The first warning God ever gave to the human race named the consequence of sin in one Hebrew phrase: moth tamuth — dying thou shalt die. The penalty was death, not relocation. It was the unmaking of the human being God had made, not the migration of an immortal part of that being to a different residence. Read the warning as it stands, and the popular doctrine collapses before the lesson begins: the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), not survival in an altered condition.

Answer

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

Set the two statements side by side. God: thou shalt surely die. The serpent: ye shall not surely die. The very first lie spoken on this planet contradicted God’s statement about the consequence of sin — and every later doctrine that asserts the conscious survival of the human being beyond death is a restatement of the same contradiction. The doctrine of the immortal soul is not, in its origin, a Christian doctrine at all. It is the Edenic lie carried through the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Platonic mystery traditions, baptised into the church during the post-apostolic Hellenisation of Christian doctrine, and held up to this hour as the foundation on which spiritualism, necromancy, and the closing-crisis deception will be built.

Answer

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The biblical account of the human being is composed of two ingredients and one result. The two ingredients are dust and breath. The result is a living soul. Man does not have a soul in the Hebrew text. Man became a soul. The Hebrew word is nephesh, the Greek of the New Testament is psuche, and both words denote the living, breathing creature, not a detachable immortal entity housed inside it.

That the same word is used of animal life in Scripture settles the matter beyond plausible dispute. Genesis 1:20–21 and 1:24 describe the sea creatures, the birds, and the beasts of the field as creatures with nephesh chayah — living souls. Ecclesiastes 3:19–21 names man and beast as having all one breath, all going to one place, all turning again to dust. The biblical soul is the living creature, not an immortal passenger inside the creature.

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die… The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Twice in the same chapter the prophet Ezekiel records the Lord’s own declaration: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. If the soul were by nature immortal, the statement would be a contradiction in terms. It is not a contradiction. The biblical soul is mortal. Only God has immortality in His own nature (1 Tim 6:16), and the immortality of the believer is something Christ confers at the resurrection (1 Cor 15:53–54), not something the creature possesses by right of birth.

Answer

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

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

If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

The biblical account of death is precisely the reverse of the biblical account of creation. At creation, God formed the body from dust and breathed in the breath of life; the two together became a living soul. At death, the dust returns to the dust, and the breath returns to the God who gave it. The spirit of Eccl 12:7 is the Hebrew ruach — the same breath of life given at creation, used of beasts in Ecclesiastes 3, of God’s own animating principle throughout the Old Testament. It is not a conscious passenger ascending to a separate residence. It is the gift of life returning to its Giver, leaving the person at rest in the grave until the resurrection.

The plain mathematics of the biblical doctrine: dust plus breath equals living soul, at creation. Living soul minus breath equals dust again, at death. The person who was formed by the joining of the two ingredients ceases when the two ingredients are separated. There is no third immortal ingredient. There never was.

Answer

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. 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… 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.

The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.

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

His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

Five witnesses, three biblical authors, one consistent testimony. The dead know not any thing. The dead do not love, hate, envy, devise, work, know, or worship. The dead do not perceive what happens to their own sons. The dead praise not the Lord. The dead are silent. The biblical word for the residence of the dead is the same word every time: sheol in Hebrew, hades in Greek — the grave, the place of the unconscious dead, not a conscious afterlife either of bliss or torment.

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.

Daniel names the condition of the dead in one image: them that sleep in the dust of the earth. Not the living above the dust, not the conscious within the dust, but the sleeping in the dust, awaiting the awakening voice at the resurrection. The image is consistent from Daniel to Christ to Paul, and the next question will demonstrate it.

Answer

These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Christ is teaching the disciples the biblical doctrine of death in the plainest possible terms. He calls death sleep. The disciples mishear Him and assume He means ordinary rest, at which point Christ restates the same teaching in the unmistakable word: Lazarus is dead. Christ does not say, Lazarus is now in paradise. He does not say, Lazarus and I are speaking even now, and he reports that the rest of the saints are well. He says Lazarus sleepeth — and goes to awake him out of sleep.

Then, at the tomb, Christ speaks the word that opens the whole biblical hope — in His own voice, claiming the divine prerogative of life itself:

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Christ does not say, I will lead you to where Lazarus already is. He says, I am the resurrection — the One in whom the awakening occurs — and the life — the One in whom life itself subsists. He then walks to the grave, calls Lazarus by name, and Lazarus comes forth (Jn 11:43–44). Lazarus does not return from heaven. He does not describe the bliss of the saints in glory. He does not bring tidings from the conscious dead. He comes out of the grave, where he had been four days asleep, because the voice of the Lifegiver has called him out.

The apostles, taught by Christ Himself, use the same vocabulary throughout the New Testament. Stephen, stoned for his testimony, fell asleep (Acts 7:60). Paul speaks of the believers at Corinth, some of whom had died, as asleep (1 Cor 11:30; 1 Cor 15:6, 18, 20). David, the man after God’s own heart, is described by Peter at Pentecost as both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day, and Peter adds explicitly: For David is not ascended into the heavens (Acts 2:29, 34). David is asleep until the resurrection. The biblical case is consistent from Genesis to Acts to the Epistles.

Answer

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him… 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: 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.

The biblical hope is the resurrection at Christ’s personal return, and the timing could not be plainer. The dead in Christ are asleep until the descent of the Lord from heaven. The trump of God wakes them. They rise first. The living believers are caught up together with them. There is no moment in this passage at which the dead are conscious in a separate residence; there is no moment at which the living are caught up to join saints already in glory. The sleeping dead are awakened, and the awakened dead and the living are caught up together. The hope is one hope, and it has one moment, and the moment is the visible coming of Christ.

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Paul names the moment immortality is conferred on the believer: at the last trump. The mortal puts on immortality at the resurrection, not at the moment of death. If the believer were already immortal by nature of an immortal soul, Paul’s statement would be meaningless — the believer could not put on immortality because the believer would already have it. Paul’s gospel is the opposite of the popular doctrine: the believer puts on immortality at the resurrection, and the resurrection is at the personal return of Christ.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 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.

Christ Himself names the location of all the dead: in the graves. He names the moment of their awakening: the hour is coming. He names the means of their awakening: his voice. And He names two resurrections — not one general migration of souls already conscious, but two distinct awakenings of those asleep in the dust: the resurrection of life for the righteous, and the resurrection of damnation for the wicked. The detailed timing of the two resurrections, with the millennium between them, belongs to Lessons 10 and 16. For Lesson 9 the point is simply this: the hope of the believer is the awakening voice of Christ at His return, and not a moment before.

Answer

Six texts are most commonly brought forward in defence of the immortal-soul doctrine. Each one is answered, in its own context, by Scripture itself. The willing reader who has been taught the popular doctrine deserves the bridges crossed honestly, and the institute does not skip them:

Six texts, six contexts, one consistent reading. The proof-text apparatus on which the immortal-soul doctrine rests, examined in the light of Scripture’s own explanations of itself, does not support what it has been made to carry. The plain testimony of the rest of Scripture stands undisturbed: the dead are asleep until the resurrection.

Answer

When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord.

Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Scripture forbids every form of communication with the dead absolutely — necromancy, mediumship, familiar spirits, channelling under any name. The logic of the prohibition is the logic of the doctrine: the dead are not there to be consulted. Any voice claiming to be the dead is, by Scripture’s own account, something else. Isaiah’s rhetorical question is decisive: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? — the living do not consult the dead; the living consult the living God.

The single passage in the Hebrew Scriptures most often cited against this doctrine is the witch of Endor episode in 1 Samuel 28. Saul, having forfeited every legitimate channel of divine guidance, turns in defiance to a medium the Lord had earlier commanded him to remove from the land. The woman sees what the woman has practised seeing — in her own report, gods ascending out of the earth (1 Sam 28:13). The figure prophesies Saul’s death the following day, a prophecy a fallen spirit acquainted with Saul’s rebellion and Israel’s military position could readily anticipate. Samuel himself, the Hebrew prophet, had died and been buried at Ramah (1 Sam 25:1), and is elsewhere described among those who sleep until the resurrection.

It was not God’s holy prophet that came forth at the spell of a sorcerer’s incantation. Samuel was not present in that haunt of evil spirits. The supernatural appearance was produced solely by the power of Satan… It was an evil spirit that personated the holy prophet, as Satan himself counterfeits Christ.

The pastoral application is direct. Every voice in the modern world that claims to be a deceased loved one, a departed saint, an ascended master, a medium-channelled ancestor, a near-death-experience report of conscious life beyond the grave — every one of them, on the biblical doctrine, is not what it claims to be. The Bible has told the believer in advance what is on the other end of that line:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.

Answer

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

The closing-hour deception will not be subtle. Scripture names it as a global manifestation of spirits of devils, working miracles, going forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world. The doorway through which the manifestation will walk is the doorway the immortal-soul doctrine has held open for sixteen centuries of post-apostolic Christianity. If the dead are conscious, every voice claiming to be the dead is plausible. If the dead are asleep, every voice claiming to be the dead is unmasked at the moment of the claim.

The contemporary forms of the deception are already widespread. Spiritism and mediumship under their classical names. Near-death-experience literature in which souls report tours of heaven or hell and return with messages for the living. Apparitions of deceased loved ones, deceased saints (in the Marian apparitions especially), and deceased religious figures. The fast-growing alien-contact and abduction literature, in which contactees report encounters with departed family members, with ascended masters claiming benevolent guidance for the human race, and with intelligences whose theological content is uniformly anti-biblical. Scripture has named the source of all of it in advance: spirits of devils, working miracles. The believer grounded in the biblical doctrine of the sleep of the dead reads every such report through one filter: the dead are not there to be speaking.

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.

For the detailed treatment of how the spiritualist deception interlocks with the closing crisis, see the library articles UFOs and the Spirits of Devils and The Spirits of Devils and the Closing Crisis. For Lesson 9 the application is simple. The doorway through which the closing-hour deception will walk is the doorway the immortal-soul doctrine has held open. The biblical doctrine of the sleep of the dead, recovered and held with quiet conviction, closes the doorway and immunises the believer against the entire family of deceptions Scripture has predicted.

Personal response

The biblical doctrine of the state of the dead is, on first hearing, less spectacular than the doctrine it replaces. It does not promise that a departed loved one is looking down from a balcony in glory. It promises something better: that the loved one who sleeps in Christ will be awakened by the voice of Christ at the resurrection, embodied and recognisable, restored to the family in the kingdom forever. The believer who has received this doctrine has not lost a comfort — the believer has exchanged a false comfort for a true one, and the true one is anchored in the unbreakable word of God Himself.

Father in heaven, the only true God and the giver of life, thank You for the plainness of Your word on this question. I have heard Your first warning, and the serpent’s first lie. I have seen the soul that sinneth die, the dust that returns to the earth, the breath that returns to You. I have seen the sleep of the dead and the awakening voice of Your Son. Where my tradition has taught me otherwise, give me grace to receive what You have spoken. Anchor my hope, and my grief, on the resurrection at the coming of Christ. Shut the door against every voice that claims to be the dead. In the name of the Resurrection and the Life, Your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

From the state of the dead, the next lesson asks the next question: will hell burn forever? The popular doctrine of eternal conscious torment misrepresents both the justice and the love of the God Christ revealed. Scripture’s settlement is the destruction of sin, sinners, and death itself in the lake of fire — final, complete, and the end of evil rather than its perpetuation. Lesson 10 walks the case.