56. Life After Death? Of Course!

Unscriptural Promises

The souls of people who have died physically, do not sleep until the resurrection; they simply have not gone to their eternal home yet.  This stage is sometimes called "The Intermediate State". 

About the idea that you go to heaven when you die William Tyndale wrote, By putting them (the souls of the departed dead) in Heaven, hell or purgatory (at the time of death), you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul doth (s/b both) prove the resurrection...and again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there for their resurrection?

What goes by the name of resurrection in many churches today is ... bearing the marks of the Gnostic infiltration into the original faith. Popular belief, sustained by funeral sermons and indoctrination from early childhood, sees the dead as already fully alive in heaven as disembodied souls, an idea which, as so many competent scholars of all denominations have pointed out, would be both repugnant and unintelligible to the Hebrew writers of the New Testament. ... The aim of the traditional teaching is, no doubt, to comfort the bereaved with the belief that the departed are not really dead, but it has had the devastating effect of relegating the future resurrection of the dead (as well as the whole New Testament scheme of the future) to a redundant appendage tagged on to the end of the creed. 
The Coming Kingdom of the Messiah by Sir Anthony F. Buzzard.

In Greek Orthodox Church theology the soul waits in the abode of the dead until the resurrection of the dead, the saved resting in light and the damned suffering in darkness. According to James Tabor this Eastern Orthodox picture of particular judgment is similar to the 1st-century Jewish and early Christian concept that the dead either "rest in peace" in the Bosom of Abraham or suffer in Hades. Wikipedia  

If the apostles of Christ accepted and taught that doctrine, how is it that the post-reformation church rejects it; unless it is for the modern church’s need for false comfort messages?

Carefully Chosen Texts

Mr Martin, author of The Truth About Seventh Day Adventism writes, students of the Word of God... recognize that in any study of the doctrines of eternal life and immortality it is vitally essential to...(compare all texts on a given subject).  Still, common practice, even by Mr Martin, is to use only those portions which are easily interpreted, so that they add weight to the teacher's point of view.  He then, mistakenly, to show the error of Seventh Day Adventist doctrines, chooses five portions of scripture to prove that souls go to their eternal home at death.

We will look at the scriptures he chose, and, I might add, if these are the best arguments there are in the Bible for his point of view, his arguments stand on shaky ground.

1. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live”. John 11:25. Mr Martin writes, (these) words must refer to that particular occasion (Lazarus’ death). To teach that the end of the age is primarily in view…is a violation of the grammar and context.

Certainly, the situation was Lazarus’ death, but Christ's statement was not limited to Lazarus, he said, He, anyone, not only Lazarus.  

Notice that there is room for a distinct time lapse between the words though he may die and he shall live because the word shall is definitely a future tense word.  The time lapse involved very well could account for the period of time after death but before the resurrection. Jesus did not say that souls resurrection would happen immediately after death.

2. God's grace ... has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, For this reason, I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. 2 Tim. 1:9+10+12.

To quote Mr Martin again, In this verse life and immortality are clearly distinguished. Life has been bestowed upon the believer at the moment of regeneration by faith in Jesus Christ; immortality is a future gift, to be bestowed upon the believer’s body at the Second Advent of our Lord.

According to Mr Martin, Paul wrote that in the present tense, Christ has given us life but that in the future tense he will bestow immortality on us.  This is a good argument, however, the point when that future tense becomes effective might come after a period of waiting and not at the time of death.  Therefore, his argument really carries no weight at all!

There is another point in verse 12, a point that Mr Martin does not address.  Paul wrote; He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.  The term that day is also future tense but Paul does not specify whether that day pertains to the day of his death or the day of Christ’s appearing, which might well be after an unspecified length of time, in the interim between physical death and the resurrection.

We will continue this in the next post.

55. Martyrs Are Kept Waiting

Christ In Prison

When the penitent thief, on the cross, asked Christ to remember him, Christ said, Today you will be with me in Paradise. Luke 23:43.  By common usage, neither the Jews nor the Greeks of Christ’s time would have understood Christ to have meant heaven.  

The Bible says that immediately after His death, Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison (Hades).  For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit; in which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison. 1 Peter 3:18-19.

For to this end the gospel was preached also to the dead. 1 Peter 4:6.  Both of these Bible verses tell us that souls do not go to heaven as soon as they leave their bodies.  So, if Christ spent some time in the underworld (in prison), how could the penitent thief have joined him that day in heaven?  

Christ, himself, did not go to heaven until just before Pentecost, and that was after He had preached to the souls in prison.  

If all the people that die go to their eternal reward immediately, to whom was Christ preaching in prison?

This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40.  Christ, very clearly says that those that His Father has given to Him will be raised up at the last day and not at the time that they die.  

Oh, how the churches love to comfort their people, and they do it at the expense of honesty.

The Martyrs for Christ

these men of faith, though they trusted God and won his approval, none of them received all that God had promised them; for God wanted them to wait and share the even better rewards that were prepared for us. Heb. 11:39-40 TLB. The author of Hebrews is writing about the great men of the Old Testament; men like Abraham, Moses, Joshua and many others, and he tells us that they have not yet received the better rewards, they will have to wait till we get there.

I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain … and they cried…How long, O Lord… until You judge and avenge our blood…and it was said to them that they should rest a little longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed. The Rev. 6:9-11.

These martyrs are obviously not in heaven; they are waiting for their resurrection.  As souls in prison, they are praying, how much longer do we have to wait.  If the martyrs need to wait in the intermediate state, how much more those of us who probably would not become martyrs even if we were given the chance.  No, they were told to wait until the last martyr had been slain before they would be resurrected.

Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgement … They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over. This is the first resurrection. The Rev. 20:4-5.  

Saint John is clearly telling us that those who rule with Christ for one thousand years were partakers of the first resurrection which happens before the thousand year reign of peace starts.  He does not say they went to heaven as soon as they were martyred but rather that all the martyrs were raised at the same time in the same resurrection; the first resurrection.  

They did not go to heaven when they died.

Next I saw a large white throne and the one who was sitting on it. … I saw the dead, ... standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. … The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades gave up their dead. All the dead were judged according to their deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the pool of fire. (This pool of fire is the second death). The Rev.20:11-14 TAB.

These verses, once and for all, clinch the matter against the argument that you go to heaven when you die.  The futuristic scene is set for the final judgment; the Judge is sitting on the throne and those who had been dead, stand before the throne waiting for their judgment; according to what they had done in their life.  

Then John tells us who the ones are that are standing there.  He said those that had died at sea and those that had been buried in graves were judged.  The dead had been raised to be judged, and because death and the grave were finally empty, those two "items" could finally be thrown into the lake of fire. 

It is worth noticing that no person is rewarded or sent to punishment before they are judged and the judgement does not happen until after the thousand years of peace on earth; whether or not those are literally one thousand years seems immaterial.  Therefore, all people who die (except martyrs) stay in Paradise or Hades until the second resurrection. Martyrs constitute the first resurrection.

In 20:5 Saint John ties it all together with these words; the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over.  With these words so clearly stated, where did the church ever get the idea that we go to heaven as soon as we die?  

If we were to go to heaven at death we would not even need to face the judgement seat of Christ; the book of Hebrews plainly says, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. Heb. 9:27. 

If we were to go to heaven at death we would be there before the book of judgement was opened and that would mean that the keeping of the records, in heaven, had been futile. 

It is interesting to note the warning sounded by Justin Martyr about 150 AD: 

“For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christian, but ... who say ... their souls when they die are taken to heaven: Do not imagine that they are Christians” (Dialogue with Trypho) The Coming Kingdom of the Messiah by Sir Anthony F. Buzzard.

54. You Are Not Going to Heaven When You Die!

Hold On A Moment

Those of us who have grown up with the erroneous teaching that we go to heaven when we die, have a lot of trouble seeing it any other way; to us, it seems obvious that when you die you go to heaven.  

In fact, it seems so obvious that Bible teachers have even changed what the Bible says about it to make their theology fit that which seems so obvious.  To be sure, people who believe that when you die you go to heaven can find biblical texts that seem to support their claim.  In the next few posts, we will look at some scripture verses that do not allow that teaching.

The viewpoint presented here is that righteous people do not go to heaven at death but to "Abraham's bosom", or "Paradise", and that the unrighteous go to Hades at death; Hades must not be confused with a place of eternal torment.  Each will stay there until everyone stands at the judgement seat of Christ, where each one will be judged according to their lifestyle.

But as early as the second century A.D. there began a shift in the centre of gravity which was to lead by the Middle Ages to a very different doctrine.  Whereas in primitive Christian thinking the moment of the individual’s decease was entirely subordinated to the great day of the Lord and the final judgment, in later thought it is the hour of death which becomes decisive. 
In the End God, by John Robinson; taken from What Happens When We Die? by Anthony F. Buzzard.

Biblical Evidence

The following biblical story makes it clear that, according to the Bible, people do not go to heaven or "hell" at death.

Samuel was dead. 1 Sam. 28:3.  The woman (a medium) said to Saul, I saw gods coming up out of the earth. And he (King Saul) said to her, What is his form? And she said, An old man comes up, and he is covered with a cloak. And Saul saw that it was Samuel. ... Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up? ... And Samuel said, ... Jehovah has left you and has become your enemy.  And tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. 1 Sam. 28:14-19

This incident in the life of King Saul introduces a few very pertinent theological issues.   The Law of Moses distinctly forbids Jehovah's followers to have anything to do with the occult or mediums. 
see: Lev.19:31; Lev.20:27; Deut.18:10.

That, however, is not where I am going now.   The issue here is that preachers are falsely telling us that when we die we immediately "go to be with Jesus". 

In a seance, Samuel, after he was dead, said to Saul, "Why did you bring me up?  The medium saw him coming up out of the earth.   He did not come down from heaven, which he would have needed to do if saints go to heaven when they die.  

He also said to Saul, Jehovah has left you and has become your enemy, and yet he said, tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.  Jehovah's enemies do not end up in heaven. This shows that Samuel, though he was dead, had not yet gone to heaven.  Saul, just like Samuel, must wait for the judgement day.

Here are some more verses that show that we do not go to heaven at our death, as many Bible teachers so comfortingly, and falsely, tell us.

The angel Gabriel said to Daniel, But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days. Dan. 12:13.  If Daniel, a man greatly beloved, Dan. 10:11, must wait until the end of the days for his inheritance, how is it logical that we will get our inheritance immediately at our death?

When Christ told the story of the rich man, Dives, and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31 he did not say that Lazarus went to heaven, he said that Lazarus went to Abraham’s bosom.  Neither did He say that the rich men went to the lake of fire; He said that the rich man went to Hades (hell).  

From biblical studies, we know that "hell" is not the lake of fire; it is a word that can be interchanged with the word "death". Mr Thiessen, PhD; D.D. in Systematic Theology writes this about Hades and death, these two words are by common consent held to be exact equivalents.

In The Revelation, 20:14, we read that then Death and Hades (hell) were cast into the lake of fire.  Therefore, if we agree that Lazarus and the rich man are not in heaven and in the lake of fire, we have holy, written evidence that they are in a "waiting area" until the resurrection.

Dives, (the rich man), asked Abraham to send someone from the dead to speak to his brothers. Abraham did not say, there are no dead people here, they have all gone to heaven.  He said, even if we send someone from here your brothers would not listen to him anyway.  

Mr Thiessen continues, Dives and Lazarus were conscious in Hades. They could think, talk, remember, feel and care.  Because this is true, we cannot believe that the dead (Christian and non-Christian) are in an unconscious state now, which is what the term "soul sleep" teaches.

In the next post, we will continue by looking at more scripture verses that tell us that we are not going to heaven immediately after our death.

53. Inhumane War Acts

A Matter of Perspective

Those of us who have been taught that the Bible is "word perfect" seem to have a problem believing that the writers of the Bible inserted their own ideas, even though the ideas seemed noble to the writer.  

Because some cannot accept the idea that the writers expressed their own ideas have come up with the notion that the Old Testament God is not the same God that we read about in the New Testament.  The problem is not that there are two different main Gods in the Bible.  

The misunderstanding stems from the fact that the Old Testament writers were followers of the merciless laws of Moses and the writers expressed the ideas they grew up with and the New Testament writers who were students of Christ, and they expressed those thoughts which Christ had taught them, for example: But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. Mat. 5:39. 

The problem arises when we believe that every saying that is attributed to God actually came from God.  Here is a statement made a few posts ago, "When things turn out negatively, perhaps the Lord will not be blamed for giving bad advice, the results may be attributed to the nation's, or an individual's, sin.  Often in the Bible, as we already noticed in the Books of Moses, when human ideas turned out well for the Israelites, the Lord gets the credit for the idea, even though it was a human's idea." 

The laws of Moses distinctly forbade mistreatment of animals, how then can we believe that Jehovah would suggest that the horses, in that story of a few weeks ago, (Joshua 11), should have their leg muscles severed? But the Lord said to Joshua, ... You shall hamstring their horses. Joshua 11:6.  According to Moses, the stern law-giver, this idea came not from Jehovah but, much more likely from an army leader who had knowledge of that horrid practice.

Now, we come to a much more inhumane story: a story, the likes of which repeats itself a number of times in the Old Testament.  According to the way that the Bible is written these atrocities were committed at the bidding of Jehovah!  However, it is much easier to believe that the ideas came from some overzealous "war captain".

And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, ... you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon.’...And we utterly destroyed them, ... utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. Deut. 3:2+6.  This sounds more like human army captain boasting than it does like divine instructions.

It is a given that when soldiers go to war they will kill or be killed.  When an army attacks, kills, or in other ways destroys the non-combatants: men, women and children of the opposing country, it is classified as war crimes.  It is atrocious and inhumane.  It is what humans do; it is not Jehovah's way.

For the next story of this kind, in the Bible, we need to have a bit of history first. 

The end of the era of the judges happened when Samuel anointed Saul to be king of Israel.

The Amalekites attacked Israel while Israel was on its way from Egypt to the promised land. If, as said earlier, the Book of Judges covers 400 years, after which Eli judged Israel 40 years, and now when Samuel, the next, and last judge of Israel, is old he makes the following statement to King Saul.  

Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. 1 Sam. 15:1–3.  Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. 1 Sam. 15:33–34.  This is about 500 years after the Amalekites fought Israel in the wilderness.  Samuel and the Israelites really carry a grudge that long?   The human approach is if you think you can win, then, by all means, start a war.

At another point in the history of Israel we find this statement: And he (Saul and his army) struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and babes, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword. 1 Sam. 22:19.  Let us not attribute this kind of activity to Jehovah.

Stories like this just make us wish that Jesus would hurry and come back and set up His kingdom of peace!  Then there will be no more atrocities like these.