Chapter Ten – What Happens After Death?

Next Part The Resurrection of the Dead

Back to The Awesome Potential of Man

Is this life all that there is? Many religions profess to know what happens at death. Yet they do not agree. Why such confusion about the AFTERLIFE? Why such mystery—such disagreement?

This question of life after death has perplexed mankind throughout the ages. Remember, thousands of years ago, Job asked, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). This question remains today.

Most professing Christians believe that they possess an immortal soul. They have been taught that the dead go to either heaven or hell. Most ministers, evangelists, and religionists freely speak of “when we all get to heaven.” They declare this to be the Bible’s teaching. But is this true?

We must not assume. Remember once again, Jesus said, “In VAIN do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men” (Mark 7:7-8). Men have their own ideas, invariably based on Bible assumptions. If the Bible is the Word of God, we must examine what it actually says, not what people say it says. Be willing to set aside cherished traditions and replace them with clear Scripture.

Then be willing to believe God, not men.

Before answering the question “Is there life after death?”, let’s examine what happens at the precise moment of death. When Job asked, “shall he live again?”, what did he mean “again”? If the dead are really permanently alive anyway, how can they live AGAIN?

We must understand!

The Wages of Sin

If you hold a job, you receive regular pay checks. They represent wages paid to you for work done. What about God? Does He ever pay wages? Romans 6:23 stated, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Here, eternal life is contrasted to DEATH—PERISHING! The wages of sin is death, not life. We will see that this understanding is not compatible with eternal torture in hell.

There is no mystery about the meaning of wages that an employer pays an employee for his work. Why should there be confusion over the meaning of wages God pays a sinner for his works? He pays the wicked a pay check of death—not life in a place of torment. The Bible says what it means and means what it says.

Let’s return to John 3:16 and reconsider it in another context! Sadly, this most familiar and often-quoted verse is understood by almost no one. Notice: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Millions quote this verse but ignore one of its most obvious points.

Reread it. Notice that it exactly mirrors Romans 6:23! This time, eternal life is contrasted to PERISHING—DEATH. The Greek word translated perish is apollumi and it means, “to destroy fully, to die, lose, perish.” There is no doubt what these words mean. “Perishable” items, such as fruits and vegetables, are those that rot—until they are “fully destroyed” or “lost.” This is not hard to understand when we are talking about anything other than a human being. Those who receive salvation are promised that they “should not perish” but “have everlasting life”! If hell is a place of eternal torture, then the people suffering there have eternal LIFE. But the verse says, “should not perish,” not “should not suffer eternal life in torment.”

How does the word perish relate to the popular teaching about hell? Why did God inspire John to use this word if this is not what He really intended?

Souls to Be Destroyed

The idea of an ever-burning hell is inseparable from the idea that all human beings have immortal souls. Is this what God says? Again, the answer is an emphatic NO!

It is important to review a moment as an introduction to vital understanding. Genesis 2:7 showed that man is a soul and does not have one. God told Adam and Eve they would “die” if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Ezekiel said (twice) that “the soul that sins, it shall die.” Matthew said that God can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. 10:28).

We saw what the prophet Malachi wrote about the final state of the wicked who have been destroyed in hell: “For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts” (Mal. 4:1-3). Obadiah 16 amplified this with “… and they shall be as though they had not been.”

The dead will be so completely “dead and gone” that it will be as though they had never existed. Surely, if they were roasting in hell forever with millions of others, and other millions “in heaven” witnessing it, this verse could hardly apply.

Are the Dead Conscious?

What about the precise moment of death? Exactly what happens when one dies?

Human minds are differentiated from animal brains by intelligent thought. Presumably, if the dead are not dead, but are really still alive, then they must be capable of some kind of intelligent thought. They must at least be conscious of their surroundings. Let’s consider a series of scriptures.

First, notice Psalm 146:3-4: “Put not your trust … in the son of man.… His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” When people die, their thoughts end immediately—“in that very day.” That is what your Bible says.

This verse is also not compatible with the idea that the dead are either alive in heaven or consciously suffering in a place of torment. We could suppose that, if they were enjoying salvation, they would certainly know that they were! We could also suppose that if they were suffering, they would know that they were. Could the tormented somehow be unaware that they were suffering?

Ask yourself: what would be the point of their suffering, or of their enjoyment of salvation, if they could not know of it? Death (actually life?!) in hell would have to be as though they were in a coma—completely unaware of what is going on around them—while their sensory nervous system is feeling the excruciatingly painful sensation of burning. How would this work?

Use the following analogy. Before someone undergoes major surgery, he is anesthetized—rendered unconscious—so that he will not experience pain. Medical doctors understand this—why don’t theologians and religionists? Why do they deny the plain statements of the Bible?

Some willingly ignore the message of scripture. They allege that only “mortal” thoughts perish, in the sense that the dead leave this earthly realm and experience some mysterious, different, new kind of “thought.” Of course, this is ridiculous, and the Bible does not say it, but we ought to at least examine the idea.

Let’s now consider an even more direct verse: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything …” (Ec. 9:5). An honest reader cannot misunderstand this! Anything means anything!

Solomon also recorded, “For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; yes, they have all one breath; so that a man has no pre-eminence above a beast.… All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ec. 3:19-20).

Now consider Psalm 115:17: “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.” Death means “silence.” This certainly does not square with the popular concepts of millions of the dead wailing and screaming in agony—or immediately receiving eternal life in heaven or anywhere else with millions of others supposedly conversing, singing, playing harps, and praising God. Neither scene could possibly be described as SILENCE!

Psalm 6:5 further explains that the dead do not experience conscious memory. Notice: “For in death there is no remembrance of You: in the grave who shall give You thanks?” (Ps. 6:5). Could anyone seriously suggest that the dead, suffering in hell, could experience the normal range of human memories, but not be aware of God—not be able to “remember” Him? Would God put people in “hell” and then leave them there to suffer, forever wondering how it was that they got there—WHO it was that put them there—because they have no “remembrance” of anything related to GOD? We could ask: but how many even know of this passage?

Applying the same question to those who received salvation is even more ridiculous. Could people somehow “roll around heaven all day” and be unaware that they were in the presence of God or of even who He was?

No! When people die, they are DEAD!

So far, we have not explained everything about life after death, but we know that further life does not immediately occur at death! We have established that when a person dies, he is dead! But then what happens?

Next Part The Resurrection of the Dead

Back to The Awesome Potential of Man

Back to By David C. Pack