From another thread:
Having looked at repentance and faith, as understood in the New Covenant Christian context of instruction concerning washings and laying on of hands (which have to do with cleansing and justification), let's look at the final two fundamental principles of the word of Christ: resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
The Bible (specifically the Old Testament scriptures) do not describe an "afterlife" as commonly believed by most people. Nowhere do the "oracles of God" (the apostolic term for the OT Bible) teach that dead people continue in a conscious, disembodied state after death. In fact, the Scriptures which speak directly to the subject tell a very different story, that the dead do not have consciousness and are not active. Death is spoken of as "sleep", because the person is inactive and unaware. It is not the body which is said to sleep, but the person. This is a key point to remember.
Ecclesiastes ch 9
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. 7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. 8 Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. 9 Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest 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.
This is a clear, unambiguous, straightforward description of the "after death state". The dead know nothing, their emotions and desires and passions cease to exist, they have nothing to do with anything going on in this life. In death, in the grave, activity ceases, plans cease, knowledge and wisdom cease. There is, in other words, no consciousness, no perception, and no activity.
Yet, the same author pointed out everyone would give account to God:
Ecclesiastes ch 12
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Everyone ought to obey God because God will judge every deed. This requires resurrection, since no activity occurs in the grave (except the dustifying of the body). Since this judgment does not befall all men in this life, it must occur at a future event. And since judgment implies conviction and testimony, it must occur outside of the grave.
And that requires people to be out of the grave at judgment.
Jesus correctly refuted the Sadducees and their error of not believing in a resurrection of the dead, when He pointed out that the Law states Jehovah is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since God is not God of the dead (since the dead know nothing nor do they do anything, including worship -
Psalm 115:17), but God of the living, it necessarily follows that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must come out of the grave and live yet again. Jesus' answer to the Sadducees presupposes that the dead are unconscious and not engaged in any activity including that of worship, thereby affirming the truth of resurrection.
That the dead would live again is expressed succinctly in Job, considered the oldest text in the Bible:
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 had an expectation that, even though the worms destroyed his body, even though his internal viscera (organs) were consumed, that is to say, even though his body decayed in the grave, yet he would one day see God, with his eyes. He asserts that in his flesh he would see God, whom he said would stand upon the earth in the latter day. This is a clear statement of an expectation of a future, bodily, physical resurrection. That even though the body rotted in the earth and returned to dust, yet somehow
in his flesh he would stand before God. This can only be possible if there was to be a resurrection of the dead, that included a resurrection of the body.
Psalm 16
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. 10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
David affirmed that his flesh would rest in hope. That is, his flesh body was not doomed to eternal destruction because of death. There was hope, not just for David's soul, but for his very flesh. The reason? Because he was confident that his soul would not remain in hell (Hades, or Sheol, that is, the grave). The soul would come out of the grave, and THIS is said to be the cause for his flesh resting in hope. In other words, the flesh was expected to live again precisely because the soul would not remain in the grave. The soul coming out of the grave is what would free the flesh from death. Or in other words, the flesh would rise when the soul came out of the grave.
What is the soul? Generally speaking, it is whole person:
Genesis 2
7 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 person is a living soul. It is a living soul because animating spirit has been joined to flesh. At death, the spirit departs from the flesh, and the person is no longer a living soul.
At resurrection, spirit and flesh are joined together once again, and the individual lives again, has consciousness, perception, can do things once more, activity resumes. This is another reason death is Biblically identified as "sleep", because of the resurrection. As a man lays down and goes unconscious, ceasing activity, in sleep, yet rises in the morning, awakened and conscious, so the person lies down in death, unconscious and inactive, until rising and awakening once more in resurrection.
The key here is to understand resurrection in a Christ-centered, New Covenant sense. Jesus is the life and resurrection, because He is the very life of God manifested in human nature. He is the firstborn from the dead, that is to say, He is the first person to experience the promised, looked forward to resurrection. Others had previously been restored to life, but those were resuscitations, not full blown resurrections. The idea expressed in the psalm, quoted earlier, is that once brought out of Hades, there is no expectation of ever going back. That is, death itself is defeated and the saint has no more to look forward to going back to the grave. The apostles understood the words of the psalm as a prophecy concerning Christ's resurrection. They also taught that as Christ is the new Adam (the new representative Head of mankind), all those in Christ would experience what He Himself experienced - resurrection into immortal life.
The wicked, however, have something different to look forward to, which we'll explore in the next post, as we look at the subject of eternal judgment.
Hybrid Mode
