Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts
Richard Vaughn

Today: Are the Dead Really Dead? Part 2
Last week we showed from God’s Word that at death, the body returns to the dust (grave) and the spirit (breath of life) returns to God who gave it. And that the idea of an immortal soul was the first lie told to the human race by Satan. But it is indeed strange how Christians have perpetuated this lie for so many centuries, which came into Christianity from Paganism. Common sense should tell us that if all the departed souls were in heaven, what would be the purpose of Jesus to come back to resurrect them? And please don’t say that we have to come back and get in the grave so we can come out with a body. There are NO disembodied souls floating around in heaven. 
It’s time to expose this lie in the light of scriptures. Question: How much does one know or comprehend at death? Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 “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.” And in Psalm 115:17 “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.” So you see, the dearly departed are not in heaven singing in the choir praising Jesus. God says the dead know absolutely nothing. They were mortals who died and have no conscious state. But if they are among the redeemed, they will come up in the resurrection, as we read last week in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, and then put on immortality. On resurrection day they can begin again, praising Jesus for eternity. 
Question: But can’t the dead communicate with the living and aren’t they aware of what the living are doing? The answer is in Job 14:12,21. “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” “His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” The dead have no awareness of graveside visits or what is going on in a living relative’s life. Ecclesiastes 9:6 “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.” Friend when you pray, you talk to God. But when you read the Bible you read the mind of God and He talks to you. You may say that this does not fit with what I have been taught or feel, therefore I cannot accept it. The bible is like a two-edged sword and the truth cuts. We need to accept the truth from His Word, or we must throw out the Bibles. God never meant His Word to be cafeteria style, choosing what pleases us. The fact is the dead have no conscious thoughts. Psalm 146:4. “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” 
Jesus called death “SLEEP”. John 11:11-14. “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.”  
Question: How long will the dead sleep? “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” The heavens have not passed away yet, but that will happen one day according to 2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise…” Question: What happens to the righteous dead ath the second coming of Jesus? Revelation 22:12 “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Judgment ended with the declaration from heaven in Rev. 22:11. So when Jesus comes He then gives eternal life to the saved and the lost receive their reward. No one, except for Enoch, Elijah, Moses and the specially resurrected ones at Jesus’ resurrection, gets a reward until the heavenly judgment has concluded and Jesus brings that reward at His second coming. Is that clear? Now read 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 “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.” And 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 “Behold, I show 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.  
Next Week: “Are the Dead Really Dead?” Part 3