7/24/05 - “Are the Dead Really Dead?” Part 1
Victory Ministries International presents:
Awesome Truths and Amazing Facts  
Treasures of awesome truths from God’s Word 
and facts that affect you!

Hello!  This is Richard Vaughn

Today we will begin a new series titled, “ARE THE DEAD REALLY DEAD” and today’s segment will be Part 1. Before we begin, let us seek God’s guidance, “Heavenly Father, today we are opening your word to discover another important truth where Satan has deceived the Christian world. Father, we ask you to help us to really understand the real truth as to what happens to a person when they die. Give us we pray the Holy Spirit so that we may increase our knowledge and understanding, as we ask in Jesus Name, Amen.”
Right now, I continue to keep my pledge, to cry aloud and spare not, to lift up my voice like a trumpet and to show God’s people where they are transgressing God’s law.

Today I am going to expose another deception that Jesus said would be prevalent in the last days. Over the last 12 weeks we have shown how Satan has deceived the Christian world into believing that Sunday, the day the Pagan world worshipped their false gods, found its way into the Christian church by way of the antichrist Papacy about 15 centuries ago. We studied that soon there will be a National Sunday law in this country, as apostate Protestant America will make an image to the beast. Religion and Government will unite and the wall of separation between church and state will be no more. Then, everyone will be brought to a decision, either to worship God by keeping His seventh day Sabbath and receive His seal and be saved, or to continue to cling to the counterfeit Sabbath, Sunday, and revive the mark of the beast. God has warned that those with the mark of the beast will receive His wrath as poured out in the seven last plagues and they will be lost. I said that most of you listening will reject this teaching and you will receive the mark of the beast when the National Sunday law is passed. How am I so sure? Because if you were really studying your Bibles and taking heed to God’s warnings, you would be honoring now God by keeping His seventh day Sabbath holy. But just like all the people in Noah’s day that stubbornly would not listen to God’s warning that could have saved their lives, and made the necessary changes, they died, almost saved.

Now today we will begin studying another great deception Jesus warned us will be in the last days. Almost all Sunday-keeping churches have been spreading this lie of Satan. In Gen. 3:1, when Eve was asked by the serpent, “hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” She replied in verse 3, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”  
In verse 4, “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.” Well friends since the fall of our first parents, man is a mortal being. Adam and Eve had conditional immortality based on their obedience to the simple test in Gen. 3:2,3. However, since the fall, Adam and every saved person since, with the exception of Enoch, Elijah, Moses, and those specially resurrected with Jesus, will not have a conscious state of immortality until the first resurrection. 
1 Corinthians 15:51-53  Listen carefully, “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.”  

Many today are taught that the soul goes straight to heaven or hell at death. What does the Bible say? Let’s first understand what the soul is. Gen. 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.” Notice God did not put a soul into the man, He breathed into His nostrils the breath (spirit) of life and He became a living soul. Remove the breath (spirit) from man and He ceases to be a living soul. He dies. Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” 
What is the “spirit” that returns to God at death? James 2:26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead…” The word spirit in this verse is from the Greek word “pneuma” which means breath, a current of air. And in Job 27:3 it reads, “All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils.” The word spirit in this verse is from the Hebrew word “ruwach” which means breath, exhalation, air. The spirit that returns to God is the breath of life. Nowhere in the entire Bible does the “spirit” have any life, wisdom or feeling after a person dies. 

So what is a soul? A soul is a living being and according to Gen. 2:7 we read a minute ago, is always a combination of two things: body plus breath. Do souls die? Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Animals with bodies plus breath are souls. Revelation 16:3 “…every living soul died in the sea.” Man is mortal and is subject to death. Job 4:17 “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Only God is immortal. 1 Timothy 6:15,16 “…the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality…” Only the saved righteous will be given immortality. When? At the resurrection when Jesus’ comes for the second time. Let’s read 1 Corinthians 15: 51-53 again. “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, (in other words there will be some righteous living when Jesus comes) 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.”  

The concept of an undying, disembodied, immortal soul goes against the Bible, which teaches souls are subject to death.

Let me illustrate with a bulb, electric current, and light. The bulb will represent the body, electric current will represent the breath, and light will represent the soul. When the switch is turned on, current (breath) enters the bulb (body) and there is light (soul). Turn off the switch, which removes the current, and there is no light. Where did the light go? It just ceased to exist, just as the body without breath ceases to exist. It is a dead soul.

Do good people go to heaven at death? Acts 2:29,34 “…the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.” “For David is not ascended into the heaven.” Now David was a man after the Lord’s own heart, and he is in his grave awaiting the resurrection. 

John 5:28,29 “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.” Every person that has ever lived and died, except for Enoch, Elijah, Moses and those especially resurrected at Jesus’ resurrection, are in their graves awaiting the first or the second resurrection. 

So at death, the body returns to the dust (the grave) and the spirit (the breath of life) returns to God who gave it. 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? What would be the purpose of a Judgment? 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, and I’ll do it with a series of questions. 
Question #1: How much does one know or comprehend at death? 
Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 says, “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 and 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 in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53, and then put on immortality. On resurrection day they can begin again, praising Jesus for eternity. 

Question #2: 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.” So you see 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.”  That’s clear, no that’s crystal clear.

Jesus Himself 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 #3: How long will the dead sleep? Job 14:12 “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 #4: What happens to the righteous dead at 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? This is God speaking through His Word.

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 once again 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: We will continue our study “Are the dead really dead? Part 2”

Time is up so be listening Next week for “Are the Dead Really Dead” - part 1.
God bless you friends and study your Bibles daily,
Until next week, Jesus said in John 5:39, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me”. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.