7/31/05 - “Are the Dead Really Dead?” Part 2
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’s subject – “Are the dead really dead? Part 2”

Last week we clearly showed from God’s Word that the dead are in an unconscious state. Today we will show that those who believe the dead are alive become easy targets for Satan’s deceptions. 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.

The lie Satan told Eve was that “Ye shalt not surely die.” Gen. 3:4. Which was in contradiction to what God stated in Gen. 2:17. The question is WHY did the devil lie to Eve about death? The subject is more important than many think. It is one of the cornerstones of Satan’s kingdom. He has worked many powerful deceptive miracles for thousands of years through people who claim to receive their power from spirits of the dead. 
Examples would be: the magicians of Egypt in Exodus 7:11; The witch at Endor, in 1 Samuel 28:3-5; the Sorcerers in Daniel 2:2; And a certain damsel in Acts 16:16-18. 

We are warned in Revelation 18:23 that Satan will again use sorcery to deceive the world, as it reads, “…for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.” 
Dear reader sorcery is a supernatural agency that claims to receive its power from the spirits of the dead. Have nothing to do with fortune-tellers, psychics and mediums, for they are plugged into the occult of Satan. Christians sorely displease God with such association. Satan and his angels can appear as a deceased loved one, looking like and talking like that deceased individual. And with that deception they can deceive the person who actually talked to the one they thought was a loved one. They can actually appear as apostles or apparent angels of God. 1 Corinthians 11:13,14 “…transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”

Question: Do devils really work miracles? Again we turn to God’s word for the truth. Revelation 16:14 “For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles…” 
Jesus even warned in Matthew 24:24 “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Yes they do work miracles, incredibly convincing miracles, Revelation 13:13,14 “And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do…”
Satan will even impersonate Christ Himself and there will be a universal feeling that it is really Jesus leading out in a fantastic worldwide revival. The entire emphasis will be so spiritual and so supernatural that only God’s elect will not be deceived.

Question: Why will God’s elect not be deceived? Acts 17:11 “…they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” They weren’t going by feelings.
And in Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” 

The time is coming when no Christian will be able to trust their senses. For over six thousand years Satan has been making a study of mankind and no person with a finite mind is any match for his tricks. 

Here we are living in the last sliver of time, with probation soon to end, just as it did in Noah’s day. People are busy, and caught up in so many diversions, that they no longer have time to read God’s Word. Our only safety is in diligent Bible study and a correct understanding of God’s Word. People will know from earnest study of His book that the dead are dead, not alive. Therefore, God’s people will reject all miracle workers and teachers who claim to receive special “light” or work miracles by contacting the dead. And God’s people will reject as dangerous and false, all teachings that claim the dead are alive in any form anywhere.

In Moses’ day God showed how He regarded those who claimed to be able to contact the dead (familiar spirits). Leviticus 20:27 “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones”.

Will the righteous people who are raised in the resurrection ever die again? Luke 20:35,36 “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead,… Neither can they die any more.” 

And in Revelation 21:4 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Half the people on earth believe in reincarnation. But on the basis of what we have already read, God’s Word puts that lie to eternal sleep. 

Now we need to answer some thought questions on this most important subject. 
From our studies on this subject last week and today, we learned after death a person: 1. Returns to dust (Psalm 104:29);  2. knows nothing (Eccl. 9:5); 
3. possesses no mental powers (Psalm 146:10); 4. has nothing to do with anything on earth (Eccl. 9:6); 5. does not live (2 Kings 20:1); 6. waits in the grave (Job 17:13); and 7. continues not (Job 14:1,2).

We learned that Satan invented the teaching that the dead are alive. Those who do believe that, are susceptible to believe in reincarnation, channeling, communication with spirits, spirit worship, and the undying soul; which are all inventions of Satan to convince people that when you die you are not really dead. They will be deceived 100% of the time.

Today we will review some thought questions regarding the state of the dead. 
Question: Didn’t the thief on the cross go to paradise with Christ on Friday, the day He died? Answer: No. In fact, on Sunday morning Jesus said to Mary, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” John 20:17. 
This is a good time to point out that the scriptures are inspired, but punctuation is not. It was added for clarification, but there are obvious errors. For example in Luke 23:43 it reads, “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, (comma) Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” But the thief did not die that day and Jesus had not ascended. Therefore the correct rendering would be, “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, (comma) thou shalt be with me in paradise.”  

Question: Does the Bible speak of the “undying”, “immortal” soul? 
Answer: No. In fact the word “immortal” is found once in the Bible, and it is in reference to God. 1 Timothy 1:17 “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God”

Question: At death, the body returns to dust and the spirit (breath) returns to God. Where does the soul go? 
Answer: It goes nowhere as we have seen in the many scriptures given in these two broadcasts. Two things must be combined to make a soul, body plus breath. There is no such thing as a disembodied soul. 

Question: Can you explain John 11:26 “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” 
Answer: This does not refer to the first death, which all people die. See Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die”. Rather it refers to the “second death” which only the wicked die and from which there is no resurrection. Revelation 21:8 “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
  
Many Christians are able to quote John 3:16, but few realize that it clearly shows only the saved will live for ever and the unsaved will die and be no more. Look at it closely, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The believers will not perish, but they will live forever. Conversely the unsaved will not have everlasting life for they perish in the second death. They will be as though they had never been.

Question: Doesn’t 1 Peter 4:6 say the gospel was preached to dead people? “For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead” Answer: No, it says the gospel “was” preached to those who “are” dead. They are dead now, but the gospel was preached to them while they were yet living.

Question: Matthew 10:28 says “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:” Doesn’t this prove the soul is undying? Answer: No, it proves the opposite. The last half of the same verse proves that souls do die. “but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Question: What about the souls crying out from under the altar in Revelation 6:9,10? “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”
Answer: No. This cry was figurative as was Abel’s blood (Genesis 4:10). The word souls used here means people who had been slain for their faith. They are in their graves in the sleep of death and will have no conscious state until the resurrection. It will seem but a moment from the time they closed their eyes in death, until they come forth from their graves, even though it may have been thousands of years.

In these 2 broadcasts, we have made the Bible position on death crystal clear. No human fables, just the truth from God’s word. And Friends, in our next broadcast we are going to explore another cornerstone lie of Satan’s kingdom. 

Yes, Next Week: We will study the very controversial subject “Hell. Are people there and is it burning now?” Part 1”

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.