Death Defined

Sosoma Jr · 2022-11-30T18:45:09+00:00

DEATH DEFINED One after another, each of us stops breathing. What then? THE FIRST DEATH A little boy was walking home from school one day. He decided to take a shortcut through a cemetery. A particular tombstone stopped him in his tracks. The words on the stone had a mocking message: "As you are now, so once was I, as I am now, you soon will be, so prepare yourself to follow me." The little boy took a crayon from his bag and wrote on the stone, "To follow you I'm not content, until I know just where you went." Death is the scariest mystery that we face as human beings. All of us ask the question at some point, "What happens when we die?" The answer offered in the Bible is clear and filled with promise. First of all, Scripture teaches that there are two kinds of death: " 'He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death' " (Revelation 2:11). And John writes, "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. . ." (Revelation 20:6). If there is a "second death," it makes sense that there must be a first death. Let's explore both. Carefully read and discuss Luke 8:52-53 and John 11:11-26 to clearly define the first death. "Now all wept and mourned for her; but He [Jesus] said, 'Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping. ' And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead" (Luke 8:52-53). "These things He said, and after that He said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. ' Then Hus disciples said, 'Lord, if he sleeps he will get well. ' However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.' Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with Him. ' So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You. ' Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again. ' Martha said to Him, 'I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. ' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?' "(John 11:11-26). From these answer the following questions: What is the word Jesus used to define the state of the dead?_________. When did Martha expect Lazarus to be resurrected?_________. What title did Jesus claim for Himself? " I am the and the _." Okay, so death is like "sleep. " We can expect to be awakened, resurrected, from death at "the last day. " But let's dig deeper to fill out understanding of the first death. Let's allow Scripture to answer some questions for us: How much do the dead know? __________. "For the living know that thy will die; the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6). Are the dead aware of God?___________. "For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave who will give You thanks?" ( Psalm 6:5). When a person dies, what happens to their thoughts?____________. "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psalm 146:3-4, KJV). Do the dead return to haunt their houses?_________. "As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore" (Job 7:9-10). It is clear that the dead are unconscious (they aren't aware of anything). So they cannot contact the living. It makes sense then that those who think they're talking to the dead aren't really talking to their loved ones who've passed away. Who, then, are they actually talking to? God told Israel, "There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12, ESV). Notice in the above message that necromancy, or talking with "the dead," is listed with human sacrifice and other evil activities. This is super significant. The Bible tells us that the "gods" that led the pagan nations in these practices were not really gods. They were actually "demons," or fallen angels, pretending to be gods. The following verses tell us this truth: "They provoked Him to jealously with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. They have provoked Me to jealously by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealously by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation" (Deuteronomy 32:16-17, 21). "They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood" ( Psalm 106:36-38). So God clearly forbids necromancy for two reasons: (1) It is impossible to talk with the actual dead since the they have no consciousness (or awareness) and (2) "the dead" we may think we are talking with are actually demons. They are pretending to be our dead loved ones. All of this makes perfect sense if we remember that Jesus described the state of the dead as a "sleep" . In fact, the Bible uses the word "sleep" 54 times to describe the condition of the dead. They are, in fact, in an unconscious state of rest that is like sleep. THE SECOND DEATH How is the second death different than the first then? Jesus tells us the basic difference in Matthew 10:28:" And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." So the first death is simply the death of the body, but not the soul. The second death involves killing both the body and soul. But what, exactly, does this mean? The Greek word here translated "soul" is psyche. This word is where we get words like psychology and psychiatric. So, "soul" is not the best translation. Mind or even whole person would better explain the idea. Here "soul" is talking about something the Bible calls in other places, "the inner man" (Ephesians 3:16). Or it is also called "the spirit of your mind" (Ephesians 4:23). The first death is different. It is the complete destruction of the whole person on the both the physical and mind levels. It makes those who suffer the second death completely non existent. When a person dies the first death, the Bible says that "the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The "dust" refers to the body .It breaks down and becomes part of the earth again after the first death. The "spirit" that returns to God is what Jesus called the "psyche." He means the total content of the person's inner being. The thoughts, feelings, and motives make up the inner being. Everything that creates a unique identity is the inner being. The moral character of a person is part of the the inner being too. We have already learned that there is no ongoing consciousness or awareness in death. So the "spirit" that "returns" to God when a person dies is simply kept by God in an unconscious state until the resurrection. At that time, God will remake the physical body with the spirit. Then the conscious life begins again. Notice in John, Jesus made an important statement about the resurrection: " . . . The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation "(John 5:28-29). It's clear that God will resurrect everyone who has ever died the first death. This resurrection includes the good and the evil. The good will then go on to live forever with Christ. " Over such the second death has no power" (Revelation 20:6). The wicked will be raised to "condemnation." This is not condemnation in the simple sense. It's not God shaking His finger at them. Rather, "condemnation" in this sense means they will experience the full shame of the final judgement. At that point, they will face their lives' records and their full guilt. They will experience in the psyche all the "condemnation" that comes with their sins. Condemnation is, in fact, an experience of the mind rather than the body. The apostle Paul described the final death of those who are evil. He said they experience "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul [psyche] of man who does evil. . . " (Romans 2:8-9). In other words, the second death! The mental of their "condemnation" will totally crush them from the inside out. Talk about what guilt is like and its effects on the mind. What would it be like for humans to suddenly be totally aware of all their sins? In our next study we will find that Jesus chose to suffer this experience for us when He hung on the cross. We'll see how He "tasted death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9).He endured the full reality of our sin and shame upon His conscience. It was as if He were the guilty one. So He conquered the second death on our behalf. In short, every person dies the first death. The body returns to the earth and the spirit returns to God to "sleep" until He resurrects them.At that point, the righteous go on to live with God forever. The wicked are made fully aware of their guilt and are destroyed forever (both body and soul). (We will explore the final death of the wicked more in a future study.) CONNECT In God's heart there is complete forgiveness for each of us. We can either hold on to our guilt or we can accept God's mercy and be restored to innocence. Every selfish act a human being commits brings guilt upon the conscience. Guilt is toxic because we are not wired to handle it. We must repent and accept God's forgiveness to get rid of our wired to handle it. We must repent and accept God's forgiveness to get rid of our guilt. If we don't, it remains as a mental weight in the mind. Even if we forget about our guilt, it's still there and we'll have to deal with it in the final judgment: "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10). God's desire for each of us is freedom from our sin and guilt now . He wants us to be completely healed and set free from it all. "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:13-14). While all of us have failed, no one needs to bear the burden of guilt and suffer the second death. Jesus "tasted death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:9).As our voluntary Substitute, He experienced the dark horror of our guilt. This way, we need not live another moment in bondage to it. We have the privilege of standing perfectly forgiven through Christ. EXPERIENCE I put my complete trust in Jesus as my personal Savior. I accept God's forgiveness through Him. As I receive God's forgiveness, I believe that I live under His favor. I'm completely innocent before Him. This promise is for me: "Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit" (Psalm 32:1-2, NIV). Thank You, God, for Your forgiving love!

Thread starter Sosoma Jr
Start date Nov 30, 2022

Sosoma Jr

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Death Defined

Sosoma Jr

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