This article is from pages 10 and 11 of the December 2008 issue of The Pentecostal Herald which arrived in my mail on November 24, 2008.
Where Are the Dead?
by David Norris
Some years ago I took a university class that examined how philosophers sought to prove the existence of God. The course surveyed numerous philosophers, and in the end we read a book written by the professor himself. As we began to discuss his book, the professor made a heart rendering profession, a confession, no doubt influenced by the recent loss of his wife to cancer. He offered, “If I knew that there was something after this life, something that made sense of all the suffering in this world, then I am quite certain I could believe in God.” Such a statement is telling. The professor’s whole belief system was linked to his view of life after death. Arguably, every religious tradition must speak to the question of suffering and must in some sense address the question of life after death. Further, people do not merely ask, “Is there life after death?” They want specific details as to the reality that a person experiences when he dies. Significantly, not only does the Bible give considerable attention to this important question, it is not too much to say that the Bible proclaims life beyond this world as the ultimate reality.
The Old Testament provides an important foundation as to what happens to people who die. There was an understanding among the Jewish people in covenant relationship with God that they would “rest” with their fathers. (See
Genesis 47:30;
Deuteronomy 31:16;
2 Samuel 7:12). Further, the Old Testament does not merely speak of death only in terms of “rest.” The Hebrew word that refers to the place of the dead is “sheol.” Some times the word is translated “pit”; other times, it is translated “grave”; often it is translated as “hell.” Yet, even when rendering the word “sheol” as “hell,” the translators of the King James Version did not intend to present sheol merely as a universal place of torment. Rather, the teaching of the Old Testament is that all dead, whether good or bad, went to sheol.
Jesus taught in some detail about the abode of the dead in Luke chapter 16. He explained how that in the Old Testament afterlife, both the good and bad existed in a single place. First, Jesus described the death of a man named Lazarus, about whom He reported no moral failing. Jesus explained that Lazarus was carried by angels to a place of comfort, a place which He termed “Abraham’s bosom.” Jesus contrasted the fate of Lazarus with another man, a rich man whose miserly ways were apparently indicative of a broader lifestyle wholly given to selfish living. When the rich man died, he too was brought to this same abode of the dead, but there was a considerable gulf between where Lazarus was being comforted and where the rich man undoubtedly was suffering. Jesus made it clear that not only was the chasm between the rich man to Lazarus not negotiable, He explained as well that the chasm between the abode of the dead and the place of the living was not negotiable either. Neither the rich man nor an emissary could return to earth with a message.
There are several points that become clear by Jesus’ teaching. First, those who die have consciousness. When the Bible speaks of the “sleep” of one who has died, it has reference to his body. Certainly from a human perspective, it hardly seems possible to speak of the bodies of those who die as “sleeping.” Physical bodies decay and disintegrate into the dust of the earth. Yet, so certain is the power of God to reconstitute things that have perished that the Bible can refer to the death of our bodies as merely “sleep;”
There is a second important point that can be understood from this teaching by Jesus: what happens in this life affects life after death. For some, this idea is so distasteful that they argue that one cannot take seriously the teaching of Jesus in this instance because He was merely telling a parable. Such a critique is unfounded, however, because even when Jesus told parables, He only narrated events that had their basis in fact. He told of farmers and bridegrooms and widows who needed to be avenged. He told of things that existed He never created realities that were not, in fact, true.
It is God who appoints “unto men once to die” (
Hebrews 9:27), and it is God who closes the curtain between the dead and the living. (See
Ecclesiastes 9:5) Yet, some people seek to bypass God’s prerogatives by attempting to gain knowledge of the dead through alternate measures. The Bible makes clear that fortunetellers, seances, and necromancers are not to be visited. (See
Leviticus 19:31; 20:6;
Deuteronomy 18:11). Those who attempt to cross into the hereafter by such means are actually trafficking in the realm of evil spirits. Only one thing can be expected: deceit. Real information about the state of the dead can reliably come from only one source: the Bible.
While the Old Testament offers only glimpses of life after death, the New Testament is replete with such information. The difference between the two testaments occurs for a very important reason; while the Old Testament anticipates only the effect of Jesus’ work on Calvary, the New Testament realize its fruition. Calvary’s victory was total and complete. Not only was Jesus’ death effectual in taking away our sin; it was also effectual in loosening Satan’s power in the afterlife. Underlying the Gospel narrative is a conflict between Satan and Jesus (
Matthew 4:1-11), a conflict that Jesus would win. (See
John 14:30). Sadly, prior to the cross, Satan consistently tormented people to fear death. (See
Hebrews 2:14-15). The triumph of the cross allowed that because of the work of Jesus, satan’s power over death was broken. (See
Hebrews 2:15). When Jesus was dying, He proclaimed, “It is finished.” He was not only speaking as the One sacrificed Himself in our stead; Jesus’ proclamation was also like that of a conquering general who had defeated his foe.
The New Testament records significant events associated with the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. The psalmist prophesied that before Jesus ascended into heaven, He would first descend triumphantly to sheol --hades in the New Testament-- and ascend, taking with Him a whole host of those who had been “captive” (
Psalm 68:18;
Ephesians 4:8-10). Thus, when the victory of the cross was accomplished, Jesus descended to the abode of the dead and boldly proclaimed (“preached”) His total victory over Satan (
1 Peter 3:19). In demonstration of His conquest, He made an open show of the devil, mocking and humiliating him. (See
Colossians 2;15). Jesus then claimed for Himself the keys of death and hell. (See
Revelation 1:18). Finally, Jesus ascended to paradise, but He did not do so alone. Jesus took with Him those who in the Old Testament had lived in covenant relationship with God.
Twenty times in the Old Testament it refers to descending to sheol or as sheol being “down.” In the New Testament, when writers described paradise they referred to it as up. (See
2 Corinthians 12:4). Whereas the Old Testament was oblique in its pronouncements of life after death, Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would that day be with Him in paradise. (See
Luke 23:43.) Indeed, the New Testament celebrates that those who die will immediately be ushered into the presence of the Lord. Paul professed, “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (
2 Corinthians 5:8).
Certainly the Bible has more to say about life after death than what we can address in this short article. And even if we would survey all the biblical passages related to life after death, there are still some things that we cannot know this side of the curtain of death. (See
1 Corinthians 1;12.) Yet, what we do know is enough. We do know that this life is merely the vestibule of eternity, the antechamber to the hereafter. We know that compared to eternity, even severe and prolonged suffering is just “light affliction ... for a moment” (
2 Corinthians 4:17). And finally, we know that the Bible’s invitation to faith is actually an invitation to hope. If you are a hurting person, the church is still inviting, Jesus is still saving, and heaven is still waiting for you.
Hybrid Mode
