Bible Questions and Answers

What happens after death?

Contrary to what is often taught in Churches, the Bible teaches that when we die, we really are dead. When we die our faculties perish and we corrupt back into dust (the elements from which we are made).

Adam was given a commandment, disobedience to which had consequences:

• Genesis 2:16,17  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

After Adam’s disobedience he was told:

• Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam He said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.

In death we are unconscious:

• Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten.

Our thoughts perish:

• Psalms 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

We do not possess an immortal soul. We are a soul and souls die.

• Ezekiel 18:4  Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

The word translated ‘soul’ in Hebrew is nephesh.

• Genesis 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 (nephesh).

The translators mistranslate the word nephesh as ‘body’ or ‘corpse’ when it is described as being dead.

• Leviticus 21:11  nor shall he go near any dead body (nephesh), nor defile himself for his father or his mother;
• Numbers 6:6  All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body (nephesh).
• Numbers 9:6  Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human corpse (nephesh), so that they could not keep the Passover on that day…

When we are placed in the grave, our soul is placed in the grave.

• Psalms 89:48 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul (nephesh) from the hand of the grave?

The scriptures describe death as sleep. We all experience the unconsciousness of sleep. In sleep, we are unconscious of the passage of time.

• 1 Kings 2:10 So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
• Acts 7:60 Then he (Stephen) knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

The hope of the Gospel is that of resurrection from the sleep of death at a future time.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
• 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23  But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
• Those ‘in Christ’ by belief of the Gospel and baptism will be raised from the sleep of death and made immortal.
• 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54  So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn