Death and Resurrection

  1. “If a man die shall he live again?...” (Job 14:14). This is the Scriptural question.
  2. Yet men persist asking, ‘if when a man is dead does he still live while dead?’

Which is these is the proper question; is it that which is in “the Word of truth,” or is it the words of man's religious tradition?’

  • God told Adam, in the day that he sinned he would “surely die. Does that mean everlasting conscious torment or torture? If so, then how can a dead man be conscious?
  • It was Satan’s ‘lie’ that said, “Ye shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4)

Well, who was right, Satan or God? Do you believe God or Satan? Do you believe the “lie?”

After we read all the theories and philosophies of man, about what a man is, we find Genesis 2:7 that he is a “soul,” that he was created as a living soul.” And, it further states that this living soul is made of the dust of the ground. Ask yourself, do we find anything, which is made of the dust of the ground, to be immortal or uncorruptible?

The Biblically inspired definition of death is … that a man returns to dust from which he is made (Gen. 3:19). So then, a soul that is made from the dust of the ground returns to dust. Death is not such a glorious thing at that!

Now, according to Paul’s epistles, for the believer, there is a period between death and resurrection spoken of as sleeping.

“Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” 1 Corinthians 15:18 (KJV)
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 (KJV)
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” 1 Corinthians 15:51 (KJV)

This period is spent without being clothed upon with a body, hence a naked state or condition.

 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 (KJV)

Job realized that there was an interval between death and resurrection. So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” Job 14:12 (KJV)

Job asked that he might be hidden in hell (the grave) until the wrath was past, and then when the Lord called, he would answer (Job 14:13-15). Read this whole chapter in Job carefully.

Now you may note that Paul did not wish to go into this unclothed or naked state, but rather to be alive at the time of Rapture and get a new body. This is what Paul refers to when he said he would rather “be absent from his old body and be present with the Lord.” See 2 Cor. 5:1-10.

When Peter was speaking in Acts 2:25-31, he plainly said that David was still in hell (the grave), that the one spoken of there was the Lord who spent 3 days and 3 nights in hell (the grave). And it’s clear that the Lord is the first one to leave that place or state, for He is spoken of as “the first born from the dead, the firstfruits of them that slept.” Hell (the grave) could not hold the Lord. Nor can it hold those that are His, when He calls they will come forth and the gates of hell (the grave) cannot hold them. See Matt. 16:18.

The expectation of David himself is expressed in Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake, with Thy likeness.” David had some wonderful revelations as to eschatology, but David never mentioned the immortality of the soul or that the dead might be simultaneously consciously alive while being dead (nor does any other Scripture).

So far as we can find in “the Word of God,” hell (the grave) is just another designation of the dust of the earth, where all the dead have gone. Then, not all, just some, arise.

“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2 (KJV)           

By Arthur Licursi, as Adapted from Oscar M. Baker