It is a common belief that when someone dies that they go directly to heaven where they find saint Peter and the pearly gates of heaven. Then the newly deceased person would get a white robe, a harp, a pair of wings, a halo, and maybe even a cigar. Then they float on a cloud for eternity. Basically this is mythology that contradicts the many clear Bible verses on this subject.
If you watch a movie or TV you are quite likely to see the dead portrayed as being alive. If you go to a funeral you are likely to hear that God killed the dead person so that God could have another person in heaven. If you call a psychic advisor they will claim to communicate with the dead, and they will bring you advice and council from your dead relatives.
According to Time Magazine 3-24-97, 61% of the people asked believe that the dead go directly to heaven, and an additional 15% believe that the dead go to purgatory. Popular opinion, religious tradition, and mythology do not line up with the accuracy of God’s word. But it doesn’t matter what public opinion is or what religions teach; what matters is what the Word of God says, and specifically what the Word says about the dead.
Man’s Religions ~ 1968 John B. Noss
“The early Christians spoke of death as a going to sleep until the Judgment Day.”
What Happens When We Die? ~ 1986 Anthony Buzzard
“The New Testament offers the simple proposition that, in contrast to popular tradition, all the dead are actually dead, unconscious, “asleep,” awaiting a resurrection to life to occur at a specific moment of future history ... Tradional thinking and New Testament teaching are poles apart.”
Traditional popular Christian thought and modern mythology says that the dead are alive, and that they are now much better off. God’s word says that the dead are dead. There is no consciousness in death, no knowledge, and no wisdom.”
Ecclesiastes 9:4 & 5 say;
“...to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun."
Ecclesiastes 9:10;
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
Psalm 6:5;
“For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
Psalm 115:17;
“The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.”
Psalm 146:4;
“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
The ancient Babylonians believed that the dead lived on after death.
Mythology of the Babylonian People ~ 1915 Donald A. Mackenzie
“Darkness was peopled by demons and ghosts of the dead.”
“Ghosts and evil spirits wandered through the streets in darkness; they haunted empty houses; they fluttered through the evening air as bats; they hastened, moaning dismally, across barren wastes searching for food or lay in wait for travelers; they came as roaring lions and howling jackals, hungering for human flesh."
That sounds like a script for a bad 1950’s horror film. But there are also those who teach that when you die you are not really dead but instead you are either in heaven or hell. Heaven is supposed to be eternal bliss and hell is supposed to be eternal torture.
1Thessalonians 4:13-18;
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, [dead] that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep [dead]. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
When people try to comfort others by telling them that the dead are alive, it is a false comfort, and a false hope. They talk about someone being in heaven, but what about the possibility of someone being in hell? What kind of comfort is it to tell someone that their dear departed friend or relative is being tortured in hell, or is a restless ghost haunting the living. It is a comfort to know that the dead are not wandering around like ectoplasmic zombies moaning and dragging chains, but instead they are asleep and the next thing that they will know is when Jesus Christ will wake them up. The true hope is that there is a day coming when Jesus Christ will return and the dead shall be raised. Jesus Christ is the only one who God has raised from the dead. Jesus Christ is the firstborn from the dead; the first one up. The true word of God gives us the truth about the current state of the dead and their future resurrection.
Romans 8:29;
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Colossians 1:18;
“And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” [that Jesus Christ might be the preeminent one]
1 Corinthians 15:22&23;
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.”
If the dead are dead and have no consciousness then they are neither in heaven nor in hell. There is not a vast subterranean torture chamber full of sinners suffering for eternity. They are all asleep; they are dead.
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