The First Lie Was About What Happens After Death!

And most religions still teach it!

This is the Third post from Chapter 9 of Friends With God: Life After Death. In this chapter we are exploring what God says happens to us when we die.

Lazarus And The Rich Man?

In the previous post we examined all but one of the scriptures regarding Hell Fire, we now come to the last reference to Hell and Fire. All the other verses where Hell and Fire are mentioned have been demonstrated in the previous post to be of no value in supporting the idea that people will burn in Hell forever.

The last time hell and fire are mentioned is in a parable about a poor man called Lazarus and an unnamed rich man. If you are coming to this parable with a preconceived notion of dead people going to a place of eternal punishment, you could well read this story as supporting that concept. Yet, in doing so you would need to provide some other scriptures to support such a concept, for, as we have shown in the previous post, there are none.

There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hell, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'

Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'

Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'

But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'

What is the point of this parable? It is the last sentence: 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.' And the real point is that those who heard this parable were not persuaded later when Christ Himself rose from the dead!

This was not a parable about the torments of Hell, but a clear warning that if you think you will burn in Hell, but don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then you will not be persuaded by anything else anyway, even by Christ himself being resurrected.

In addition, the length of time the rich man is being in “torment” is not actually indicated, it may be only a few minutes and then he may go to the second death, which, as we have seen in the first post in this series, would happen after first coming up in the second resurrection.

This parable on its own does not prove that there is a place of eternal punishment.

The detailed nature of what happens after life is not being discussed in any detail here. It is a parable, with a couple of simple points- if wicked people in this life don’t hear Moses and the prophets, then nothing will persuade them, and they will then be punished.

To attempt to make use of this parable as a theological foundation on the method of punishment of the intractably wicked, is to blow the meaning and application of this story out of all proportion.

For one thing, if you believe that it is a story based on what actually happens after death, then you would immediately give up all your worldly goods, and live a life like Lazarus in the story.

Yet nobody wants to draw that conclusion, but they are willing to conclude that this is a warning about eternal punishment in Hell- which is convenient, as this belief and interpretation does not actually require us to do anything in our day to day lives!

We also see that there is no detail about where Lazarus is, except he is ‘carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom’.

There is no mention of Abraham being in heaven, nor even of being in ‘paradise’.

This parable therefore has no detailed explanation of what happens after death.

The message of this parable is very simple: 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'

Immortality Of The Soul, The First Lie!

Adam and Eve were mortal, God proved it when he said;

“… You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. (Gen 2:16-17)

Why did they not die on the same day they took of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Was Satan correct?

The words rendered you shall surely die are from the one Hebrew word repeated twice, which if translated literally would read “die, die”. Such repetition is a figure of speech, used for emphasis in both Hebrew and Greek, called a Polyptoton. It is similar to when we say to a child “No, no, no, don’t do that”.

What God meant was, they would be living on the path of the way of death, rather than the way of life, and as such they were to eventually die for ever.

It is the way of life that we need to be living now, in order for God to grant us the gift of eternal life, which will be explained in detail in the last post in this series.

If they had eternal life in the form of an immortal soul, then God would never have said that they would surely die- but Satan came along and said exactly that:

And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:4-5)

• Therefore, the first lie told to mankind was the one about having an immortal soul!

After they sinned, and started to live the way that would eventually lead to their death, God removed them from the Garden of Eden- and the reason he gave was:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken. (Gen 3:22-23)

Adam was to prolong his physical, mortal life by eating food grown in the soil from which he, himself was made. It’s all about being mortal, and Adam having nothing that is immortal at all about him.

If a man wishes to become immortal, he must receive the Holy Spirit from God and “live” by every Word of God. Eat and drink the spiritual things of God or else remain mortal.

Becoming immortal is a second step in the plan that God has for those whom He has created in his image. The physical creation has nothing immortal about it at all, except the potential to become the Children of God.

Our physical bodies must be changed by God to spirit bodies. (John 3:5-8)

If Adam and Eve had anything immortal in them, then they would not have needed the tree of life to make them live forever. They were therefore not immortal- not their bodies, nor their souls.

• Mortality is not added to us due to sin, as being mortal is how we are made by God.

As discussed in the first post in this series, it is immortality that is added to us, when we accept the life of Christ as being the example we must follow: and this mortal must put on immortality (1Cor 15:53-54)

We don’t have anything immortal in us now, as “God alone has immortality” (1Tim 6:16)

What Happens After Death?

If the wicked don’t go to hell when they die, what happens to them? Also, what happens to the righteous, are they in heaven?

As explained in detail in the previous post, there would be no need for a resurrection if those who have died were in heaven already. And two resurrections from the dead are clearly spelt for both the wicked and the righteous. (Matt 12:41-42, Luke 11:31-32, 20:34-36, John 5:28-29, 11:25, Acts 4:2, 24:15-21, 1Cor 15:12-42, Phil 3:10-11, Heb 6:2.)

So, if you are not in heaven or hell, where are you when you die? This is a very important question, which you would imagine would be clearly spelt out in the Bible, which it is. Yet, so many who are searching for this explanation are confused about what scripture says, because they still believe the first lie, and they think that heaven or hell are the only possibilities. Yet the Bible shows there is a third logical possibility, which links in neatly with the clear doctrine of the resurrection.

Paul Tells Us What Happens After We Die

Some people in the Church in the first century were apparently not aware of what happened after death for those who believed in Christ. Paul, fortunately, took the time to clear up this question in his letters to both the Churches of Thessalonica and Corinth:

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep (died), lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede (be resurrected before) those who are asleep (dead).

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1Thes 4:13-18)

These words are meant for comfort, or encouragement, as they teach us about what the status of those who are dead is.

Does it say they are in heaven? No, it says “God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus”. Many assume that as Jesus is coming from heaven, then that is where they are, and where they go when they die. Yet, if this is the case then they are asleep in heaven, not awake as most assume!

The terms ‘sleep’ and ‘death’ are used interchangeably in scripture, as is explained below. But there is no proof from this verse that the saints are in heaven after they die, for we are told that those who are “dead in Christ are to rise first”.

• They are dead, and they will be resurrected, that is what we are told.
  We are not told that they are alive in heaven, otherwise what is the point of being resurrected from the dead if they are already alive?

They therefore must rise from their graves, which are on Earth, and meet Christ in the air. Which is exactly what Paul told the Corinthian Church is the actual sequence of events that will occur at the return of Christ:

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1Cor 15:50-53)

The first thing we need to note is that this is a mystery which Paul is telling the Corinthians about. The Cambridge Bible Commentary says the word mystery is used in Scripture in two senses:

1. for things hidden from the ordinary understanding,

2. of things formerly concealed in the counsels of God but revealed to those who believe the Gospel.

Paul is therefore not talking about something that many people can or will understand, which is shown by the number of people who think they have an immortal soul, yet have absolutely no valid evidence to support the idea.

Despite the difficulty of the subject, Paul is obviously talking about the same event that he wrote to the Thessalonians about- as the resurrection happens at the time of the last trumpet, which is the same time as when Christ returns with the trumpet of God.

We need to know that those who are dead in Christ “will be raised incorruptible”, and we who are alive, who are not asleep in death at the time he returns, also shall be changed into immortal spirit beings.

In addition, if those who are dead were in heaven, and returned with Christ, they would not need to be raised to be immortal, as they would already be immortal. However, they are awakened from their “sleep” of death to be resurrected.

Death And Sleep Confused By The Disciples

Death is often shown as being a state similar to sleep:

Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. (Psalm 13:3)

The terminology used for being asleep and dead, even confused some of the disciples:

“… and then he (Jesus) said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep. The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.
Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." (John 11:11-15)

Following are a few of the many other references in the Bible showing that those who are dead are in a state that is somewhat analogous to being asleep: Deut 31:16, 2Sam 7:12, Job 7:21, Psalm 13:3, Dan 12:2-12, John 11:11-13, Acts 13:36, Acts 17:10, Acts 24:15, John 5:25, 11:25, 1Cor 15:12-51, 1Thes 4:14-15, Heb 6:2, Rev 20:5-6.

Please take the time to read these verses as they are very clear. Obviously, however, those who are dead are not simply asleep, but sleep is seen as analogous to death.

While an analogy does not prove anything, if those who are dead were not in some state that is analogous to being asleep, but actually being tormented in hell, or were in heaven, then the analogy would be stupid and contradictory to the truth.

While these references to sleep being like death cannot prove that death is similar to sleep, they do however undermine the concept of being tormented in hell, or being in heaven.

From the above we can therefore infer that what happens after we die is that we fall into a state that is somewhat similar to being asleep.

What About Those Who Never Knew Or Understood God?

To summarize what happens at the the first resurrection:

• at the time of Christ’s return, is when those Christians who are dead will be raised from their graves as immortal spirit beings, and will then rise to meet Christ as he comes down from heaven.

• Then, just a short time after those who are dead have risen, those who are alive will also have their bodies changed to become immortal, and will also rise to meet Christ. These two events happen at the first resurrection.

Now we can come back to the question we raised in the previous post:

“Can those in the second resurrection get their name put into the Book of Life?”

Those people who are in the second resurrection were never called by God during their lifetime, and never heard the name of Christ, which is required for salvation:

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

Similarly, what about children who die, and have never really had the mature mental ability to understand and accept Christ?

What about the heathen, the ignorant, the mentally retarded?

These have all died and never heard or understood about the name of Christ.

Scripture tells us that all these people will be raised in the second resurrection, where they will be judged according to what they have done in this life. They will also have physical bodies, not immortal bodies:

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.” Rev 20:12:

Judgement Is Not Condemnation

These books therefore record what they did in their life. In addition, we have the book of life, “and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:15)

• Does this verse mean that none of these people in this second resurrection will ever have their name written in the book of life?

The problem is that all the righteous people, whose names are written in the book of life, are raised at the time of Christ’s return, in the first resurrection. If those in the second resurrection don’t have their names in the Book of life, why bother resurrecting them just to throw them into the lake of fire?

• Is it some Godly prerogative to raise people from the dead, only to throw them in the lake of fire where they die the “second death”?

Some claim that this is in fact the case, and quote:

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. … for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Rom 14:9-12)

I have heard a minister say that every knee shall bow to God, even if he has to break them! But that is not how God works: for he is kind and gentle and patient, full of mercy and long suffering toward us:

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2Peter 3:9)

God will give everyone the chance to come to repentance, and for most people that chance will be at the second resurrection.

But what happens to those in the second resurrection? We are told that this is a time of judgement. However, what judgement means in this context is what the next post in this series will address in detail.