The Bible and its study, a daily investigation (Acts 17:11), presents us with a challenge. It provides numerous statements which bear on the question of our future: what happens at death and when Jesus returns. The biblical teaching on this important subject must be collected from across the pages of Scripture and synthesized to give a harmonious picture.
Fatal to this process are three
factors:
1) We prefer to believe what we have always
believed, or perhaps what is popular, despite the clear
evidence of the Bible against us.
2) We choose to examine the subject selectively,
relying on a small portion of the relevant evidence
and ignoring the rest. (You can prove almost
anything from the Bible, provided you use tunnel
vision and confine yourself to a tiny handful of
verses.)
3) We prefer not to examine the subject at all and
rely on a trusted instructor or tradition.
As Christians we are being trained to weigh evidence fairly, dispassionately, objectively and to arrive at Truth, even if such Truth disturbs our comfortable “status quo,” or perhaps puts us at odds with others.
In order to examine what Scripture teaches us, we start with the Hebrew Bible. It is a fundamental methodological error to ignore the clear teaching of the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible) in regard to the nature of man and his destiny. Someone might object to this principle by saying that in other matters, such as the observance of some laws, the Old Testament has been superseded by the New Testament. In that case, however, there is extensive New Testament teaching about our Christian relationship to Old Testament Law. But no New Testament teaching suggests that the Old Testament prophecies concerning the future of man and especially his resurrection from death are canceled by the New Testament.
According to Scripture in the Hebrew Bible, man at death descends to Sheol/Hades, the world of all the deceased (Psalm 86:13; Proverbs 15:24; Ezekiel 26:20). All the dead go downwards at death. No one ascends to the throne of God in heaven as a disembodied, immortal soul.
Secondly, Sheol/Hades is a place of complete inactivity. Conscious fellowship with God has been severed. “Existence” in Sheol is really not life at all: “One fate befalls both wise and fool” (Ecclesiastes 2:14). “The fate of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. There is no advantage for man over beast. All go to the same place. All come from the dust and all return to the dust” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20). (The writer then poses a question about where the breath or life force of a man or beast may go. But he does not answer the question. His point is that everyone at death returns to dust.)
The condition of the dead is then described with crystal clarity: “The living know that they are going to die: the dead do not know anything, nor any longer do they have any reward, for their memory is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). So the wise policy for the living is this: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for there is no activity, nor planning or wisdom in Sheol/Hades where you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). “Mortal man’s spirit departs, he returns to the earth. In that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:4). “Enlighten my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death” (Psalm 13:3). “Sheol/Hades cannot praise You. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness” (Isaiah 38:18).
What hope then does the Hebrew Bible offer for the dead? “The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol/Hades and raises up (resurrects)” (I Samuel 2:6). “God will ransom me [literally, ‘my soul’] from the power of Sheol/Hades” (Psalm 49:15). And now the classic passages in the Old Testament (from the 6th and 8th centuries BC) which promise us rescue from Sheol/Hades by resurrection from death: “Many of those who are sleeping in the dust of the ground will awake, some to everlasting life [literally, the life of the age to come]” (Daniel 12:2). “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust of the ground, awake and shout for joy” (Isaiah 26:19).
This consistent teaching about the afterlife from
the Hebrew Bible, the Bible in which Jesus was
thoroughly trained, as was Paul (Luke 24:44; II Timothy 3:15), tells us:
1) At death everyone goes down to Sheol/Hades,
a place of inactivity and silence.
2) Only by a future resurrection of the whole
person from death/Sheol/Hades can the sleeping dead
be awakened to “everlasting life.”
New Testament Christianity, not surprisingly, confirms this clear teaching unmistakably. Jesus echoes Daniel 12:2 and sees the dead in the same location until their rescue via resurrection: “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming in which all who are in their tombs will hear the voice of the Son of man and will come forth to a resurrection of life; others to a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28, 29). The pattern is utterly clear. There is no recovery from death apart from a future collective resurrection. Resurrection means coming out of the tomb. And this will not happen until Jesus returns to effect that rescue at the last trumpet.
A large number of New Testament passages fit hand-in-glove with what we have seen so far. The essential point to be grasped is that future rewards are not gained at the moment of death, but only at the future resurrection, an event which cannot occur until Jesus’ return to the earth: “The Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with the angels and then he will reward every person according to his deeds” (Matt. 16:27).
“You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14). “Those who are considered worthy to attain to that [future] age and the resurrection of the dead…will be sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:35, 36). Christians will receive eternal life in the Age to Come (Luke 18:30). The faithful will be resurrected at Jesus’ coming again (I Corinthians 15:23). “In the future there is laid up for me a crown of glory which the Lord will award me on that day, not only to me but to all who have loved his appearing” (II Timothy 4:8). The Bible concludes with an impressive statement declaring that it is only at Christ’s return that rewards are to be granted: “Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me, to render to everyone according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12).
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The above post was taken from here.
