AMA: ASK ME ANYTHING!
Dear Quarter,
What happens when we die?
This is a question that has been on the minds of men and women from around the world for millenniums. The Bible – being a source of light on this, sometimes, dark path of life – gives a clear and concise answer to this question.
Let’s start with David, the one chosen by God to be king of Israel. When his child had died, he said ‘But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me’ (2 Samuel 12:23). Here we find David expressing one of the most poignant truths about those who pass-away. It is simply, that those who die cannot come back in this lifetime. The book of Job supports this point quite vividly when he speaks concerning his death, saying ‘The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more’ (Job 7:8, 9, 10).
A logical question now – in light of the many different opinions – would be then, what is the state of someone after they have died? Do they inhabit some kind of underworld? Are they in purgatory? Or have they taken on another type of existence? The Bible is very clear on this point. It says ‘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. 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 … 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’ (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10). An explicit distinction is made here between the living and the dead. Every ability possessed by those that are alive, are not with those that are dead.
So the dead are unaware of everything, they cannot love, hate or work; they have ceased from existing, and all that they had has ‘perished’. ‘The dead know nothing’ is the resounding line that encompasses each particular characteristic listed here that is absent with those that have passed-away.
So in other words, you can safely say that the dead have no consciousness. The Bible explains this to us in familiar language in the book of Psalms where it says ‘Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death’ (Psalms 13:3). We understand from this verse that death is a type of sleep, and we all know that when we sleep, we are not conscious, but unconscious. The books of Acts and 1st Kings echoes this idea when speaking of the death of king David: ‘For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers…’; ‘So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David’ (Acts 13:36; 1st Kings 2:10). Jesus Christ understood this truth and taught it Himself. When His friend Lazarus had died, He plainly likens death to a sleep. The Bible says ‘These things said He: and after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus plainly, Lazarus is dead’ (John 11:11-14). Another account where Jesus likens death to a sleep is found when He raised a twelve year-old girl from the dead. The book of Luke says ‘And when He came into the house, He suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And He put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit