The Real Truth About Death - SFC2216

SPEAKER A Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. SPEAKER B Would you like to better understand the Bible? How can you grow as a Christian and find personal peace? What happens at the second coming of Jesus? What is the relevance of Bible prophecy today? How do you identify a cult? What happens when you die? Here is your opportunity to find answers to these and many other questions by exploring 30 not only relevant, but life changing topics that await your discovery. Welcome to search for certainty. SPEAKER C I'm your host today, Gayl Fong, and we're so glad you could join us in Bible study. And with me in this studio today is Hana Nakagawa. Welcome, Hana. SPEAKER D Thank you, Gayle. SPEAKER C Our topic today is called the Real Truth about Death. Hope beyond the grave. What happens five minutes after death? Heaven? Hell? nothingless. The subject of death has intrigued men and women down through the centuries. Books on near death experiences have catapulted into bestseller status. There has been an amazing upsurge of interest in spiritualism and communication with the dead. Can the dead communicate with the living? Does an immortal soul survive the body at physical death? How can the mystery of death be solved? There are rock solid answers to the question, what happens when you die? The Bible provides clear information. It reveals not only what happens when we die, but also how to face death with new hope and confidence. To answer the question, what happens when we die? It is necessary first to answer what happened when we were created and before we begin this amazing Bible study from God's word. Hana, would you open in prayer for us? SPEAKER D Sure. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we want to praise you because you have given us the Bible and you have shown us the truth. Father, as we open and study your scripture, please give us your Holy Spirit. And I pray that you will give us understanding about the death truth of the death, Lord. And I pray that your truth would make us free. Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER C Amen. Well, let's go to the book of beginnings, genesis, chapter two seven, to find how we were created according to the Bible. SPEAKER D Genesis two, verse seven, it says, and the Lord God formed men of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. SPEAKER C So Hana, we've got the dust of the ground and God's breath. The Bible does not teach that God placed a soul in human beings at creation. It specifically states that God formed our bodies out of the dust of the ground and breathed into them the breath of life. We then become a living being. Some Bible translations call us living souls. To state it in equation form, body plus breath equals a living soul or a living being or a living creature. Question how can the soul die? Can the soul die? Ezekiel 18, verse four. Shed some light on this question. Can the soul die? SPEAKER D It says, Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins shall die. SPEAKER C So the living person who sins shall die. Wow. So who only according to Scripture has immortality? Go to the New Testament, one Timothy, chapter six, verse 15 and 16. SPEAKER D It says, which he will manifest in his own time, he who is the blessed and only potentate, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. So only god, hats, immortality. SPEAKER C Amen. Mortal means subject to death. Immortal means not subject to death. Imperishable. The Bible never uses immortal to describe who we are. It uses it only to describe who God is. Immortality is a gift that God will give to us. Well, what does the apostle Paul say we are seeking for in the New Testament? In Romans, chapter two and verse seven. SPEAKER D Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good, seek good, seek for glory, honor and immortality. SPEAKER C So we're seeking for immortality? SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C But we don't have it yet. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER C Well, how does Job we're moving around the Bible, we're going to the Old Testament. Now. Job is the book before psalm. How does Job describe our current condition? Job, chapter four and verse 17. SPEAKER D Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker? SPEAKER C We are mortal according to this, according to Job. He knew he was mortal. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER C And yes, he knew we were all mortal. Well, when will God's people big question receive immortality? We're going to the New Testament to one Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 51 to 54. Thank you, Hana. SPEAKER D It says, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall know 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. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to past the saying it that is written, death is swollen up in victory. SPEAKER A Wow. SPEAKER C Hana, that's very comprehensive passage there that Paul has written to the church in Corinthians and to us today, he's saying we're going to be changed. Yes. And he's saying at the last trumpet, when Jesus comes again that's right. SPEAKER D When Jesus finally come back, that's when we will be changed. We will see him and be transformed. SPEAKER C Amazing. I love how he says that this mortal of whom we are, we are mortal. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER C Must put on immortality at this time and this corruptible must put on incorruption because our bodies decay, get sick, grow old. Hana, you were saying before we began that there was someone that lived for a very long time. SPEAKER D Yes, that's right. In Philippine there was a lady who lived until 120. She was the oldest person, and she was not even in a developed country. She was in the village of Philippines. But she was a believer of God. And she will be transformed when Jesus comes back. SPEAKER C Yes. Even when you can live a very healthy life and a very long life, death comes to all. SPEAKER D Yes, that's right. SPEAKER C But the promise is that God will come again and he will give us immortality. Death will be swallowed up in victory. Well, how does Solomon describe what happens at death? Ecclesiastes, chapter twelve and verse seven. Our ecclesiastes is in the Old Testament. SPEAKER D Yes. It says, Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit would return to God who gave it. SPEAKER C It's like a reversal of what we've read in Genesis. SPEAKER D It came back to where it was, the dust will go back to the earth, the spirit will return to God. SPEAKER C Yes. We're going to have a look at that a little more closely. So the Bible does not teach that the soul returns to God. The Bible mentions the word soul approximately 1800 times. It never once uses the expression immortal soul. For Bible believing Christians, the great hope is the resurrection at the second coming of Christ. Now, are human beings conscious at death and how much do they know? Ecclesiastes nine, verses five and six. SPEAKER D It says, for the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also, their love, their hatred and their envy has now perished. Never more will they have a share in anything done under the sun. The Bible is so clear dead. No, nothing. SPEAKER C That's very clear, isn't it? And never more will they have a share in anything done under the sun. Well, what about the thought processes? Do they continue after death? It doesn't sound like it. But let's look at another scripture. In Psalm chapter six and verse five. Psalm chapter six and verse five, the. SPEAKER D Bible says, for in death there is no remembrance of you in the grave who would give you thanks. SPEAKER A Wow. SPEAKER D We can't even remember of God, and we can't thank God in the death. SPEAKER C Just like Ecclesiastes, the dead know nothing. Hana, you've got another verse for us in Psalm 146 and verse four. SPEAKER D Yes. It says his spirit departs. He returns to his earth in the very day his plants perish. So we can have a lot of plants before, but once we die, no plants plant. All plants perish. SPEAKER C Hana, what is the Spirit that returns to God? We're going to read in Psalm 104, verse 29 and 30, and then we're going to go to Ezekiel 37, verses five and 14. SPEAKER D Sure, it says, you hide your face, they are troubled. You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. That was Psalm 100, 429 and 30. SPEAKER C So we've got there. You take away their breath. Then when you send your spirit, they are created. Okay, let's look. In Ezekiel 37, verses five and 14. SPEAKER D The Bible says thus says the Lord, go to these bones. Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. Verse 14, I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord. SPEAKER C Interesting there, Hana, as you read in Ezekiel, a prophet Ezekiel writes, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. And then a little later, in the same passage, I will put my spirit in you, and you shall live. So we see here. The spirit and the breath are the same throughout Scripture. When a person dies, it's God's life giving power, his breath that returns to God. And the Psalmist David states it this way as you read before, that his breath or his spirit goes forth in Psalm 146 and verse four. It's not some conscious entity. It's not some immortal soul. The Hebrew word for breath throughout Old Testament Scripture is Ruak. This Hebrew word means air, wind, or spirit. And I love this verse in Job chapter 27 and verse three that talks about God's spirit or breath in our nostrils. Would you read that for us? SPEAKER D Yes. Job 27, verse three. It says, as long as my breath is in me and the breath of God in my nostrils. SPEAKER C Now, Hana, you're reading from which version of the Scriptures? SPEAKER D It's a new King James versions. SPEAKER C Excellent. Now, if you were to read that in the King James version, it would read, as long as my breath is in me and the Spirit of God is in my nostril. SPEAKER D I see. SPEAKER C So that word breath, spirit is used interchangeably. SPEAKER D Interchangeable? SPEAKER C At death, this spirit or breath returns to God. As I've often said, you could put someone on a machine once they have been pronounced dead. Perhaps not that I'm a medical person, but you could pump oxygen into their body, but you can't give them life. SPEAKER D That's true. SPEAKER C Once they have died, can the dead worship God? Psalm 115, verse 17. SPEAKER D That's a really good question. Psalm 115, verse 17. The Bible says, the dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence, so nobody know that person can praise the Lord or worship him. SPEAKER C Thank you, Hana. God mercifully shuts our eyes at death to all of the sorrow, heartache and disappointment on earth. Since the dead know not anything as wise King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes nine and verse five. And in the grave there is not remembrance of you as David, the Psalmist wrote, as we read, as you read there, Hana, in Psalms six and verse five. It's only logical that the dead praise not the Lord, as you has just read in Psalm 115 and verse 17. SPEAKER D It's very consistent throughout the Bible. The dead know nothing. SPEAKER C It truly is. What does the Bible compare death to? Let's go to Psalm again. Psalm 13 and verse three. SPEAKER D It says Consider and hear me, O Lord my God, enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleeps of death. SPEAKER C So the Bible likens death to sleep, sleep, but it's the sleep of death. Now, when we get to the New Testament, jesus had a friend who got who was very sick, named Lazarus. Let's read the account of what happened with Lazarus. Let's go to John, chapter eleven, verses eleven through to 14. SPEAKER D It says these things he said, and after that he said to them, our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up. Then his disciples said, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get well. However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them, then plainly, Lazarus is dead. SPEAKER C That's very clear, isn't it, that Jesus likened Lazarus, who was dead? Lazarus is sleep asleep. The Bible compares death to asleep more than 50 times to the Bible. Believing Christian death is no more to be feared than a sound sleep. When we are sleeping soundly, we're not aware of time passing at all. We are at rest, complete rest. Well, how does Revelation's last message to the world describe death? In Revelation 14 and verse 13? SPEAKER D The Bible says then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them again. Died in the Lord talks about rest. SPEAKER C From their labors, resting, resting, resting in the grave. It's interesting because on grave sites you can read R-I-P. SPEAKER D Yes. Rest in peace. SPEAKER C Who has the keys to the grave? Revelation one and verse 18. SPEAKER D It says, I am he who this and what that, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of haste and death. SPEAKER C This is Jesus? SPEAKER D Yes, Jesus talking. He has the key. SPEAKER C He has the key because he rose from the grave. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C He conquered death by his perfect life, his death on our behalf and his resurrection. He's alive forevermore. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C He certainly does have the keys of Hades, of the grave and of death. What event will take place when Jesus comes? We had a little look at that in Corinthians, but let's read first thessalonians chapter four, verse 16 and 17. SPEAKER D It says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with a 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 class to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. SPEAKER C What a wonderful promise. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C The dead in Christ will rise first. SPEAKER D Yes. SPEAKER C So when Jesus comes the second time, those that are asleep in the grave, they will be awakened first. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C I like that. And then those who are alive and remain will be caught up. And as we looked at in a previous study, the angels are the reapers, so they catch us up to where Jesus is in the cloud. SPEAKER D Wow, what a oh, that's so exciting. SPEAKER C What a day that will be. Sometimes it's referred to as the resurrection morning, because it's the beginning of a life eternal. That new day of life eternal that will never end. Well, since Jesus has immortality and will grant it to us when he returns at the second Advent, how can we be sure to receive it? One John, chapter five, verse eleven and. SPEAKER D Twelve, it says, and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. SPEAKER C What a wonderful promise he will give us eternal life. SPEAKER D Yes. Whoever who has Son would have life. SPEAKER C Amen. To have the son. Death is a peaceful sleep until the return of Jesus. According to God's word, there is no consciousness of the passage of time in the grave for the righteous. The next event after death is the resurrection. Death for the believer is no more to be feared than a rest in the arms of a loving savior. When we accept Jesus, we receive the gift of eternal life and the promise of immortality. Well, there is a passage in the Bible, Hana, that perhaps we could just unpack a little. And didn't Jesus promise the thief on the cross that they would be together in paradise that day? So, to understand the Bible correctly, it is necessary to consider everything the Bible says about a given topic. Since the Scriptures do not contradict themselves, one part of the Bible cannot be used to disprove another part of the Bible. The overwhelming evidence in God's word is clear. Death, as we've discovered in so many passages, is an unconscious existence, a peaceful sleep, a restful bliss until Jesus comes and the resurrection of the righteous believers occurs. But let's turn to Luke. Luke, chapter 23 and verse 43, because Jesus says something to the thief that was next to him as he was on the cross. SPEAKER D It says, assuredly, I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. SPEAKER C Wow. Well, did Jesus mean he would meet the thief in paradise that day? Obviously not according to his own words. He did not ascend to heaven until after his resurrection on Sunday morning. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Let's have a look at that passage, Hana. In John chapter 20 and verses. Let's read the story from verse eleven through to 17 of John 20. SPEAKER D Sure. It says But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stood down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had laid. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you waiting? Whom are you seeking? She supposing him to be the gardener said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, marry. She tuned and said to him, Rabony, which is to say, Teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascend to my Father, but go to my brethren and said to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. SPEAKER C Jesus could not have promised to meet the thief in heaven on Friday if he did not ascend to the Father until Sunday. What did Jesus mean in his comment to the thief? A lot depends on where the comma is inserted, on where the writer wanted the reader to pause. If the comma is placed after the word today, I say to you, today, comma, you will be with me in paradise. The meaning is clear. The day he was dying on the cross, jesus assured the thief of eternal life in the future. His statement of assurance was uttered from the cross the day of his death. Punctuation was not in the original text, and most marks were not added by the Church until 1400 years later. In this sentence, putting the comma in a different place then it is usually put, allows Jesus words to make perfect sense. Wow. The Bible has an answer for everything. Well, here's another verse for us to consider. Didn't the apostle Paul long to depart and be with Christ? Let's have a look at that, Hana. In Philippians chapter one and verse 23. SPEAKER D Sure, Philippian chapter, chapter one and verse 23, it says for I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. SPEAKER C So he certainly did say those words. But what was he longing for? Was the resurrection and Jesus second coming? To clarify this point, as we read earlier. Hana, if you would take us back to one, Corinthians 15, verse 51 to 54. It's such a beautiful passage. I know we've read it before, but let's read it again. SPEAKER D Sure. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the trinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead would be raids incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. SPEAKER C He knew very well about the Second Coming. He wrote about it so prolifically there now in two Timothy, chapter four and verses seven and eight. And this was Paul's second imprisonment in Rome under the emperor Nero. And we find here this passage. How does he put his Christian experience and his victory? SPEAKER D I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. SPEAKER C So he wrote these words in full confidence of the resurrection of the just. SPEAKER D He also said, that will give to me on that day as well. SPEAKER C Amen. And Paul was executed in Rome in 80 67. So according to scripture and according to what the Lord has, the Holy Spirit has given him to write in these precious books of the Bible, he is awaiting, as you read there, before the return of Jesus the second. Coming of Christ, where he says in one thessalonians 416 and 17, as you read so fluently there before, Hana, that the dead in Christ would rise first, so Paul will rise in that resurrection. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C So he was ready. His heart was ready, but he knew that death was asleep, and he knew he would be waiting for the return of Jesus. Since there is no passage of time in death, the next instant Paul will know, after having closed his eyes in the sleep of death, will be seeing Jesus on the resurrection morning. This is certainly a topic of great hope. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Well, this may be new to you listening in, and it is just wonderful revelation of God's plan that will be fulfilled, because every word of God is true and faithful. Well, placing my full confidence in Jesus, I trust Him to raise me in the first resurrection if I die before he returns. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Amen. Well, let us close this study in prayer. Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for teaching us today through your word that Jesus, you are the resurrection and the life. You are the one who holds the keys to Hades and the grave, the grave could not hold you. And all those who have faith and trust in you, you have died for the sins of the whole world. That not any should perish but that all should be able to experience eternal life. We thank you for this blessed hope, the Second Coming of Jesus. We thank you, Lord, that you have reminded us today that death is asleep. It is a sleep of unconsciousness where the dead remember nothing, where they cannot praise God, they cannot feel. They cannot be anywhere but resting in peace. But you are the wake up man. You know how to put us all together and you will recreate us. But we will be who we are when we rise in the resurrection. What a wonderful hope we have to look forward to. And there are those that will be alive to see you when you return. We thank you that we may have that hope of being reunited with loved ones, with friends and that there is life beyond the grave. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Thank you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Well, thank you for joining us today. We pray that this has given you hope and we invite you to join us again. But till then, God bless you and go in peace. SPEAKER A Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And a lightI unto my path. You're the light unto my path. SPEAKER E If you have questions or comments about any of the programs you've heard, you can call three 3ABN Australia Radio within Australia on 024-97-3456, or from outside of Australia on Country Code 612-497-3456. Our email address is [email protected] that is radio at the number 3abnaustralia.org.au Our postal address is 3ABN, Australia, Inc. PO. Box seven five two. Morisset, New South Wales 2264, Australia thank you for your prayers and financial support. SPEAKER A 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 change. For this corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. So sleep sweetly until he comes. He's coming soon to wake you up. Sleep sweetly until he comes. And we are together forever and ever more. Soon Jesus Christ will break through the sky with a trumpet sound and an angel choir. He'll call out wake up, my dear children, and we will arrive. So sleep sweet until he comes. He's coming soon to wake you up. Sleep sweetly until he comes. And we are together forever and ever. SPEAKER C From Carly Fletcher's album follow the Lamb. That was Sleep Sweetly. Coming up next from Marleta Fong's album, Drew It All. This is he's alive? SPEAKER A The gates and doors apart and all the windows fastened down I spent the night in sleeplessness rose at every sound half in hopeless sorrow half in fear the dead would find the soldiers breaking through to drag my soul over. And just before the sunrise, I heard something at the wall. The gate began to rattle and a voice began to call. I hurried to the window, looked down into the street, expecting swords and torches and the sound of soldiers. There was no death. Mary so in town to let her in. John stood there beside me as she told us where she'd been. She said they moved him in the night and none of us knows when. The stone been rolled away and now his body isn't there. We found the stone and he empty tomb, just the way Mary said. But the winding she later, after it was just an ambition. And how aware that taking? Him was more than I could oh, something strange had happened there just what I didn't know john believed a miracle I just turned to go circumstance and speculation couldn't lift me very high because I'd seen them crucify him then I saw he back inside the house again. All the guilt and anguish came. Everything I promised him just added to my shame when I came to choice and I knew his name. And even if he was alive, it wouldn't be the same. But suddenly the air was filled with a strange and sweet perfume light that came from everywhere, throw shadows from the room. Jesus stood before me with his arms fell open wide. I fell down. On my knees just clone to you and cried and you raised me to my feet and as I looked into his eyes love was shining out from him like sunlight from the sky guilt and my confusion disappeared in sweet veins and every fear I'd ever had just melted into peace. You. Hallelujah. Every night, Jesus, I'm. SPEAKER F Welcome to answers to the big questions. I'm your host, Allen Sonter, and I'm glad you could join me. In the last episode, I talked about who Satan is and told you that he's a rebel angel who claims to have a better system of government than God has. God's government is based on love, but Satan's is based on pride, coercion and deception. Satan is fighting against God because he wants to take God's place as ruler of the universe. I also mentioned rather briefly the plan that God made to save us from the results of our first parents obeying Satan and giving him control of this world. You'll remember that God said we would eventually die if we obeyed Satan. God is the Creator, and only by obeying Him can we continue to live. But what really is this thing called death? To answer this question, we need to go right back to the beginning of this world's history. God created life in all its many forms and his final work was the creation of human beings. Sometime after creation, Satan came into the garden where Adam and Eve lived. And in Genesis chapter three and verse five, we learned that he told them. That the reason why God had instructed them not to eat the fruit of that special tree was that God was jealous and didn't want them to become as wise as he himself was. Satan said that eating the fruit would make them wise, knowing both good and evil, and they would become like God. Part of what Satan said then was true. Eating the fruit did enable Adam and Eve to know both good and evil, but that knowledge didn't do them any good at all. It didn't make them wiser, but resulted in their destruction. And they certainly didn't become more like God except in knowing what evil was. Satan directly contradicted God telling Eve that if she ate the fruit, she would not die. That was a direct lie. And from that day to this, Satan has been trying to convince the human race that what he said was true. He's been trying to get us to believe that we don't really die, but that when we apparently die, we really pass on to some higher state of being. Satan's evil angels help him to deceive us by impersonating people who have died and by appearing to their loved ones, telling them all kinds of lies about where they now are. God warns us in Deuteronomy 18, verses nine to twelve, about this kind of deception and tells us to have nothing to do with those who pretend to be the spirits of the dead. God, through the wise man Solomon, tells us very plainly in Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verses five and six in the Bible that the dead don't know anything and they don't have anything to do with those living on the earth. At this point, I need to tell you about another tree that God planted in the Garden of Eden. He called it the Tree of Life. It appears that God intended that had people always been loyal to Him, they would have eaten regularly from this tree and would never have grown old and died. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, he barred them from eating from the Tree of Life. So from that point they began to grow old and die. Nobody since then has ever eaten from that tree. So all of us grow old and die. We die because we are deprived of something that is in the fruit of the Tree of Life. That substance, whatever it is, is the secret of eternal life. And for the present only God knows it and he isn't telling. And I'm sure that's just as well. Imagine the misery if some selfish and cruel crime boss learned the secret of eternal life and could continue terrorizing us for thousands of years. It's possible that another reason we grow old and die is that sin has caused fear and stress which causes our bodies to break down because God didn't design us to live with this kind of stress brought about by sin. But now we come to a puzzling thing about death. Sometimes God calls death asleep. When a friend of Jesus Christ's called Lazarus became sick and died, jesus told his disciples in John chapter eleven and verse eleven that Lazarus was asleep. The disciples misunderstood what he meant and said that if Lazarus was asleep, it was a good sign that he was getting better. But then in John eleven, verse 14, Jesus said clearly, Lazarus is dead. Why should there be this confusion between sleep and death? The fact is, one kind of death is very much like sleep, especially the way God looks at it. Sleep is a time when we know nothing and we're not conscious of the passing of time. But then we wake up. The kind of death we all experience on this earth is like that too. At death, we lose consciousness and we aren't aware of the passage of time. And then we wake up when we are raised to life in the resurrection. That is the picture the Bible gives us of the death that God calls asleep. From this death, everyone is resurrected. Those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior are raised to life when Jesus returns to this earth a second time. We are told that in one thessalonians four verses 15 to 17. This happens when God sees that Satan's experiment with his type of government has gone on long enough. In the book of Revelation, this resurrection is called the first resurrection. Those who are raised to life in the first resurrection never die again. According to Revelation 20 verses four to six, they're given eternal life by God and they will live in heaven, accepting God's rulership forever. Of course, only those who are unselfish and loving will be happy to live under the rule of a loving God who cannot allow selfishness in his universe. Those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and who want to live selfish lives without caring for others, are raised to life 1000 years later in a second resurrection spoken of in the bracketed part of Revelation 20, verse five. Then Satan persuades them to join him in one last desperate attempt to unseat God from his throne and set up Satan himself as the permanent ruler of this world as described in Revelation 20, verses seven and ten. But this attempt will fail, and Satan, all his evil angels, and everyone who has accepted his rule and followed him while living on this earth, will finally be destroyed in a lake of fire. This death is called the second death. In Revelation 20 verse 14, there's no resurrection from this second death, and this second death is never called asleep. The apostle Paul, when he wrote his letter to the Christians in Rome, called this second death the wages of sin, and we read that in Romans, chapter six, verse 23. In a recent survey made in the United States by Time Magazine, it was found that about 85% of those surveyed indicated that they believed in some form of life after death. Most of these believed that they would go directly to heaven when they died. Despite the fact that the Bible gives a clear indication that this first death we all die is an unconscious sleep. Why is the matter so misunderstood? I believe it's misunderstood because, as I mentioned earlier, Satan has always tried to deceive us into believing his first lie. That is, that we won't really die. Most people who believe they go directly to heaven when they die believe that human beings have an immortal soul. That's usually understood to mean that there is some conscious entity that leaves the body at death and goes to heaven to continue some form of conscious existence. But the Bible tells us that God formed man from the clay and then breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living being. It does not say in Genesis two seven that man was given a living soul, but that he became a living soul. It also says in Psalm 146 three and four that when a person dies, his breath goes from him. He returns to the earth, and he knows nothing. Solomon, the world's wisest man, writing under the influence of God, tells that once a person dies he has no further feelings of any kind and can have no further part in anything that happens on this earth. He says in Ecclesiastes chapter nine, verses five and six, that the dust returns to the ground it came from. The breath of life returns to God who gave it. So there is no conscious entity or spirit to continue its existence. The two components, clay or dust from the earth and the breath of life from God combine to form a living person or a living soul. At death, the breath of life returns to God, the dust or clay returns to the ground and the living soul ceases to exist. I believe that this breath of life may be something like a file of our whole life that God uses to recreate us at the resurrection. The way the Bible describes the creation of humans and the death of humans is like an equation, and it looks like this at creation we have clay from the earth plus breath from God equals a living soul or person. At death, we have the living soul or person minus breath, which goes back to God, and that equals clay, which returns to the earth. Some people think that a fictitious parable Jesus told in Luke chapter 16 and verses nine to 31 about a rich man and a beggar, Lazarus, who both died and went to hell and heaven respectively, was a true story. But Jesus told the story only to teach a spiritual truth, not to describe what really happens when people die. He simply used a traditional story in much the same way as we tell humorous stories about Peter at the Pearly Gates. Only Jesus turned the story around to teach an important lesson. The story couldn't be literally true because according to this story, heaven and hell are within shouting distance, and both the rich man and the beggar have bodies that feel pain and have fingers and other physical features. Not even those who believe in the spirit going to heaven think that they take their bodies with them. Those who believe they go directly to heaven when they die usually think that they have an immortal soul. This soul is considered to be a conscious entity that can exist apart from the body. But if the soul is immortal, then it can have no beginning and no end. In the Bible, the apostle Paul, when writing to his friend Timothy, says in one Timothy Six, verse 16, that God alone is immortal. The implication of that is that anyone who is immortal is God. That you remember was part of Satan's first lie. He told Eve that if she ate the fruit, she would become as God. It was a lie when Satan told it then, and it's still a lie today. Man is not God, and he has no immortal soul, and he is no immortal soul. So that's the truth about death. The first death is asleep, from which we are raised to life again when Jesus returns the breath. We all die this death because we cannot now eat the fruit of the Tree of Life. Those who have accepted Jesus Christ are raised at the first resurrection and never die. They live forever. Those who have not accepted Christ are raised to life a thousand years later, only to die the second death when they are destroyed along with Satan and his evil angels in a lake of fire, as described in Revelation, chapter 20, verses nine and ten. The second death is the wages of sin and is not paid to those who accept Christ as their Savior because he died in their place. The last few chapters in the Book of Revelation in the Bible outline these details. When Satan and all his followers are destroyed, god will clean up the mess Satan's terrible experiment has caused. All those in the universe who have not followed Satan will then live forever in a heaven where no suffering or death will ever come. My friend, if you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, why don't you do so now? Just tell him that you're sorry for your sin and want to be on his side, not Satan's, and that you intend to learn to love him and get to know him as your friend. Then you won't have to worry about the second death, and the first death will have no fear for you either. You'll awake from it when Jesus comes and calls you to everlasting life with him. A moment ago, I mentioned that there will be no suffering when God puts an end to Satan's work. But there is suffering now, and perhaps one of the most vexing questions people ask is why does a good God allow suffering? In the next episode, I will try to answer that question. I invite you to listen again to find out about this vital topic. You've been listening to answers to the Big Questions. I'm Allen Sonter, and I hope you can join me again next time. SPEAKER C You've been listening to a production of Three ABN Australia radio.