![]() Walker, The Decline of Hell: Seventeenth-Century Discussions of Eternal Torment, 1964, p. That the dead are figuratively in a state of sleep, awaiting the resurrection, "was the prevalent opinion until as late as the 5th century" (D.P. They will then return to the earth to reign with Him in the Kingdom of God. They all will be caught up in the air to meet Christ in the first resurrection. ![]() So those who are in their graves will be resurrected, rising to meet the returning Messiah along with His followers who are then still alive. And thus we shall always be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). ![]() Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. "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 those who are asleep. In another reference that describes the state of the dead, Paul refers to the righteous dead who will be resurrected to meet Christ in the air as being "asleep": Yet as we have seen, this belief is not biblical. The common belief is that at death the body goes to the grave and the soul remains conscious and goes either to heaven or hell. Like Lazarus, everyone enters a figurative state of sleep at death. He had been entombed, where he "slept" in death until Jesus called him out of the grave by a miraculous resurrection. When the time came for Jesus to act, "He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!' And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes.Jesus said to them, 'Loose him, and let him go'" (John 11:43-44). Notice that Jesus stated emphatically that Lazarus was dead, but at the same time He described death as a condition like sleep. Jesus then plainly told them, "Lazarus is dead" (John 11:14). The disciples responded that sleep was good because it would help him get well (John 11:12). He told them Lazarus was asleep and that He was going to awaken him (John 11:11-14). Jesus decided to go to him, but, so He could perform a miracle to strengthen His disciples' faith, He waited until Lazarus died.īefore going to Bethany, Jesus discussed the condition of Lazarus with His disciples. "Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany" (John 11:1). Many centuries later the biblical account of the death of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus, illustrates death to be a sleeplike state. "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?.For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep then I would have been at rest.There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest" (Job 3:11-17). Job speaks of the state of the dead on more than one occasion. For there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going" (Ecclesiastes 5-10).ĭaniel 12:2 describes the dead as "those who sleep in the dust of the earth," who later "shall awake" through being resurrected. Passages throughout the Bible show this to be the case.įor example, Ecclesiastes 9 states, "For the living know that they will die but the dead know nothing. It is a sleep in which there is no thought, brain activity or life whatsoever.
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