What Happens When We Die?

These days, many people who have lost loved ones believe that their loved ones are looking down at them, or are somehow protecting them. Is there any truth to this? Are the dead really dead? Or do their spirits come back and communicate with the living? This is a subject that has many people confused, bewildered or worried. Let's investigate to find out the facts about this subject. Please look up the references in your Bible, to verify what we are saying here. Don't just take our word for it!

First of all, let go back to the beginning, to the creation of man. Look with us in Genesis, chapter 2:

Verse 7 - And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Wait a minute! Did it say "became" a living soul? Is that text saying that: Dust (body) + The Breath of Life = A LIVING SOUL? That's right. The soul is not a separate entity from the body; You must have both body AND breath for the soul to exist. Just like water is BOTH hydrogen AND oxygen: If you don't have both, you don't have WATER!

That being established, let's begin where death was first referenced: In the garden of Eden. God was speaking to Adam, after he ate of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is part of the curse that God placed on Adam, and therefore, on the entire human race. Turn to Genesis, chapter 3:

Verse 19 - In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return.

This indicates that Adam (and thus all humans) was to return to dust. We know that the body decays, after death. What happens to the spirit? Ecclesiastes, chapter 12 answers that:

Verse 7 - Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Here we see that at death, the spirit (breath) and the body separate; the body goes to the ground, and the spirit (breath) goes back to God. Now, what about consciousness after death? How do we know that the "spirit" has no awareness? Let's look at some other texts, like Ecclesiastes, chapter 9:

Verse 5 - 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.
Verse 6 - Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any [thing] that is done under the sun.
Verse 10 - 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.

From these verses, it shows that after we die, we do not know ANYTHING. Let's read some more about that from Psalms, chapter 146:

Verse 4 - His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

In fact, Jesus referred to death as sleep in John, chapter 11:

Verse 11 - 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.
Verse 12 - Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Verse 13 - Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Verse 14 - Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

This indicates that the dead are not in heaven or in hell or in purgatory, but sleeping in the ground. Let's look in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4 for some more insight:

Verse 16 - For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Verse 17 - Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Thus the dead will be raised at the last day, not brought back with Jesus, as some teach. They are resting now in the grave, but soon will rise to meet their maker, as shown in John, chapter 5:

Verse 25 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
Verse 28 - Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Verse 29 - And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

This page is maintained by Kelly O'Connor
 This page was updated on 01/31/2004