A curious question this is! Day in,
day out we hear of someone somewhere dying. Has it all ended … just like that?
Is that all there is to living? Or are they merely changing abode? The question
Where are the dead follows from many deductions.
First is the natural belief amongst many that the dead is only out of physical
sight, but not necessarily out of their midst. Some believe they continue to
guide and protect their family, hence the practice of talking to the dead. This
is common at burials. Others who believe the Bible know that there is a final
day of judgment coming, and since that day has yet to come, they ask where the
dead go in the intervening period between death and the final judgment?
There are different opinions of where
the dead may be. You may have heard one or more of the following:
Some believe the dead merely change
abode. They disappear from their present physical abode and appear in another
clime where they live and continue their activities – schooling, trading, or working.
So we here of a certain so-and-so who died some years back but now seen living
and thriving in another country.
Some believe the dead reincarnate,
that is, they are re-born into this world through normal biological process and
begin again as babies. This is seen often in the question at times put to
people at occasions … ‘If you were to come back in the next world, what would
you like to be?’
Those who believe in ‘soul sleep’
opine that the dead cease to exist. They are not conscious of anything. They
are simply sleeping without dreaming. It is however not said whether that sleep
is in the grave or outside it.
Others say good people enter heaven
while the not-so-good go to where their venial sins are first purged, from
where they then emerge to enter heaven.
Yet others say the good ones enter
heaven direct, while the bad ones go directly to hell where they suffer
unending torment in flames of fire.
In the midst of these diverse
opinions and controversies we ask, “What is the truth?”
To know the truth there must first
be an acceptable source of truth. Unfortunately, what is acceptable to one may
not be to another. There is really no universal source of truth agreeable to
all. Each, according to their personal conviction, establishes their own source
and body of truth. Thus we have differing opinions on issues, including the
hereafter. In answer to our question therefore, we may say The truth to YOU is what YOU want to believe. The danger here though
is that one may hold tenaciously to their body of truth for all their life in a
matter of such eternal consequence as the hereafter, only to discover when they
could no longer make amends that they were wrong all along! May this never
happen to you.
From where do we get the truth
about the dead? None of us has yet passed through there, but our conviction is
based on the testimony of the Holy Bible. We believe the Bible is the word of
God and is authentic to knowing His mind on issues.
The other point about truth on the subject of our discourse is
the interpretation of the Bible account on it. Those who believe the Bible to
be the source of truth read different meanings into its account. Some even introduce
what other Bible users regard as extraneous material. This complicates matters
and leaves the seeking mind more confused. Our aim in this piece is to be as
concise as possible, and pray that God, who alone gives understanding, will
open the reader’s eyes and mind to understand.
First, the dead do not appear
anywhere else in the physical realm to continue existence as do the living. The
Bible says, “Mortals are destined to die once and after that to face judgment”
(Hebrews 9: 27).
Second, the dead do not
reincarnate. Ordinary family phenotypic semblances may cause a newborn to look
like a late member of the family, but never the late member returning. The
living will rather go “the way of all the earth” (Joshua 23: 14) than the dead return to
the living. King David knew this when he said of his late son, “I
will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12: 23). At times people make marks on the dead so they
could use that to identify them when they return. Such marks only become
gateways to satanic manipulations which demonic spirits exploit to deceive the ignorant.
Thirdly, the dead do not cease to
exist. Those who postulate ‘soul sleep’ do not deny there is a soul in the
living. What they object to is the soul having a consciousness after death.
Their belief is that the soul is not conscious of anything. It has forever gone
to sleep, never again to be conscious. But the Bible says in Revelation 6: 9 – 11 “… I
saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word
of God… they called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord…’”
Certainly, souls that sleep and are not aware of anything would not call out as
here recorded.
Fourthly, the Bible does not
mention any intermediary place where unrighteous souls first go to for
cleansing before they qualify to enter heaven. All preparation for heaven ends on
earth, not after death. If anything, the Bible says after death comes judgment,
not cleansing. It would be a most fatal mistake for any to think that remnants
of their sins would be expiated after death. There is no repentance in the
grave. Again, to think that one can suffer enough to atone for their sins is to
spite the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world. None enters heaven on account of what they can do for
themselves. All enter on account of what Christ has done for them.
We have taken this brief time to refute unscriptural views
about the dead. We hope, by God’s grace, to conclude this in the next edition
answering the question Where are the dead.
Peace be with you!
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