Death What happens?
Please also see: ‘Jesus Return.’ ‘Eternal Life.’ ‘Resurrection.’
Seek the Truth with all your heart.
As I have said elsewhere, the automatic (default) setting on this world is death -- hell.
All of humanity is destined to die, so only GOD, through Jesus, could die on our behalf, paying our unavoidable penalty. Following this, Jesus then defeated death; and now through relationship with Him and making Him Lord of our life, we become inheritors of the most amazing privileges and eternal future, which in human reality are unimaginably magnificent. There are many scriptures pertaining to this; some obvious, many are not, unless the Holy Spirit gives the reader illumination and understanding.
It is only by the grace of GOD that we breathe and exist in this life.
2 Samuel 7:12 ‘When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish HIS kingdom.’
Ecclesiastes 9:3-6 ‘This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among the living has hope; even a live dog is better off than a dead lion.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate, and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.’ (‘Under the sun’ means ‘on this present Earth.’) This does not preclude eternal life which GOD gives to those who, as HIS loving children, are resurrected by Christ, not immediately, but at the appointed time.
Any so-called evidence of relatives (etc.) speaking or revealing their presence, is just demonic trickery attempting to show evidence to prove correct, Satan’s original words to Eve that if she disobeyed GOD and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she would not surely die. This requires one to be informed, alert, and aware.
Isaiah 40:6B-8 “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our GOD stands forever.”
Isaiah 57:1-2 ‘The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.’
Psalm 116:15 ‘Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of HIS faithful servants (the saints.’) This refers to those (faithful believers) who love GOD and live according to His instructions, because GOD knows they will be in the resurrection.
Romans 5:12-13 ‘Just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned, for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.’
Romans 6:23 ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of GOD is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
This shows the distinctly opposite and vastly different outcomes after death, depending on whether or not you have a personal relationship with GOD.
Many people believe that life is meaningless, as Solomon postulated in ‘Ecclesiastes,’ because it all ends in death; so nothing we ever do will matter in the long run. That is fundamental logic IF there is no other meaning or option, and that is how it would be if Jesus had not opened the door to eternal life in the Creator’s kingdom. Each person may inherit this by their own personal choice. If everything we have ever done, all our achievements, and every person we have ever influenced and helped, will be forever lost and forgotten; what can be the meaning of life?
Christians do not go to heaven when they die; nor unbelievers to hell. They wait asleep (in the grave) for Christ to return to Earth, “His reward with Him,” which is to raise (resurrect) to eternal life, in new perfect bodies, all those who died in true, loving relationship with GOD. They rest in the wonderful hope of the resurrection.
GOD-loving people who are still alive at that time will be instantly changed into their new, perfect, immortal bodies, to inherit eternal life.
If people believe that after death, they will live in a different form and place, then they are opening themselves to spiritual deception. Such belief removes the fact of the resurrection by Jesus, at His coming, to take those who are GOD’s children home to heaven. This is reserved for Him to perform as He said He would.
Jesus set the pattern, sleep followed death, then the resurrection raised Him back to life. All who have become GOD’s true children will follow this pattern, but their (our) resurrection will only be when GOD sends Jesus back to Earth to carry this out, and this will only be when HE decides the appointed time, which not even Jesus will know until that time.
We are already living in ageing, decaying bodies; so to defeat death we have to inherit new eternal bodies for which death will not exist. This can only happen after the resurrection of those who were in a true relationship with Jesus and GOD when they died; which means those who made the choice of truly wanting to inherit eternal perfect life in GOD’s perfect kingdom in heaven, and on the future new Earth.
Nearly everyone person does not want to die; yet so many do not yet know about what Jesus has done for humanity by opening the door for every person to choose eternal life through Him. So many reject Jesus and GOD, without bothering to know what they are rejecting.
Life without GOD just ends in death without any eternal prospects. GOD sadly sees this as ignominious, because such people have shunned HIS most magnificent offer through Jesus.
If you have loving, meaningful, personal relationship with GOD, you don’t have to worry about death because you are accepted by GOD, and will be included in the resurrection to eternal life when Jesus returns to take GOD’s children – family, home to heaven.
Matthew 10:28 ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill your body but cannot kill your soul. Rather be afraid of the one (Satan) who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ (The Greek word translated ‘destroy’ in this text is rendered ‘to destroy utterly.’)
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ‘Brothers we do not want you to be uninformed about the believers who fall asleep (die), or to grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that GOD will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of GOD, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.’
Paul knew the dead who “sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake” he understood Daniel 12:2 ‘Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the Earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.’
Psalm 146:4 ‘When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.’
Paul knew that his next waking moment would be in the resurrection, and that it would seem as though it just followed on from earthly life. It will seem to Paul that he is present with the Lord immediately following death. The time passed will seem like an instant.
2 Corinthians 5:6-8 ‘So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.’
On the day we are resurrected we will be in our new, perfect, everlasting bodies, and we will ‘know as we are known’ (1 Corinthians 13:12) and as GOD knows every hair on our head (Matthew 10:30 & Luke 12:7) We will immediately have that level of knowledge together with the answers to all the questions which we have now. We will have an amazing level of knowledge which will be our new starting point to a process of forever learning and expanding our knowledge, in heaven and on the new Earth. We will forever continue to grow in advanced knowledge, while continuously worshipping GOD and doing what HE has planned for us to do, which we presently cannot imagine.
(1 Corinthians 2:9)
Philippians 3:20 ‘But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.’
Romans 14:8 ‘If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.’
Revelation 14:13 ‘Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on,” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.’
If the Holy Spirit of GOD is dwelling in you; salvation means receiving eternal life at the resurrection on Jesus return, or, instantly changed for those still living.
Many people say that they will live on through their children, but their children’s lives are their own and completely separate. GOD ultimately wants a never ending (eternal) relationship with you, not memories of you or memories being carried by someone else.
No Reincarnation.
Buddhism was created by the powers of Satan after the first Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BCE. During this time the Shekinah Glory (The presence of GOD that dwelt in the Temple,) was not on the earth. Other false religions were founded such as those involving Greek gods. The Jewish tradition of reincarnation comes from false teaching within Buddhism. Buddhism is a philosophy not a religion.
The false concept of life continuing after death, and the assumption that the dead person is now in heaven, or wherever else, according to what some people might think, originated from Paganism and Greek philosophy.
Amazing stories and experiences involving a dead relative communicating details with them in a way that only that particular dead person could possibly have known, can be very convincing for some people. These are actually demonic spirits who are capable of masquerading as that person in full appearance and detail, to convince relatives and friends that the particular dead person is not actually dead but now existing in another realm. This is all Satan’s deception, and is one of the functions he has given his demonic fallen angels to carry out; with the purpose of cleverly deceiving people into believing that there is no need for Jesus and GOD. Satan’s evil angels assume the fully recognizable likeness of loved ones, so that their living relative(s) are confronted by a perfect counterfeit. Satan will also even use scripture in a twisted way with his own spin on it to be further convincing. Never underestimate the wiles of Satan and his demonic angels. GOD, the creator of the Universe, is the source of true power, strength, wisdom, and truth.
Malachi 4:1 “Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or branch will be left to (of) them.”
Job 14:10-12 & 21 ‘But a person dies and is laid low; they breathe their last and are no more. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so a person lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused from their sleep. If their children are honoured, they do not know it; if they are brought low, they do not see it.’
Proverbs 11:30-311 ‘The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever wins souls is wise. If the righteous receive their due on Earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner.’
Psalm 115:17 ‘It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to silence.’ The dead are dead (asleep).
Psalm 116:15 ‘Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of HIS faithful servants.’
Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 ‘For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.’
Ecclesiastes 9:10 ‘Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.’
These verses show that when a person dies, their thoughts perish, and they are unaware of anything including any sense of time.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 ‘The Spirit returns to GOD from whom it came.’
Job 2:7-8 ‘I thought ‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’ But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.’
Psalm 49:15 “But GOD will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me.”
Death is the utter extinction of life. It is only through the future resurrection by Jesus that each person who was in personal relationship with GOD will be given an immortal body and eternal life, in perfection, in a new world beyond our wildest imagination, which is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 2:9.
Death is a sleep.
Death is referred to 66 times in the Bible as a sleep (rest), as follows:
Deuteronomy 31:16. Thou (Moses) shall sleep with thy fathers.
1 Kings 1:21. My lord King David shall sleep with thy fathers. 1 Kings 2:10. So David slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 11:21. David slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 14:20. He (Jeroboam) slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 14:31. Rehoboam slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 15:8. Abijam slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 15:24. Asa slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 16:6. Baasha slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 16:28. Omri slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 22:40. Ahab slept with his fathers.
1 Kings 22:50. Jehosaphat slept with his fathers.
2 Kings 8:24 Joram slept with his fathers.
2 Kings 10:35. Jehu slept with his fathers.
2 Kings 13:9. Jehoahaz slept with his fathers.
Job 3:13. I should have slept.
Job 7:21. Now shall I sleep.
Psalm 76:5. They have slept their sleep.
Jeremiah 51:39. – then sleep forever and not awake.
Daniel 12:2. Them that sleep in the dust.
Matthew 9:24. Is not dead, but asleep.
John 11:11. Lazarus asleep.Acts 13:36. David fell asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:6. Some are fallen asleep.
1 Thessalonians 4:13. Concerning them which are asleep.
2 Peter 3:4. Since the fathers fell asleep.
Daniel 12:13 ‘As for you (Daniel,) go your way till the end. You will rest, (sleep) and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.’
‘Sleep’ is clearly the biblical term for death. Following are more texts which refer to death as ‘sleep’:
2 Kings 13:13; 14:16, 22, 29. 15:7, 22, 38. 16:20. 20:21. 21:18. 24:6.
2 Chronicles 9:31. 12:16. 14:1. 16:13. 21:1. 26:2, 23. 27:9. 28:27. 32:33. 33:20.
Job 14:12.
Psalm 13:3. 76:6. 90:5.
Jeremiah 51:57.
Matthew 27:52.
Mark 5:39b Jesus said “Why all this commotion and wailing.? The child is not dead but asleep.”
Luke 8:52b-53 ‘Jesus said “Stop wailing, she is not dead but asleep.” They laughed at Him, knowing that she was dead.’
Sleep references are also in: Acts 7:60, & 13:36. 1 Corinthians 11:30, & 15:6, 18, 20, 51.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-15.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 ‘But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in their own turn: Christ, the first-fruits; then, when He comes, those who belong to Him.’
1 Corinthians 15:32 ‘If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
After this Earth has been destroyed and GOD’s children raised, for them, death will be finished.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58 ‘I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of GOD, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to GOD. HE gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.’
Isaiah 25:8 ‘HE will swallow up death forever. The sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; HE will remove the disgrace of HIS people from all the Earth. The LORD has spoken.’
Revelation 21:4 ‘HE will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’
1 Corinthians 15:26 ‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death.’
More evidence that the ‘saved’ do not go straight to heaven when they die, is found in the following:
Acts 2:29 & 34-35 ‘Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the Patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Luke 6:23a “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.”
1 Peter 1:3-5 ‘Praise be to the GOD and FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade; kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by GOD’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed on the last day.’
Clearly, both in the Old and New Testaments, ‘sleep’ is used to describe death; it is a sleep till Jesus the Messiah comes to resurrect GOD’s family.
The dead in Christ – the true Jesus and GOD loving Christians – are asleep – completely unconscious – waiting in hope of the resurrection to eternal life in perfect new bodies, and GOD gives us new names.
John 14:1-3 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in GOD; trust also in Me. In my Father’s house are many rooms (mansions); if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I (Jesus) go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
John 5:24-26 “I tell you the truth, whoever hears My Word and believes and believes Him Who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; that person has crossed over from death to life (eternal). I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of GOD and those who hear will live. For as the FATHER has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.”
John 5:28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His Voice and come out; those who have done good will rise to live (eternally), and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.”
Romans 8:19-21 ‘The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of GOD to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of GOD.’ The whole of chapter 8 is well worth reading slowly and thoughtfully, to be able to appreciate its incredible meaning and blessing for those who choose truly meaningful relationship with GOD.
Those who are sleeping will be awoken at The Coming of The Lord.
(See ‘Jesus return.’)
Please read the magnificent news in: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; & 5:1-11.
On that day when unsaved people stand face to face with eternity, it will be extremely sad for them in looking back, they will see the whole of their life presented just as they have lived it. The pleasures, treasures, riches, assets, and honours will seem completely unimportant, and they will see that the only true value was and is living according to GOD’s righteousness and relationship with Jesus and GOD the FATHER. They will see that they have moulded their characters and values under Satan’s deceptive allurement. They will see the results of their choices and what it means to transgress GOD’s requirements. There will not be any future probation in which to prepare for eternity. It is in this life that we need to relate to, and embrace, Christ’s righteousness, this is our only opportunity to prepare.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the person who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and in Your Name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you evildoers!’
Luke 12:20-23 ‘’But GOD said to him, “You fool! This night you life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward GOD.
We need to manage our lives with the correct perspective of what we know lies ahead.
Luke 21:34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.”
Philippians 3:20-21 ‘But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.’
Hebrews 2:14-15 ‘Because GOD’s children are human beings, made of flesh and blood, the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die and only by dying could He break the power of death. Only in this way could He set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.’
The following scriptures are some that highlight the sad outcome for those who do not have a loving relationship with Jesus and GOD.
Psalm 37:20 ‘But the wicked will perish. Though the LORD’s enemies are like the flowers of the field, they will be consumed they will go up in smoke.’
Romans 6:23 ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of GOD is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
Ezekiel 28:18-19 ‘By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.
All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.’
Ezekiel 33:11 “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways; for why will you die?”
Malachi 3:16 – 4:3 ‘Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in HIS presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honoured HIS NAME.’
“On the day when I act,” says the LORD ALMIGHTY, “they will be MY treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve GOD and those who do not.”
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evil-doer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD ALMIGHTY. “Not a root or branch will be left to them. But for you who revere MY NAME, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the LORD ALMIGHTY.’
1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 ‘ We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that GOD will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of GOD, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.'
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 ‘The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and be saved.’
James 2:26 ‘As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.’
The first half of this statement is saying that without a person living in the body any longer, the body is dead.
Revelation 20:4b-9 ‘They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection.
The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of GOD and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth – Gog and Magog – to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of GOD’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.’
Revelation 20:14-15 ‘Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.’
The lake of fire will be of burning sulphur which asphyxiates life almost immediately.
This is GOD’s destruction of all who did not love Jesus and GOD’s truth, because they had accepted the deception of Satan the devil.
Revelation 21:7-8 “Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their GOD and they will be MY children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolators, and all liars; they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Burning sulphur / sulfur; the much more evocative Germanic equivalent is ‘brimstone,’ a word which is also used, literally meaning ‘burning stone,’ the burning of which asphyxiates one immediately. It instantaneously paralyzes breathing, there is no living through such an experience, death is immediate.
As stated elsewhere, the automatic (default) setting on this world is death = eventual hell = the lake of fire of burning sulphur, in which it is impossible for life to survive. The only escape is relationship with Jesus.
Communication - so-called - with dead people:
All such communication, no matter how amazing and convincing it may be, is demonic. It is orchestrated by Satan and his demons to create a situation that is convincing of life existing after death. These demonic spirits, with intimate, detailed, accurate knowledge, appearing exactly like the dead person, are known as familiar spirits who are expert at deception, and appearing in any form or likeness they choose.
This all serves to keep alive Satan’s deception of Eve in the Garden of Eden, to entice her to eat of the forbidden fruit, by saying “You will not surely die,” suggesting that GOD was a liar. It is impossible for GOD to lie.
Revelation 16:13-14 ‘Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of GOD Almighty.’
‘Eternal punishment’ is a false doctrine.
The theory of eternal torment is one of the false doctrines that constitute the wine of the abomination of Babylon, of which she makes all nations drink. It is a false doctrine promoted by ‘Rome.’ The theory of the immortality of the soul was a false doctrine that Rome borrowed from paganism. Martin Luther classed it with the “monstrous fables that form part of the Roman dunghill of decretals.” (E. Petavel, ‘The Problem of Immortality.’ Page 255.)
Solomon judged that the dead are asleep, and feel nothing at all. For the dead lie there, unaware of days or years, but when they are awakened at the resurrection, they shall think they have slept for only a moment. Solomon commented in Ecclesiastes, that the dead know not anything.
Nowhere in the Bible is there to be found a statement that at death, the righteous go to their reward, or that the wicked go to their punishment. The patriarchs and prophets did not leave any such indication; nor did Christ or His disciples.
Please see the death references in Revelation 20 But fire came down from heaven and devoured them, and in 21 This is the second death.
The second death which involves all who do not personally know Jesus and GOD, will be the final one. After this; death will never again exist as an unavoidable, unwanted curse.
The universe will be free of death.
John 3:16-18 ‘For GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Perish means to die.
Romans 9:29 ‘It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us as descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Isaiah wrote this in around 700BC. Sodom and Gomorrah were completely and utterly destroyed by fire in around 2000BC. This is further evidence that the wicked (unsaved) will not be suffering for eternity; they will be utterly destroyed together with Satan, by being thrown into the lake of fire, which takes place after the saved people (GOD’s children) have been in heaven for 1000 years, and the ‘wicked’ are resurrected for final judgement.
The following is similar evidence, it is from the great speech by Moses just before his death in 1200 BC.
Deuteronomy 29:23 ‘The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulphur, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger.’
We know today that the original sites of Sodom and Gomorrah near The Dead Sea are nothing but an unproductive sandy-clayish type of residue, some still in very faint shapes of what was originally there.
I have been there, and walked over it, and found some of the original sulphur balls which GOD rained down in fire, and which had suffocated in the ash of their own burning. This evidence is unique to this area, and does not exist anywhere else on Earth. They are usually only exposed after rain.
Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 ‘Last sentence of verse 5 = Then a person goes to their eternal home and mourners go about the streets.’ (‘Eternal’ is Solomon’s description of death, it cannot literally be eternal, because some will be resurrected to eternal life.)
Remember a person before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to GOD Who gave it.’
Jesus offered everyone in the world the chance to choose to be saved.
GOD is NOT a merciless, demonic, tyrant, who eventually punishes people who reject HIM, with never ending pain and suffering throughout all eteritny.
The evil Satan-inspired doctrine, repugnant to every emotion of love, mercy, and sense of justice; is that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; and that for the sins of a brief Earthly life, they are to suffer unceasing tortures; as if GOD gets satisfaction and pleasure from the so-called justice of never ending misery, groans, shrieks, and utter agony of millions of eternally suffering people.
Satan is cruel. GOD is love. Love does not condemn people to eternal, agonising, torturous suffering. People who reject and deny GOD, choose, by default, the consequence which is eternal non-existence.
The unsaved, in rejecting the chance to be in true relationship with GOD through Jesus, have by default, chosen to remain in the fallen human condition, which is why they qualify to be called wicked because this condition was inherited by all humanity. This is what Jesus came to release us from.
Apparently many in the Corinth church (in Greece) still adhered to Greek philosophy and the false idea of ‘immortality of the soul’ rather than resurrection of the dead. Paul indicated in 1 Corinthians 15:34 that some were ignorant of GOD.
If ‘immortality of the soul’ was true, then every soul would be immortal whether they were raised to eternal life or not. The opposite to eternal life is eternal non-life = eternal non- existence.
Eternal suffering was the generally accepted belief of all ancient Pagans. Zoroaster taught that hell (a lake of fire) was unending. The ancient Greeks and the old Germans and the Druids taught the same. The Koran (Islamic Quran) teaches the same. The devil worshippers of the Yeridis of the Near East, the Egyptians, and the Mithraists who got their religion from Babylon by way of Persia, all teach that many people will be condemned to suffer forever in hellfire. Mithraism became an official religion of Rome around the time of Christ and remained so for 200 years. Some of its sacred practices continued to exist in the ritual of Christian festivals. Mithraism was also formed in the Orient from a mixture of ancient Babylonian mythology with Persian dualism, and later also absorbed Hellenistic elements. (See below.) The new conciliatory faith caused Zoroaster and Christ to be worshipped simultaneously. With this, Mithraic doctrines were destined to withstand all persecutions for centuries, to rise again in a new form in the Middle Ages to once again shake the ancient Roman world.
The doctrine of endless suffering in eternal hellfire is not of Christian origin. It arose in the universal system of demon worship, which has always sought to discredit GOD and misrepresent HIS justice and love for humanity. The heart of demon worship is fear, and its worship is directed towards placating an angry ‘god’ who for ever seeks to destroy humankind. Within demon worship, to inspire fear, the doctrine arose of ‘eternal hellfire causing eternally endless suffering.’
Eternal suffering was endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, because the concept of eternal suffering suited them to frighten people into submission to their manipulated ‘religious system.’
This is not of the Christian GOD of love.
The Hellenistic period is the period of ancient Greek and Mediterranean history between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the subsequent conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt in 30 BC.
At this time, Greek cultural influence and power was at its peak in Europe, Africa and Asia; experiencing prosperity and progress in the arts, exploration, literature, theatre, architecture, music, mathematics, philosophy, and science. It is often considered to be a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the brilliance of the Greek Classical era.
After Alexander the Great's ventures in the Persian Empire; Hellenistic kingdoms were established throughout south-west Asia (Seleucid Empire, Kingdom of Pergamon) and north-east Africa (Ptolemaic Kingdom).
This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to these new realms, and to Greek colonists.