Where Are The Dead?*


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PERHAPS you have experienced the empty feeling that comes with losing a loved one in death. On such occasions most persons feel not only sad but also very helpless. It is only natural to wonder: What happens to a person when he dies? Is he still conscious somewhere? Is there a real hope that the dead will live again? The Bible contains a comforting answer to these questions.

The subject is a work in progress. Please keep checking back.

STILL TO COME

  • WHAT IS THE SPIRIT IN LIVING CREATURES?
  • WHAT IS HELL?
  • WILL THE DEAD LIVE AGAIN?

*This material contains excerpts from the book,
The truth That Leads to Everlasting Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE CONDITION OF THE DEAD?

 

 

Simply stated, death is the opposite of life. In sentencing the first man Adam for his willful disobedience, God said: “You will return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.” —Genesis 3:19

Where was Adam before God formed him from the dust and gave him life? Why, he simply did not exist. At his death Adam returned to the same lifeless, unconscious state. He went neither to a fiery hell nor to heavenly bliss, but died—as God said he would.

  • But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”—Genesis 2:17.

The Bible clearly teaches that the dead are unconscious and lifeless in the grave.

  • “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. 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.”—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 (KJV)

This means that the dead cannot do anything and cannot feel anything. Their thoughts have ceased, as the Bible states:

  • “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”—Psalm 146:3, 4, KJV [145:2-4, Dy].

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DOES MAN HAVE AN IMMORTAL SOUL?

 

 

DID YOU KNOW:
 The Bible refers to souls of both humans and animals?

  • (Numbers 31:28) And as a tax for Jehovah you must take away from the men of war who went out on the expedition one soul [Hebrew, nephesh] out of five hundred, of humankind and of the herd and of the asses and of the flock.

  • (Revelation 16:3) And the second angel poured out his vial into the sea. And it became blood as of a dead man, and every living soul died, yes, the things in the sea.

How does the Bible describe the soul?

  • (Genesis 2:7) And Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.

Note, please, that after God started man breathing “the man came to be a living soul.” Hence the man was a soul, just as a man who becomes a doctor is a doctor. The Apostle, Paul later referred to this scripture  in comparing Adam to Jesus.

  • (1 Corinthians 15:45) It is even so written: “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam (Jesus) became a life-giving spirit.

The human soul possesses physical qualities.
For example, the Bible speaks of the soul’s desiring physical food, saying:

  • “Your soul craves to eat meat.” (Deuteronomy 12:20; see also Leviticus 17:12.) It says, too, that souls have blood traveling through their veins, for it speaks of “the blood of the souls of the poor innocents.” (Jeremiah 2:34, AV) Yes, your soul is really you, with all your physical and mental qualities.—Proverbs 2:10.

Other questions pertaining to the soul
     remain to be answered:

  • When the Bible uses the expression “my soul,” to what is it referring?

  • In what other way can the word “soul” be used? So can a live person be rightly said to “have soul”?

  • What Bible accounts speak of one’s losing his life or soul?

  • Does the Bible say that the human soul is deathless?

Please keep checking back.

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