Two parts to existence Man is made up of a physical and spiritual element that BOTH can be destroyed forever by God. The physical part of his existence is what man shares shares with every living creature. The Hebrew word for this aspect of every living thing is nephesh (Strong's Concordance #H5315). It refers to life which is sustained by food, air and water; life which can cease, can perish, die, and be destroyed. "And God said, 'Let the waters abound with swarms of living creatures (nephesh), and let fowl fly over the earth on the face of the firmament of heaven.' And God created great sea-animals, and every living creature (nephesh) that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:20-21) "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures (nephesh) after their kind - livestock, creeping things, and beasts of the earth - each after its kind.'" (verse 24) "Then 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 being (nephesh)." (Genesis 2:7) "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:19)
Note that there is nothing stating that nephesh, the part of existence man has it common with all living creatures, is immortal or lives forever. In fact, the Bible is clear that this physical part of man CAN and DOES die - it is not immortal and is not conscious after death. "Behold, all souls (living people) are Mine. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son, they are Mine. The soul that sins, it shall die." (Ezekiel 18:4)
"For that which happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts - even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so dies the other; yea, they all have one breath; so that a man has no advantage over a beast; for all is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 3:19) "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead do not know anything, nor do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten." (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
There is a second element to human life besides the physical, something that other living creatures do NOT possess. The Bible calls this part of every human the "spirit in man." This non-physical component enables humans to be conscious - to be able to think, choose and feel - and have a relationship with God. "But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding." (Job 32:8) "The burden of the Word of the LORD for Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him" (Zechariah 12:1) Human life is unique in all of creation, as it is the only creation on earth that is both physical and spiritual. Upon death the physical part of our existence, our bodies, returns to the ground from where God made it (Genesis 3:19). But what happens to the spirit in man? Where does it go when we die? Wise King Solomon also wondered what happens to this spiritual component of humans."Who knows the spirit of man whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the beast whether it goes downward to the earth?" (Ecclesiastes 3:21) The great difference between Solomon and most others who ask this question is that Solomon knew the answer: "And the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:7) At death, the spirit of man returns to God who gave it. King David and Jesus also understood that God was the owner of the human spirit. "Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth." (Psalm 31:5) "And after crying out with a loud voice, Jesus said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.'" (Luke 23:46) When we die our spirit returns to God the Father who inhabits the spirit world. The Book of Revelation has an allegorical reference to the spirits of the righteous dead crying out for God. "And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony that they held; And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'" (Revelation 6:9-10) Although the spirits under the altar are unconscious and unaware of anything happening on earth or anywhere else, they symbolically cry out for justice. This scripture confirms that these human spirits have been returned to the Father from their earthly habitation. Do the dead merely SLEEP? Many scriptures speak of the state of the dead as analogous to sleep. Because the dead do not have a conscious thought process (Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5-6), sleep is an excellent description of the condition of death. Below are a few references that show how God views this condition: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:2 ). "These things He (Jesus) said; and after that He said to them, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awaken him.'" (John 11:11) "Because the one who eats and drinks unworthily (in regard to the Passover) is eating and drinking judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. For this very reason, many are weak and sickly among you, and many have fallen asleep." (1Corinthians 11:29-30). "Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1Corinthians 15:51-52).
The billions of humans who have lived and died over the centuries are completely unaware of the passage of time. The interim period between the moment of death, when their conscious thoughts ceased, and the instant when they awake to life after death again in a resurrection does not exist for them. Resurrections of the dead The Bible delineates not just one, but two (and likely three) resurrections of the dead. The purpose of the first resurrection is to give God's elect, at the return of Christ to the earth, immortality. "But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. . And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matthew 24:29-31). "Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1Corinthians 15:51-52). "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in exactly the same way also, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede those who have fallen asleep Because the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first;" (1Thessalonians 4:14-16)
The SECOND resurrection from the dead occurs after what is called the Millennium, or Jesus' reign on earth for a thousand years. "(But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were completed.) This is the first resurrection." (Revelation 20:5).
The purpose of this, the greatest resurrection, is to offer those who never had a FULL opportunity for salvation a chance to live God's way and accept his gift of eternal life. This resurrection will be populated by the vast number of humans who have ever lived. These either never heard the gospel message, heard only part or received a counterfeit message, or may have heard it but God decided at the time not to open their minds and hearts to his truth. In short, they did not hear or understand or both God's gospel during their life. Though not conclusive, Isaiah 65 seems to show that God will grant a one hundred year life span to human beings in the second resurrection. "There will not be an infant who lives but a few days, nor an old man that has not filled his days, for the child will die a hundred years old; but the sinner who is a hundred years old shall be accursed." (Isaiah 65:20). God will judge those who are resurrected back to a physical human life just like He NOW judges those who are true Christians - by His words in the Bible. It is the "books" of divine writ, the holy Scriptures, which judge now and will judge later. God is not going to judge differently, following the Millennium, than He does now. He does not change (Hebrews 13:8). These countless billions of unsaved people are going to learn about God. They are going to learn in the same way you are learning, by hearing about, reading, studying, and being taught from the Word of God! There is also some evidence that God will have a THIRD resurrection, a resurrection whose purpose is to deal with the incorrigibly wicked by executing them forever - a final death from which there will be no resurrection. For more information please see our article How many resurrections are there? |