State of the Dead

State of the Dead

State of the Dead is a major Bible Topic that many people do not understand due to lack of Bible Study. Are you reading your Bible ? What really happens when someone dies?

When I see people making comments like their loved one that has passed away is up in heaven looking down on them, it makes me think I must have missed the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. No one will miss that as according to the Bible, a loud trumpet blast signals the soon coming of Jesus Christ.

Recently Nancy Reagan passed away to her sleep and the very highly educated minister performing her funeral service kept inferring that she was in heaven. I know that he is believing unbiblical myths versus what is in the Bible.

That minister has had many years of advanced religious training. I am an average human being with a Business Degree. I do not have advanced religious training but I study my Bible since 2004.

In Revelation 20, we learn that there are four categories that all mankind fall into. There is the redeemed dead, the redeemed that are living, there is the wicked dead, and the wicked living.

The MYTH that people go to heaven when they die is fallacy that came about from ancient Greek philosophy & to some extent Buddhism.

It is tragic that many Christian faiths teach that the dead are ‘up’ in heaven right now. If that is the case, then there is no need for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. As I have been studying my Bible for many years now, I read that Moses, Elijah, and Enoch plus some other believers that were resurrected are currently in heaven. That is the only mention in my Bible of people that are in heaven. Here are some texts to look up about the state of the dead. I trust what my Bible says over what any man says and that includes my Pastor, Conference President, and our lead Elder Ted Wilson in the Washington, DC area.

God is the only One who has immortality. 1 Timothy 6:l6 is even more clear. “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen.” Only God has this power of immortal existence. Man is described as being mortal, or subject to death.

What About Lazarus?
If you just stop for a moment and think about this wonderful truth. You will realize that our loved ones who have preceded us in death, are not being tormented now in hell, nor are they in heaven either where they would be looking down upon the terrible scenes taking place on this earth. They are all sleeping the sleep of death until resurrection morning. The Bible calls death a sleep. Jesus said his friend Lazarus was asleep when he referred to Lazarus’ death.

“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” John 11:11.

Lazarus Is Dead
Then in John 11:14 Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead.” Christ called Lazarus forth from his tomb where he had been dead for four days. When Lazarus stepped forth from his tomb, he did not say that he had been to heaven. If Lazarus had been in heaven, don’t you think that he would have protested about being brought back to this sinful earth. He would not have wanted to stay here for even one minute. He would have told those around him of the glorious scenes of heaven. But Lazarus did not speak of heaven. Lazarus had been sleeping in the dust of the earth since the breath of life had left him.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Those Who Died in Christ

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Ecclesiastes 9:5

For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.

Many sincere Christian believers think, say and write that their deceased loved one is in heaven. If that is so, there would not be a need for Jesus to come back to this earth.

There are 145 verses in the Bible about Jesus coming again. Matthew 16:27 and Revelation 22:12 are key verses. This is the Second Resurrection.

25 of these Second Resurrection verses are in the New Testament. When I study my Bible, believers in Jesus Christ that have died are sleeping now just as Lazarus was for 4 days. The righteous dead in Christ next conscious moment will be the Trumpet blast that all will hear. 1 Thessalonians 4
This will be the beginning of the Second Resurrection and that is when the dead come up and meet the Lord in the Air and those righteous believers still here on earth will meet with the Lord in the Air. This will be a Super Natural event to say the least.

The myth that when a believer dies they go straight to heaven is comfort for the grieving person that has lost a loved one. It is myth and not Biblical.