Heaven and Hell
What does the Bible Teach?
THE BIBLE is a reasonable book. There is nothing contradictory
about it: everything fits together in a manner that makes its message
both dynamic and easy to understand. Its teachings make sense and it
is this simple logic that presents such a challenge that no-one of
good will can deny its impact.
This booklet has been written to show that - in contrast to the
plain and reasonable teaching of Scripture - popular ideas about
heaven and hell are unreasonable. What are these ideas? For centuries
it has been commonly believed by most professing Christians that
heaven is the abode of the righteous dead where they experience
everlasting joy and happiness, and that hell is the eternal abiding
place of the wicked who are subject to never-ending torment in its
unquenchable fires.
In more recent times many have abandoned the idea of hell-and with
it any real desire to investigate whether this is, in fact, a true
reflection of what the Bible teaches. This abhorrence of eternal
suffering (surely a right instinct) has caused men to cherish instead
a vague hope of universal salvation-that all will enjoy eternal
happiness irrespective of the works done during their mortal life. Yet
that has now left people with a sense of unease, because they sense an
injustice in assuming that there can be a reward for both good and bad
alike.
Christadelphians do not share either the modern idea of 'heaven for
everyone', or the more traditional ideas of 'blessings in heaven' and
'punishment in hell'. They have read the Bible themselves (as we hope
the readers of this booklet will do) and concluded that, although
'heaven' and 'hell' are mentioned many times, they are not the
eternal abiding places where people hope (or fear) to go to at death.
A grievous error has been made in interpreting the Bible. But the
error is not first of all concerned with heaven or hell; the error
really grew out of another theory, that all men are born with what is
called an 'immortal soul'. This is variously described as a 'never
dying entity', a 'divine spark'; and to it are attributed all the
characteristics of what is termed 'the real man' - personality,
conscience, reason and understanding, emotions and all the moral
qualities of which man is capable. The body is said to be
mortal and corruptible, turning to dust and ashes after death, whereas
the soul is immortal and incorruptible and lives on in endless
bliss or misery.
And, of course, once one has accepted such a view of human nature,
then a belief in some other place or places as the abiding and
continuing home(s) of the soul after death becomes a logical
necessity. But, if this view of human nature is incorrect, then the
popular conceptions of heaven and hell may also be quite false.
We propose therefore briefly to examine the Bible teaching
concerning the soul and human nature and then, on this foundation, to
establish the reasonable and logical teaching of the Bible concerning
the ultimate destiny of the righteous and the wicked.
The Soul
It should be stated at the outset that the phrase 'immortal soul'
or 'never dying soul' or indeed any similar expressions are not to be
found in the pages of the Bible. Of God alone it is written, "Who
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach
unto" (1 Timothy 6:16). Man has no inherent immortality and
although the word 'soul' occurs frequently in its pages, the Bible
does not teach the idea of something independent of the body that
lives on after death. The Bible account of the creation of man defines
the 'soul' quite clearly:
"And 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 soul" (Genesis 2:7).
It is the man himself, the body formed from the dust, energised by
the breath of life, which is described as "a living soul".
The original Hebrew word nephesh means simply 'a breathing
creature' and it is used not only of man but also of animals. For
example:
"moving creatures" (margin 'souls')
(Genesis 1:20);
"living creatures" ('souls') (Genesis 2:19);
"every living thing" ('soul') (Genesis 1:28).
It is true that nephesh is adopted for a variety of purposes in
later Scriptures. In the Authorised Version the original word has been
translated "soul" 530 times, "life" or
"living" 190 times, "persons" 34 times,
"beasts", etc. 28 times. Among its other renderings are
"self", "heart", "mind",
"appetite", "body" etc. But always its use is
associated with the activity of a living, breathing creature and never
does it imply anything about the duration of life. Indeed, far from
ascribing immortality to the soul the Bible emphatically declares that
it is both capable of dying and by its very nature liable to die:
"He spareth not their soul from death"
(Psalm 78:50);
"What man . . . shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul
from the hand of the grave?" (Psalm 89:48);
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4).
We could have no more emphatic testimony that the soul is capable
of death.
The Death State
The question remains, however: What does death involve? In the
early chapters of Genesis, we read not only of the creation of man but
also of his 'fall' - of the entrance of sin and death into the world.
The Lord God commanded the man:
"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not
eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die" (Genesis 2:16,17).
Disobedience to God's commandment would bring death. What death
involved is made clear when God judged Adam for his sin:
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19).
There was, in effect, to be a reversal of the process of creation.
Then God formed man from the dust and breathed into his lifeless body
the breath of life, so that he became a living, breathing creature.
So, in death, God withdraws that life-giving energy of which He alone
is the source (see Job 34:14,15; Psalm 36:9); and the body corrupts
and disperses into dust (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
"Dust to dust"
It may seem self-evident to say it, but before he was brought into
being by the creative power of God, Adam did not exist. If death is
the reversal of the creative process then the result must be a
cessation of being and the disintegration of the living, breathing
creature, whether he be man or animal, for so far as their natural
constitution is concerned there is no difference between them:
"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even
one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea,
they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence over a
beast . . . All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to
dust again" (Ecclesiastes 3:19,20).
The Psalmist writes:
"Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure
of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold thou
hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before
thee: verily every man at his best is altogether vanity O spare me,
that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more"
(Psalm 39:4,5,13).
So there is no conscious existence in death: no part of man lives
on, either in heaven or hell. There is no extension of being-not even
for the righteous. King Hezekiah, a faithful servant of God, wrote:
"For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot
celebrate thee . . . the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this
day" (Isaiah 38:18,19).
And the wise man summarises the position:
"For the living know that they shall die; but the
dead know not anything . . . Also their love, and their hatred,
and their envy, is now perished . . . 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 9:5,6,10).
In the face of such clear teaching about death, so easy to
understand, what need is there for further explanation? There can be
no continuing existence after death either in heaven or hell. The
Bible speaks to us simply and logically and leads us inevitably to
this conclusion.
This does not mean of course that there is no reward for the
righteous or indeed no punishment reserved for the wicked. But
whatever these might be, because of the harmony that exists throughout
the Bible, such reward or punishment must be consistent with the facts
that we have already established. A consideration of what the
Scriptures say concerning heaven leads us smoothly onwards in our
developing understanding of what the Bible teaches about these vital
questions of life and death.
Heaven-God's Dwelling Place
Heaven is God's abiding place. Of course, in making such a
statement we must not limit the power and transcendence of God, whom
Scripture teaches to be everywhere present by his spirit. The
Psalmist, meditating upon this omnipresence of God, wrote:
"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither
shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art
there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the
wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night
shineth as the day" (Psalm 139:7-12).
When Solomon built his temple - a house for God to dwell in - he
too recognised this truth:
"Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded" (1
Kings 8:27).
But though God's spirit fills all space, this truth is compatible
with the fact that the Scriptures speak of a "dwelling
place". On that same occasion, Solomon besought God for Israel:
"When they shall pray towards this place . . .
then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou
hearest forgive" (1 Kings 8:30,39,43).
"Our father which art in heaven"
The wise man wrote:
"God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:
therefore let thy words be few" (Ecclesiastes 5:2);
and Jesus taught his disciples to pray:
"Our father which art in heaven"
(Matthew 6:9).
This concept of God's heavenly habitation is summed up in the
following passages:
". . . who only hath immortality, dwelling in
the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor
can see" (1 Timothy 6:16);
"The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath
he given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16).
Man has no access into God's presence in heaven; but the Lord
Jesus, God's only begotten Son, after his resurrection "was
received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God" (Mark
16:19).
This again is the logical conclusion to which the Scriptures have
led us:
"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that
came down from heaven, even the Son of man" (John 3:13).
The Earth is Man's Inheritance
Heaven is not for man: his habitation both now and any future
existence is the earth:
"The meek shall inherit the earth and
shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace . . . For such as
be blessed of him shall inherit the earth . . . The righteous shall inherit
the land and dwell therein for ever" (Psalm 37:11,22,29).
The Lord Jesus was referring to this Psalm when he said,
"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth"
(Matthew 5:5). He taught his disciples to pray, "Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"
(6:10) And John had a vision of the redeemed (those delivered from sin
and death), who sing:
"Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood . . . and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and
we shall reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:9,10).
The earth, then, is man's habitation and also his promised eternal
abiding place. We shall leave for a moment the question of how this
inheritance on earth is granted, because first of all we must clear up
some common misunderstandings about "hell".
Hell is the Grave
There are three main words in the Authorised Version which have
been rendered "hell". In the Old Testament it is the Hebrew
word sheol; in the Greek of the New Testament there are two
words, hades and gehenna. The word sheol was
commonly used to indicate the abode of the dead below the earth. It is
better rendered by "the grave" or "the pit". In
the Authorised Version sheol has been translated
"grave" and "hell" on 31 occasions each, and
"pit" on three occasions. Sheol is therefore the
grave, the common place of the dead where men's bodies are subject to
decay. The grave is the place where the dead "know not anything .
. . their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished . .
there is no knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave" (Ecclesiastes
9:5,6,10).
"Like sheep they are laid in the grave (sheol);
death shall feed on them . and their beauty shall consume in the grave
(sheol)" (Psalm 49:14).
There are no exceptions: death and the grave give to men an
equality they can never find in life, for:
"There the wicked cease from troubling; and
there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they
hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are
there; and the servant is free from his master" (Job 3:17-19).
In the New Testament the word hades is the equivalent of the
Hebrew sheol. In the Septuagint - a translation of the Old
Testament into Greek, compiled approximately two hundred and fifty
years before the birth of Jesus - this word is used almost without
exception to represent sheol. In Peter's speech on the Day of
Pentecost he quotes from Psalm 16 to prove the resurrection of Jesus
and the Greek text of Acts uses the word hades:
"Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" (Acts 2:27).
"Hell Fire"
The third word translated "hell" is gehenna, a
term always associated with fire and with one exception only found in
the Gospels. The relevant passages in Matthew's record of the Gospel
are as follows: 5:22,29,30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15,33. It is worth
observing that there are thus only about half a dozen different
references to "hell fire" in the Bible. Of course, even if
there were only one, it would still need to be given careful
consideration to determine its meaning.
For the purpose of our enquiry we shall take just one passage: the
explanation given in this instance applies equally to all the others.
We have selected the words from Mark 9 (parallel to Matthew 18:8,9)
because this is undoubtedly the most explicit and comprehensive
example of the Lord's teaching about Gehenna:
"And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is
better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go
into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (verses 43,44, see
also 45-49).
From a superficial reading one might feel a certain repugnance
about eternal fires and never-dying worms. Happily neither of these
ideas is involved in a true understanding of the passage.
The word Gehenna comes from the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom, which was
in fact a geographical location. It means the Valley of Hinnom,
sometimes referred to as Tophet. It was a valley on the edge of the
(then) city of Jerusalem and from the earliest times it was a place of
ill repute - associated with idolatrous worship and abhorred by the
Jews because of horrific practices associated with false worship: see,
for example, Jeremiah 7:31-33. In the days of Josiah the valley was
cleansed and its evil practices forbidden (2 Kings 23:10). Its infamy,
however, lived on and it became a place for Jews to burn the refuse of
the city; later they used it to dispose of the carcases of animals and
unburied criminals after execution. For this purpose and to avoid the
stench of putrefaction, fires were kept burning there continually and
it became synonymous with death and condemnation.
The reference to fires that are never quenched now begins to be
seen more clearly: they are used to express the nature of divine
judgement. The judgements of God are certain and inexorable. This
indeed is what is suggested by, "Their worm dieth not" -
nothing can prevent or interfere with the declared judgement of God
upon those who turn their backs on Him.
Tartarus
Before leaving the subject of "hell", a brief word is
appropriate about one instance of the word tartarus in the New
Testament:
"God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell (tartarus)" (2 Peter 2:4).
In Greek mythology the word referred to a subterranean cavern, a
nether-world into which the wicked were cast.
The use of this word can in no way confuse the clear teaching of
Scripture as already stated. Its use arises out of the peculiar
circumstances connected with the event to which Peter refers. There is
some uncertainty as to the precise reference to "the angels that
sinned": some have seen in these words a references to Korah,
Dathan and Abiram, who, when they spoke against Moses and rebelled
against God, suffered a unique punishment when 'the ground clave
asunder . . . the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up . . .
They went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and
they perished" (Numbers 16:31-33),
This event would certainly provide an adequate explanation for the
use of the word tartarus by Peter on this one occasion.
The Destiny of the Wicked
So far as the wicked are concerned, we have already established
that they cannot possibly exist after death, suffering eternal torment
and misery. The following passages are a selection from many:
"The wicked shall perish . . . they shall
consume away" (Psalm 37:20).
"He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never
see light. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the
beasts that perish" (Psalm 49:19,20).
"The wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the
transgressors shall be rooted out of it" (Proverbs 2:22).
"They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they
shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and
made all their memory to perish" (Isaiah 26:14).
"They shall be punished with everlasting destruction" (2
Thessalonians 1:9).
The final punishment of the wicked is therefore annihilation,
perpetual death, cut off from the land of the living for ever. This is
fitting and appropriate in the light of our understanding of Bible
teaching concerning life and death, "for the wages of sin is
death" (Romans 6:23).
The Reward of the Righteous
But what of the reward of the righteous? We have seen that their
eternal inheritance is the earth - an earth perfected and purged of
all evil. We have, however, also learned that all men by nature are
subject to death and that in death they have no conscious being. If
Scriptural teaching is to be consistent, then there is only one
possible way for the righteous to receive their reward: they must be
made to live again by resurrection from the dead. The last Old
Testament passage quoted in connection with the destiny of the wicked
(Isaiah 26:1 4) spoke of their death as eternal: "They shall not
rise." In the same chapter, however, the prophet contrasts the
fate of these with the reward of the righteous:
"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead
body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy
dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the
dead" (v. 19).
How is this to be achieved? The salvation that God offers
necessitated Jesus' resurrection from the dead; and this has made it
possible for all faithful men to be raised from the dead as he was. So
Jesus could say, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John
11:25); and on another occasion, "For the hour is coming, in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear his (the Son of man's,
i.e. Jesus') voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good,
unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation" (John 5:28,29).
In his first Letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul deals at
length with the resurrection of the dead, showing that it is at the
very heart of the Christian hope. His challenge to some who doubted
this doctrine was:
"Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the
dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the
dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not
risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and
your faith is also vain . . . Ye are yet in your sins . . . they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (15:12-18).
Resurrection
If there is no resurrection of the dead, there is no hope. But the
triumphant conclusion of the apostle is:
"In fact Christ has been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a
man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But
each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming
those who belong to Christ" (verses 20-23, R.S.V.).
How could the apostle be more specific? Only through resurrection
will life after death be achieved, and the Lord Jesus Christ is but
the first of a great multitude, the first fruits of a great harvest of
dead believers who will live again when Jesus returns to the earth.
There we have the key to the whole situation. While the world
continues as it is now, dominated by evil men pursuing their ambition
for power, it is difficult for us to envisage how the meek will ever
inherit the earth, but central to the purpose of God is the second
coming of Jesus to overthrow the kingdom of men; to destroy all that
oppose Him and to establish the kingdom of God, a divine society
founded on principles of righteousness and equity over which he will
reign for ever (see Matthew 6:10; Revelation 11:1 5; 2 Thessalonians
1:7-10; Daniel 2:44; Micah 4:1-5).
Scripture teaching is not complicated and difficult to comprehend,
but rational and logical.
Judgement The Scriptures speak of two
classes of people raised from the sleep of death at the last day:
those who are given everlasting life, and others raised to shame and
condemnation (Daniel 12:2). In fact mankind can be divided into three
classes. First there are those who will not be raised from the dead,
who have lived their lives in ignorance of God and His purpose and who
consequently have no responsibility to Him: "Man that is in
honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish"
(Psalm 49:20). Consistent with this, Daniel wrote that not all
but "many of them that sleep shall awake".
For the second category - those who through their knowledge and
understanding of God have become responsible to Him yet have not been
faithful in their lives - there is an inevitable judgement at the
great tribunal when God, through Jesus, shall judge "every man
according as his work shall be" (Revelation 22:12). And then
there is the third category: for the faithful it will be the
fulfilment of all their hopes-a resurrection to eternal life, lived in
a glorious incorruptible body, reigning as kings and priests upon the
earth with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Some Objections Considered
It would be wrong not to acknowledge that there are some passages
of Scripture which many people sincerely believe establish the
orthodox teaching of the immortality of the soul and the popular
conception of heaven as the abode of the righteous. Here are the chief
examples of passages which might seem to teach a view contradicting
what we have put forward so far:
"The Kingdom of Heaven"
This is a phrase used only in Matthew's record of the Gospel. It is
assumed by some that because it refers to heaven, the actual location
of the kingdom is in heaven. Thus, "Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3)
and, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (18:3) are taken to
prove that the righteous enjoy their inheritance in heaven. If we are
serious about Bible study, however, we should not jump to conclusions
too easily and we should examine more carefully the phrase
"kingdom of heaven" as used in Matthew and establish
precisely what it means. We select just two passages which, we
suggest, illustrate clearly that the kingdom of heaven is not actually
located in heaven, but - in harmony with general Bible teaching - here
on earth.
Matthew 13 contains a number of parables that Jesus used to
illustrate his message. Most are prefaced with the words "the
kingdom of heaven is like unto" yet some of the things that Jesus
said are extremely difficult to reconcile with the thought of the soul
transported to heaven at death. For instance, in the parable of the
tares, "The field is the world . . . the harvest is the end of
the world . . . As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the
fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that offend . . . Then shall the righteous shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father" (verses 24-30,36-43). Can
there really be "things that offend" in a kingdom in
heaven?
After a meeting with a rich young man, who could not bring himself
to sell his possessions and follow him, Jesus said, "that a rich
man can hardly (i.e. with difficulty) enter into the kingdom of
heaven . . . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God"
(Matthew 19:23-24). 'Kingdom of heaven' and 'kingdom of God' are
parallel phrases.
Why then does Matthew employ the phrase 'kingdom of heaven'? Some
verses from the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament illustrate its
meaning: "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed" (2:44). In
another chapter, Daniel writes: "The heavens do rule"
(4:26). Even the great Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, was forced to
acknowledge that "God doeth according to his will in the army of
heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth" and was led to
"praise and extol and honour the King of heaven" (4:35-37).
The kingdom of heaven is therefore descriptive of the rule of
heaven and the phrase could reasonably be applied to any area
where God's sovereignty is acknowledged. Thus Jesus taught us to pray,
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it
is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16)
We are now considering a parable It is not fact, but Jesus is
using a commonly believed fallacy--that the righteous were carried to
'Abraham's bosom' to be comforted, whereas the wicked suffer in hell.
One of the points he is making is that God's standards are different
from man's and may be the complete opposite of human assessments.
Another is that the faith that pleases God is such that it will be
prepared to believe what is written in the Scriptures. If God's Word
cannot convince them, nothing can: "If they hear not Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the
dead" (verse 31).
Notice how the detail of the parable is completely irreconcilable
with commonly held views of immortal souls in heaven and hell. The
rich man and Lazarus were able to observe one another and speak to one
another from their respective abodes. They were not immaterial
spirits, but they possessed bodies with fingers, tongues etc. (verse
24).
The parable was, then, a terrible warning to wealthy and powerful
Jews, who believed that merely being born a Jew would guarantee them
God's blessing.
The Thief on the Cross (Luke 23:39-43)
Here we have one of the most remarkable examples in the Bible of
faith. This man, dying on a cross with the Lord Jesus Christ when all
others had forsaken him, manifested a belief in the Gospel of the
kingdom of God, accepting the resurrection of Jesus and anticipating
his own resurrection in the day of Christ's coming in glory. The
assurance that Jesus gave him was, "Verily I say unto thee today
thou shalt be with me in paradise" (verse 43). Observe that we
have not punctuated this promise. This is important, for in the
original Greek text there was no punctuation as we understand it.
Commas etc. are inserted in the English translation according to the
sense of the language, and the placing of the comma before the word
"today" in the Authorised Version is debatable. It could
with equal validity be placed after the word "today",
thus changing the emphasis and sense of the words: "Verily I say
unto thee today, thou shalt be with me in paradise." In other
words, "I am telling you now that your request will be
granted".
In any case, to read the words as an assurance that they should
both that very day be united in heaven is inconsistent with other
Bible teaching. We have already referred to Psalm 16 (quoted in Acts
2), which tells us clearly that the soul of Jesus was not in heaven
but in hell, from where he was raised on the third day: "Because
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine
Holy One to see corruption."
There are more Scriptures that we could examine in this way. The
instances we have considered, however, should help us to appreciate
that apparently contradictory passages have adequate explanations
consistent with Bible teaching as a whole.
Conclusion
What then is our reaction to these Bible truths? They are not just
intended as facts to be assimilated by the mind; they should affect
our whole outlook on life. Appreciating the true nature of death, we
should realise that life is our time of opportunity. As Hezekiah
wrote,
"The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot
celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy
truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this
day" (Isaiah 38:18,19).
The issue is one of life and death. Upon our decision depends our
eternal future: the oblivion of perpetual death or the glorious
awakening to life everlasting at the return of Jesus! How urgent it is
therefore that we embrace the hope of the Gospel while time remains,
lest we die "having no hope, and without God in the world"
(Ephesians 2:12).
-- DUDLEY FIFIELD