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the dead are dead : "Wha tsoever thy
ha nd findeth to do, do it with t hy
rn ight ; for there is no work, nor de–
vice, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the gr ave. whi ther tho u goest" (Ec–
clesiastes 9: 10).
"For tha t which befaUeth the sons
of rnen befalleth beasts; even one
thing befaUeth tbem: as the one
d ieth, so dieth the other ; yea, they
have a ll one brea th ; so that a rna n
hath no preeminence above a beast:
for a l! is vanity.
All
go un to one
place ; all are of the d ust ,
and
al/ turn to dust again"
(Ecclesiastes 3: 19-20).
As far as the irnrnor tal
soul idea is concerned ,
it's a rny th th at origi–
nated in ancient Egyp–
t ia n· an d lat er G reek
thought, and was chiefiy
rnade popu la r thr ough
the philosophy of Plato.
It didn' t come from the
Bible.
J ust as you can ' t pin
your hopes of living fo r–
eve r on technology, nei–
ther can you put your
hope on having an im–
mo rtal soul.
Reality is undeni a ble.
You are go ing to d ie.
And wben you die, you
a re dead. All the billions
of dollars in the world
won' t al ter that fact. All
of man 's technology and
research can ' t ch ange it.
But the sarne source
t hat sha tters the immor–
ta l soul my th actua JJy
says rnan yet has hope in deat h.
That hope is spoken of throughou t
t he Bible as a resurrection of the
dead.
A Hope for the Dead?
Jesus is quoted in talking of a
resurrection: " Marvel not at this:
for the hour is corning, in the which
ALL
that a re in t he graves shall hear
his voice, and sha ll come forth ; they
that ha ve done good , unto the r esur–
rection of life ; and they that have
done evil. unto the resurrect ion of
18
damna tion ["j udgrnent," marginal
reading]" (Jobo 5:28-29).
Jesus, th e founder of the ea rly
church - and th e one who rn Chris–
tia nity acknowledges as the very son
of God - says
al/,
meaning that
everyone who has eve r lived, is go–
ing to be resurrected - th e good o r
bad, atheist, her etic, heathen o r be–
liever. And so it's clear that t he
Scriptures do no t suppo rt the idea
of an imrnorta l soul o r afterlife as
irnagined by rna n, and t he dead a re
cal pla n is qu ite simple: All who
have ever lived , o r ever willlive, will
be given a chance to change frorn a
life of disobeying God to one of
obeying him - thereby having the
opportunity to live for eternity.
So rne, however, will
rejecr
t hat op–
portunity. T hese ar e the ones who
will suffer an eternal death by being
burned up in a lake of fi re (Revela–
tion 20: 15).
God explains, however, tha t he
has no des ire to impose such a fa te
on anyon e. He is " not
willing that any should
Bible prophecy .has a lot to say about the
ti!TieSwe live in. But most people don't under–
stand prophecy - for two reasons. Either
they
l;l~ven't
read the Bibfe, or theydon't have
the keys to understanding prophecy. Our
booklet,
How to Understand Prophecy,
will
unlock a whole new world ot understanding
for you. To request your free cop.y, just write
to the Editor.
perish, but tha t all should
come to repentance" (TI
Pe ter 3:9). Butforthe se lf–
will ed and rebell ious -
those who reject his way
- God h a s n o o t h e r
choice. The Bible teaches
that disobed ience pro–
duces unhappiness, and
God will n o t a ll ow
people to exist in a mis–
era ble sta te of mind fo r
a ll e ter nit y. H e wi ll ,
therefore, mercifully a nd
permanent ly destroy th e
wicked.
indeed dead. T he Scr iptures do, on
the o ther hand, sta te that dea th is
no t the end. Everyone is going to
live again. Sorne, as the Bible men–
tions elsewhere, will live aga in for–
ever and some for just a very short
time. This conclusion is based on
the ve ry words of Jesus, who was,
acco rding to Scripture, himself res–
urrected the third day aft er being
crucified .
Contra ry to the ela bor ate schernes
a nd rny ths of rnen rega rd ing the
poss ib ility of an afterlife. the bibli-
Hurnanity has always
been and will continue to
be vita lly concerned with
t he possibi lity of a n af–
terlife. The guestion is,
will it continue to rej ect
or wiJJ it accept the only
source that provides a
hope fo r the dead? Cer–
tain ly the a tternpts of
man. through science or
religious myths. offer no
sa tisfacto ry alterna tive.
Obedi ence to a C reator God? A
resurrection from the dead? These
questions may seem fa rfetched to
some, but no t to those who are se ri–
ously putting their a ffairs m
order.
o
Editor"s note: Be sure to read t he
"Personal from the Edi tor ·· in this
issue. lt explains what the scrip–
tures revea l about t hose resur–
rect ed to ete rna ! life as sons of
God.
PLAI N TRUTH December 1974