Death, Bereavement and the Hereafter

Dear reader, you are on the threshold of a life-changing experience. You are about to witness a shocking exposé of stealth and treachery as we travel back in time through the Dark Ages, and beyond, to the very genesis of evil — and you will experience incredible adventure as we pull back the curtain of prophecy and peer into the future world, a breathtakingly beautiful paradise of social harmony and everlasting life.

This series of bite-sized booklets tells the true story of a wonderful healing ointment infused with the most pleasant perfume. That fragrant, health-giving balm has been specially prepared at infinite cost. It is the powerful medicine that will ultimately heal the world and bring an end to all sorrow, suffering, disease and death. A generous portion of the costly ointment is freely offered to you personally and to your loved ones.

But danger lurks and now I must warn you; an enemy has placed a dead, disease-laden fly in the precious ointment. That disgusting fly, is putrefying in the soothing salve causing it to stink and severely weakening its curative power. Most of the ointment has become so badly tainted that it is toxic and deadly. But not all is lost — each God speak™ Bible Guide contains a rare uncontaminated portion of ointment that is still fresh and fragrant. It is yours for the taking as you search these pages. As you begin the search, may I ask you some very pointed questions?

Have you ever been brutally blind-sided by an emotional shock that ripped your heart out and buried you under a suffocating avalanche of deep, dark despair? Or have you ever been “body-slammed” without warning by a devastating physical disease or catastrophic accident that left you staring squarely into the cold unfeeling face of imminent death? Have you ever endured a mercilessly excruciating physical or mental pain so intense and unrelenting that the will to go on living trembled in your mind and you actually felt death might be a sweet release?

According to the Bible, death is an unconscious sleep.

“Now shall I sleep in the dust.” (Job 7:21)

“For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished.” “There is no . . . knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10 NKJV)

These Bible passages also agree with simple observable science. For a Biblical example, let’s consider David, the famous Old Testament Psalmist and king of Israel. David died almost a thousand years before the New Testament was written, yet according to the New Testament he remained dead in his tomb, not ascended yet to heaven.

“Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. . . For David is not ascended into the heavens.” (Acts 2:29, 34a)

David knew that he would sleep, unconscious of the passing of time, till the resurrection of his body. He expressed this reality in his Psalms.

“Lest I sleep the sleep of death.” (Psalm 13:3)

“For in death [there is] no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” (Psalm 6:5)

“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” (Psalm 146:4)

“I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”(Psalm 17:15)

Nearly three millenniums have passed since David died and he’s still sleeping peacefully. Jesus will awaken David at His second coming, raising him from the dead. At that electric instant, it will seem to David that he went to sleep only a moment ago. The sweet psalmist will take up his thoughts right where they left off as though no time has passed at all.

The Apostle Paul, author of more than half of the New Testament said, “For to me to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain.”(Philippians 1:21) Paul had no fear of death. He knew that for him, to live is the joy of sharing Christ with others. And to die would mean that his very next conscious awareness would be the moment He met Christ in the clouds at the second coming. If your heart is knit with God’s great heart death for you will seem but a flash. One moment you fall asleep and seemingly, even though years may pass before the return of Jesus, when you arise it will seem as though you fell asleep only a split-second ago.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring [up to heaven] with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”(1^stThessalonians 4:13-18; Bracketed words supplied.)

Heaven is not inhabited with bodiless ghosts. Believers do not go to heaven as disembodied spirits one at a time at death. The Bible nowhere teaches such a thing. All lovers of God throughout history will be gloriously resurrected and taken bodily to heaven together as though we had all lived and died together. There will be no difference.¹

But if you don’t love God, there is an ominous inescapable black hole of death awaiting you at the end of your journey. Any struggle to escape your return to the dust is vain and futile. The cold cadaverous arms of the Grim Reaper will embrace you with an atrophied grip — stiff and tight! Nevertheless, even the damned will arise from the dead and will “stand before God” bodily. (Revelation 20:12) But there will be no glorious paradise of eternal love awaiting them. No, they will face judgment, torment, absolute, unspeakable hopeless despair, a fiery execution and the “second death” from which they will never awaken.

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”(Revelation 21:8)

I realize that my description is very intense and perhaps even depressing. Let me assure you that most of my writing is cheerful and upbeat! But eventual death is a very certain reality for each of us. And for the damned hell really will be . . . HELL! So from time to time in this series of Bible guides, we will briefly view the darker side of reality. But we’ll spend most of our time bathing in the bright sunshine of God’s eternal realities of hope and love. I’m trying to reach a broad audience, so if dark subjects are not to your liking hang in with me for a bit.

The A Fly in the Ointment Bible Guide series helps explain why God permits so much suffering in this beautiful world. In a certain sense, our world is a vast hell of suffering, sorrow, disease and dying. In light of that fact, is it merely a fool’s fantasy to believe God’s promise that the day is coming when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”? (Revelation 21:4)

What a beautiful dream! Could it really be true? Is God telling us the truth? Or is it all a big lie, a joke to torment us with tantalizing fantasies that will never happen?

I believe that precious promise with all my heart. I’m so certain that it is true that I’m willing to stake my life on it! But before that sweet day comes for the “objects of [God’s] mercy”, there will come, for the “objects of his anger” a day of reckoning — a day of judgment — a day of justice — a day of bitterness — a day of mind-bending gut-wrenching hopeless despair in a very real, a very fiery hell.

“If God wants to demonstrate his anger and reveal his power, he can do it. But can't he be extremely patient with people who are objects of his anger because they are headed for destruction? Can't God also reveal the riches of his glory to people who are objects of his mercy and who he had already prepared for glory? This is what God did for us whom he called — whether we are Jews or not. As God says in Hosea: “Those who are not my people I will call my people. Those who are not loved I will call my loved ones. Wherever they were told, ‘You are not my people,' they will be called children of the living God.” Isaiah also says about Israel: Although the descendants of Israel are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, only a few will be saved.” Romans 9:22-27 GW²

I once felt like the hungry mouth of hell had swallowed me whole. It was as if a burning tongue had shot out of hell’s gaping jaws and latched onto me. That fiery tongue pulled me in — the pitiless jaws slammed shut — tight! I felt the terror of hopeless lostness. I was inside — in the dark — it was suffocating — claustrophobic. I was alone with inescapable tormenting thoughts. Oh, I was not literally in hell; according to the Bible, nobody is burning in hell right now. Hell-fire is a future event, “the wrath to come”, but I felt a sense of doom like the damned will feel on the day of God’s vengeance. (1^stThessalonians 1:10b) Because of a terrible tragedy in my life, I felt absolutely God-forsaken and abandoned to die with no hope of ever living again. I was convinced that my probation³was closed forever and that I was destined to die the permanent “second death” in hell with no way of escape. (Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8) I now realize that it was a providential experience I needed to prepare me to write this series of Bible guides. But oh, I wouldn’t wish that experience on my worst enemies unless it could be their means of salvation.

David,powerfully describes some of this awful feeling of despair as he opens his desolate soul to God in the 88thPsalm.^{4At a time of deep grief and suffering David had a right to expect help and sympathy from intimate “loved one and friend” but even they abandoned him, which caused even more acute suffering. The mournful, despondent singer seems almost resigned that God has utterly abandoned him and pathetically ends his psalm with the word “darkness.”}

“O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You. Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man [who has] no strength, Adrift among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And who are cut off from Your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the depths. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, And You have afflicted [me] with all Your waves. Selah

“You have put away my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an abomination to them; [I am] shut up, and I cannot get out; My eye wastes away because of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You. Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise [and] praise You? Selah

“Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [Or] Your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But to You I have cried out, O Lord, And in the morning my prayer comes before You. Lord, why do You cast off my soul? [Why] do You hide Your face from me? I [have been] afflicted and ready to die from [my] youth; I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught. Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off. They came around me all day long like water; They engulfed me altogether. Loved one and friend You have put far from me, [And] my acquaintances into darkness. (Psalm 88:1-18 NKJV)

John Bunyan, in his classic books The Pilgrim’s Progress and Grace Abounding to the chief of Sinners describes his own dreadful struggles with the same and similar torments that the Psalmist and I have felt. These horrible mental torments are often rooted in a misunderstanding of the character of God and a misunderstanding of the human condition. Tragically, millions have rejected God altogether because of misconceptions.

It is true that there will be a “furnace of fire: [where] there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 13:50b) But a balanced understanding of the nature and purpose of that event can keep us from rejecting God on a false premise. Don’t let all the sweetness — all the beauty — all the adventure — all the love — all the friends — all the pleasure — all the happiness and all the glory of eternal life in Paradise slip from your grasp. Surely, you don’t want to be utterly extinguished and cease to exist forever! Flee from the wrath to come! For there is a way to escape. Flee to the loving God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ (Messiah). That is the only way of escape from the wrath to come.

I had a remarkable experience one Saturday night that I would like to tell you about. It was a divine appointment. Have you ever had a divine appointment? That is an encounter with another person, which you did not plan; God providentially planned it for you. It is an encounter in which one party shares the Gospel with another. Picture the scene. I had called on a newspaper ad for puppies and made an appointment to see them. But on the way over, I phoned the man and told him I changed my mind and wouldn’t be coming; I went to the grocery store instead.

About a week later on a Saturday night he called me and said, “I still have four puppies left and I really need to get rid of them. If you want one, I will give it to you at no charge.” I thought for a moment and concluded that I probably didn’t want the responsibility but I decided that the Lord might want me to present the Gospel to the man so I told him I would come but that I couldn’t promise to take a puppy. He sounded like an exceptionally nice person and I was curious if maybe God had a plan for me to meet this stranger, a divine appointment.

I climbed in my mud-spattered 97 Chevy 4x4 off-road pickup truck and drove the 20 miles or so to his place. On the way, I sang songs to the Lord; they were prayers actually. It was dark and I was alone so I could get away with singing out loud. Ha! I was telling God that I didn’t really want the puppy but that maybe He would give me a divine appointment and that would be okay with me. I want to help as many people as I can to have eternal life in God’s future world of peace and love. I had been asking God to make plans for me instead of me always making my own plans and I had a sense that maybe, just maybe I was in for something special.

I found the road the man lived on. He had said he lived 1.5 miles down the road. When I got to 1.3 miles, I saw a big lovely house with a wrap-around porch and all the lights on. I noticed a permanent very tall sign in the yard by the road that said something about salvation in Jesus. It is, of course, unusual to see a sign like that in the front yard of a farmhouse. I went another couple of hundred yards and decided to go back to that house. It was then that I noticed the message on the backside of the sign. “Where will you spend eternity, heaven or hell?”

Wow! This was really getting exciting. I sensed very strongly now that God was setting up a divine appointment for me. I had “finished” the manuscript for my book, A fly in the Ointment a couple of days before and had a copy of it lying on the seat next to me. (This God speak™ Bible Guide series is adapted from A Fly in the Ointment.) As I pulled into the circle driveway, I noticed a beautiful Golden Retriever sleeping in a big chair on the porch. I walked to the door and knocked. The door opened and a friendly man wearing a cap tilted to one side and dressed with a leather looking vest, like a European or British Isle shepherd, said with enthusiasm, “Troy! Come on in!” He introduced himself as Paul.⁵I liked his “refined-rustic” outfit; it is my taste. The interior of the house was fine-looking and immaculate, very open, well-lit and warm feeling, not stuffy. I especially noticed the lovely hardwood floors as we walked through to the back patio. There I saw two beautiful Calico cats and a good-looking Burnese mountain dog with puppies.

I picked up a cute black puppy with silky wavy hair as I conversed with Paul. I asked, “What kind of work do you do?” “I’m a home builder,” he said. “So am I,” I replied. “Oh, how has it been going?” “Well I was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” “Well,” I said, “I spent several years researching and writing about what happens when a person dies. How ironic that I ended up with terminal cancer. Oh well, while researching about the nature of the soul and about hell, I came to some very disturbing conclusions about how those subjects fit into Bible prophecy and I became afraid that if I told the whole truth it would bring persecution on my family.

“My wife was also upset with me for investing such a tremendous amount of time in a project that she couldn’t see any benefit from. I came very close to throwing the whole manuscript away, deleting it completely. Somehow, God blocked me from that brash act, although I did cut about half of the material out of my book.

“I was rationalizing, running from my duty and valuing my family above the God Who had given me my family — very illogical. Suddenly all kinds of devastating disasters cascaded down on me in rapid succession like the gut-wrenching shocks and losses suffered by the ancient patriarch Job. Family, money, property, even my good reputation was being brutally wrenched from me. It was absolutely overwhelming.” (I know how Job felt. In a sense even worse, more on that later.) “Then I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer and only given a short time to live.⁶

“There I lay all empty, wasted and dying. I had nothing left to lose so when I got back home from the hospital I got on my computer, dug up all of the deleted material, and put it all back in the book. I also added many powerful insights that I have gained through the unbelievable experience I’ve been through these past nine months. I just ‘finished’ the manuscript a couple of days ago.

“What is your religion?,” I asked. “Mennonite,” he replied. Paul was obviously not the old style Mennonite but modernized. Yet, as his clothing indicated, there was a sense of old-world nostalgia and stylish good taste about him. “We believe what the Bible teaches about hell,” he said. “Well, let me tell you what the Bible teaches,” I said, as I felt inspired to boldness.

I wanted to try to help Paul grasp why God would not torment anyone mentally for all eternity so I asked him, “Have you ever been body slammed by an emotional shock that ripped your heart out and crushed you under an overwhelming sense of sorrow and grief?” “Oh yeah,” he said with sudden pain in his voice and a wince on his face, “When my twin brother died.” “Oh — that must have really hurt you.” “Oh yeah — bad — really bad,” he said. “Then you understand,” I said. “You’ve tasted a bitter swallow of what hell will be like and so have I. God would not allow any human being to go through that kind of devastating mental anguish, grief and despair for all eternity without end. Even if we lay God’s mercy aside, justice would not allow eternal torment for the sins of a brief earthly life.”

I began to tell him about how the paradoxical 16^th Century French reformer John Calvin hated the doctrine of soul-sleep and therefore he hated and persecuted the Ana-Baptists during the Reformation because some of them taught soul-sleep. I had forgotten for a moment that the Mennonites are descendants of Ana-Baptists. I know the Holy Spirit put those words in my mouth because it could connect some dots in Paul’s mind.

As we walked back through the bright beautiful house I felt a strong desire to make an appeal so I said, “Paul, I want to give you something. I brought a copy of my book manuscript with me and I want to give it to you. It won’t cost you anything and if you don’t like it, you can throw it in the trash. It won’t hurt anything so please take it.” “Okay,” he said. I went to my truck and retrieved the manuscript. When I got back to the door I asked, “Can I pray with you?” “Yes, come on in.” I prayed a short prayer and handed him the manuscript. He immediately realized this was no small document. He then looked at the title and said, “Oh, A Fly in the Ointment. You must have spent a lot of time on this.” “Yes four years.” He looked me right in the eye and said, “Troy, I won’t take this lightly.”

Wow! This man impressed me in every way with his observably fine character; I knew that God had honored me with a divine appointment. Paul shook my hand, I squeezed his arm and left. I was overjoyed as I drove home. God brings sweetness even out of bitterness. What the devil means for evil God can turn to good.

The Bible does not spare scrutinizing the character flaws of even its greatest heroes. We see laid out in Scripture many painful and shameful details of the failures and sins of men like Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Samson, David, Solomon, Peter, Paul, John and numerous others. And there are the failures of great women like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Rahab and Mary Magdalene. And yet each of these repentant sinners will receive a glorious reward on resurrection day. All their sins will be forgotten, forever erased — blotted out. I am small compared to these great people of history and yet small as my offering might be I have used my gift of words to draw believers closer to the Savior and to seek and save lost people.

But there is a flip side to my skill with words. The Bible says, “A fool uttereth all his mind.” (Proverbs 29:11) Sometimes I have said things to people that would better have been left unsaid. Through those failures, I have brought pain to them, to myself, and to God. Be that as it may, I have endeavored in A Fly in the Ointment to open a little bit of myself up to you, as perhaps God would have done had He seen fit to record my story in Scripture. In this manner, I am able to have a more credible standing before you and a more intimate bond with you as I seek to share life-saving truths. You can see me, not as high-minded and condescending, but as a weak sinful mortal sorry for his sins and seeking the glorious world beyond “when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.” (1^st Corinthians 15:54a) And perhaps as you see God redeeming even an egregious sinner like me you will have confidence that He can certainly save you.

My personality will come out in this book. You can’t write 600 pages in an intimate style without that happening. So let me give you a little heads-up. I am a merciful, compassionate and tenderhearted person. But I would never consider myself a purely sweet person. I am ardent, intense, goal oriented, hard driving, and analytical. I can be sharp, edgy and even more intense when provoked to indignation or anger. I can (sorry to say) intimidate people with my piercing blue eyes. But I do have an almost constant cheerfulness and gentleness that comes from God, and a sense of humor — I laugh a lot. I am tenderly expressive and lovingly descriptive verbally in appropriate situations.

I quickly size-up people when I meet them, yet I don’t consciously hold bigotry, racism, or chauvinism in my heart toward anyone. I constantly meet people whose sexual orientation and other lifestyle choices are aberrant from God’s plan, which is plainly taught in Scripture. Those deviant behaviors offend me and yet I have a tender compassion for the individuals themselves. Their sins, gross as they are to God, are not as bad as some other sins, such as self-righteousness, narrow-mindedness, and authoritarianism. God wins with love, not force. But He also wins with straight cutting truth, not with muddling-spin-doctoring and compromising-principle. God values quality over quantity.

We are all sinners. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” (Romans 3:10-11) But God sees not only what we are but also what we can become! “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isaiah 13:12)

Heaven’s gates are open to all who will allow the Creator to change their way of thinking and find happiness in His perfect plan. For many it is an overwhelming challenge to even begin to enter upon the path of change — very frightening! I pray for wisdom and tender compassion as I seek to reach them with God’s message. And I pray for courage to never holdback any truth no matter how much danger the telling of that truth might bring to me.

Conscience, the introspective ability to analyze self, morals, attitudes, and behavior is what set’s humans apart from all other animal life. I have a tender conscience, which I continually attempt to better educate through a study of God’s word and through evaluation of life experiences.

I am a truth-seeker, an avid reader, a careful researcher, a student of history. I want to know how the little facts fit together in the big picture. Often minute details jump out at me but other times I feel frustrated when I miss something that comes back to bite me later. I can make some people spittin mad in a discussion! I avoid debate when I perceive that it will be fruitless. I love truth-seekers.

I have lived a very complex life with a wide array of experiences. I have witnessed in wonderment as a newborn baby emerged into the world and I have intently stared into the faces of the dying and the dead. I have soared with enrapturing ecstasy and plummeted into soul-shattering despair. I know honor and humiliation, self-confidence and self-doubt, self-respect and a sense of shame.

I have a special place in my heart for children, especially children who are neglected, abused or corrupted by their parents. For many years, because of childhood abuse and neglect, I was not 100% comfortable in my own skin. But as I write to you today, I am glad that God made me who I am — glad that I had the origins that I had, the painful experience of my childhood because those things laid the foundation for my ability to think out-of-the-box and to sympathize with a wide array of people. I am very comfortable in my skin — I like myself!

I have much tender love in my heart. I am a forgiving person but I don’t always behave sweetly toward my adversaries. It depends on the situation. If I were a piece of candy, I would be a Sweet-Tart! I promise you, you definitely don’t want Troy Montana on steroids! I’m intensely devoted as a friend, but I will tell you if I can’t do what you ask of me.

I have written A Fly in the Ointment because I love God and I’m indignant that His name has been smeared by repugnant lies and that those lies have caused billions of human beings to reject Him and the eternal life that He offers. I write because I love my neighbor as myself. Therefore, I want to help as many precious people, sinners like myself to find eternal healing and happiness. God is leading me — I know it!

We see magnificent order and design from the tiny molecule under the microscope to the gigantic universe beyond the telescope. Such intricate design had to have a brilliant Designer — absolutely; it is so obvious as to be beyond question to any unbiased observer. The question arises then: Does that brilliant Designer also have the “technology” to bring dead people back to life with brand new bodies? And considering that He designed you, does He keep a perfect, “blueprint” record of your identity, including your personality and your DNA, filed in celestial record books? If the God Who designed and created us really is a loving Father then the answer to these questions must be a resounding yes!

The Bible overflows with poignant stories of how the God of love has sought to relieve the suffering of humanity. If we would focus our gaze upon these deeply moving portrayals of love, we would be drawn like a magnet to Him. But the Christian church of the Dark Ages exchanged the portrait of a loving God for a Schizophrenic God. What a strange contradiction that Christian ministers should teach that God is love while at the same time proclaiming that He abandons His lost children to inexpressibly horrible mental torment for never-ending ages. This awful heresy became entrenched in the church of the Dark Ages and remains deep-rooted in most of 21^st century, Christianity. In fact, many 21^st century, Christian ministers still teach that God not only sentences multitudes of lost people to unending ages of mental anguish, loneliness, and despair but also to never-ending physical torture more gruesome than even the most cold-blooded terrorist can perpetrate.

Have you ever stopped and seriously pondered the magnitude of misery and unspeakable agony experienced by literally billions of human beings that have lived, suffered and died during the 6,000 years of recorded human history? So they lived suffered and died and that is the end of them, right? No! According to Scripture, “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”(Acts 24:15b) Wow! So God will raise every person that has ever lived and died back to life with body and personality fully intact. Even the people vaporized at ground zero when the atomic bombs exploded over Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War II and all the people killed when the twin towers fell in New York on 9/11 — every single one will be raised intact and alive. Some will inherit immortality, eternal life and some will face judgment and a “second death” execution by fire. (Revelation 20:5-6; 21:7-8)

Yes, the Bible clearly teaches that those who refuse to live by the laws of God’s government will be destroyed as incorrigible rebels in a very real fiery hell. That hell-fire event will do its cleansing work and then will end. It will be followed by a glorious new dawn in which there will never again be heard the shrieks and moans of suffering anywhere in all of God’s vast creation.

The New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek about 2,000 years ago. English, as we know it did not even exist at that time. The New Testament was first translated from Greek to English in the early 16^th century and the famous King James Version was translated in the early 17^th century.

In describing the torment of the lost at the final judgment, the New King James Bible translates the last words of Revelation 20:10 to say, “And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” The King James also uses this term “for ever and ever” as do many other English translations. The English translators deduced the word “forever” from the Greek aiōnōs. Aiōnōs (the plural form of aion) is an idiomatic expression, which simply means ages or periods of time. Ages- aiōnōs) sometimes refers to eternity without end, but not always. It depends on the subject with which it is associated.

Historians refer to certain periods as the middle Ages, or Dark-Ages. Those ages did not last forever — they ended as we entered the modern age. Likewise, Scripture often uses age- aion or ages- aiōnōs,to denote time periods that have come or will come to an end. Let’s read some statements Jesus made when speaking of this present “world” or “age.” In each of the following Bible texts, aiōnōs refers to periods of time that will come to a definite end!

“The harvest is the end of the world-[aiōnōs].” (Matthew 13:39b)

“So it will be at the end of the age-[aiōnōs]. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 13:49, 50 NKJV)

“As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world-[aiōnōs].” (Matthew 13:40)

Clearly, Jesus’ reference to this aiōnōs-world/age is a reference to something that will end. He says so plainly in the repeated phrases “the end of the aiōnōs” and “the end of this aiōnōs.” Especially notice that even though aiōnōs is the plural form of aion, it nevertheless comes to an end!

Did Jesus say that the tares would be burned in the fire at the end of this “forever”? That would be a nonsensical statement. He unmistakably said at the end of this age or period of ages- aiōnōs. When we look at Revelation 20:10 with that understanding, we see that hell-fire will commence at the end of this period of ages- aiōnōs and will burn unto the commencement of the following period of ages- aiōnōs. This present age or period of ages will end in fire, which will eventually go out and be followed by a glorious period of ages that will never end. Before moving on let’s briefly look at one other New Testament example of the word ages-aiōnōs.

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal-[aiōnōs] fire.” (Jude 1:6-7)

Here again we see the Greek aiōnōs translated as eternal or everlasting in most English Bibles. In this particular case, aiōnōs describes the fire that destroyed the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Obviously, that literal fire went out thousands of years ago. It burned until it had thoroughly accomplished its work and then went out. But the results of the fire are eternal. Sodom and Gomorrah are obliterated forever; they no longer exist. It is in this same sense that the fire of hell will be eternal. It will burn until it thoroughly accomplishes its work and then go out. The results of hell’s fire will be eternal. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah symbolizes the complete obliteration of all unrepentant sinners in the fire of hell.

Please note also that the wicked angels are not in hell’s-fire yet. According to the text we read a few moments ago they are “reserved . . . unto the judgment of the great day.” Hell is a future event.

There are many other passages in Scripture that prove beyond a doubt that hell is a future judicial event involving confrontation, mental torment and a final “second death.”(Revelation 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8) The Bible clearly teaches that hell will have both a beginning and an end. Scripture points to a soon coming time when all suffering is forever ended.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. . . . And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”(Revelation 21:1, 4; See also 2^ndPeter 3:10-13

The fires of hell have not been lit yet; but even if hell were burning right now, it would be empty. Why? Because according to Scripture, there is no such thing as an immortal soul that separates from the body at death. Dead people are just that — dead — they are in a death-sleep state of unconsciousness and will remain so until the resurrection. So if the Bible doesn’t teach it, where did the notion that the human soul is naturally immortal come from? The idea that an eternally conscious immortal soul inhabits every mortal human body is a tenet of dualism. The Hellenistic Greek philosopher Socrates(470-399 B. C.) adopted dualism from ancient Egyptian superstitions about the dead.

The Greek philosopher Socrates (470-399 B. C.) traveled to Egypt to consult the Egyptians on their teachings on the immortality of the soul. . . . The Egyptian belief in the immortality of the soul existed centuries before Judaism, Hellenism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. According to Herodotus [in Euterpe, chapter 123], eventually the Greeks adopted from the Egyptians the belief in the immortality of the soul. He wrote: “The Egyptians also were the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal . . . This opinion, some among the Greeks have at different periods of time adopted as their own.”⁷

Socrates then passed unfounded immortal soul theories to his pupil, Plato (427-347 B. C.), who in turn passed the notion to his disciple Aristotle (384-322 B. C.). Plato and Aristotle have passed Socrates’ warped view of the nature of the human soul to posterity through their writings. Through these and connected sources, dualistic teachings have infected virtually every religion of the world, including Judaism and Christianity.

In his book, The Phaedo, Plato recounts Socrates’ final conversation with his friends on the last day of his life. . . . In the dialogue Socrates repeatedly declares death to be “the separation of the soul from the body” in which it is encased. His language is strikingly similar to that of many Christian churches today. “The soul whose inseparable attribute is life, will never admit of life’s opposite, death. Thus the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal, indestructible.”⁸

Socrates is a striking example of the far-reaching, tragic influence one confused man’s speculative teachings can have on world civilization. How much nobler society might be today had Socrates turned to the divinely inspired Hebrew Scriptures for enlightenment on the nature of the soul rather than to the silly superstitions of the Egyptian death-cult.

The deceptive doctrine of soul immortality, borrowed from pagan philosophy and amalgamated with the Christian faith, has supplanted the truth so plainly taught in Scripture that, “the dead don’t know anything.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) This and other mind-darkening superstitions were largely responsible for developing and extending the Dark Ages we read of in history. The great Protestant Reformation of the 16^th and 17^th centuries recovered some but not all of the great Bible truths, which lay hidden beneath the rubbish of pagan error. The Reformation made a good start, but eventually was derailed by complacency and apathy. Nevertheless, there will be a complete recovery of truth before Jesus returns. At least this is true for those who value truth above tradition, and principle above prosperity.

The Bible must be our final arbiter of truth. I do not mean that we are to approach the Bible with a superstitious, medieval mindset. We approach the Scriptures with a modern, enlightened mindset; not enlightened in the sense of a skeptic, but more in the sense of a truth seeker not bound with tradition and preconceptions.

When the last of Christ’s Apostles, John the Revelator, died (ca. AD 96-99), the writing of the Bible ended. All Scripture was not organized in the form of the Bible as we know it until some time later, but the actual inspired writing was complete. The doctrines of the Scriptures are forever settled! The notion that the church has authority to change any Biblical teaching is false. No Pope, nor prelate, nor church council has ever been given authority from God to alter or supersede anything taught in the Bible. The Bible is God’s solid anchor of revealed truth to the human race. That anchor must not be tampered with in any way, shape, or form!

You may be shocked to discover that the Bible does not teach the most commonly believed myths about the nature and destiny of the soul. The Bible identifies the living human soul as a whole person with a living breathing body. There is no such thing as a soul-ghost that separates from the body at death. According to Scripture, the identity of a person does not exist in a conscious state apart from his/her living, breathing body.

Dualism gradually began infiltrating the church, especially in and around the Hellenized learning centers of Rome and Alexandria. Beginning about one hundred fifty years after the founding of the Christian church and over the centuries thereafter, several pagan-influenced Christian theologians led the main branches of the church to syncretize dualistic concepts with Christian belief. In this series of Bible Guides, we will review fascinating documented excerpts from their corrupted teachings. We will also take a brief look at the writings of first and second century church leaders who taught the true Biblical concept of conditional immortality.

Conditionalists vs. Traditionalists

There are two major opposing schools of thought among religionists concerning the nature of the human soul. We will refer to these two groups as traditionalists and conditionalists. Traditionalists believe that immortality (never-ending conscious existence) is the automatic God-given inheritance of every human soul, both redeemed and damned. Conditionalists believe that God grants immortality only to people who have faith in Him and that immortality will be bestowed in a bodily resurrection at the second coming of Jesus. The Bible clearly teaches the Conditionalist view from cover-to-cover and nowhere teaches anything even remotely resembling the traditionalist view! In fact, the Bible, speaking of God, says, “He alone possesses immortality.”(1^stTimothy 6:16a NEB)

Traditionalists base their beliefs about the soul on popular traditions handed down from previous generations. Of course, there is nothing wrong with keeping “traditions” so long as those traditions don’t clash with God’s Word. (See 2^ndThessalonians 2:15; 3:6) The problem arises only when we teach traditions made up by men, which fly in the face of God’s Word. (See Matthew 15:1-9; Colossians 2:8) Unfortunately, many theologians and pastors do place tradition above the authority of the Bible when dealing with the subjects of the nature and destiny of the human soul.

Some of the greatest sixteenth century, Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and John Frith rediscovered the Bible truth about the wholistic nature of the human soul that had been buried beneath the rubbish of Dark Ages’ superstition. Tyndale, Frith and Luther began as traditionalists but as they studied Scripture and surrendered to Bible truth, they grew into a conditionalist understanding of the state of humans in death. These preeminent Reformers clearly taught from the Bible that dead believers sleep peacefully and unconsciously until the resurrection at the second coming of Jesus. We’ll look at some of their Bible-based teachings in later chapters of this enlightening series.

Today, billions of people believe that the human soul is immortal and cannot die. Muslims, Voodooists, and Satanists, as well as Hindus, Buddhists, and most other pagan religions of the world hold this belief in common with the majority of Christians.

Only a few million Christians believe that the human soul is mortal. “How could two billion Christians be wrong and only a few million right?” we ask. The same way one and a half billion Muslims, a billion Hindus and billions of other pagans, agnostics, and atheists are wrong on these points. Most Christians have been getting their doctrines on the nature and destiny of the human soul from the wrong sources, certainly not from the Bible!

We need a reliable guide-map to lead us out of the mind-darkening jungle of guesswork and pagan fables into the safe path of divine enlightenment. The Bible contains the easily understandable answers to your most profound questions about your human soul and its destiny. The God speak™ booklet series A Fly in the Ointment cuts through unbiblical tradition and takes you straight to easily understandable Bible texts, which explain in simple language the true nature and destiny of the human soul.

Each of the first 11 chapters in this series of God speak™ Bible Guides deals with a different aspect of the fascinating subject of the nature and destiny of the soul. There is some repetition of thought in each booklet. This reinforces certain fundamental points and ties the whole theme together. Chapters 12-17 present a shocking exposé laying out well documented historical evidence of how, when, and through whom tainted traditions began to replace the clear Biblical teaching on the nature and destiny of the human soul. Chapters 18-19 expose the devastating effect those false beliefs will have on all of civilization as the rapidly approaching final events of world history are revealed in Bible prophecy. We then close in chapter 20 with scenes from the very tangible and exhilarating future world of peace and happiness. I trust you will find this a very interesting and rewarding study.

Your human soul is much more than a biodegradable body that simply rots away into compost when you die, with no hope of a resurrection to new life. On the other hand, your soul is not a filmy phantom. You will not be dispatched straight to heaven or hell at the moment you die. Reality is far more exciting than fiction when it comes to the truth about the makeup and destiny of your human soul!

Our beliefs about the make-up of the soul affect the way we view our bodies and the way we treat our bodies, the way we eat, recreate, labor, and rest. Our understanding of this vital subject even affects the way we see God; a distorted view of the human soul leads to a misunderstanding of what God is really like. Therefore, it is enormously important that you correctly understand what you are as a human soul.

You are not a mere biological machine. You came into this world as a special, unique individual in both physical and mental characteristics. Neither your fingerprints, nor your DNA, nor your thoughts and feelings are identical to any other person that has ever lived. Therefore, I have approached the subject of the human soul as it relates to unique individuals. I have set Bible teaching in a framework that will help you to think in terms of your own unique identity as a living soul and in terms of the individual souls, both friend and foe, whose lives touch yours and are being touched by yours.

The Superiority of the Bible

I believe the Bible is superior to any other document in the world. How is it superior? “All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2^ndTimothy 3:16) The “Spirit” that inspired the Bible writers is the same “Spirit of truth” Who will “guide you into all truth.”(John 16:13b) The “all truth” referred to here is not all petty truth but rather all truth as it relates to life and holiness, all truth as it relates to true happiness and everlasting life. Only the Bible read under the illumination of the Holy Spirit can lead you into all truth. You will not discern all truth even in the pages of the Bible unless you also have the active supernatural help of the Bible’s Author, the Holy Spirit. The truth is there but it could sail right over your head unrecognized. So, before beginning Bible study always pray a simple prayer to God asking for the aid and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Just speak to God as you would to an honored and revered friend and you will certainly receive what you request.

“And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if [he ask] a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”(Luke 11:9-13)

The Importance of Personal Bible Study

Without a doubt, some honest-hearted Christian ministers teach much truth and yet also propagate superstitions about the human soul that plainly contradict what the Bible teaches. Is it possible for an honest-hearted person to speak truth in one area and untruth in another? The Bible notes occasions in which a sincere-hearted person misunderstood truth and consequently said things that were dangerously deceptive. Matthew recounts an example to illustrate our point. He describes a scene in which Jesus first blesses Peter for making a statement inspired by God, and then severely rebukes him shortly thereafter for unwittingly speaking words inspired by Satan. (See Matthew 16:13-23)

I sometimes listen to a well-known preacher on the radio while driving my pickup truck. Many of this preacher’s messages are wonderful, Bible-based, and edifying. I receive encouragement, inspiration, and wise counsel as he earnestly expounds from Scripture. Yet, when it comes to the subjects discussed in this Bible Guide series, the eminent pastor’s teaching contradicts what the Bible unmistakably teaches. This saddens me, but it also causes me to determine even more to heed the Bible’s warning about the work of ministers, “If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”(1^st Corinthians 3:14-15)

Perhaps this gifted preacher is a sincere follower of Christ just as Peter was, and yet some of what he says is not inspired by Christ and may cause the loss of some souls who are misguided by his errant teachings. The famous preacher as a repentant sinner will be saved in the end, yet some of his work will burn.

Of course, there are many “Hook-a-Sucker” media churches where fraudulent “ministers” clog the radio and TV waves with their obvious lusting after money, fame, and sensual pleasure. Even so, some of them actually do lead a few to Christ. The great Apostle Paul took a pragmatic view of this dilemma: “What does it matter? Just that in every way, whether out of false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed. And in this I rejoice.” (Philippians 1:18 HCSB)

Though deceitful ministers do lead some to Christ, they themselves will not be saved.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”(Matthew 7:22-23)

It is a tremendous challenge in this day and time to know just how to relate to Protestant and Catholic leaders because they teach some beautiful truths and yet also mix insidious error with truth. Delusive teachings come straight from Christian pulpits, and millions of Christians accept the lies without ever questioning whether those teachings actually agree with the Bible.

Satan the deceiver is the one who promised Adam immortality in disobedience. The assurance of the serpent to Eve in Eden — “Ye shall not surely die” — was the first sermon ever preached upon the immortality of the soul. Yet this declaration, resting solely upon the authority of Satan, is echoed from Christian pulpits. The majority of Christians believe it even though the Bible does not teach it. The divine sentence, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20), is twisted to mean, The soul that sinneth, is immortal and shall never die. What a strange infatuation, which renders people so credulous concerning the words of Satan and so unbelieving in regard to the words of God.

Although “death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” Christ “hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (Romans 5:12; 2^nd Timothy 1:10) Christ gives immortality only to those who believe in Him. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.” (John 3:36) You will receive this priceless blessing if you will comply with the conditions. All“who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,” will receive “eternal life.” (Romans 2:7)

The office of a pastor is an office of ministry, a divine calling; therefore, we should treat honest-hearted pastors with respect. Likewise, scientists have done great service to humanity by searching into the mysteries of God’s creation and thereby bringing improvements in health, healing, and technology. Nevertheless, we owe it to ourselves to test what ministers and scientists teach about the human soul. They are fallible and subject to err just as we are. It is certainly not wise to stick any pill that science develops into your mouth without weighing the possible side effects. Likewise, it is no disrespect to double check your pastors’ teaching to see that it is in complete accord with Scripture, for indeed, if you allow yourself to be misguided, the damage done to your spiritual perception could lead to, shall we say, “eternal side effects.”

Many people mistakenly believe that only a theologian with university training can understand the Bible. However, most Seminary environments instill false biases in the minds of students. Those biases detour theology students off the safe, plainly marked Bible paths into a toxic, man-made, theological wasteland.

If you will lay aside your preconceptions and let the Bible speak, comparing Scripture with Scripture, you will come to a clearer understanding of truth than even the most renowned theologians who begin with false preconceptions and attempt to interpret Scripture through those biases.

Let me state this very pointedly. You do have the time to study the Bible for yourself — yes, you do! I don’t mean merely reading the Bible; I mean studying it. If you choose to go through life relying on some theologian or pastor to do your Bible studying for you it is highly unlikely that you treasure salvation enough for God to entrust you with it! The pastor’s job is to stimulate you to thoughtful personal study. He can help you but he is not to think and decide for you. If he is an honest broker of truth, he will not be intimidated in the least by your personal Bible study and by your questions. If he appears threatened or irritated by your inquisitiveness and your personal Bible study then it can only be because he can’t support his teachings with a proper, thorough exegesis of Scripture. In short, he has replaced Scripture with human theory and tradition. Oh, he may use some disjointed Bible texts to support his traditions but they are not taken in proper context and not properly compared with other relevant passages.

The God speak™ Bible guide series is designed to help you see for yourself what the Bible says. May I also recommend Green’s Interlinear Bible along with Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and a King James Bible. With those simple tools, you will be able to understand the original Bible writer’s meaning.

Many popular churches do retain some Biblical truth related to basic salvation, and they do offer some wise counsel concerning relevant moral and ethical social issues. But by amalgamating Bible truth with superstitious lies, they have contaminated the Gospel ointment with “dead flies” and as the wise man says, “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: [so doth] a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom [and] honour.” (Ecclesiastes 10:1) These silly superstitious teachings not only damage the wisdom and honor of the churches, but God’s name is brought into disrepute by the repugnant smell of false doctrines such as the teaching that God sustains lost people in a conscious state of suffering and hopeless despair for never ending ages.

As we’ve already noted, the belief that God created the human soul immortal came from Egyptian and Greek paganism and began infiltrating Christianity in the late second and early third centuries A.D. Those misleading pagan myths became deeply imbedded in Christian teachings during the Dark Ages.

Mixing pagan fables with Bible truth causes various texts to contradict one another. This confuses Bible readers and makes it impossible for them to understand plain teachings of Scripture.

I’m not suggesting that anyone should lightly surrender a long-held belief, but only that all our beliefs be held under the authority of Scripture and not be bound by tradition, no matter how sentimental our attachment to the tradition.

It is not easy to lay aside preconceptions and prejudices even when we sincerely intend to do so. Nevertheless, we must realize that confused beliefs can lead sincere people “down dangerous roads.”⁹

Throughout the Bible, we see unmistakably that dead people are asleep — they are not able to communicate with the living. In this series of God speak™ Bible guides, we present numerous Bible passages proving that when the body dies, the human soul sleeps unconsciously awaiting the future resurrection. “There will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” (Acts 24:15b)

When God warned Adam and Eve that they would die if they broke His command, He said absolutely nothing about the existence of a conscious, disembodied soul that would survive the death of the body. Nevertheless, with his barefaced lie “Ye shall not surely die”, Satan took the first step toward an enormously successful campaign of propagating belief in the natural immortality of the human soul. (Genesis 3:4)

A large proportion of the human race has always bought into his lie. The pagan nations bordering ancient Israel infected many Israelites with this false belief. The Old Testament contains numerous stories of how God used His truth-oriented followers to combat this lie, which often infiltrated the belief system and religious practices of His people. God strictly forbade attempted contact with the dead because He knew that it was demons (rebel angels) impersonating the dead and not the dead themselves that would “come up” in séances. The Bible referred to these demons as “familiar spirits.” God pronounced the death penalty for anyone found guilty of communicating with familiar spirits. (Leviticus 19:31; 20:27; Compare Numbers 25:1-3; Psalm 106:28; I Corinthians 10:20; Revelation 16:14.)

The growing emphasis on communication with dead saints in 21^st Century Christianity is but a revival, in a new disguise, of the communication with “familiar spirits,” which God has always warned against and condemned.

Satan brazenly contradicted God’s Word when he “said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4) God says we are all sinners and so we all must die. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12) So according to Satan, you will not die; but according to God, you will die — whose word do you believe?

Shouldn’t we today look to the Holy Bible for our beliefs about the nature and destiny of the human soul? There is a rapidly growing body of believers returning to the Bible’s good-sense teachings on the soul! These honest-hearted believers are destined to become “one fold [under] one Shepherd.” (John 10:16) The Shepherd of the fold is not some dazzlingly charismatic spiritual guru, and no the Shepherd is not the pope! The Shepherd of the fold is Jesus Christ.

Another outgrowth of the traditional immortal soul theory is the notion that lost souls go immediately to hell at death where they suffer never-ending torment. But the Bible does not say that hell has already begun, nor does it say that it will never end.

Concerning when hell begins, the Bible says there is “a wrath to come” at the end of the world. (Luke 3:7; 1^st Thessalonians 1:10; See also Revelation 6:17; 11:18; 2^nd Peter 3:7-18) The Bible does not say that conscious disembodied souls enter hell upon the death of the body. Rather, they will be resurrected to “stand before God” bodily to face judgment and the fires of hell. (Revelation 20:12; See also acts 24:15b)

The Bible teaches that hell will have both a beginning and an end. Furthermore, Scripture is clear that when hell commences, the souls who will be punished and destroyed in its flames will be whole, resurrected human beings with bodies, not bodiless ghosts. In this Bible Guide series, we will note the time, place, and duration of the torments of hell. We will allow the Bible to explain to us what the overall purpose and function of hell is. We will examine the concept of eternal life, and where and by whom it will be enjoyed.

According to the Bible, this age will end when God destroys the earth and its atmosphere in a vast lake of fire. That fiery hell will eventually go out and be followed by a glorious period of ages on the newly recreated earth that will never end. (See 2^ndPeter 3:7-14; Revelation 21:1-8)

The following Bible text is one among many that clearly promise immortality at the resurrection. Nowhere does Scripture teach that immortality comes at death.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?”(1^st Corinthians 15:51-55)

We Need the Tree!

Billions of people believe that the soul is an immortal, conscious element of humans that separates from the body at death. They believe the soul is the vital life force that God breathed into the first man at creation. They believe that the soul cannot die. Many Christian teachers say that the soul vivifies and sustains the body while residing in it. According to them, the soul animates, invigorates, and gives life to the body. In some cases, they claim, souls have returned to the body after death, reviving the body with its vivifying power.

1^stKings 17:17-24 describes a scene in which the prophet Elijah prayed for the raising of a young child that had died. In answer to his prayer, God revived the child and he began to breathe again. One theologian, commenting on this passage, explains his notions about the soul as follows:

This account teaches us that death does not result in the destruction of the soul; that at death the soul departs from the body, which it vivified, fully retaining its power of vivifying it again. For we are told that when the soul of the child returned to his body, the body became fully alive.¹⁰

Several questions beg an answer though, if what this theologian claims is true:

• Why do people get sick and weak and die, if this is true? Why do even our minds, which are seated in our physical brains, get weaker as we age?

• If the so-called separable soul is what vivifies and invigorates the body, how then does the body ever grow old? Why doesn’t the indwelling of this vivifying immortal soul, if it truly exists, keep the body fresh and young forever?

• What is the purpose of “the tree of life” that is introduced in Genesis as the Bible opens, is lost because of sin, and then reintroduced as the Bible arrives at its magnificent climax in Revelation? (See Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24; Revelation 2:7; 22:2, 14)

• Wouldn’t a vivifying soul, if it truly exists, make the tree of life irrelevant and unnecessary?

We will prove from Scripture that the human soul is the whole person. The human soul is not an immortal entity with vivifying power that can be separated from the body in a conscious state. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4, 20)

When the first human being chose to partake of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” he forfeited his right to life. (Genesis 2:17) His grieving Creator began to utter the mournful verdict, but when He came to the words “live for ever” He stopped poignantly in mid-sentence, and then without completing the thought He gave the devastating command.

“and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: . . . Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden. . . . He drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”(Genesis 3:22b-23a, 24)

That man was not created with innate immortality. He needed that tree if he was to live forever, and now, because of his sin, God refused to let him eat from its life-giving fruit and leaves. But oh, the tree of life still exists! It is waiting for you in the glorious city God is preparing for His sons and daughters. The Apostle John saw that tree in vision:

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.”(Revelation 22:1-2)

Dear friend, you do not have an immortal, vivifying soul, but if you turn to God with your whole heart, He will change your vile body to a glorious new body when Jesus comes. Then He will grant you permanent, unhindered access to the healing and life-sustaining medicine in the fruit and leaves of that extraordinary tree. That fruit, those leaves, a gift from the life-giving Creator will vivify you forever.

“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”(Revelation 22:12-14)

Anticipation and Reward

The intense pace of twenty-first century life often leaves us frayed and stressed. But our quiet time with the Bible each day can be a little respite, a little sabbatical from the grinding pace of life. “Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” says Jesus.(Matthew 11:28) Jesus continues His invitation and says, “Learn from Me.” That invitation to come, learn, and find rest is open to anyone, anytime, anywhere.

For those who already know and love Jesus, this booklet series will strengthen your love for Him through a deeper and purer understanding of His truth. For those who do not yet love Him, these guidebooks will introduce you to Him and help you get to know Him on an intimate level.

Please allow me now to speak very pointedly to you on a personal level. According to God, you have sinned, and any sin, no matter how “small” carries the death penalty. From God’s perspective sin is treason, rebellion against his government, a crime punishable by death. You may not think you are bad enough to deserve such a harsh penalty but you don’t have jurisdictional authority to change the law. You and I can try to ignore God, we can get mad at God, we can scream at God, we can shake our fist against God, but it doesn’t change the fact that He is in charge and we aren’t. We are very small creatures living on a little backwater planet at the edge of this vast universe. God is not only Creator but also Sustainer and Ruler of the entire universe. How absurd that we would dare to argue with Him. The facts being what they are I suggest we settle down and spend some quality time getting acquainted with God. Perhaps He might win us over to His way of thinking and if that happens we will be perfectly content, perfectly happy to dwell peaceably in His eternal Kingdom.

God is the Creator, the Author so to speak, and as Author He has AUTHORITY to make and enforce the laws governing His creation. You are accountable to Him and to the laws of His government. And no matter how good a person you consider yourself to be or how many good deeds you have done you cannot undo the fact that you have violated God’s law. Consequently, you are doomed to face judgment and execution by fire. Whether you like it or not, this is your situation. But your case is not hopeless. God, the Judge, offers you a way of escape. If you haven’t already accepted that way of escape, I invite you to give it serious consideration.

What God has to say about the nature and destiny of your human soul is at the very heart of the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news about His immeasurable love, His power to heal you completely from sin and its consequences, and to grant you everlasting life in a wonderful world of peace and eternal security. The thrilling Gospel story is found in the Holy Bible from the first promise in Genesis to the complete fulfillment in Revelation.

Will you make time to enjoy an hour of relaxed Bible study before going to bed each evening, or a quiet time alone with the Bible before beginning the intensity of each new day? Life is full of choices, some of which carry eternal consequences. I encourage you to choose to make time for the Bible. “For what shall it profit a man [woman], if he [she] shall gain the whole world, and lose his [her] own soul?” (Mark 8:36)

“The one who gives an answer before he listens —
this is foolishness and disgrace for him.”

“The first to state his case seems right
until another comes and cross examines him.” (Proverbs 18:13, 17 HCSB)

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