The pontiff had been ailing for several months, battling serious respiratory infections that left him with “a swollen face, almost deformed,’’  according to the Argentinian outlet La Nacion.

But he insisted on soldiering on, including when he visited inmates at a prison in Rome on Holy Thursday, sources told the outlet’s Italian-born Vatican correspondent, Elisabetta Pique.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/04/21/world-news/pope-francis-cause-of-death-revealed-by-the-vatican/

The post Pope Francis’ cause of death revealed by the Vatican first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

In thousands of funeral ceremonies, clergymen confidently assure bereaved relatives their loved ones are already in heaven, and the belief is indelibly reinforced in an atmosphere of pain and fear of the unknown. But does the Bible really teach Christians go to heaven when they die?

Why is it there are no segregated graveyards?

Never have you seen indicated on tombstones that some of the bodies there were only the physical relics of souls which are now screaming in hell fire!

Yet, such is the belief of millions who confidently assume the teaching of a heavenly home, or an ever-burning hell.

No matter how sinfully the recently departed might have lived, many a pastor seems able to comfort distraught loved ones with the thought that, at the very last moment, cantankerous and crusty old Uncle Claude somehow made it through the pearly gates!

For over twenty-eight years, I have offered a certified cashier’s check for $10,000 to anyone who can come up with the words “immortal soul,” “When we get to heaven,” “I will see you in heaven,” and “We go to heaven when we die.”

Not in all those twenty-eight years, with millions hearing my words, has a single person been able to claim the certified cashier’s check for $10,000!

Why not?

Simply because such words are not in the Bible!

Remember, there is only one source for the real truth about what happens at death.

The Bible is God’s handbook to man—the revelation of knowledge man could not otherwise discover for himself. The Bible is revealed knowledge!

It does not purport to be a textbook on science, mathematics, geology, astronomy, biology, or physics. However, it is that one book from which and through which all study should be approached.

God did not waste space in His Word repeating for man, endlessly, thousands of things man could easily discover for himself.

He did, however, reveal to the willing hearts and minds of those human beings who are not hostile to God’s Word a precious fund of knowledge which we could not discover for ourselves!

The Bible is proved to be the divinely-revealed Word of God!

Paul said, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God [meaning, ‘God-breathed‘], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

The divinely-revealed Word of God is the ultimate source to which we must go to discover the real truth about the reward of the saved, about what happens at death; about the promise of “heaven,” or the threat of “hell.”

Wouldn’t it seem logical to you that if heaven is the reward of the saved; that if hell is the reward of sinners; that if the saints are raptured away to heaven—there would at least be one scripture somewhere in the Bible plainly saying so?

Is it logical to you that of all the doctrines of the Bible, these main-line, trunk-of-the-tree “doctrines” of a “rapture,” or “going to heaven,” or an “ever-burning hell,” should be totally absent from the Bible?

Millions of churchgoers have sat in church hearing graphic descriptions of heaven. They have heard tear-jerking stories of the death of saintly elderly persons; visions of heaven, last-moment death-bed repentances, and stories of people who have gazed upward as they died and said they saw Jesus coming!

But for all this gingerbread and euphoria around the edges of the subject, these same church-going people have never in their lives sat down at a lengthy Bible study or church service where they heard a minister wade through dozens of scriptures in the Bible promising heaven as the reward of the saved!

They have heard vague allusions from only a few scriptures which are capable of several interpretations!

But they have never heard a patient, careful, well-organized, thorough Bible study or sermon proving from the Bible that heaven is the reward of the saved!

Why haven’t they?

Simply because it cannot be proved!

Why Did Christ Teach the Resurrection?

Why did Jesus continually speak of a resurrection? He said,

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John 5:25).

He described those who were in their graves, dead, knowing nothing, at the time of the second coming of Christ. “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear His 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” [“judgement,” margin] (John 5:28-29).

These scriptures plainly refer to a future event. Jesus spoke of a general resurrection from the dead, which He called a resurrection “of life. ” He clearly spoke of the opposite of death. He spoke of life.

God’s word says “The dead know not anything,” and “The memory of them is forgotten. ” David, in the Psalms, explains that death is a completely mindless state—an absence of knowledge and awareness.

Solomon, David’s son, explained that men die a death exactly as do beasts (Ecclesiastes 3:19). He said “Yea they all have one breath. “

God’s Word reveals that human beings live a physical, chemical existence. We are mortal, temporary, transitory creatures; sustained by the material elements of this physical creation. We are water-drinking, air-breathing, food-ingesting creatures whose life is dependent solely upon our bloodstream and the foods (as fuel) we take into our systems.

When we die, a total cessation of this physical, chemical existence occurs. Death is the absence of life. The Bible describes those who go down into their graves as being just as dead as any animal is dead!

But Jesus Christ spoke of a time when they will be raised up to life! Notice, He did not describe a supposed “immortal soul” being placed back into a formerly dead, decayed body!

Read the entire fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. This is called the “resurrection chapter.” In this marvelous portion of scripture are found some of the most important and plainest doctrines of the Word of God. Not only is the resurrection described in great detail, but even “foolish questions” are answered. Continually, people think they have discovered a question too difficult even for God. They will relate, tiresomely, the devouring of bodies buried at sea by sharks. Then they describe how the sharks are finally

caught by a fisherman, and their livers sold in the market. They then say that some other human being eats the shark’s liver, and therefore a portion of the bodies of the dead, by providing fuel for a shark’s stomach, being absorbed into its body and becoming a part of its liver, now becomes a part of the body of another living person! So how does God solve the problem, they ask?

They will describe what happens when people are fused into nothingness in an atomic explosion, burnt in a crematorium and their ashes scattered over the mountains, in the air, or at sea; or even puzzle endlessly over what happens to those who died centuries ago where even the bones themselves have turned to nothing but dust.

To such questing minds, it seems impossible for God to “resurrect” the body that was. The Apostle Paul shows these are “foolish questions,” and answers them thoroughly in the famous “resurrection chapter” of 1 Corinthians 15.

“But some man will say, how are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed His own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness: it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:35-44).

Notice first that the Apostle Paul refers to carnal human reasonings about just how God is going to bring back an utterly corrupted and decayed human body as a question proposed by a fool.

Then, He shows that through the unlimited miracle working power of God a completely corrupt, dishonorable, natural body which can waste away to become fused once again with the elements of this earth (“dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”) is to be resurrected as a spirit being!

“Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual … and as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 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! ” (1 Corinthians 15:46-53).

You need to read all of this marvelously revealing chapter in your own Bible. Read it slowly, accept it on face value, as it is, and believe it as the very Word of God!

If you do, you will never again be confused about the resurrection of the dead.

This revealing chapter plainly shows that, at death, your physical, temporal bodies, sustained in a chemical existence by the natural elements of this earth; food, water, and air, completely cease to function, and that total unconsciousness and oblivion results!

Not only is there a complete cessation of life—there is total loss of consciousness!

Then, within moments after death, the physical body begins to decay.

This beautiful fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians explains that no matter how rapidly that decaying process (whether being blown to bits in an atomic explosion or slowly decaying in a normal grave) God is capable of completely re-creating a new spirit life, giving the individual a brand-new spirit body!

The Apostle Paul went to great pains to explain it is not the old, decaying, “corrupted” body which is raised, but a spiritual body.

There are literally dozens of scriptures in the Bible which speak of a great resurrection.

Notice another of the most important. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished [this is the first resurrection]. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4-6).

Just as Jesus spoke of a resurrection to “life” and a resurrection to judgment,” so this revealing scripture shows the dead in Christ being resurrected at the second coming of Christ, and then reigning with Jesus Christ for a thousand years, while “the rest of the dead, ” (those who were never converted), remain totally oblivious to all this passage of time until after the thousand years are over!

You see, beginning in verse II to the end of chapter 20, the picture of the “great white throne judgment,” or the great latter-day resurrection of perhaps billions of human beings who will then be given an opportunity for salvation!

Read the 37th chapter of Ezekiel in the light of the last part of Revelation 20.

The famous “dry bones” of Ezekiel’s prophecy are stated to be “the whole house of Israel” (verse II) who are to be resurrected in this great “white throne judgment.”

God says “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Eternal when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall you know that I the Eternal have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Eternal” (Ezekiel 37:12-14).

Here again, you see two opposites: death, complete unconsciousness—human bodies by the millions decaying, forgotten in their graves—In contrast to a great future resurrection to life even after the millennial reign of Jesus Christ!

Time and again, the Bible speaks of the first resurrection at the precise instant of the second coming of Christ!

In this regard, study carefully one of the cherished scriptures used by proponents of the “hope of heaven” doctrine.

Turn to 1 Thessalonians 4, commencing to read with verse 13. “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 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 [precede] 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. ”

This text is used over and over again to imply that Christians go to heaven!

Search the scriptures again, however, and you will see this scripture says nothing about going to heaven!

What does it say?

It says both the “dead in Christ (who have been completely dead, oblivious, unconscious of the passage of time in their graves) and the living Christians will “be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air…”

This does not say “up in heaven!” It says “in the clouds.”

Clouds are as much a part of this earth as the oceans, the mountains, or anything else composed of matter.

While you may think of clouds as not being literally composed of matter, if they were not particulate matter, they would be invisible, and you could not see them. Even so, the air itself is, in practical fact, “material,” meaning it occupies space, has weight, is subjected to certain rigid and unalterable laws, and is composed of a wide variety of gases.

Our “atmosphere” is a thin envelope of life-supporting gases which are held close to the surface of the earth by gravity. Living plants produce oxygen, which is necessary for human and animal survival.

Clouds are merely vapor, formed by condensation and the forming of tiny ice particles when moisture-laden air is subjected to changes in pressure and temperature.

Most jet air travel is well above the majority of all clouds. Certainly, all of the orbital satellites are far above the clouds, and yet are held in an orbital pattern above the earth, established by the pull of gravity.

When the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ returning to this earth it plainly reveals He is coming all the way back down, just as He left.

Read, in the first chapter of Acts, of the very first message ever to come back down from heaven after Jesus ascended to His Father:

“And when He [Jesus] had spoken these things, while they [the disciples] beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).

They watched Jesus being enveloped in the clouds only a very few hundred feet above their heads! Jesus would have been completely invisible if He were only a very few thousand feet from them! The scripture plainly shows He was still visible until clouds obscured Him from their view.

That meant the clouds had to be quite low on this occasion!

The Bible then says He will come back to this earth, “in like manner” as they saw Him go into heaven!

Turn back to 1 Thessalonians 4 and read the passage quoted again.

Notice what it does not say. It does not say anything whatsoever about “going to heaven.” It says nothing whatsoever about “an immortal soul”!

Rather, as plainly corroborated by many other scriptures, it shows the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the instantaneous change (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) of those who are “alive and remain,” to be caught up together as one group “in the clouds,” and finally concludes by saying “… and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And where will the Lord be on that same day?

Remember, He is coming back. He is not merely going to “visit the general vicinity” of the earth, catching away saints in a so-called “rapture” and take them off to heaven!

Notice the proof, from your own Bible!

“Behold the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Eternal go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zechariah 14:1-4).

The setting of this prophecy is the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is that period of time immediately following the heavenly signs of Revelation 7, and the first five “seals” of Revelation 6, or the great tribulation prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24.

The gathering of all nations against Jerusalem to battle is the same great battle depicted in Revelation 19:11-21.

Here, John sees the heavens opened in vision, and Jesus Christ sitting on a white horse, followed by heavenly armies, returning to this earth to “smite the nations” and “rule them with a rod of iron. ”

In the vision, John said he “saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.” And describes the destruction of both the beast and the false prophet on the very same day of the second coming of Jesus Christ.

What will happen after the dead in Christ and the living Christians are caught up together to meet the returning Christ in the air?

The Bible says “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives! ”

They are gathered from all nations, taken by powerful angels to meet Jesus Christ as He returns directly to the Mount of Olives, and so descend with Him to Jerusalem!

Notice! “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:30-3 1).

Notice again the description of Jesus Christ returning to this earth!

The false doctrine of Christians “going to heaven” would make completely unnecessary any second coming of Christ. If “souls” were already “in heaven” from the time they died, then why should Christ come back? Why should such “souls” be taken from heaven, placed back into decayed bodies, resurrected, and then the whole process of deciding where they belong begun all over again?

The false doctrine of the “immortality of the soul” and Christians “going to heaven” does away with the second coming of Christ—which is the greatest prophesied event in the Bible!

No, “souls” do not go to heaven—neither do people. Christ is coming back to this earth. He is coming all the way back; coming with clouds, to catch the converted righteous up into the air with Him, take them to a place just above Jerusalem, and then, “His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives” in that same day!

Obviously, these many biblical proofs of the second coming of Christ utterly negate the false doctrine of souls going to heaven.

Now, let’s notice some of Christ’s parables about His coming kingdom; about the fact it will be set up on this literal earth, and see some of the prophecies about conditions on the earth during the millennium.

Read again the parable of the pounds and the talents. One example is found in Matthew 25:14-30, and another in Luke 19:12-27.

In each case, those who overcome are promised of Jesus Christ rulership over cities!

In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25), Jesus says, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord.”

In the case of the parable of the pounds (Luke 19) Jesus says, “Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:17).

Do these plain words of your Savior “fit” into the traditional teaching you have always heard—perhaps just taken for granted? Anything about “heaven” here? No, but rulership over cities, occupied by human beings, during the 1,000- year reign of Christ on earth is offered to those who are living a life of overcoming—of qualifying for such positions!

Notice! “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father” (Revelation 2:26, 27).

There is no way to “spiritualize” these plain words away! Jesus Christ means exactly what He says! Those who are living a life of overcoming the pulls and tugs of human nature; the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-2 1) and who qualify will be given actual power and authority over cities, counties, states, and whole nations! Do you remember what Jesus said to His disciples just prior to His crucifixion? “…Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel! (Matthew 19:28).

Jesus Christ says that even those who live in this day can have an opportunity for co-rulership in His new government which is to be set up on this earth after His second coming!

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Revelation 3:21).

Jesus Christ is coming to inherit a literal throne! That throne is on this earth. How many little children have memorized the following words at “Christmas-time,” repeating the enunciation by the angel to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus Christ, and not known what they said?

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David;and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end!” (Luke 1:30-33).

God made a binding covenant with David, telling him because David remained faithful to God’s laws and precepts that there would never fail seed from David’s own family to sit upon His physical throne! Believe it or not, that throne still exists on this earth!

Read the prophecy of Daniel’s second chapter, where you see, after the description of the four great successive world-ruling Gentile kingdoms, a “stone cut out without hands” which smites the image on its feet [the ten toes representing the ten kings of Revelation 17] and which then “becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.”

Clearly, in this prophecy, the figurative stone represents the returning, conquering Christ! The great image represents the successive stages of the Gentile world-ruling kingdoms, culminating in the BEAST depicted in Daniel 7, and Revelation 13 and 17.

The ten kings which fight Christ at His coming (Revelation 17) are represented by the ten toes of the great image, mixed with iron and miry clay.

The “great mountain” is symbolic of the Kingdom of God which will rule over the entirety of the earth!

God’s Kingdom to Rule on Earth

There is voluminous evidence in the Bible that the Kingdom of God will reign on this earth!

Let’s notice just a few of the more outstanding proofs.

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the House of the Eternal shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people [physical human beings will still be alive on the earth during that day!] shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, and to the House of the God of Jacob and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Eternal from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Eternal of Hosts has spoken it” (Micah 4:1-4).

Here, you see the symbol of the Kingdom of God established over all the other nations, greater and lesser!

Then you see representative ambassadors from all countries on earth agreeing, finally, to come to God’s headquarters’ city in Jerusalem, learning of the ways of God; learning to keep His laws, learning to convert weapons of war into implements of peace!

Here is a graphic description of God finally forcing upon mankind the ways of peace, happiness, prosperity, bounteous joy!

Ugly, death-dealing tanks will be smelted down, and turned into farming implements. There will be no “war colleges,” or military academies, teaching the “art” of war!

Notice a parallel scripture: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s House shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2-4).

Again, we see the complete rehabilitation of the earth. It is the time of “restitution” of all things (Acts 3:21). A time for reconstruction, reeducation; a time for global revolution, when those who are born of God by a resurrection from the dead, are changed instantaneously (as you learned in 1 Corinthians 15) and who have become members of the very family of God, will join Jesus Christ in positions of leadership and rulership over the human, physical remnants of the great global holocaust that is sure to come!

But mankind will survive! (Matthew 24:21, 22).

Christ will return to this physical earth, and will grant positions of responsibility and rulership to those who have truly qualified to be members of His kingdom! Notice a description of conditions extant on earth after Christ has begun to rule: “But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:4-12).

It is impossible to misinterpret or misunderstand this plain scripture! Obviously, the “rod out of the stem of Jesse” (Jesse was David’s father and therefore of the lineage of Christ) and a “Branch” which was to grow out of his roots is a metaphorical reference to Jesus Christ.

Read verse 2, “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Eternal.”

Commencing with verse 4, you see the description of the righteous judgments of Jesus Christ returning to this earth as the conquering King of kings and Lord of lords (read Revelation 19).

Immediately following, you see the conditions which shall become extant over all the earth during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ!

Are there wolves, lions, oxen and poisonous snakes up in heaven? Nonsense!

Here, you see a description of the “time of restitution of all things” of which Peter prophesied immediately following the day of Pentecost, and the birthday of the Church. Peter said, “And He shall send Jesus Christ [predicting Jesus’ second coming!], which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive UNTIL the times of restitution of all things [the restoring of everything], which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:20, 21).

The very nature of animals shall be changed!

Read the entire passage slowly and carefully. You need no one to “interpret” what it says, or attempt to change its meaning! Clearly, this is a detailed description of conditions to become extant on this earth immediately after the second coming of Jesus Christ, and in the first years of His Kingdom!

Here, many of the nations of the earth, identified by their ancient names, are mentioned. God says He will regather the second time the remnant of His people from nations all over the earth, and from the “islands [coastlands] of the sea.”

Heavenly Retirement, or Hard Work?

Does it make any sense to you? What if our young men just entering the army, navy or marines, underwent six weeks of primary training, then several months of additional training, literally transforming them from civilians into military men, skilled in the use of modern weapons and military equipment, only to have their drill instructor announce to them on the moment of their graduation from “boot camp” or primary training: “Well, men, that’s it! You have all done a marvelous job. You have become skilled through the rigors of physical exercise, weapons handling, running obstacle courses, learning close-order drill and the Manual of Arms. Now, you are full-fledged military men! Now, it is time for all of you to retire! “

Sounds ludicrous, when put that way, doesn’t it?

Yet, Jesus said “It is through much tribulation we must enter the Kingdom of God.” And promised His true servants “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world! ” (John 16:33). Peter cried out, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus described the way into His soon-coming Kingdom as the “strait,” meaning difficult route! The way that leads to destruction He described as a broad, well-lit avenue with glittering lights and dazzling attractions. But the way into His Kingdom He described as rutty, rocky, narrow, winding, and extremely difficult!

Frequently, the Bible uses the analogy of military service when speaking of Christians. The seal of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association shows a helmet, breastplate, and crossed swords, with a quotation from Ephesians 6:11-18, which says, in part, “Put on the whole armour of God … having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith … the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.”

The Apostle Paul urged Timothy to perform “as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3).

On another occasion, Paul said, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds… ” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Jesus said, “To him that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron… ” (Revelation 2:26, 27).

God uses these analogies to show Christians that they are involved in training, and in a kind of warfare, as if professional soldiers.

A Christian is one who is continually overcoming; learning, studying, growing, gaining wisdom, knowledge, patience, love, and humility! A Christian is fighting (1 Corinthians 9:26), but fighting Satan the devil, and resisting the pulls of human nature, not fighting physical enemies with guns and bullets!

This human life is a vast training ground for the Kingdom of God!

It is “boot camp”—primary training—for those who are to finally graduate into the very Kingdom and Family of God, to become qualified to RULE the world with Jesus Christ!

The Christian life has great PURPOSE! God is working out a PLAN here below! Yet, millions fail to see that great purpose they remain ignorant of God’s plan in their lives!

Nowhere does the Bible preach “Christian retirement”! Think of it! Does not much of the music, many of the sermons, and a great deal of so-called “Christian” teaching portray an eternity of idleness and ease; of beatific bliss and indolent delight?

Do not the envisionary “heavens” of many of the other religions of the world picture virtually the same thing? One thinks of the song “The Lazy Ole Sun Got Nothin’ to do But Roll Around Heaven All Day,” in this context. Reference to the “heavenly rocking chair” and “heavenly mansions” are liberally sprinkled through some of the mythological teachings of professing Christianity.

But the truth of God is far different!

The truth is that Almighty God is calling a cadre of individuals (and not all the world is being called NOW!) as the advance emissaries of His soon-coming Kingdom! Even as Jesus Christ called only twelve disciples and formed them into the nucleus of His “group of called-out ones” or His “church” (which more properly should be translated “assembly” in modern English), so that SAME Jesus Christ is calling out a select group whom He calls “the very elect” (Matthew 24:22) for rigorous training to qualify to become future WORLD RULERS with Him!

Does anyone really comprehend the awe-inspiring breadth and scope of God’s great plan and purpose?

The churches simply do not teach it! What church teaches that its members are now qualifying to become city managers, mayors, ambassadors, princes, presidents, premiers and prime ministers, KINGS in the world to come? But city managers, mayors and premiers with a difference! That difference is being imbued with a divine power of ALMIGHTY GOD!

Future leaders in Christ’s soon-coming Kingdom will not be hampered by years-long “studies” by vested interests and government-paid bureaucrats. Decisions involving hygiene, transportation, civil justice, the environment, care for the elderly, etc., etc., will not be hampered and bogged down by years of committee studies, city council meetings, voting and elections, court trials, referendums and lawsuits! Rather, those who will rule with Jesus Christ will have wisdom far exceeding that of Solomon; the very love and mercy of Jesus Christ; with which they will be able to rule forcibly, swiftly, in mercy and righteousness, but with sternness and POWER where necessary!

After all, it is here on earth where the problems are!

There are no “problems” to solve in heaven! Almighty God is not calling a group to be put through rigorous training, overcoming and growing in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ; fighting themselves; having their very human nature changed from that of jealousy, lust, avarice and greed to the character of Jesus Christ of love, goodness, meekness, mercy, kindness and understanding, in order to retire!

Instead, Jesus Christ promises CO-RULERSHIP WITH HIM!

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne!” (Revelation 3:21).

John, in vision, wrote, “And I looked, and lo, a Lamb [Christ] stood on the Mount Zion [which is in Jerusalem, on this earth!] and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads … these were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb! ” (Revelation 14:1-4).

Is it possible YOU are being called, now, to become one of those comparatively few individuals? Could God, actually, be performing the miracle of opening your mind to see His TRUTH?

Millions around you are in spiritual darkness. The big churches and major denominations do not teach these simple truths from the Word of God! The millions believe they are “going to heaven” when they die; believe in an immortal soul, and an ever-burning hell!

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations
freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post Believe it or Not… The Bible Does NOT Promise “Heaven”! first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the doctrine has its origins in antiquity that the concept of an “immortal soul” in man long antedates Christ and the apostles.

But is this doctrine TRUE? Did it come from the Bible? Did Christ and the apostles teach the immortality of the soul?

Do you have a soul? Are you a soul? Is there something about you that is immortal that will never die? If so, when, and how did that “soul” get into your body? Was it imparted to you at the moment of conception? Did it come into your body at some time during your fetal development? Were you given an “immortal soul” at the moment you took your first breath, shortly after birth?

If you have a “soul” can you touch it, taste it, feel it, hear it, or smell it? Can you take it out and look at it? Can you seethe “souls” of others? Are You, you the real person, the innermost, private, human being with all of your thoughts, inclinations, perceptions, concepts and beliefs, hidden longings, doubts and fears, beliefs and convictions, sensory perceptions and feelings, going to SURVIVE this human flesh, and live forever?

According to the so-called “Christian” religions the real PERSON is dwelling within the temporal body. The body is seen as a temporary suit of clothes. The real person dwells within that temporary suit of clothes; and at the time of death, the now useless “suit of clothes” (the body) is discarded, buried in the ground or cremated, while the real person wafts away either to heaven or to ever-burning hell fire! (In the Catholic tradition, there are allegedly various intermediary stages called “purgatory.”)

How can you KNOW, one way or the others What is your ultimate authority for determining the truth on any subject which has to do with life and death, judgment, and the hereafter?

For the purposes of this article, the absolute, final and divine AUTHORITY is the Bible, the inspired, written Word of God, as it appears in its earliest manuscripts, and in its original languages!

If your “authority” for your beliefs is myth, superstition, fables, stories of alleged death-bed visions or conversations with “departed souls”; if your “authority” is mysticism, oriental religions, heathen superstitions or esoterica, then you should read no further—for this article accepts as the only and FINAL authority on the subject of the so-called “immortality of the Soul” THE BIBLE, the written Word of God!

WHY, then, if so many hundreds of millions of human beings in so many nations are absolutely convinced they possess an immortal soul are the words “immortal soul” FOUND NOWHERE in Scripture?

What Is Man?

Obviously, the question concerning whether you have an “immortal soul” is really the question, what are you?

To atheists and evolutionists, man is merely a “hairless ape.” God-rejecting atheists view man as the end result of aeons of blind chance; the final outcome of millennia of randomness; “natural selection,” and the “survival of the fittest. ” Of course, those who reject the word of God are cultists; they have a blind FAITH in the theories of the evolutionary “fathers, ” and nothing is more UNscientific than the theory of evolution!

Those who believe in creation—who know and understand that life can only come from preexisting life, and preexisting life of the same kind, who understand that laws can only come from a great lawgiver; that perfection, symmetry, interdependency and fabulous design can only come from a Supreme Designer—know better.

They know that the human family began with one man, and that a wife, miraculously taken from his own body and as much a unique and original creation as was Adam himself, formed the first family.

In any event, even if for the sake of argument alone, those who profess the Christian religion and believe in the inspiration of the Bible must explain what is man from the perspective of the creation account revealed in the Bible!

When God created our first parent He said, “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).

God was talking to Adam. He was talking to the consciousman! He did not tell Adam that only his body was composed of the elements of the earth; but that “Adam” was really a “soul” locked within a temporal, physical body! No, He said Adam WAS “red clay” or, “red mud” (for that is the real meaning of the Hebrew word translated “dust”).

Notice! “And the Eternal 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).

Remember, the Bible was not written in the English language. Mostly, the Bible was written in Greek and Hebrew; Hebrew being used predominately in the Old Testament, and Greek in the New.

There was no such word in existence at the time the Bible was written as “soul. ” It is an English word, with an almost exclusively ecclesiastical connotation!

Actually, as you will see, the English word “soul” should be virtually expunged from the English language, and replacedwith many possible synonyms which connote the real meaning of the Hebrew word nephesh.

For the Hebrew word nephesh is the word from which the English word “soul” is translated!

Naturally, then, our quest for knowledge and understanding centers around the meaning of the word nephesh!

What is the meaning, then, of the HEBREW word nephesh?

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says, “(5315) nephesh; a breathing creature, i.e. animal or (abstr.) vitality: used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental); appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, dead, desire, contented, fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart, (jeopardy of life; in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her, him, my, thy) self, them (your) selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, will, would have it.”

What a list! You see, the Hebrew word nephesh has to do with “being”! As such, it has a wide usage, concerning the physical, animal, breathing LIFE of flesh and blood creatures! Notice that it can be translated “dead” or even “beast” or “creature” as well as “lust,” “mortally,” or “person.”

Did you know that the Hebrew word nephesh is used several times of lower life forms PRIOR to ever being used concerning man in the Bible?

Notice Genesis 1:20 where nephesh is rendered, “moving creature,” verse 21 where the same word is rendered, “living creature,” verse 24 where nephesh is rendered, “living creature; and beast, ” verse 25 where it is rendered “beast,” referring to whales, fish, crustaceans and lower life forms inhabiting the sea!

In this graphic description of the creation of all of the animals and sea-dwelling creatures, the word nephesh is used again and again!

Naturally even the superstitious translators who were heavily affected by Roman Catholic and Anglican doctrines in the sixteen hundreds did not dare render the word nepheshas “soul” in these passages!

Now, turn to and read Numbers 19:11: “He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. ” In this scripture, the laws of purification under the Levites are discussed. A person would be considered “unclean” if he touched the decaying corpse or body of an animal or another man!

Notice verse 22. “And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul [nephesh!] that toucheth it shall be unclean until even. ”

The very same word rendered “soul” in verse 22 (which should be translated “individual,” or “person”) is rendered “DEAD BODY” in verse 11! Get it into your mind; firmly fixed once and for all! The SAME WORD which is translated “soul” in literally dozens of places in the Old Testament is here translated “dead body”!

Now turn to and read Ezekiel 18, verses 4 and 20. “Behold, all souls [nephesh] are mine; as the soul [nephesh] of the father, so also the soul [nephesh] of the son is mine: the soul. [nephesh] that sinneth IT [that ‘soul’ or nepheshq shall DIE! ” Here, it would be far clearer if the English were rendered “Behold all persons are mine; as the person of the father, so the person of the son; the individual that sins HE shall die!”

The thrust of the scripture is individual, personal responsibility before God! What God is saying through Ezekiel is that no one can render excuses for sin; that we cannot “pass the buck” by pointing to others as a causal factor of our sins!

This scripture is not given as a lesson in whether or not souls are “immortal” or mortal; yet, because the scripture very plainly says that “the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE, ” it represents a further, powerfully conclusive PROOF that the Hebrew word for “soul” (nephesh) means physical, mortal, temporal life, and has nothing whatsoever to do with immortality!

So, ask yourself “does the Bible say, whatever the Bible means by the word ‘soul,’ that souls can DIE?” Your obvious answer is YES!

Then, with your own eyes, you are beholding the absolute proof that the word translated into English “soul” has nothing whatsoever to do with immortality or spirituality; but has to do with physical, carnal, flesh-and-blood human and animal existence!

The word nephesh is found in 243 different Bible passages, and translated in 11 different ways. Notice that the expression “the dead” is translated directly from the Hebrew word nephesh in the following passages: Leviticus 19:22; 21:1, 22:4; Numbers 5:2; Numbers 6:11.

The same word (nephesh) which is translated “soul” in most cases is rendered “dead body” in Numbers 9:6, 7, 10.

It is translated as “body” in Leviticus 21:U, Numbers 6:6; 19:11, 13, and also in Haggai 2:1, 3.

What About the New Testament?

The Greek word psuche is the only word that is translated “soul” in the New Testament. You will find the word 105 times in the New Testament, of which it is translated “soul” only 58 times, but can also be rendered “life” (40 times), “mind” (three times), and “heart,” “heartily,” “us” and “you” (one time each).

The Greek word psuche is the exact Greek rendering of the Hebrew word nephesh and is used in the same way throughout the New Testament.

For example, psuche is used of the lower animals, just as you have seen nephesh used of lower life forms in the first chapter of the book of Genesis! In Revelation 8:9, the Greek word psuche (remember this is the ONLY word which is ever used for the word “soul” in the English language) is rendered “life. ” Notice also Revelation 16:3, where lower life forms are spoken of, yet the word “soul” is used. Read that last scripture carefully! It describes one of the horrible plagues yet to fall upon the land and the sea, and says “every living soul DIED”! Here is one more New Testament proof that the word “soul” as it found its way into the English language means a being, or living thing, which can DIE! In this case, it is used of various forms of life (of which there are thousands) in the sea!

The Greek word psuche is also used for an individual On many occasions, in making out a flight plan when I was piloting a jet airplane, we would have to include the information of how many persons were aboard that flight. All airlines dispatchers do the same things. Oftentimes, many pilots calling in their flight plans would say they had so many “souls” on board, using the word interchangeably for individuals, or persons. When a newspaper headline speaks of so many “souls” being lost in the sinking of a ship, it is using the word in much the same way as it occurs 14 different times in the Bible! For proof, read Acts 2:41-43; 3:23; 7:14; 27:37; Romans 2:9; 13: 1; 1 Corinthians 15:45; James 5:20; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:14; Revelation 6:9; 18:13; 20:4.

In those passages, the Greek word psuche is used for the life of man, which can be destroyed, or lost.

A classic example of where the translators have tamperedwith the English in translating from the Greek is found in Matthew 16:25 and 26.

Notice the way it is rendered in the King James Version: “For whosoever will save his life [psuche] shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life [psuche] for my sake shall find it.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul [psuche]? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul [psuche]?”

Obviously, since the identical Greek word is used in both passages; and since it is rendered differently in verse 26 (soul) from the way it is used in verse 25 (life), it was a translator’s decision as to changing the way he rendered this Greek word psuche in the two verses!

To be honest, and to be fair with the word, it should have been rendered the same in both passages! Here, it is obvious the word should better be rendered “life, ” just as it was rendered in verse 25! For, after all, it is your life you can lose—and what can you give in exchange for your LIFE?

The point is, the Greek word psuche is capable of nearly as many applications as is the Hebrew word nephesh, and can even be used of man’s moods, passions and feelings!

The word psuche, for example, is translated “mind,” “us,” “you” “heart” and “heartily.”

By no stretch of the imagination can this Greek word EVER connote anything which is immortal, or “extraphysical, ” in the sense of being spiritual.

The English word “soul” in the Old Testament is always taken from the Hebrew nephesh and does NOT mean anything immortal; just as the English word “soul” in the New Testament is taken from the Greek word psuche, and only means mortal, temporal, human physical MAN, who is subject to death. 

What Happens at Death?

It is clear from both the Hebrew and the Greek, the original languages of the Bible, that man dies in exactly the same fashion as does a beast. “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 above a beast; for all is vanity.

“All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again!” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).

Notice how the inspired Bible writers described the condition of death: Job wrote, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

“He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth—also as a shadow, and continueth not” (Job 14:1, 2).

In the same chapter, Job said, “So man lieth down, and riseth not: TILL the heavens be no more, [obviously, reference to the resurrection and the ‘new heavens and new earth’] they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

“Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me in secret, until thy wrath be passed, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

“If a man die shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come! [Obvious reference to the change at the resurrection; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52.]
“Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou will have a desire to the work of thine hands!” (Job 14:12-15).

God inspired David to write a great deal about the subject of life and death. David said, “Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not: He is like the beasts that perish … like sheep they are laid in the grave [sheol] death shall feed upon them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave [sheol]from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul [Hebrew nephesh—meaning LIFE!] from the power of the grave [notice the grave has POWER over the kind of ‘life’ connoted by the Hebrew word nephesh]: For He shall receive me.

“Man that is in honor. and understandeth not, is like thebeasts that perish!” (Psalm 49:12-20).

Because Almighty God reveals we human beings—the creation of His hands—are His children, and that we will be resurrected FROM THE DEAD, He inspired David to write, “Precious in the sight of the Eternal is the death of His saints! ” (Psalms 116:15).

There are many examples in the Bible about what happens at death!

There is No case in the Bible where the words “immortal soul” appear! There is a “spirit in man” mentioned in the Bible, which is a very profound subject, and which would demand an entire booklet to thoroughly explain. In brief, the “spirit in man” (mentioned by Job and the apostle Paul who talked of how God’s Holy Spirit “witnesseth with our spirit” that we are the children of God) is that spiritual essence which lifts the mind of man to a level far above the mere brain of animals!

The Bible clearly reveals that Almighty God is begetting CHILDREN!

Even as human beings are not reproduced without life begetting life; male life uniting with female life; so Almighty God reveals that His Holy Spirit does not unite with mere flesh; but that there is a “spirit in man,” very likely in the frontal lobes of the brain (which is why the “forehead” is mentioned so often) where our will power; our volition, decision-making capacity and our personality exists!

When the Bible speaks, metaphorically, of “the heart” it is speaking of that portion of our human mind wherein our attitude; our CHARACTER resides! Recent scientific knowledge has revealed that the human brain is divided into many different parts. Some portions of the brain control such things as our coordination, equilibrium; our physical and athletic ability; other portions deal with our sensory perceptions such as the central nervous system, the eye, etc. Other portions deal with the memory, and the frontal lobes, behind the forehead of the human brain control the DECISION-MAKING part of the brain.

Perhaps there is greater meaning in the symbolism of those who receive the “mark of the beast” in their foreheads (meaning willingly; with their own permission, acceptance and volition!) when one understands this simple truth!

But this “spirit in man” is not “immortal”! God’s Word says clearly God ONLY hath immortality! Man is revealed as being temporal, fleshly, carnal, physical—of the dust! He is said to perish and waste away! Yet, think about it deeply for a moment. Even as the pattern for all that you are was in a tiny, microscopic germ of life from your father, uniting with an egg of life from your mother; even as the “pattern” which was to determine your basic appearance, height, shape, color of eyes and hair, texture of skin, talents and abilities, was all miraculously contained in that microscopic bit of life, so Almighty God is building in our Christian lives a pattern, through the power of His Holy Spirit which can beget a “new creation in Christ” when in connection with the spirit in man!

Even as your human father stamped you with his identity—gave you his NAME—so our heavenly Father is putting His own identity, His name, and His personality within His children!

The false doctrine of the “immortality of the soul” CONCEALS THIS GREAT TRUTH !

If God is allowing you to understand deeper truths of His Word through this article then to Almighty God goes the credit! If God is revealing deeper truths to you, you should now turn to Romans the eighth chapter and read with greater understanding than ever before the entire chapter! Particularly, as you study this important chapter, read verse 29! “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He [Jesus Christ!] might be the FIRSTBORN among MANY BRETHREN! “Yes, even as Jesus Christ was the first begotten among all human kind; He was also the first BORN from the dead! How plain! How simple!

The greatest phenomenon we see around us is that of LIFE! We see the miraculous fact that life comes from preexisting life of the same kind; that life has die basic urge to perpetuate itself; that He produces like, kind reproduces after kind, and that we human beings, through love in marriage, reproduce after our own kind!

Almighty God is reproducing after His kind!

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post Do YOU Have an IMMORTAL SOUL? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The prophet Elisha, who had followed Elijah doggedly, claiming he would never desist from following him, was absolutely shocked. For, while Elisha was asking for a “double portion” of the spirit of Elijah, “. . . it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and part them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven”! (2 Kings 2:11).

Elisha saw this happen with his own eyes!

Down through the centuries thousands of impassioned sermons have been preached using this verse to underscore the hopes of heaven for the saved!

Who has not heard preachers wax eloquent about the proverbial “pearly gates,” the heavenly city with streets of gold and glittering mansions; about being in heaven, forever and ever?

Millions believe that immediately upon death the “souls” of Christians go to heaven!

Then WHY did Jesus say what He did?

WHY did He say “. . . NO MAN HATH ASCENDED UP TO HEAVEN”? After all, He should have KNOWN, shouldn’t He? He had been there, with the Father, and the 24 elders, and all the angels. He had just come from heaven to this earth!

WHY do literally MILLIONS of churchgoing, professing Christians believe Jesus Christ didn’t know what He was talking about—or that He lied?

Do You believe Christ? Or do you prefer to believe, instead, what you have always been taught, by men?

What Happened to Elijah?

Did Elijah die and go to heaven? No. Elijah was not even ill—he was still doing the work which God had set before him and was merely talking with Elisha, walking along engaged in conversation. Suddenly Elisha saw what appeared to be a fiery vision, and Elijah was taken, bodily, up into “heaven.” No doubt Elisha watched him until he was out of sight!

Where did Elijah go?

If it was a bright, clear day, how long could Elisha’s eyes have followed Elijah as he departed?

Probably, if Elisha had normally good eyesight, he could have seen Elijah, plus the blazing, glittering spectacle of the fiery chariot and Horses, for several miles, perhaps even as much as 15,000 or 20,000 feet.

But, eventually, distance would have seemed to “swallow him up,” and he would have no longer been visible to Elisha’s startled eyes!

How many times have you had the experience of hearing the muted thunder of a jet airplane from very high overhead, only to look up into the sky and be unable to see the aircraft? Perhaps you remember an occasion or two when you have been able to see the vapor trail left by the engines of the aircraft, and perhaps could even see it forming, moving across the sky high above, and still the airplane was so high your human eye could not pick it out.

Yet aboard that airplane could be more than 100 people—flight attendants serving meals, pushing carts up and down the aisle, the flight crew at their places in the cockpit, an airplane so big that a 6-foot man could stand up in the intake of only one of its big jet engines—and yet, because it is so high in the sky, you cannot see it!

If it was a cloudy day when Elijah was “taken up into heaven,” then Elisha could only see him for a few hundred, or a few thousand, feet.

Actually, Elijah was taken up into the air The word for “heaven” is shameh (pronounced “shaw-meh”) in the Hebrew language, which comes from a root word meaning “to be lofty.” The word means “the sky” (as “aloft”) and alludes to “the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve.” The word means “AIR” as well as “heaven” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance).

One or two outstanding examples of the interchangeable usage of this one word should suffice, although there are MANY in the Bible.

Notice! “And the windows of heaven were opened …” (Genesis 7:11). “The windows of heaven were stopped. . .” “The rain from heaven was restrained. . .” (Genesis 8:2). “…Whose top may reach unto heaven … (Genesis 11:4).

These are only three examples of literally dozens in the Old Testament where the word “heaven” is OBVIOUSLY referring to this earth’s immediate atmosphere. In the first few quotations, reference is made to the flood of Noah. The “windows of heaven” refer to thunderous rainstorms, and are therefore dealing with the immediate envelope of air which covers this earth like a mantle and is, in fact, a literal PART of our earth and its immediate environment.

The scripture from Genesis 11 deals with the famed “Tower of Babel,” when mankind attempted to construct the very first “skyscraper.”

Now, notice how the identical word (shameh) is used for the word “air.”

“The fowl of the air. . .”(Genesis 1:26, 28). “…And every fowl of the air…” (Genesis 2:19). “…Gave names … to the fowl of the air…” (Genesis 2:20). “…Winged fowl that flyeth in the air…” (Deuteronomy 4:17). “The birds of the air to rest on them…” (2 Samuel 2:10). “The way of an eagle in the air…“ Proverbs 30:19).

In each of these, and in 21 separate examples in the Old Testament, the identical Hebrew word translated “heaven” is rendered “air.”

Why? Because the translators knew that, when the Bible was referring to that “firmament” above the earth in which birds fly, it must mean “the air,” and not the heaven of God’s throne.

Actually, as we shall see, the Bible clearly speaks of THREE “heavens,” and positively identifies the “third heaven” as the heaven of God’s throne!

What Elisha saw, then, was the disappearance of Elijah, by a miracle from God, in a fiery chariot—up into the AIR, until he was taken up out of Elisha’s sight!

Elijah did not go into the heaven of God’s throne. Jesus Christ of Nazareth SAID SO!

Do “Souls” Go to Heaven?

But, some will argue, Jesus didn’t say no souls ascended into heaven! Some will argue, “It isn’t the man who goes to heaven—it is the soul of the man!”

But wait!

Elijah did not die. Elijah didn’t even have a headache—was not ill, or anywhere near death!

He was walking along, talking with Elisha, and SUDDENLY, by a great miracle, the fiery chariot appeared and whisked him away up into the air

God did not leave Elijah’s “body” behind and just take some so-called “soul”! No, the whole man was taken up by the fiery chariot!

ELIJAH was taken up into the air out of Elisha’s sight!

In studying the definitions of the word “soul” in both the Old and the New Testaments, NEVER does the word “soul” mean anything which is extraphysical; spiritual or IMMORTAL!

The word “immortal” appears only ONCE in the Bible! It is found in 1 Timothy 1:17, and it refers to Jesus Christ of Nazareth! It reads, “Now unto the King Eternal, IMMORTAL…”

The word “immortality” occurs only five times in the Bible, and on each occasion shows that immortality is something which God now possesses, and which is promised to man, in the resurrection!

Your Bible plainly says that GOD ONLY hath immortality! (1 Timothy 6:16).

WHY do millions of churchgoing, professing Christians believe the exact opposite of what the Bible plainly says?

Look at this striking example!

“For the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT OF GOD isETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord”! (Romans 6:23).

Millions believe the exact opposite of what that scripture plainly says.

They would argue, “No, the wages of sin cannot be DEATH, for man does not die, only his BODY dies, and the man—the conscious man, the personality, character, the real person—continues to live on, either in heaven or in hell!”

In other words, people argue that the wages of sin is not really DEATH, it is ETERNAL LIFE! It is eternal life in a different place, and not death!

But this is the opposite of what the Bible plainly says!

Next, they would argue, “No, eternal life is not the GIFT of God. It is something with which we are born. Every one of us is born with a ‘soul,’ which means we have eternal life already dwelling within us!”

But your Bible, the holy Word of God, plainly says that the wages of sin will KILL YOU! It says the penalty for breaking God’s Ten Commandments is DEATH!

It says that, on the other hand, the GIFT of God is the OPPOSITE of death; it is ETERNAL LIFE!

The Bible insists that God ONLY has immortality; and that wecan ultimately inherit immortality, but only through our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

You do not have an “immortal soul”! You are a physical, human being, subject to death. When we die, we go to the grave, and we are completely oblivious, unconscious, of the passage of time, where we await a resurrection! (Job 14:14).

No, the argument that the body may die, but “souls” go up to heaven, just does not apply!

Remember! Elijah did not die! He was not even mildly ill! Whatever happened to him happened BODILY; he was taken up out of Elisha’s sight into the AIR!

Later you will see that he was very much alive for a certain number of years. You will see that he was still aware of what was happening in his nation; that others were communicating with him, and that HE communicated with the king who succeeded Ahab and Jezebel! Though God took Elijah into a place of protection and “retirement,” he was still active enough to send a powerful letter to the king of Israel some years later! Read on.

The Kingdom of God Will Rule ON THIS EARTH

WHY have the millions been deceived into believing they are going up into heaven when the Bible clearly says Christ is coming back DOWN HERE?

The gospel of the Kingdom of God was Christ’s message.

That message was the good news about Christ’s coming KINGDOM; it has, as its great, central HOPE, the RETURN OF CHRIST TO EARTH!

Literally dozens of scriptures throughout the Old and New Testament plainly show that the Kingdom of God will reign on the earth.

Consider only a FEW: “We shall reign on the earth,“(Revelation 5:10). “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth“! (Matthew 5:5). “. . . This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “Behold I come quickly [back to this earth!]: … Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God … and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh DOWN OUT OF HEAVEN [onto this earth!] from my God…” (Revelation 3:11,12). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; AFTERWARD they that are Christ’s AT HIS COMING“! (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23). “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep [are dead!] in Jesus will God bring 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 [He is coming back to this earth!] shall not precede [margin] them which are asleep [are dead]. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven [He is coming BACK to THIS EARTH!] 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 [a part of this earth’s immediate atmosphere] to meet the Lord IN THE AIR [He is coming all the way down OUT of heaven, TO this earth, to the lowest level of clouds where the human eye can see Him!] and so we shall ever be with the Lord”! (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17). “And His feet shall stand in that day [the Day of the Lord; the day of the Battle of Armageddon, and the return of Christ!] upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east … and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee … and the Eternal shall be king OVER ALL THE EARTH. . .” (Zechariah 14:4-9).

These are but a few of the many, many plain, incontrovertible scriptures which absolutely PROVE that Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth!

Jesus continually preached the GOSPEL.

What is the gospel?

The gospel means “GOOD NEWS”! It is the good news of the soon-coming GOVERNMENT OF GOD, which Will RULE all nations with a rod of iron! (Revelation 2:26; 3:21).

Where are those human, physical nations over which Christ will rule?

ON THIS EARTH!

Notice! “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Eternal shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.” (A mountain is typical of a large government, while smaller mountains or hills are typical of smaller governments or nations. The “mountain of the house of the Eternal” is clearly a type of the Kingdom of God!)

“And many nations [physical, human beings comprise ‘nations’ on this earth!] shall come, and say, come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal [the capital of the Kingdom of God at Jerusalem!], and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Eternal from Jerusalem.

“And He shall judge among many people [these are human, physical nations, ON THIS EARTH!], and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

“And they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Eternal of hosts hath spoken it” (Micah 4:1-4).

People, NATIONS, are not “up in heaven”! There are no weapons nor factories converting swords, guns, tanks and aircraft into shovels, rakes and hoes up in heaven! There are no vines and fig trees up in heaven!

This is a great, sweeping, GLOBAL picture of the beginning of the KINGDOM OF GOD on this earth!

Notice a parallel scripture: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Eternal’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

“And many people will go and say, come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Eternal, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Eternal from Jerusalem.

“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2-4).

Now look at the picture of Christ’s Kingdom given in Ezekiel 35! “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

“It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy in singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Eternal and the excellency of our God . . . Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

“Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

“And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water … and it shall be called the way of holiness … No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.

“And the ransomed of the Eternal shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:1-10).

Next, read the great prophecy of Ezekiel 36! “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.

“For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown:

“And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

“And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates … Yea I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel … for I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh,

“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

“And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:1-27).

This great prophecy of the coming millennial reign of Christ—the picture of the regathering of the scattered remnants of God’s people Israel from the four corners of the earth, and the picture of desert and wilderness places blossoming “as a rose”; the beginning of agrarian reform, perfect weather conditions, resettlement of the land, every individual possessing a piece of property; the picture of the regathering of families, and a time of world PEACE—this is the subject of many, manyprophecies in the Word of God!

Nothing is more thoroughly PROVED—nothing stands more absolutely SURE—in the holy Scriptures than the FACT that the glorious KINGDOM OF GOD Will reign ON THIS EARTH!

Now, what will you do with certain vague, seemingly contradictory, scriptures which you think say the saints go to heaven?

I have shown you but a few of the many scriptures which absolutely PROVE the following:

1. Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth!
2. He will catch up the righteous living, and the righteous dead, to meet Him in the air and descend the same day to Mount Zion!
3. He will establish His Kingdom on this earth, in Jerusalem.
4. Jerusalem will become the CAPITAL of all the earth.
5. All nations will soon recognize Christ’s rule.
6. Christ will require that all implements of war be converted to implements of peace.
7. His law, a completely new administration of justice and “equality for all,” will issue forth from His capital city!
8. The “House of Israel” will be resettled in “their old estates.”
9. The saints will be ruling WITH CHRIST (Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 24; Revelation 5:10).
10. The very “heaven” OF GOD’S THRONE will descend from God OUT OF HEAVEN to this earth (Revelation 21; Revelation 22).

Nothing is surer than the many, many promises and prophecies of Christ’s return!

And what is the order of events so far as dead men (like Elijah) are concerned?

You have already read it, but read it again: “For as in Adam all die [just as Elijah DIED]: even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

“But every man in his own order: Christ the FIRSTFRUITS [Elijah was not the firstfruits—he was not resurrected, he was not taken to the heaven of God’s throne—he is not alive today—CHRIST is the firstfruits!]; afterward, they that are Christ’s [including Elijah] at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:21, 22, 23).

Your Bible says Elijah is dead. Jesus plainly says, no matter what “other preachers” have told you, that “no man hath ascended into heaven”!

Christ is the “firstfruits” from the dead! He was to have, in all things, “the preeminence”! No one was resurrected to eternal life prior to Jesus Christ!

There were miracles performed, by Elijah himself, and later an individual was raised from the dead by being thrown into a grave and touching the bones of Elisha!

Jesus raised the dead; Peter raised Dorcus, Paul was used to raise a young man who died when he fell out of a balcony; and some elderly people who had died were resurrected to human, physical life, at the time of Jesus’ death!

But NONE of these was resurrected to spiritual, eternal life!

Only Jesus Christ has been resurrected to spiritual, eternal LIFE!

Only JESUS CHRIST has ascended into heaven!

But Jesus will not REMAIN in heaven for much longer! Even now, He is on a “countdown” to come back down to this earth, FROM heaven, and to RULE with a rod of iron!

What About King David?

Is King David, described in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart,” a lesser person in God’s eyes than Elijah?

First, let’s see what is to be David’s final REWARD.

After the end of the dynasty of ruling kings over the northern, 10-tribed house of Israel, AFTER Israel had been taken captive by ancient Assyria, Babylon subjugated Judah, and, in the days of King Hezekiah, the remnants of the Jews were deported from Jerusalem and taken to Babylon.

One of the captives was a prophet named Ezekiel.

He was prophesying from a “concentration camp” inside the land of Babylon more than 120 years after the captivity of Israel!

Remember, after David died, his son Solomon reigned in his stead. Following Solomon’s death, the kingdom was divided, and the dynasty of kings over northern 10-tribed Israel began, under Jeroboam.

The dynasty of the kings of Judah continued, unbroken, under Rehoboam.

Through hundreds and hundreds of years, we read of the successive, ruling dynasties of kings over these separate, individual nations until, finally, both Israelitish kingdoms (the northern “ten tribes” with their capital city at Samaria, and the southern tribes of Judah, Simeon and Levi, with portions of Benjamin, with their capital city at Jerusalem) were taken into captivity.

Now that you have the historical setting firmly in mind, turn to and read Ezekiel’s prophecy!

“And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant DAVID; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

“And I the Eternal will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Eternal have spoken it. . .” (Ezekiel 34:23, 24).

Here is a prophecy, given from God more than 120 years after the last ruling king of 10-tribed Israel went into captivity, hundreds of years after David died, plainly saying that David will be resurrected!

He will be raised from the dead to become the KING over the human, physical nation of Israel in the millennial reign of Christ!

Peter spoke of David’s future resurrection, and of his present state, in his famous sermon on the Day of Pentecost!

“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” (Acts 2:29).

David is dead!

He is utterly unconscious—unaware of the passage of time; he is in his grave!

Notice how the apostle Paul reaffirms this: “And what shall I more say.? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barach, and of Samson, and of Jeptha; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets …” (Hebrews 11:32).

And what happened to these, together with all of the great patriarchs, such as Joseph, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are mentioned in Hebrews the 11th chapter?

“These all DIED in faith, not having received the promises . . .”! (Hebrews 11:13).

Notice it carefully! God tells you twice in this famous “faith chapter” that David is DEAD!

They did NOT “receive the promise”! What was the promise? It was the promise of eternal life; corulership with Christ!

“And these all [including Elijah and David], having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

“God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39, 40).

Why have you not been told the truth about Elijah and David?

Peter said, “FOR DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS”! (Acts 2:34).

Will you believe the very Word of God; will you believe your own eyes, and your OWN BIBLE, or will you believe the oft-repeated fables of ignorant men and deceivers?

What About the Transfiguration?

The transfiguration was a vision!

Notice how, just six days before the transfiguration took place, Jesus plainly said that “some” (not all) of His disciples would not “taste of death” till they “see the son of man coming in His kingdom“! (Matthew 16:28). The only way you can understand this plain statement of Jesus Christ is by the transfiguration—a VISION—of “the son of man coming in His kingdom” which took place just six days later!

Otherwise, this would be a clear error—and the very Word of God would appear to contain a colossal mistake.

Every one of the apostles DIED without having seen “the son of man come in His kingdom”!

However, three of them DID see “the son of man coming in His kingdom,” IN VISION, just six days later!

Now read the account of the transfiguration of Jesus Christ in Matthew 17 verses 1 through. 8.

Notice that Peter understood that the translucent, glowing, radiant visage of Jesus Christ, Moses and Elijah was as if they were spirit beings, already in God’s Kingdom.

Peter suggested that they might “…make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias” (verse 4).

The Feast of Tabernacles (or “booths”) foreshadowed the Kingdom of God!

Peter had kept this important annual Holy Day season all his life. So had all believing Jews and Israelites of the house of Israel.

After they heard a booming voice (no doubt from an angel, for Jesus plainly said no man had seen the face, or heard the voice, of God the Father), they “. . . fell on their face, and were sore afraid.” Jesus came to them, told them not to be afraid, “and when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only” (verses 6-9).

Now notice the absolute proof, from the Word of God itself, that what they saw was not REAL—but a miraculous VISION!

“And as they came down the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, tell the VISION to no man, until the son of man be risen again from the dead.”

Now, Peter, James and John understood they had seen ONLY A VISION! They knew that they had not seen a literal resurrection; and, of course, they KNEW that what they had seen had taken place right there on the mountain, before their startled eyes.

Knowing what the scribes said, and a fair amount of the Scriptures, they asked Jesus, “Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?”

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

“But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the son of man suffer of them.

“Then the disciples understood that he spake of them of John the Baptist”! (Matthew 17:10-13).

Note well this important discussion!

The reason James and the others asked Jesus about what the scribes really meant concerning “Elijah must come first” was because they KNEW Elijah had not yet been resurrected! They KNEW that what they had seen was a VISION! Jesus plainly TOLD THEM SO!

Unlike millions of professing, churchgoing Christians today who ASSUME Jesus literally brought Elijah and Moses “down from heaven” to be with Him for a temporary stay, and to let the startled eyes of James, Peter and John SEE these two great men who were allegedly already “up in heaven,” the disciples KNEW that they had merely seen a VISION!

They believed Christ!

Do you?

In the remainder of the discussion, you see how Jesus revealed to them that John the Baptist was a type, a “forerunner,” of the prophesied end-time prophet who is to come in “the power and the spirit of Elijah”!

The ministry of John the Baptist was one Of PREPARING THE WAY for the first coming of Jesus Christ.

The ministry of the latter-day prophet who will come in the power and the spirit of Elijah is to PREPARE THE WAY for the second coming of Christ!

Can anything be plainer?

If you believe Christ, and not what you have “always assumed,” or what you have “always been taught” by religious teachers, then YOU KNOW, and YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW, that Elijah was not then IN HEAVEN! YOU KNOW that what the disciples saw was merely a VISION!

You know that Elijah is dead.

You know that he “received not the promise” (Hebrews 11:13, 39, 40) and that, like David, Elijah is not ascended into the heavens”! (Acts 2:34).

Enoch Is Dead!

Notice what the Bible says about Enoch.

“By faith Enoch was translated [metatithemi, Greek] that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).

Read the whole chapter of Hebrews 11!

Notice how many great men of God—sages, prophets and patriarchs—are mentioned. They include Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Gideon and Barach, Sampson and David, Samuel, and many other prophets!

Twice, in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, God’s Word says, “THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off . . .” (Hebrews 11:13). “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE”! (Hebrews 11:39).

Your Bible plainly says Enoch DIED!

Jesus plainly said no man hath ascended into heaven. The sacred Word of God insists that Enoch and Elijah are dead.

Then what does it mean when the Bible says “Enoch was ‘translated”‘?

The Greek word metatithemi is used only in Acts 7:16, Galatians 1:6, Hebrews 7:12, Hebrews 11:5 (twice) and Jude 4.

The word means “CARRIED OVER—REMOVED”! Notice the identical Greek word as it is translated in the books of Acts, chapter 7 verse 16: “. . . And were carried over [metatithemi] into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money. . .”

Here, the very same word which is rendered “translated” is given as “carried over“ concerning the bodies of Jacob and others of the fathers.

Now notice the next example: “I marvel that you are so soonremoved from [metatithemi] him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel . . .” (Galatians 1:6). Actually, the expression should be rendered “removing,” or that they were in the process of moving away from the original body of truth to false doctrine!

Notice the force of the Greek word metatithemi as it is rendered in the English expression in this verse: “Remove from.”

Now, note the next use of the same Greek word. “For the priesthood being CHANGED [metatithemi] there is made of necessity a change also of the law” (Hebrews 7:12).

This scripture deals with the change between the priesthood of the sons of Aaron (the Levitical priesthood) to the divine priesthood of Jesus Christ.

None of these expressions has anything whatsoever to do with being taken up to heaven!

One has to do with removing from true beliefs, from the body of truth of God’s church. Another has to do with the change in the priesthood. Another had to do with the transporting of dead bodies from one place to another!

Now, note the example in Jude 4. “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning [Greek, metatithemi] the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The word “turning” means CHANGING, EXCHANGING, SUBSTITUTING.

What does the word “to translate” mean to you?

Notice I avoided its usage when I spoke of changing a word from the Greek language into the English, choosing to use “rendering.” This was to avoid confusion so I did not use the word “translation” twice in a row. Otherwise, I would have said, “The word ‘translated’ was translated as. . .”

When you “translate” one word into another, you are changing from one language to another, but you are preserving the meaning.

By no stretch of the imagination does the word “translated” in the Greek language mean that Enoch was TAKEN TO HEAVEN!

Now, notice that the apostle Paul said he “was not found.”

WHY was he “not found”? Because there were those who were looking for him.

Enoch was called the “seventh from Adam.” Actually, if you study the genealogies carefully, he was only the seventh as figured in the lineage from Seth, and was not, really, the seventh firstborn from Adam.

It was stated that Enoch “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22).

There were two men named “Enoch” mentioned in Genesis, and the Enoch with whom we are concerned was the second, the son of Jared, and the father of Methuselah.

The Bible plainly says that, because Enoch “walked with God” (and no higher compliment could be given to this patriarch!), God “took him.”

But WHERE did God “take him”?

Ah, that is the question! Now, remember what Jesus Christ plainly said. He plainly said NO MAN had ascended into heaven!

David was a man after God’s own heart—and Peter tells us, in his inspired sermon on the Day of Pentecost, that David is both dead and buried, that his sepulcher remains with us unto this day, and that David IS NOT in the heavens! (Acts 2:29, 34).

The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us in the book of Hebrews that ENOCH, together with all the other prophets and patriarchs, including David, DIED!

However, Paul further tells us that Enoch “was not found“!

Obviously, since Enoch was one of those few men during that preflood period who truly “walked with God,” there were others, enemies, going Satan’s way, who were LOOKING FOR HIM! WHY?

We are given none of the details, but it is interesting to note that, in the book of Jude, a quotation from a book written by Enoch concerning the second coming of Christ is given!

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these[Satan-inspired false prophets], saying, ‘Behold the Eternal cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they had ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”‘ (Jude 14, 15).

Enoch was one of God’s faithful prophets. As one of the very FEW during that violent, sinful period, he was preaching the gospel as a WITNESS against evil, sinning, satanic men!

While we are given none of the details, the Bible is explicitly clear that God decided to SPARE Enoch from murder at the hands of his antagonists, just like Elijah!

God “took him away,” and he “was not found” (by those who were looking for him).

We are not told WHERE God took him—but WE KNOW that it was not “into heaven,” for Jesus Christ plainly said so!

It is also obvious that, at some later date, and, hopefully, under pleasant circumstances, Enoch DIED!

Like David, he is “dead and buried,” and, even though we do not know the location of his grave, he “received not the promise”!

The Greek word metatithemi, which is rendered “translated” (inaccurately, and confusingly!) on two occasions, SHOULD have been rendered “transferred; removed; taken away; transported”!

No, Enoch is not in heaven!

Elijah is not in heaven!

David is not in heaven!

To this date, the ONLY human individual who has ever walked this earth to be assumed bodily into heaven is Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

Can You Believe Jesus Christ?

It is absolutely essential that you understand this GREAT PRINCIPLE!

THE BIBLE DOES NOT CONTRADICT ITSELF!

Do you believe this?

For, if you do not; if you believe the Bible is filled with errors, mistakes, inaccuracies, or outright lies then you have No BASIS for your belief in GOD! YOU have no basis for your belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you have no basis for believing you can be SAVED!

If even one word of the Bible is untrustworthy, then ALL of the Bible is untrustworthy.

WHY are so many sincere, yet deceived, persons so IGNORANT of this great principle?

I have met such people many times in the course of my many years in Christ’s ministry.

Like the balky mule, or the horse you can “lead to water but cannot make him drink,” there are people who, while seeing with their own eyes, in the pages of their own Bibles, the PLAIN TRUTH of God’s Word, will absolutely REFUSE to accept it, so long as there is some fuzzy, vague notion lodged in their minds which was put there by religious teachers, parents, friends, or by their own misunderstanding of the Bible.

Review, in your own mind, what you have SEEN with your own eyes from YOUR BIBLE!

Look at the accurate meanings of each of the Greek words used for “soul” in the New Testament!

Review what you have read about the state of the dead; the RESURRECTION; the fact that Christ will return to and rule ON THIS EARTH; and the plain statements that ‘WO MAN HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN” given to you by Jesus Christ of Nazareth Himself!

Now, please come to understand one of the primaryrequirements of Bible understanding.

FIRSt: Jesus Christ thanked His Father that the Father had revealed these things “unto babes.” You must first become a “babe in Christ,” like an innocent, wide-eyed child, hungering and thirsting for God’s Word. You cannot want your own way—you cannot cling doggedly to preconceived notions, opinions or previous religious teachings. Rather, like an innocent little child, you must yield your heart and your whole being completely to GOD! You must ask HIM to be your teacher You must confess Jesus Christ, not only as your personal Savior, but as your RULER, and as your BOSS!

SECOND: God says, “…To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit [meaning humble, not spiritually proud] AND TREMBLES AT MY WORD”! (Isaiah 66:2).

Do you tremble before the divinely inspired, holy and sacredWord of God?

If you Do, then you would tremble in fear to reject God’s truth. You would tremble in fear to doggedly cling to a preconceived notion, argument, personal point of view or opinion of your own—especially when those opinions are proved WRONG by the divinely inspired Word of God!

THIRD: Jesus said, “The scripture CANNOT BE BROKEN”! (John 10:35). Think for a moment! Jesus Christ is described as the WORD (Greek: logos)—He is the Scripture, the Word of God personified!

Will feeble, ignorant, deceived mankind presume to ascend up to heaven and pull Jesus Christ from His throne? Can the preconceived notions and opinions of deceived persons nullify the very AUTHORITY of the living Christ?

Jesus Christ is absolutely SUPREME. He is untouched, aloof and inviolate—totally above the puny presumptiousness of man. Sarcasm, haughtiness, anger, rebellion at being told the truth—the petty emotions and resentments of human beings—are as meaningless and useless to Jesus Christ of Nazareth as a germ on the hind leg of a tiny spider lost in the vastness of the Mato Grosso of Brazil!

Petty, argumentative, human opinions simply DO NOT COUNT in God’s sight!

But how few are willing to face the Bible with that attitude.

How shockingly FEW are willing to read Jesus’ plain statement, “No man hath ascended up to heaven”! and simply, humbly BELIEVE it!

Instead, they become confused.

They say, “But how can this be?” They querulously say, “But what about Elijah, what about Enoch, what about all the saints who were resurrected?”

Instead of believing Christ, they place greater weight on the oft-repeated FABLES of their religious upbringing. They remember the hoarse-voiced preaching of the perspiring tent-camp evangelists of their youth. They remember the hundreds of radio and television evangelists they have heard over the years. They remember their parents’ teaching and the “Christian” upbringing of their church!

Not so with the true Christian.

The true Christian approaches the study of God’s Word in total subjection. He will approach the study of God’s Word in trembling and great humility. He will FEAR to misinterpret, misapply or attempt to read his own meaning INTO the Scriptures.

He will realize that, even as Jesus Christ of Nazareth stands at the supreme position of the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE, so do the written Scriptures stand inviolable, untrammeled, unsullied, immutable and absolutely SURE!

Therefore, when the true Christian sees his own Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, saying, “For no man hath ascended into heaven”! he BELIEVES Jesus Christ Himself.

Then, armed with that belief, he approaches other, apparently nebulous or ambiguous, scriptures from the point of view of that belief

In other words, he knows the Bible tells him that he needs to be a “workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Because he trembles to misinterpret or misapply the Bible, he will use the PLAIN, incontrovertible, impossible-to-be-misunderstood scriptures to assist him in understanding the vague, or ambiguous, ones.

Are you such a person?

Does Almighty God need to tell you something twice? Three times? Twenty times? One hundred?

Or are you a converted Christian and when your very Savior, Lord and Master, High Priest and soon coming KING tells you something He need only speak once?

Apply that concept to all you have read in this article.

Carefully look up each scripture in your own Bible. Underline or make a mark beside the ones that are outstandingly important. Let them sink deeply down into your mind.

Believe them—and do not confuse yourself by deceiving yourself into believing you are “disagreeing with Garner Ted Armstrong”! What I think or believe has NOTHING TO DO with your salvation!

Your salvation is between you and the living God! If I tell you the truth, quote it for you out of your own Bible, no amount of dogging or evading that truth—no amount of taking issue with me as a human being—can nullify or make void that eternal TRUTH you have been told.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”!

When you know the truth, you become responsible for it!

Each time you learn new truth from the sacred Word of God, it becomes “dangerous knowledge”!

For, once you learn new truth from God’s Word, you become RESPONSIBLE for it!

Almighty God expects you to apply it.

He not only expects you to learn His truth, He expects you to become so joyous at discovering new truth that you will eagerly and anxiously desire to share it with OTHERS!

You should approach all your Bible study in this fashion.

Never believe men. Always believe the Bible, but realize that the New Testament King James English is a modern-day translation, and that it is sometimes necessary to obtain the precise meaning of the original Greek and other languages; it is necessary to do as Christ said and “rightly divide the word of truth”!

You need to remember and believe that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

When Paul informed the young evangelist Timothy that some false teachers were claiming the resurrection was past already, Paul said, “Nevertheless the FOUNDATION OF GOD stands SURE …“ (2 Timothy 2:19).

Yes, regardless as to the petty disagreements, arguments and vanities of ignorant, deceived men, the foundation of God, the HOLY SCRIPTURES, stands SURE!

Jesus did not lie. No MAN has ascended to the heaven of God’s throne! ELIJAH was taken up, by a miracle, into the AIR, and was transported safely away to some other location. Years later Elijah was taken to a place of security, a letter was received by Jehoram, the new king in Jerusalem.

Notice! “And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, ‘Thus saith the Eternal God of David thy father, “Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah . . .” ‘ ” (2 Chronicles 21:12-15). Then followed a description of the horrible fate that Elijah, who was STILL ALIVE, described would occur to Jehoram!

Elijah was still alive, ON THIS EARTH, in some other place!

Now YOU KNOW!

Elijah is dead. Enoch is dead. They await a RESURRECTION upon the return of Jesus Christ!

Read this scripture carefully—note it well:

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:16-23).

There it is!

Elijah and Enoch HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE PROMISES.

But they WILL.

When?

Christ is the “firstfruits” from the dead, and AFTERWARD—they that are the “dead in Christ” (including Elijah and Enoch) will rise from their graves to IMMORTALITY (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) AT HIS COMING, and not one second before!

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post Is Elijah in Heaven? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

For over 47 years, I have been offering a certified cashier’s check for $10,000 to anyone in my radio or television  audiences who can show me any of the following phrases out of the King James  Bible: “The immortality of the soul,” “I have an immortal soul,” “When we die we  go to heaven,” “When sinners die they go to an ever-burning hell fire.”

In that span of time, there have been a few (probably fewer than a  dozen in over 47 years) who have attempted to claim the check.

However, never have any of the would-be claimants shown me any such  “scriptures” in the King James Bible, for they simply are not THERE!

Instead, they have shown me other substitute scriptures which have appeared to them to indicate that man does indeed have an immortal soul; that those souls go either to heaven or to hell when the body dies!

Surely, one of the favorite texts used as “proof” is found in Luke 16, in the parable of “Lazarus and the rich man.”

Get your own Bible, and read the parable thoroughly. For the sake of  those who may not have a Bible close at hand, the entire parable is now printed here:

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

“And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate  full of sores,

“And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar  off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

“And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am  tormented in this flame.

“But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou  art tormented.

“And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us,  that would come from thence.

“Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to  my father’s house:

“For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

“Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

“And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

“And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” (Luke 16:19-31).

I have shown you the entire parable of “Lazarus and the rich man” in Luke 16, verses 19 through 31, in order that you may refer back to it  again and again as you read the remainder of this booklet.

Notice What the Parable DOES NOT SAY

Turn again to verse 22, and notice that the parable does not say that Lazarus was carried into HEAVEN! Rather, it says he was “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” Because many have assumed Abraham to be in heaven, they think the expression “Abraham’s bosom” means heaven. But it does not, as we shall see clearly proved.

Notice that the parable does not say that the rich man went  to an ever-burning hell fire! The Greek word which is used is hades, which always means the GRAVE, as you will  see thoroughly explained.

Notice that the parable says “the beggar DIED” It does not say that only his body died but that his “soul” continued to live on.

The parable says “. . . the rich man also DIED” and does NOT say that only  the rich man’s body died, and that his “soul” lived on in torment!

Now, with the necessary interruptions in order to supply ample biblical PROOFS so you can truly come to understand this parable, let us carefully  peruse the entire parable.

What Is a Parable?

Jesus continually spoke in parables. A parable is an analogy–a  simile, representation or analogous story; which could even be a fable, so long as it is used to illustrate certain essential points of TRUTH. An analogy is not necessarily the truth all by itself–but is  analogous to the TRUTH which it helps to illustrate.

For example, in modern English, one might wish to draw the analogy that God’s Holy Spirit flows in and through converted Christians not unlike an electrical current flows through a light bulb.

We are the light bulbs; and, just as an incandescent bulb only glows when the filament is brightly lit up by the ongoing, circuitous FLOW of electrical energy, and is only going to be brilliantly lit when the switch is in the “on” position; so we, as Christians, will only give out our light when we are  connected to God the Father through the conduit which is  Jesus Christ!

The foregoing is a fair example of an analogy.

God’s Spirit is certainly not electricity; we are certainly not light bulbs; Jesus Christ is certainly not a conduit. Yet, this representative story helps us to understand a spiritual mystery–how Almighty God, through the power of His Holy Spirit, can literally empower, enliven,  ennoble and brilliantly vivify us human beings, transforming us into His own sons and daughters.

The disciples were curious as to why Jesus spoke to the public in confusing parables. Many have assumed Jesus spoke in such puzzles to “make His meaning plainer”! The exact opposite is true.

“And the disciples came, and said unto Him, why speakest thou unto them in  parables?

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

“For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

“But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

“For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:10-18). Astonishing! Jesus Christ clearly shows that only those whom God has specially called and chosen can understand! He shows that He was NOT trying to convert the world then; that people were blinded to the truth “LEST they should be converted and He should heal them!” This flies directly in the face of a commonly accepted fable; that Christ tried to call and convert as many as He could!

Notice that the carnal-minded Pharisees and others in His audience were not  privileged to understand.

How it would SHOCK millions of people if they knew that, even to this time in this modern, 20th century, Jesus Christ is STILL not attempting to reveal  the truth of God to the MAJORITY!

It is quite obvious from the context that the story of Lazarus and the rich  man is in fact a parable! Therefore, it was intended to cloud and confuse its true meaning to the carnal minded, rebellious, hostile Pharisees — and it is intended to be confusing to carnal minded, anti-law people today! If you are a person who is hostile to God’s Ten Commandments; who places himself above the Bible, the chances are you will NOT agree with the TRUTH explained in this booklet; that you will not accept the true meaning of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man!

Even if, people argue, there really was such a person as the rich man  and Lazarus (and we will assume they truly were real people for the purposes of this article), it makes no difference whatever to the SENSE; the  MEANING of what Jesus was conveying.

Now, refer back to the parable and read the description of the poor beggar named Lazarus, filled with sores, lying at his gate, desperately hoping merely for crumbs from the rich  man’s table–the dogs licking his open, running wounds, until he died!

“And it came to pass, that the beggar DIED” (Luke 16:22).

What Is Death–What HAPPENED When the Beggar Died?

Your Bible says the beggar DIED! What happened when he died?

Let the Bible answer!

God told Adam that in the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would “surely DIE”! (Genesis 2:17). Later, Satan the devil lied  to the woman and said, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4), which is the first recorded instance of Satan’s attempt to deceive the human race by convincing them they have an immortal soul which will never  die.

But God said, “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 [dirt, soil, earth] shalt THOU return”! (Genesis  3:19).

God told Adam, the conscious man, that Adam would return  to DUST! He did not tell Adam only his body would become corrupted and  return to dust–that his “soul” would live on–he told ADAM, the conscious man, that HE would return unto the dirt of the ground from which he was formed!

Notice what God inspired Solomon to write: “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 above a beast: for all is vanity.

“All go unto one place; all are OF the DUST and all turn to  dust again!” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).

Here, God makes it plain that the temporal physical existence of animal life and human life are the same.

Both man and beast are kept alive by the circulation of the bloodstream; as life-giving oxygen is carried to the body by the beating of the heart, and the human (and animal) circulatory system!

God says, “And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.

“For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off” (Leviticus 17:13, 14).

Jesus Christ of Nazareth died for the sins of mankind on  the stake! He died because of the shedding of HIS BLOOD! It is the shed BLOOD of Jesus Christ which atones for the sins of mankind. Christ’s death was typified by the slaying of the Paschal lamb at the Passover. The lamb was slain by having its throat cut, and shedding its blood into a basin, which was then painted on the window sills and doors of the Israelites’ homes. Today, you and I can have forgiveness of sins only through the BLOOD of Jesus Christ, which depicts His LIFE which was offered in our place!

Will you believe Jesus Christ? He said, “I am He that liveth, and was DEAD;  and, behold, I am alive forevermore . . .” (Revelation 1:18).

There are many who do not believe that Jesus was truly DEAD, but think He was IN HELL, preaching to lost souls! For a clear understanding of this horribly false teaching, call or write for my brochure about the “spirits in prison.”

Jesus’ side was pierced, the fluids of the stomach, plus His life’s  blood, came pouring out! It is by the shed blood of Jesus Christ that our sins  may be forgiven!

“Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3) by the shedding of His  blood!

Remember, the Bible plainly says the beggar, Lazarus, DIED! When he died, he was DEAD, not conscious, not alive!

Notice what God inspired David to write about the state of the dead. “. . . In death there is no remembrance of thee [God]: in the grave [Hebrew sheol] who  shall give thee thanks?” (Psalms 6:5). “. . . Man being in honor abideth not: he  is like the beasts that PERISH . . . like sheep they are laid in the grave [Hebrew sheol]; death shall feed upon them . . . their beauty shall consume in  the grave from their dwelling” (Psalms 49:12-14).

“Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that PERISH”  (Psalms 49:20).

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day HIS  THOUGHTS PERISH!” (Psalms 146:3, 4).

What, then, does the Bible say about the state of the dead? It says the same thing any medical doctor could tell you; any coroner, paramedic, registered  nurse or student qualified to give first aid! It says the dead are completely dead; not conscious; have no memory; cannot praise God; that they are slowly returning to the earth, just as God warned Adam and Eve! Your Bible is clinically correct concerning the state of the dead!

Scientists know that when all brain activity has ceased; when the heart has stopped pumping and the circulation of the life-giving blood has ceased, a human  being (or any animal) is DEAD!

They also know that the dead are completely UNCONSCIOUS; that total oblivion  is the result!

God says, “For the living know that they shall die: but the DEAD KNOW NOT ANYTHING . . . for the memory of them [their memory] is forgotten”!

“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 [Hebrew sheol], whither thou goest”! (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10).

So what happened to Lazarus?

He DIED!

In the instant he died all of his thoughts ceased! His body began to decay, gradually decomposed, and returned to the dust of the earth. Now, turn again to the parable at the beginning of this article. Notice, “. . .And [Lazarus] was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke  16:22).

But WHEN? How? WHERE was Lazarus carried? 

What Is “Abraham’s Bosom”?

The word bosom is used 41 times in the Bible and always means the same thing–the area of the chest or breast of the human being. For example, a man’s  wife is spoken of as “the wife of thy bosom” (Deuteronomy 13:16), indicating a  close, loving, personal relationship.

Notice, too, in the famous “last supper” of Jesus Christ, that John was leaning on Jesus’ bosom (John 13:23), which was indicative of the close,  personal relationship that existed between Jesus and John, for John was mentioned in the Bible as that disciple “whom Jesus loved.”

Therefore, when the parable mentions Lazarus being “carried by the angels” into “Abraham’s bosom,” it means carried into a close, loving, personal relationship WITH ABRAHAM!

But WHERE Is Abraham?

Is Abraham in heaven? Is this merely another way in which the Bible is trying to tell you that Lazarus did, after all, “go to heaven”?

Remember, Jesus said, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven” (John 3:13). He said this during His earthly ministry, CENTURIES after Abraham had died! In plain language, this scripture — a first-person quotation from Christ Himself, tells us ABRAHAM WAS NOT IN HEAVEN! David, a man after God’s own heart, and the king of Israel who is prophesied to be  resurrected and to yet become the KING over all Israel even during the  millennial reign of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 30:9), is NOT in heaven!

Notice the proof in your own Bible! “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” said Peter on the day of Pentecost. But some might argue, “Yes, maybe DAVID was dead and buried; maybe HIS BODY died, but DAVID HIMSELF surely went to heaven, didn’t he?”

The answer is NO, he did not! Only a few verses later, you read that Peter said, “FOR DAVID IS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS ” (Acts 2:29-34).

Here, in Peter’s own words, during his famous sermon on the day of Pentecost,  when God sent the Holy Spirit to build His church, we are given the absolute, PLAIN, unambiguous, positive statement that David is DEAD! We are told that he has been BURIED; and we have learned from his own psalms (as God inspired him to sing and write them) and from other scriptures what happens when one is dead and buried! David’s flesh gradually decayed–he returned unto “the dust” from which  he came! His death was exactly like that of animals; he is completely  unconscious, in OBLIVION– and, furthermore, the apostle Peter tells us that David DID NOT GO INTO HEAVEN! Are you willing to BELIEVE your own Bible? It does not matter if these plain scriptures contradict what you have been taught all your life; what you have heard from others! The Word of God is SURE! It will JUDGE each one of us, and is judging us today!

Now, what of Abraham?

“And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred three score and fifteen years.

“Then Abraham gave up the ghost [an old King James English expression which means ‘expired’; or breathed his last breath] and DIED in a good old age, an old  man, and full of years; and was gathered unto his people.

“And his sons Isaac and Ishmael BURIED him in the cave of Machpelah . . .”  (Genesis 25:7-9).

In the famous faith chapter God’s Word says, “These all DIED in  faith, NOT HAVING RECEIVED THE PROMISES” (Hebrews 11:13). “These” who died include ABRAHAM!

Notice verse 8: “By faith ABRAHAM, when he was called to go into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not  knowing whither he went . . .” Then, just five verses later, the Bible plainly says Abraham, together with all others mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, including Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and many, many more,  DIED!

What was the “promise” Abraham did not YET inherit? Why, the promise of  ETERNAL LIFE! Almighty God promised Abraham the very KINGDOM OF GOD! Yet,  concerning not only Abraham, but others of the most noteworthy men and women in  the entire Bible, God says, “And these ALL, having obtained a good report  through faith, RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE” (Hebrews 11:39). Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees, “You shall SEE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out!” But Abraham is NOT YET in the kingdom! Today, he is unconscious; utterly oblivious to the passing of time.

Neither David nor Abraham is in heaven! Job said, “. . . Man DIETH, and  wasteth away: Yea, man giveth up the ghost [expires, or breathes his last  breath!] and where is he? . . . O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that  thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest  appoint me a set time, and remember me.

“If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I  wait, till my CHANGE come!

“Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work  of thine hands”! (Job 14:10-15).

Like Job, Abraham is waiting–as is David and all the other patriarchs and  famous men and women of the Bible–until his CHANGE comes!

WHEN will that change come? Let the inspired Word of God answer! “For as in  Adam all die [just as Lazarus DIED!], even so in Christ shall all be made alive  [they are NOT ALIVE, now].

“But every man in his own order [meaning at the appropriate TIME]: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are CHRIST’S AT HIS COMING”! (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

Is there anything about the words “first” and “afterward” you do not understand? If a parent says to a child, “You must eat your vegetables FIRST, and then AFTERWARD you may have dessert,” even the child understands! Christ was resurrected to become the FIRSTfruits from ALL OF THE DEAD, including Abraham and David! AFTERWARD, as Paul clearly explained, Abraham, David, all the righteous patriarchs and the righteous will be resurrected.

WHEN are the dead resurrected? At the second coming of Christ–“at His  coming”! –and not one instant before!

Read the entire 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. Notice particularly verses 49  through 53: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy [we are flesh, made of  the dust, and to the dust shall we return] we shall also bear the image of the  heavenly.

“This I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of  God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [meaning die], 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 [including Lazarus, Abraham and David!] shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living who remain at that  time] 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”! Notice the Bible says immortality is  something we human, mortal beings must “PUT ON” at the time of the resurrection  of the dead, or the time of instantaneous change, at the LAST TRUMP!

Now, back to our parable concerning Lazarus.

We have found that Abraham is DEAD. Yet we know that Abraham is as good as INSIDE the Kingdom of God–waiting only until the TIME of his resurrection!

Jesus said, “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west,  and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of  heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

This is the same Jesus Christ who, during this same earthly ministry, said,  plainly, “NO MAN HATH ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN”! Jesus spoke of Abraham as dead, together with all the other patriarchs; waiting in the grave, until the RESURRECTION!

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the  graves shall hear His voice,

“And shall come forth; they that have done GOOD [including Abraham, and  Lazarus] unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil [including the rich man], unto the resurrection of damnation [judgment]” (John 5:28,  29).

Jesus taught the fact of the RESURRECTION of the dead! Notice! “And many of  them that sleep [they are completely oblivious, unconscious of the passage of  time] in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some  to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

Remember what you read about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15? Christ is  called the “first fruits” from the DEAD! It is only afterward, AT HIS COMING,  and not one split second before, that the “dead in Christ,” which include all  the righteous patriarchs; men such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David–yes, and even  the poor beggar Lazarus–will be raised from the dead!

The many PLAIN, incontrovertible statements of Jesus Christ concerning the future event of the resurrection of the DEAD cannot be swept aside as if they do  not exist by what is admittedly a parable, or a puzzle, which Jesus used to deliberately confuse many of those who heard!

So–WHEN will Lazarus actually be taken into Abraham’s bosom?

At the time of the resurrection of the righteous–at the sound of the last  trump, and not one second before!

WHERE will he be? Why, he will be in “Abraham’s bosom”!

And where will Abraham be? Jesus already told us, but notice another quote: “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and  Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, and you yourself  thrust out.

“And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:28, 29).  Again, Jesus warned the evil Pharisees of the yet future event of the establishment of the Kingdom of God on this earth, and said they would SEE  Abraham in that Kingdom, and they themselves cast out!

Lazarus will be among the many who will come from the four corners of the earth to “sit down in the kingdom.” The rich man will be in the category of the  Pharisees, gnashing his teeth in fear, anger and frustration, yet seeing Lazarus “in Abraham’s bosom,” meaning in the KINGDOM OF GOD!

Jesus couched the language of Luke 16 in the past, present and future! He  made no differentiation, choosing to relate the story (which will actually transpire over the course of thousands of years) as if an unbroken story for the purposes of the great warning, the LESSON, it contained!

Now, notice again the parable. “And it came to pass, that the beggar died,  and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom . . .”

How is Lazarus finally “carried” into the bosom of Abraham; where the rich man sees him as if seated at a great banquet?

We have learned that Lazarus cannot “see” anything while he is in the grave!  He is not conscious; unable to praise God, has no memory, but is in complete oblivion.

He is one of those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” (Daniel 12:2) and will not be resurrected until the resurrection to DAMNATION! Notice, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

“And death and hell [hades, meaning “the grave”] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:13-15). It is this final and THIRD resurrection in which the rich man finds himself! There are THREE resurrections depicted in scripture.

Notice what Jesus said!

“. . . Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall  all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in  the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall  gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other . . .” (Matthew 24:30, 31).

Jesus is coming back to this earth.

“. . .Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus,  which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so COME in like manner as you have  seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

And how did they see Him go? They saw him slowly ascending up into the  clouds, until He was received completely out of their sight.

Here, in the first inspired message to ever come back down to earth after Christ was taken away from the earth, the biblical promise is given that is  repeated over and over again in the Word of God: “HE IS COMING AGAIN!”

Few realize that, if the earth were shrunken to the approximate size of a desk-sized globe, the mantle of air which surrounds our earth and is part of its physical characteristics (atmosphere, lithosphere, bathysphere) would be thinner  than the lacquer finish on the globe!

I use that analogy to illustrate the point that, when Christ comes again, He  is coming all the way down out of heaven, down inside the Milky Way galaxy, past the outermost planets, our sun and moon,  and to the very surface of this earth where the clouds form! He is coming TO THE EARTH, and not merely coming NEAR it! “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zechariah 14:4).

“Behold He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him…” (Revelation  1:7).

Notice how the saints are caught up, even as Jesus explained that Lazarus  will someday be caught up by the ANGELS!

“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”!  (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17).

See how all of these important scriptures fit perfectly together? It is at  the last trump; with the voice of the archangel; as Jesus Christ of Nazareth  comes down to this earth WITH CLOUDS!

He sends His angels to the four corners of the earth, and they gather the elect, living and dead, to the central place of His arrival!

From that time on, they will “ever be with the Lord”!

But where will the Lord BE?

On this earth as you read above.

The 14th chapter of Zechariah describes the second coming of Jesus Christ,  the establishment of Jesus as “King over all the earth” (verse 9), the beginning  of the millennial reign of Christ on this earth, and His first edict to all the families of the earth, to come to the new capital of the world, Jerusalem, to  keep the Feast of Tabernacles! (Read the entire 14th chapter of Zechariah.)

Notice too: ” Thou wast slain, and hath redeemed us to God by thy blood out  of every kindred, and tongue and people, and nation;

“And hath made us unto our God kings and priests: and we SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH”! (Revelation 5:10).

So WHERE does Lazarus go? He is caught up and taken to Jerusalem, to meet Jesus Christ in the air, in the clouds of this earth’s atmosphere, at His second coming.

How is he carried there? By the angels.

And will he see Abraham there–in the Kingdom of God, just as he will see David, many of the other patriarchs, righteous prophets and famous men of the  Bible past and present?

Of course! Jesus said so! He will be leaning on Abraham’s bosom, in a close, intimate relationship with Abraham, who is called the “father of the faithful.”

And WHEN does all this happen?

According to the inspired Word of God, which will judge us, the  resurrection of Lazarus will occur “at the  last trump,” “at the voice of the archangel,” and precisely at the time of the second coming of Christ!

Now, continue with the parable. 

What Happened to the Rich Man?

“. . . The rich man also DIED, and was buried . . .” (Luke 16:22).

Surely there is no need to return to all of the scriptures we have quoted explaining the state of the dead. Read each scripture quoted above once more, if you need your memory refreshed about what happens when one dies.

Your Bible does NOT say only the rich man’s “body” died–but that the rich man  went to some other place!

It says, plainly, “. . . the rich man DIED”!

And what happens when people die? Just as Abraham was buried, and decayed long ago; just as David’s “sepulchre is with us unto this day,” and as David is not in the heavens (Acts 2:34) but is waiting in the grave for the time of the  second coming of Christ and the resurrection, so, likewise, the rich man is  dead, completely unconscious; oblivious to the passing of time; is buried and waiting in his GRAVE!

Notice: “And in hell [Greek hades] he lift up his eyes . . .” There are three Greek words used in the New Testament which are translated “hell.”

The most common is hades, which means, literally, the grave. Search the exhaustive concordances, the lexicons, the diaglotts,  other translations, the Greek  interlinear or any other Bible help, and you will find substantial PROOF that the Greek word hades NEVER has anything whatsoever to do with fires or infernal regions.

Rather, it is always used as the exact Greek counterpart of the Hebrew sheol, which means THE GRAVE! (See Bullinger’s Companion Bible, appendix 131.) It should never have been translated “hell” in the English language in 1611, but should have been rendered “the grave” which is its true meaning.

The second Greek word which is rendered as “hell” in English Bibles is Gehenna, or Geenna. The word Gehenna is derived from the “sons of Hinnom,” who, anciently owned a steep, precipitous  valley in the immediate environs of Jerusalem. During Jesus’ day, the valley became a public dump, a place of refuse, and even the bodies of condemned criminals or dead animals were deposited there. Such bodies would be shoved over  the edge, together with refuse, trash and garbage, to gradually decompose and to  eventually be completely consumed by perpetually burning fires.

When Jesus spoke of Gehenna fire, He was using the analogy of the Valley of  Hinnom to portray the literal HELL FIRE spoken of in 2 Peter 3. Notice. “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men … The elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are  therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:7-13). This does not say the “works” of the earth, meaning evil men, are continually burning; being tortured in an “ever burning” hell! It says they are BURNED UP!

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud  [including the rich man], yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: And the day that cometh shall burn them up: saith the Eternal of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch and ye shall tread down the wicked,  for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Eternal of Hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3). Yes, the Bible DOES speak of  burning FIRE as punishment for the wicked! But that fire is not burning  now–nor is it an “eternal fire” burning forever and ever!

Notice additional proof.

“. . . Sodom and Gomorrah, 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 FIRE” (Jude 7).

Jesus said, “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and  brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all”! (Luke 17:29).

Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an example of that final punishment which  is to come upon the wicked–being consumed by FIRE; completely dissolved and  turned to ashes! Even as the last verses of Malachi and the final verses of  Isaiah tell us, the wicked (such as the rich man, who sees a wall of fire  approaching him) are to suffer the vengeance of GEHENNA FIRE! That fire will  consume them. It will burn them up. They will be turned into ashes! They are  then dead; dead for all eternity, from which there is never any  resurrection.

Notice. “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly . . .” (2 Peter 2:6).

Though Sodom and Gomorrah are said to have suffered the “vengeance of eternal  fire,” it begs  the question, “Are they still burning?”

Of course not! As a matter of fact, many Bible scholars believe that the ancient foundation  stones of Sodom and Gomorrah have been found. Where? Buried beneath the waters  at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea!

Not only did the fire and brimstone from God go out after it had finished  consuming all of the people, and other combustible and flammable material in  ancient Sodom and Gomorrah–not only has that fire been out for centuries and  centuries–apparently the very site of those two ancient cities has been buried  for these many millennia beneath water! The fire was from “the Eternal,” but was  not to burn for all eternity! It WENT OUT after it had consumed all the fuel upon which it fed.

Surely, suffering death by fire is one of the most horrifying and  excruciating ways to DIE! Almighty God’s punishments are indeed horrifying to contemplate! Yet, God is a merciful God, and has decreed that the wicked are to  be burned up — NOT kept alive in fiendish torture, burning, burning, burning but never quite burning up, as the satanic, false doctrines of so many churches teach!

Now, WHEN will the rich man “lift up his eyes”?

The Rest of the Dead

Actually, there are three categories of the dead.

So far, we have learned about “the dead in Christ.” These are obviously converted Christians who have been convicted; who have repented of their sins, received water baptism (Romans 6), and had the laying on of hands for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

Whether they were martyred (as was Stephen, James, the brother of John, the apostle Paul and others) or simply died of old age (as we believe John the apostle did), they are, like David, Abraham and Lazarus, in their graves, awaiting the resurrection to life at the second coming of Christ.

We have seen (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17) in a number of scriptures that the dead  in Christ will rise FIRST, at the very instant of the sounding of the last  trump, at the second coming of Christ! They will not “precede” those who are  alive and remain, who will be changed instantaneously, “in a moment, in the  twinkling of an eye, at the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

The first category of the dead, then, consists of the “dead in Christ.”

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. . . and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation  20:4).

The dead in Christ, who are to be resurrected at His second coming, will  become a part of the governing, ruling body of Jesus Christ–the very Kingdom and  government of God–during the thousand-year reign of Christ as King of Kings and  Lord of Lords over the entire world.

But, what of the literally hundreds of millions who have never heard the truth of God; never once heard the gospel of Christ, perhaps never even heard the name of Jesus Christ?

Of them the Bible says, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the  thousand years were finished”! (Revelation 20:5). The “rest of the dead” consists of the overwhelming MAJORITY of all mankind. Not only all those who have never heard, but also those who heard, but DID NOT UNDERSTAND, as Christ said, giving the reason for His parables! If God did not GIVE them understanding, they were NOT CALLED!

At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, a great, general resurrection  is said to occur. John sees this monumental event in vision when he writes, “And  I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth  and the heaven fled away: And there was found no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to  their works” (Revelation 20:11, 12).

There is strong indication that each of these individuals, no matter what his age when he died– whether 90 years or 9 months–will be granted a lifetime of one hundred years’ duration.

Notice. “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old: but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed”! (Isaiah 65:20).

This is strong indication that not only will there be a 100-year period  following the millennium, but that the average life span during the millennium will be 100 years! The Bible seems to be telling us that, having had the opportunity of living in the physical, human state for 100 full years under the very government of the Kingdom of God, if a person is STILL a sinner and has  refused to repent for all that time, the “sinner being an hundred years old  shall be accursed”!

This is the Word of God, after all, and it appears we are seeing a revelation  of the heavenly pattern involving the human life span from the time of the  millennium to the consummation of the first stage of God’s great plan; reproducing after His own kind.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16 is not describing to us a rich man who was ignorant, and who never had a chance for salvation! Instead, it is describing a heartless, cruel, selfish man; one who had no compassion or pity; who stuffed his own face while utterly ignoring the poor, emaciated, sick and starving beggar at his doorstep!

The inference is that the rich man may well be among the incorrigibly wicked, who would not hear during his human, physical life.

Look at the description of what the rich man immediately sees when he is  finally resurrected!

“And in [the grave] he lift up his eyes, BEING IN TORMENTS, and seeth Abraham  afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

“And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:23, 24).

In order to clear up widespread misunderstanding of the parable,  we must go to many other scriptures, equally inspired, many of them direct quotations from Jesus Christ Himself, to understand the whole truth of exactly WHEN the rich man “lift up his eyes, BEING IN TORMENTS…”

You have already seen documented proof concerning the first resurrection–the  resurrection of “the dead IN CHRIST” who come out of their graves at the last trump, coincident with the exact moment of the second coming of Christ.

Also, you have seen biblical evidence concerning the “great white throne  judgment” (Revelation 20) wherein “the rest of the dead” who “lived not until the thousand years were finished” (Revelation 20:25) come up for an approximate life span of 100 years, during which they shall be judged!

Judging Is Not Sentencing

The traditional Protestant-Catholic view of “judgment” is like the childhood picture painted from thousands of pulpits by eager pastors. Many believe judgment day consists of millions slowly approaching a huge judgment bench.  Seated behind the bench is a grandfather-like Figure, God the Father, who has a  gavel in His hand. Apparently, Satan the devil is at the left hand to accuse,  while Christ is at the right hand of the righteous Judge to appeal as a counsel for the defense.  Angels, according to this myth, open up huge ledgers in which are actually written all of the evil deeds done by each individual.

Finally, after hearing all the evidence, the Judge pounds the gavel on the bench, and pronounces the person before the judgment seat either “innocent” or  “guilty” If guilty, the myth teaches that the impenitent sinner is plummeted  immediately down to hell fire, accompanied by cackles of glee of Satan, and wails from the righteous.

If “innocent,” the penitent sinner is immediately sent to heaven!

This childish, purely mythological, fanciful and FALSE notion is pure  applesauce, nonsense, and ridiculous!

Many people confuse “judgment” with sentencing.

Think. God has plainly said (read the entire 11th chapter of Romans) that  “all Israel shall be saved.” That certainly includes the Jews, and those of the tribe of Levi, who basically have remained anti-Christian–who rejected Christ in  the first century, and whose progeny, down through the nearly 2,000 years since,  have rigidly adhered to the traditions established by their fathers, utterly and  totally rejecting Christ as Savior!

Yet the Bible plainly says that all of these shall YET, in the future, be  SAVED!

How?

You have already read the answer. They are included among that vast, general  majority of all humanity (the “rest of the dead” who lived not again until the  thousand years are finished) who come up in the great general resurrection–the resurrection to JUDGMENT!

It is a resurrection, not to a sentencing, resulting from deeds already done during their lifetimes, but a resurrection to judgment.

Remember, judgment is not a SENTENCING. Judgment takes place during an entire lifetime.

Notice. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God  [the church]; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that  obey not the gospel of God?

“And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the  sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17, 18).

Every member of God’s true church is being judged, daily!

Judgment is a process. Jesus said, “To him that overcometh” He will grant salvation; sitting with Him in His throne, wielding power over the nations! (Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:21). Overcoming is a life-long process!

Even Jesus Christ “. . . learned obedience by the things which He suffered; . . . being made perfect . . .” (Hebrews 5:8, 9).

The Bible absolutely proves that the process of judgment takes place over the  entire life span of a Christian! The church is being judged, daily. You and I are  being judged, daily!

“The Rest of the Dead”

Who are the “rest of the dead”?

They are all other human beings who have ever lived and died who (1) were never converted; never had an opportunity for salvation; perhaps never even  heard the name of Jesus Christ; they are NOT among the “dead in Christ.” This means they are the vast majority of all mankind.

(2) They have not committed the unpardonable sin! This great truth–so simply  and unerringly revealed in the Bible–is nevertheless concealed from the MILLIONS in professing “churchianity” today. The bulk of the mainstream Protestant, evangelical  churches, holding to the pagan doctrines of the immortality of the soul, are BLINDED to this truth! The mainstream fundamentalist churches seemingly believe  that all Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Southeast Asians, the Indians (in India),  the bulk of all Africans and countless other human beings are going to go  immediately to an ever-burning hell when they die–even though they have never  had an opportunity for salvation–literally never heard the name of Jesus Christ! This ghastly, inhuman picture of unrelenting TORTURE is preached every day of the SUN in thousands of churches! It is A LIE!

You have seen vivid PROOF that God, in His infinite mercy, will DESTROY unrepentant sinners, but HE WILL NOT TORTURE THEM FOR ETERNITY! God may be “inhuman,” but He is not “inhumane!”

Strangely, instead of accepting this precious truth with alacrity and  joy–being vastly relieved that these hundreds of millions of hapless human  beings who have known only a lifetime of sickness, squalor and disease are NOT going immediately into the torments of hell, cynical evangelicals here and there  scoff and sneer at this precious truth of God, and refuse to accept it! They shall bear the consequences of their own stiff-necked, hard heartedness.

The vast majority of all humankind represent the “rest of the dead”  spoken of in Revelation 20 and verse 5.

Notice that they “lived not again until the thousand years were  finished.”

Later, in this same vision, John said he saw “. . . a great white throne, and  him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away [a  metaphorical statement] and there was found no place for them.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was open, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their  works” (Revelation 20:11, 12).

Now, WHAT is the standard by which God judges us? What code, what set of  laws, what standards of living, what mores, what pattern of life has God set down by which He judges us?

Jesus said, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into  the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in  heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus said, plainly, “Man shall not live by bread alone,  but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

Jesus said, “Thy word is TRUTH”! (John 17:17). So what is the set of  regulations or standards God will use to judge His church?

Why, the BIBLE!

The word “Bible” is the English version of the Greek word biblos. Biblos in the Greek is a plural word which literally means “BOOKS.”  Transliterated, the expression “Holy Bible” should read “Holy BOOKS.” The books of the Bible, containing the laws, statutes, judgments; the historical and prophetical books; the gospels of Jesus Christ; the epistles of the apostles–the whole Bible–is  being used, daily, to JUDGE God’s church, and each of us individually!

Remember, God says, “For I am the Eternal, I CHANGE NOT’! (Malachi 3:6) and tells us that “Jesus Christ [is] THE SAME yesterday, and today, and forever”  (Hebrews 13:8).

Will God use some different standard to JUDGE this great host of  multiple MILLIONS of human beings in the great white throne judgment–the second  resurrection?

No! He does not change–He remains the same. Therefore, the virtually  innumerable dead who will come up “when the thousand years are finished” will be JUDGED out of the same “books” (biblos–meaning the BIBLE) that God has used, and  is using, to JUDGE His church today!

It is obvious then, that a period of time, after the millennium, will extend for 100 years (Isaiah 65:20). These hundreds of millions of human beings will be completely unaware of the passage of time! So far as their minds and memories are concerned, the difference between the moment their consciousness ceased at the moment of their deaths and the time of their resurrection is less than the batting of an eyelash; the “twinkling of an eye.”

They will be totally unaware of the lapse of ANY time! Remember, “The dead  know not anything”!

But is the rich man in our parable included among this group?

No, of course not!

Remember, at the time setting of the rich man’s resurrection he “. . . lift  up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:23).

The rich man is obviously facing imminent death by FIRE!

The Third Resurrection

Believe it or not, your Bible absolutely proves there are THREE  resurrections! If you have not heard my sermon tapes which thoroughly expound this little-known truth, call or write for them immediately. They are entitled “Resurrection I and II.”

Think about it. The FIRST resurrection (God says, “Blessed and holy is he  that hath part in the first resurrection” –Revelation 20:6) takes place precisely at the instant of Christ’s second coming!

The “rest of the dead” who “lived not again until the thousand years were finished” come up in the great, general resurrection, spoken of as “the great white throne judgment” in the Bible.

But there is one category of the DEAD we have omitted!

Who are these? Notice this prophecy.

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his  prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters  of the earth [notice, there are still human, physical NATIONS on this earth, at some indeterminate time after the millennium!], Gog and Magog [all Bible  commentators unanimously agree this is a spiritual term, obviously implying the incorrigibly wicked] to gather them together to BATTLE: the number of whom is as  the sand of sea.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, encompassed the camp of the  saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them [they are destroyed by FIRE].

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and  brimstone, where the beast and false prophet [WERE CAST] and shall be tormented  day and night forever and ever”! (Revelation 20:7-10). The word “are” is italicized, indicating that the translators supplied it.

But the Beast and the False Prophet WERE CAST into Gehenna fire immediately after the second coming of Christ, over 1,100 years BEFORE this picture of the incorrigible being destroyed.

This horrifying and great event, obviously placed at some time AFTER the expiration of the thousand years, is brought about for an obvious reason.

God will finally interrupt human reproduction!

Throughout the millennium, as many scriptures describe, human, physical nations will be living in a virtual UTOPIA; marrying, raising families, enjoying  the miraculous and wondrous fruits and benefits of the very Kingdom of God–the GOVERNMENT OF GOD–which will rule over this entire earth! But during the final  judgment a 100-year life span will be allotted (Isaiah 65:20).

Ironically, human beings can become accustomed to anything.

A few generations ago, our great-grandparents would have been SHOCKED, petrified, if an F-15 jet fighter had suddenly come roaring overhead, to bank  steeply, turn straight up, and disappear out of sight, after-burners blazing,  going up through 50,000 feet in less than three minutes!

They would have believed it to be a visitor from outer space!

Yet, today, millions of human beings in nations all over the world regularly  hear sonic booms; travel in jet aircraft, watch their television sets as the exploits of American and Soviet astronauts are depicted; witness the blast-off  of spaceship Columbia and the return and landing of the space shuttle. Millions  sat transfixed as they watched the first American lunar landing; watched men walking, cavorting and driving lunar vehicles about on the surface of the  moon. Millions have watched laser-guided “smart bombs” and cruise missiles smashing dead center into targets in Iraq and Afghanistan!

How quickly we human beings adapt. How quickly we take things for granted.

Apparently, at the end of 1,000 years, millions of human beings will have  begun to take for granted the very Kingdom, rule and government of  God! It will not seem at all “strange” to them to be in virtual daily contact  with those of a different dimension, a spirit world, who will be visibly manifest to them!

During the entire thousand years–the millennial reign of Christ–Satan has  been “imprisoned,” barred from access to the human race.

Now, however, God is dealing with the final, end-time generation; the progeny  of all those who have absolutely rebelled, and REFUSED to repent, and to submit  to and accept the government of God.

God allows Satan to once again influence these human beings, and in his final  and last great dramatic act Satan the devil once more attempts to marshal  sufficient human forces, together with his millions of demons, to attempt to  overthrow the very throne and government of God!

The number THREE is used by God to connote finality.

This will be Satan’s THIRD and FINAL attempt to overthrow the government of God! The first was when he attempted to overthrow God prior to the creation of  Adam. The second is depicted in the 12th chapter of Revelation, and takes place  just prior to the great tribulation.

This, the third and final attempt of Satan the devil, ends in much the same  way, except that this time Satan is banished from the earth FOREVER, and  is to become, if the strong hint in the book of Jude is any guide, like a “. . .wandering star[s], to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13).

Now, notice again the last two verses of the 20th chapter of Revelation.

“And death and hell [Greek: the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This  is the SECOND DEATH.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the  lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14, 15).

The macabre description of verse 14 strongly implies that those who are in  the grave, even though they have met the first death (“to all men it is given once to die”) are nevertheless waiting in their graves for a resurrection which  will culminate in their being put to death BY FIRE!

The Bible plainly shows that all men die, ONCE.” This first  human, physical death is nothing more than the logical consequence of the aging  process. It may come at great age simply because vital organs wear out, and a  person dies of “old age.” It may come quietly in one’s sleep. It may be through  infant mortality, sickness or disease, accidents, such as automobile collisions,  airplane crashes, drownings, or even dying through smoke inhalation or in  flames. It may come through warfare–and MILLIONS will yet die in global  wars!

But, no matter how it comes, this first death is NOT the “second death”  spoken of in the Bible; it is NOT the penalty for SIN! It is the normal,  natural, human result of wars, accidents, caprice or old age!

It might be said that some people like my grandmother, who died at age 96,  die in a pleasant fashion. She merely went to  sleep in her chair with her Bible, which she had been  reading, on her lap, and failed to wake up. No death could be more merciful.

Of course, she was a converted member of God’s true church, and is not in the  category we speak of here.

But Almighty God has decreed “the wages of sin is DEATH” (Romans 6:23) and He  plainly shows us that the kind of death; the mode, method or TYPE of death, is  being cast into the “lake of fire”!

The Bible clearly teaches that the final wages of sins unrepented of shall be HELL FIRE!

But it is not a fire which is burning forever; and human beings are not  tortured endlessly; rather, they are burned up in the “lake of fire”! The true “hell fire” of the Bible is THOUSANDS OF DEGREES CENTIGRADE HOTTER than the false “ever burning hell fire” of paganism! The fire of God BURNS UP the wicked, instead of merely singeing them, torturing them!

Now, read Peter’s description of this horrifying occurrence.

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with  fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. what manner of persons  ought ye to be in all holy conduct and godliness,

“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the  heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with  fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:10-12).

The incorrigibly wicked will be resurrected in a final, THIRD  resurrection–which is a resurrection to DEATH! The rich man in the parable of  Luke 16 is spoken of as being in the GRAVE (verse 23), where he finally “lift[s]  up his eyes, being in TORMENTS . . .” (verse 23). A little later he begs, “. . . Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my  tongue; for I am TORMENTED in [by–Greek] this flame”! (verse 24).

What? Think about it! If he is already in a flame; completely surrounded by and engulfed by seething fires, would he be carrying on a conversation? Instantly his hair, eyebrows and eyelashes would have dissolved; his skin would  begin blistering, and he would have only a fraction of a second to emit a  bloodcurdling SCREAM!

No, this conversation is not coming from a man who is completely engulfed in  flame! What, then, is TORMENTING the rich man?

Why, what he SEES COMING TOWARD HIM, AND THE CONTRAST OF WHAT HE SEES LAZARUS ENJOYING! Notice: It says he “lift up his EYES. . .” even as Jesus warned the Pharisees, “You shall SEE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom, and you yourselves cast out”!

Shocked realization comes to the rich man’s mind! According to the parable, he instantly recognizes Lazarus and Abraham. He sees them as if in a glorious state, perhaps even engaged in partaking of a sumptuous banquet, not unlike the  hundreds of banquets the rich man enjoyed during his life, all the while  refusing even the leavings of his table for Lazarus!

Instantly, he realizes a wall of flame is coming toward him, threatening to engulf him! Frightened nearly out of his wits, his mouth becomes completely DRY!  His tongue virtually cleaves to the roof of his mouth, and he cannot even  moisten his lips! In mental anguish and paralyzing fright, he calls out for  Lazarus to at LEAST “dip the tip of his finger in water” and COOL HIS  TONGUE!

If he were in the flames, he would call for a bucket brigade; for BARRELS, thousands of GALLONS of water, for several fire companies, dozens of hoses, or a thunderous cloudburst of rain!

His anguish is, at the very instant of his awareness, MENTAL anguish!

Now, complete the parable, bearing in mind all you have learned. After the  statement from Abraham reminding the rich man that his brief lifetime brought  him all the good things while he looked on Lazarus’ suffering, Abraham says, “And beside all this, between us and you there is a GREAT GULF FIXED so that  they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that  would come from thence”! (verse 26). The rich man is shockingly made aware that  it is everlastingly TOO LATE! He had already committed, by hundreds of acts of  omission; by a continuous attitude of cruelty and hardness of heart, the unpardonable sin!

Resigned, at last, to his fate, he begs Abraham to send someone to his  father’s house, to warn his five brothers–“. . . lest they also come into this  place of torment” (verse 28).

Abraham then says, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear  them”!

Amazing. Here, even in a New Testament parable of Jesus Christ, Christ  characterizes Abraham as saying, in the future, to the rich man that there is  sufficient knowledge and information in the OLD TESTAMENT to understand the plan  of salvation! He strongly insists that anyone who will truly listen to “Moses  and the prophets” can come into possession of saving knowledge!

Notice what the rich man then acknowledges. He says, “. . . Nay, father  Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent” (verse  30).

The rich man now realizes that Abraham has been DEAD. He realizes he, the  rich man, has also been dead for an indeterminate number of years. Suddenly, he is aware that he has been completely OBLIVIOUS to the passage of time; in his  own mind, his brethren, living in his father’s house, are still there.

In his vision of the Kingdom of God, he hears Abraham finally say, “. . . If  they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, THOUGH ONE  ROSE FROM THE DEAD”! (verse 31).

What a shocking truth!

Do you know what this final line of the parable obviously implies?

It implies the shocking TRUTH that this world will NOT take warning from, nor heed the invitation of, JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH!

For Jesus Christ of Nazareth DID, literally RISE FROM THE DEAD!

He commissioned His apostles, sent His Holy Spirit and formed them into the nucleus of His church.

He delivered to that church the great commission to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God (the coming ruling GOVERNMENT of God) as a WARNING, and as a witness against the nations!

It is actually TRUE, then, that, even though “one from the dead” witnesses to  hard-hearted human beings, they WILL NOT hear! Millions of deceived, professing nominal “Christians” THINK they are saved! Yet, those same millions believe “Moses and the Prophets,” in other words, the OLD TESTAMENT, is DONE AWAY! They do NOT BELIEVE “Moses and the Prophets,” NOR do they believe Jesus Christ Himself!

Now you know the real TRUTH about the parable of “Lazarus and the rich  man!”

Remember, the Word of God stands or  falls on any one of its parts. The many plain, easy to understand scriptures and  direct quotations from Jesus Christ concerning the state of the dead, the  resurrections, the judgment, the second coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God  cannot be torn out of the Bible by those who would seek to use a comparatively  vague, ambiguous and somewhat puzzling PARABLE to teach the opposite!

Ignoring the hard-hitting lesson of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man,  countless professing Christians have seized upon this vague parable, twisted it  and distorted it out of all sense and meaning, and tried to use it to perpetuate  the false doctrines of the immortality of the soul, an ever-burning hell and the  myth that Christians go immediately to heaven when they die!

The sin of the rich man is a sin commonly shared by millions today! Without pity, without compassion and genuine empathy for their fellow man, they observe  other human beings about them who are sick, diseased, injured or in poverty, and  go their own way, lavishing every good thing on themselves, and ignoring those  in desperate need!

Now, as a special study help, here is some important information from Dr. Bullinger’s “Companion Bible” which demonstrates the truth about the Greek words translated “hell” in the King James Bible.

THE SYNONYMOUS WORDS FOR “HELL,” ETC.

APPENDIX 131, REPRINTED FROM BULLINGER’S  “COMPANION BIBLE”

“Hell” is the English rendering of two different Greek words in the N.T

The English word is from the Anglo-Saxon hel, Genitive Case helle = a hidden  place, from the Anglo-Saxon helan = to hide.

It is in the N.T. used as the translation of two Greek words:

1. Gehenna.– Gr. geenna. This is the transliteration of the Heb. Gai’  Hinnom, i.e. the Valley of Hinnom or “the Valley” of [the sons of] Hinnom, where  were the fires through which children were passed in the worship of Moloch.

In the O.T Tophet was the Heb. word used, because it was a place in this valley.

In our Lord’s day the idolatry had ceased, but the fires were still  continually burning there for the destruction of the refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, geenna was used for the fires of destruction associated with the judgment of God. Sometimes, “geenna of fire.”  See 2 Kings 23.10. Isa. 30. 33. Jer. 7. 31,  32; 19. 11-14.

Geenna occurs 12 times, and is always rendered “hell,” viz. Matt. 5. 22, 29,  30; 10. 28; 18. 9; 23. 15, 33. Mark 9. 43,45,47. Luke 12. 5. Jas. 3. 6.

133. Hades.– Gr. hades. from a (privative) and idein, to see (Ap. 133. I.  i); used by the Greeks for the unseen world.

The meaning which the Greeks put upon it does not concern us; nor have we  anything to do with the imaginations of the heathen, or the traditions of Jews  or Romanists, or the teachings of demons or evil spirits, or of any who still  cling to them.

The Holy Spirit has used it as one of the “words pertaining to the earth,” and in so doing has “purified” it, “as silver tried in furnace” (see notes on  Ps. 12.6). From this we learn that His own words “are pure,” but words belonging  to this earth have to be “purified.”

The Old Testament is the fountainhead of the Hebrew language. It has no literature behind it. But the case is entirely different with the Greek  language. The Hebrew Sheol is a word Divine in its origin and usage. The Greek Hades is human in its origin and comes down to us laden with centuries of  development, in which it has acquired new senses, meanings, and usages.

Seeing that the Holy Spirit has used it in Acts 2. 27, 31 as His own  equivalent of Sheol in Psalm 16. 10, He has settled, once for all, the sense in which we are to understand it. The meaning He has given to Sheol in Ps. 16. 10  is the one meaning we are to give it wherever it occurs in the N.T, whether we transliterate it or translate it. We have no liberty to do otherwise, and must  discard everything outside the Word of God.

The word occurs eleven times (Matt. 11. 23; 16. 18, Luke 10. 15; 16. 23. Acts  2. 27,31. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Rev. 1. 18; 6. 8; 20. 13, 14); and is rendered “hell” in every passage except one, where it is rendered “grave” (1 Cor. 15. 55, marg. “hell”).

In the R.V. the word is always transliterated Hades, except in 1 Cor. 15.  55 (where “death” is substituted because of the reading, in all the texts, of thanate for hade), and in the American R.V. also.

As Hades is the Divine Scriptural equivalent of Sheol, further light may be gained from Ap. 35, and a reference to the 65 passages there given. It may be  well to note that while Hades is rendered “hell” in the N.T. (except once,  where the rendering “the grave” could not be avoided), Sheol, its Hebrew  equivalent, occurs 65 times, and is rendered “the grave” 31 times (or 54  percent); “hell” 31 times (4 times with margin “the grave,” reducing it to 41.5 percent); and “pit” only 3 times (or 4.5 percent).

“The grave,” therefore, is obviously the best rendering, meaning the state of  death (Germ. sterbend, for which we have no English equivalent); not the act of  dying, as an examination of all the occurrences of both words will show.

1. The rendering “pit” so evidently means “the grave” that it may at once be  substituted for it (Num. 16. 30, 33. Job 17. 16).
2. The rendering “the grave” (not “a grave,” which is Hebrew keber; or bor) exactly expresses the meaning of both Sheol and Hades. For, as to direction, it  is always down: as to place, it is in the earth: as to relation, it is always in contrast with the state of the living (Deut. 32. 22-25 and 1 Sam. 2. 6-8); as to  association, it is connected with mourning (Gen. 37. 34, 35), sorrow (Gen. 42.  38. 2 Sam. 22. 6. Ps. 18. 5; 116. 3), fright and terror (Num. 16. 27, 34),  mourning (Isa. 38. 3,10, 17, 18), silence (Ps. 6. 5; 31. 17. Ecc. 9. 10), no  knowledge (Ecc. 9. 5,6, 10), punishment (Num. 16. 29, 34. 1 Kings 2. 6, 9. Job  24. 19. Ps. 9. 17 (R.V. = re-turned)), corruption (Ps. 16. 10. Acts 2. 27, 31);  as to duration, resurrection is the only exit from it (Ps. 16. 11. Acts 2. 27,  31; 13. 33-37. 1 Cor. 15. 55. Rev. 1. 18; 20. 5, 13, 14).

III. Tartaroo (occurs only in 2 Pet. 2. 4) = to thrust down to Tartarus,  Tartarus being a Greek word, not used elsewhere, or at all in the Sept. Homer  describes it as subterranean (cp. Deut. 32. 22, which may refer to this). The  Homeric Tartarus is the prison of the Titans, or giants (cp. Heb. Rephaim, Apt.  25), who rebelled against Zeus.”

Now you know the TRUTH about “Lazarus and the Rich Man.” And now you know why it is that, after these 45 and more years, no one has ever been able to claim that $10,000 certified cashier’s check! It is because the words “immortal soul,” or “your immortal soul” are nowhere in the Bible!

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

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What you are about to read is ASTONISHING, yet the most COMFORTING information you could ever want. Believe it or not, the expressions “immortality of the soul,” or, “immortal soul,” or “souls go to heaven when we die” ARE NOT FOUND in the Bible! What IS plainly stated in your Bible is the real TRUTH about the state of the dead, and about a RESURRECTION from the dead, for BOTH the “just and the unjust”! Believe it or not, there are THREE resurrections revealed in the Bible! Surprising, yet true! Be sure to read carefully, and look up and read for yourself every scripture quoted in your own Bible!

There is no more important question than that posed by the headline above. There can be no more important answer! To KNOW what happens at death, and to KNOW what happens next, has eluded mankind for centuries. From ancient philosophers to modern-day graduates from religious seminaries there is only confusion.

Millions believe in the “transmigration of souls,” assuming a living “soul” goes on to some other state. Millions believe in “reincarnation”; that they have had a previous life, and will go on to yet another life in some different form. Millions believe the Catholic or Protestant version of the “immortality of the soul”; that one either goes to heaven or to hell, or, as the Catholics believe, to “purgatory” at death.

But the Bible teaches a literal RESURRECTION of a dead BODY! Nowhere does your Bible teach you that you possess an “immortal soul.”

The Truth About The Soul

The original Hebrew word for our English word “soul” is nephesh. It first appears in Genesis 1:21: “And God [Elohim: plural, meaning more than one] created great whales [sea creatures], and every living CREATURE [nephesh=”soul”] that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind…”

The same Hebrew word is used to describe lower life forms, such as bottom-dwelling sea creatures; to describe all kinds of animals, from oxen to dogs, and to describe many aspects of living things. For example, the identical word which is elsewhere translated “soul” is used in your Bible four times of lower animals before it is ever used to refer to man. Notice a few of the many different usages of the Hebrew word nephesh found in the Bible: “Creature” (Genesis 1:21, 24; 2:19; 9:10, 12; Leviticus 11:46 [twice]). “thing” (Leviticus 11:10; Ezek. 47:9). “life” (Genesis 1:20, 30). “The life” (Genesis 9:4; Deuteronomy 12:23, 23). “beast” (Leviticus 24:18 [three times]), and is used dozens of times elsewhere to connote animals of all kinds, and is rendered “breath” in Job 41:21.

This elementary Hebrew word is found in many places in the Bible, such as Numbers 15:27-30, which says, “And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering.

“And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.

“Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.

“But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” Obviously, there is not the remotest implication here that the word Nephesh, which is rendered “soul” in the English language, means anything other than a PERSON, or an individual. The phrase would be more understandable if it had read, “…the priest shall make an atonement for the person who sins ignorantly…”

The same Hebrew word, Nephesh, is translated “person” (Genesis 14:21; 36:6; Exodus 16:6; Lev. 27:2; Numbers 31:40; Deuteronomy 10:22; Jeremiah 43:6; 52:29, 30, and Ezekiel 16:5, and 27:13.

Nephesh is translated as “persons” (Numbers 31:35), “any” (meaning anyone; any person), (Deuteronomy 24:7), “man” (2 Kings 12:4), “men” (1 Chronicles 5:21), and “he” (Psalms 105:18).

Thus, the IDENTICAL word in Hebrew which is the word rendered “soul” in the Old Testament, is used in many, many different ways to connote human or animal LIFE; life which is sustained by food, air and water; life which can cease, can perish, die, be destroyed. Nephesh is translated as “man, any, anyone, yourselves, person, themselves, himself, he, herself, and himself.”

NEVER is the word “immortal” attached to Nephesh, or the word rendered in English as “soul.”

For more than 42 years, I have offered a certified cashier’s check to anyone who can find the following phrases or sentences in the King James Bible: “Immortal soul,” “immortality of the soul,” “I have an immortal soul,” “You have an immortal soul,” “Our souls go to heaven when we die,” or “I will see you in heaven.” No one has ever collected that check, for no such phrases are found anywhere in the Bible. But your Bible DOES say that “souls” DIE! Why? How? How can this be? Simply because the word “soul,” as amply proven above, does not mean anything other than physical life; the life of animals or men!

The Bible says, “Behold, all souls [lives; beings; persons] are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE!” (Ezekiel 18:4). The identical phrase is repeated in verse 20: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

Obviously, the thrust of this chapter is that God will require an accounting from each INDIVIDUAL; that no one will either bear the iniquity of another, or come under the righteousness of another; that each individual person shall give account of himself! The point is, that your Bible says SOULS DIE! The word “soul” has absolutely NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER with anything immortal or immaterial!

Now, let’s see the TRUTH about the resurrections prophesied in God’s word.

All your life, you have heard the saying, “You can’t take it with you.” Obviously, as this old saying goes, we leave everything we thought was important; loved ones, home, car, money and jewelry; even collections like bric-a-brac or paintings.

But, believe it or not, even though we eventually return to the ground from which we came, we can take with us our most precious possessions of all! In this encouraging, inspiring booklet, you will find answers to perplexing questions: “What if my spouse was not saved when he died?” “What about my father, who, though not a church-going man, was a good man, honest, and a good husband?” “What about our little girl, who was only two when she died?” “What about our son who was killed in Vietnam? He wasn’t religious, but he was a good boy. Is he in hell? What happened to him when he died?”

“There is nothing surer than death and taxes,” they say. We’ve all heard it. But, since the Bible speaks plainly about a resurrection of the body from the grave, do we take anything with us besides our best dress or suit to the grave? Do we bring anything back with us in the resurrection? Will we recognize our loved ones? If so, will we have our memories intact? And what about the bad memories? What about character, integrity, and knowledge?

When Job learned of the tragedies that had destroyed his family, his herds, and his home, he said: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Eternal gave, and the Eternal hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Eternal” (Job 1:21).

Like families of whom we hear in the news who have lost everything to hurricane, fire, flood, mudslide, or tornado, Job was devastated. His children were dead. His cattle were dead. His home was destroyed.

Faced with this monumental tragedy, he could only contemplate the somber fact that all physical and material things are left behind when we die. He had nothing left. But then, he couldn’t take it with him when it was his turn to be buried.

We’ve all heard it. We have all said it at one time or another. “You can’t take it with you.”

Solomon knew that merely piling up material goods; hoarding money was wrong. He said: “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that labored for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:13-16).

The word wind in the book of Ecclesiastes is nearly always rendered “vanity.” It is a book about vanity; about empty, useless agendas; about false hopes, wrong goals, and a “pursuit after wind.” Solomon, too, knew we take nothing material with us to the grave.

Anciently, pagan kings and pharaohs were unwilling to believe these biblical philosophies. They not only thought they could take everything with them into the next life, they struggled all their lives, making life insufferable for thousands around them, to amass a gigantic fortune to accompany them in death, and, presumably, to provide them comforts in their expected life beyond the grave.

The largest monuments on earth are mute testimony to the attempt by the rulers of Egypt to “take it with them” when they died. The pyramids are tombs. With carefully concealed entryways, and mazes of passages, and with myths, lies, and curses, the pharaohs hoped to thwart would-be grave robbers.

Of course, they failed.

Today, like the touring display of King Tutakamen’s golden treasures, their former wealth either ended up in national museums or were sold in bits and pieces on the black market. Their mummified bodies are, like their fabulous wealth, on display to the public.

In ancient China, rulers were sometimes buried in huge crypts, accompanied by dozens of wooden carved warriors on wooden horses, with gold, silver, jewelry, silks, arms, and exquisite works of art alongside them. Sometimes, loyal servants, wives, and bodyguards were either required to commit suicide or were put to death to accompany their ruler into the underworld. Not only did they think they could take material wealth with them, they thought they could take their friends, guards, and family.

But people in the modern Christian-professing world know better, so they are buried in their best (or favorite) suit, or dress. No wallet. No money, no personal possessions. For many, it is the only time they will ever ride in a limousine, and a very rare occasion, indeed, to wear their best suit and tie.

Every Human Dies, But Will be Resurrected

The Bible insists there is coming a time when God will raise the dead. When the dead are raised, what will they be like? Will they appear as they did in life?

God says He will raise all of the dead, no matter into which category, spiritually, they may have belonged.

Your Bible says: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). As God told Adam: “Dust thou art, and unto dust [soil, the elements of this physical earth; the ground, from which we came] shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). God had warned Adam that in the day he rebelled against God’s commandment, he would surely incur the punishment for sin, which is death.

Notice: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Here are two opposites. Death, and eternal life. Man has no inherent eternal life. We are mortal, physical, temporal. God says: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them [their memory, their consciousness] is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

The opposite of death is eternal life.

Your Bible says eternal life is only available “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We do not have a so-called “immortal soul” dwelling within us from conception, or birth.

Eternal life is only possible by the process of spiritual salvation; through repentance of sin, baptism, and the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit, which begets us as His children, called “new creatures in Christ.”

We do not have eternal life by virtue of human birth. We are not immortal. Paul wrote: “Thou shalt keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ … who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach..,” (1 Timothy 6:14-16).

Yet, all your life, you have been taught the myth that man has an immortal soul from birth. You have been taught that the unsaved immediately go to an “ever-burning hellfire,” there to shriek, scream, and writhe in unimaginable agony of fire day after day, month after month, year after year—thousands of lifetimes with never a respite!

All this, so goes the myth, simply because they were born in China, or India, or Bangladesh, or Pakistan, and never heard the name of Jesus Christ!

Is this true? Will God torture for countless billions of years human beings who never had a chance to be saved?

No, a loving God does not torture human beings who never had a chance for salvation. The billions who have lived and died without having heard the name of Jesus Christ are not shrieking in hell. God is love, not hate. He is merciful, not vindictive. He desires to save, not destroy.

So remember, every human being who has ever lived, and who has died, or is yet to die, will be RESURRECTED at some point in time. The first death that occurs to all humans is “natural,” because of the human aging process of our short, human life spans. That first death, no matter how it comes, whether in a murder, or tragic accident, or peacefully, under sedation at age 90, is not the “wages of sin.”

Now, let’s understand. Believe it or not, your Bible shows there will ultimately be three different resurrections!

The First Resurrection

Christ said: “Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His 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 [Greek, “judgment”]” (John 5:25-29).

Here, Jesus speaks of two categories of people; those who have done good, and those who have done evil. Two different resurrections, for different purposes. One, a resurrection “of life,” and the other, a resurrection “of judgment.”

The resurrection of life is spoken of in great detail in the New Testament. Notice how Paul puts it: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:19, 20).

The foundational bedrock of the Christian faith is the fact of Christ’s resurrection.

The disciples were, at first, unwilling witnesses. They did not at first believe Jesus had truly been resurrected, that He was alive again! Only after many miraculous occurrences—materializing among them in a closed room, appearing to them along a lonely roadway, appearing to them on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, forcing Thomas to put his hand into the nail and spear wounds—did they finally come to know that “He is risen.”

The fact of Christ’s resurrection was the pivotal centerpiece of the testimony of the disciples. And why not? It was the most astounding, mind-boggling, stupendous event of their lives!

Peter said: “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. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on His throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul [Greek: psuche, meaning “life”] was not left in hell [Greek: hades, meaning “the grave”], neither His flesh did see corruption.

“This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

“For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:29-36).

The apostles of Christ had not “studied,” or “proved” to themselves out of a set of “proof texts” that Christ was alive. They had seen Him. They didn’t merely “believe,” they KNEW. There is a difference.

Because they knew, they preached, powerfully, of the resurrection.

When they were being examined by the rulers, elders, and the scribes because of an astounding healing of a well-known crippled beggar at one of the city gates, Peter spoke up: “Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole: Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12).

Salvation is only through Jesus Christ of Nazareth; only through repentance (Acts 2:38), baptism (Romans 6), and the receiving of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32; 1 Corinthians 12:13). Then, when a person who is saved dies, he awaits the first resurrection from the dead, which takes place at the moment of Christ’s return.

Notice that Jesus spoke only of two categories of people, those who were being saved, and those who had not yet been judged, who were unsaved. But Christ Himself, and the Scriptures, speak of another category of people—those who have had an opportunity for salvation, and have consciously rejected it. They are called the “incorrigibly wicked,” and are characterized by the rich man of Luke 16, in the parable about Lazarus and the rich man.

Notice the clear statements of Paul concerning the first resurrection: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order [there is a sequence of events, a chronological order of events concerning the resurrections]: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

Many details are given concerning this first great resurrection of the “dead in Christ.” Jesus said: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars [meteorites] shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds [these are living human beings, Christians who are engaged in accomplishing the work of God on this earth], from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29-31).

Notice a corroborating scripture: “For I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep [dead], that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which also sleep in Jesus [the dead in Christ] will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain [the “elect,” who shall be gathered from all over the world by His angels] unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] 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” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17).

He is coming “with clouds,” and the dead in Christ are to meet Him “in the air.” Look up air in any encyclopedia. You will find it is the material mantle of gaseous substances, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, ozone, and many other gases which make up our earth’s atmosphere.

By way of comparison, if you have a small desk-sized globe of the world, the transparent lacquer finish on your globe is thicker than the actual mantle of air that surrounds our world.

Jesus is coming back to this earth.

The living saints are not taken to heaven at His coming, nor are the “dead in Christ” taken to heaven at His coming. He is coming again, not awaiting, in heaven, the arrival of souls, or of saints.

Notice: “Behold the Day of the Lord cometh…I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations [see Revelation 19:11-21], as when He fought in the day of battle: And His feet shall stand IN THAT DAY upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one” (Zechariah 14:1-9).

Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth to rule it with a rod of iron (Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 11:4-16; Revelation 2:26, 3:21; Micah 4). When His startled disciples watched Him depart this earth, as He was literally being taken up into the air, and disappearing into the clouds overhead, the very first message to ever come down to this earth after Jesus went to heaven was: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall SO COME IN LIKE MANNER AS YE HAVE SEEN HIM GO into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

He is coming with clouds, into the lower atmosphere of this earth, and will continue His descent until He stands upon the Mount of Olives. Not only are the “dead in Christ” resurrected at the moment of Christ’s return, but the living saints are miraculously changed.

Notice how Paul, in the famous “resurrection chapter” of the Bible, puts it: “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [die] but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump [at the exact moment of Christ’s return], for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

So at the very moment Jesus Christ arrives on this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords, the “dead in Christ” are resurrected, caught up into the clouds, and are transported by Christ’s angels to meet the returning Christ in the air.

At the very same moment, those living saints in whom the Spirit of God dwells will be changed from mortal to immortal; from flesh to spirit; from human to divine, and will likewise be caught up into the air, to meet the descending Christ over the Mount of Olives.

His feet will stand in that very day on the Mount of Olives, a short walk from Jerusalem! With Him will be all the great men and women of the Bible, from Seth to Noah; from Moses to Elijah; from John the Baptist to Paul. Also with Him will be millions of people you and I have never known—people who lived their Christian lives in the valleys of Europe during the Middle Ages; people who were persecuted, perhaps put to death, for their faith in Christ.

Such is the Bible description of the first great resurrection. Now, we knowwho is resurrected when Christ returns. We know the living saints will bechanged in the batting of an eyelash, and that they will not precede the dead in Christ, but that all will be caught up at the same time, the time of the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and the Second Coming of Christ.

But what of the second resurrection of which Christ spoke. What of those who have never had an opportunity for salvation, who have never heard the gospel, never had a chance to either believe it, or reject it?

After all, the vast bulk of the world’s population falls into this category. Christ said there would come a resurrection of “judgment.”

The Second Great Resurrection

Jesus Christ may well have spoken a word in the Aramaic language which would have been translated, “they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” The word in John 5:29 is krisis in the Greek language, and means “a decision for or against; a tribunal, justice, accusation, condemnation, damnation, judgment.”

His statement could easily have included both the “second resurrection” to judgment and the third resurrection to destruction, of which you will shortly read, but primarily indicated the second resurrection, which will be the greatest resurrection of the dead in all history, a resurrection for the purpose of “judgment.”

What is judgment?

First, remember that a judgment is not a sentencing! In a trial, there is the trial phase, or the “judgment” phase, and then, if a person is found guilty, a “sentencing.” Many people confuse the two.

Millions have assumed all their lives that in the “judgment” day, it is as if God, on a great throne, has gathered before Him countless millions of people. As each fearful, apprehensive person approaches His throne, angels are thumbing through “books,” which supposedly contain a terrible record of every dirty, rotten, shameful thing the trembling person has done. A written record is there, proving what a terrible sinner or, in some cases, a good Christian, this person has been. Often as not, as this favored myth goes, God slams a gavel down on His desk, and a huge hole opens up beneath the feet of the unfortunate wretch who has just had all his dirty linen exposed before God and Christ, millions of angels, and the millions of people waiting their turn.

With a terrible shriek, the convicted sinner plunges down to hell! Then, perhaps the next person is told: “You get to go to heaven!”

How many stories are there about “Saint Peter and the pearly gates”? With a resounding “whoosh!” up he goes. But why go to “heaven” when apparently God is right there before him? Obviously, those who concocted this mythological scene forgot a few important details.

But all this is pure myth—superstition mixed with some of grandma’s applesauce.

The judgment of which the Bible speaks takes place over a lifetime, not in a few seconds.

You and I are said to be under judgment right now. Each day we are judged by our innermost thoughts, our actions, and our words.

How are we being judged?

Peter wrote: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God [the church Jesus built]: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17, 18).

We are judged by the words of God’s revelation to mankind, the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblios. It means “books.” Standing by itself, the word Bible connotes nothing holy or sacred. Only when we say “Holy Bible” are we truly referring to the sacred Scriptures. God’s Word is like a sharp, two-edged sword that discerns even the intent and innermost thought of the human heart (Hebrews 4:12). It is God’s Word which judges us.

The word judgment is used many times in God’s Word to connote “fairness” and “equity,” as well as “discernment” between right and wrong. Notice some examples: “Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually” (Hosea 12:6).

The term is used both positively, as in discernment and fairness, and negatively, when men pervert judgment. Amos wrote: “Seek the Eternal, and ye shall live; lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood [a bitter thing], and leave off righteousness in the earth … for I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right … seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Eternal, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate [among the elders; the officials, the courts]: it may be that the Eternal God will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph” (Amos 6-15; excerpts).

Now, when will this greatest resurrection in all of history; the resurrection to judgment, or discernment, or trial, occur?

Notice how John described the glorious first resurrection, and then immediately described the second great general resurrection:

“But the REST OF THE DEAD lived not again until the thousand years were finished…” (Revelation 20:5). As we have seen from many, many scriptures, the first resurrection takes place at the precise instant of the Second Coming of Christ. At that event, the living saints are changed in a “moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and caught up together with the “dead in Christ” who are resurrected to meet the descending Christ in the air.

In that same day, they all descend to the Mount of Olives. Jesus Christ will establish His Kingdom, and rule this world with a rod of iron for one thousand years. Read Revelation 5:10; 2:26; and 3:21.

But the “rest of the dead,” including all the billions of human beings who never so much as heard the name of Jesus Christ, “lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”

As we have read, it is at the end of the millennial reign of Christ and the saints (who are born into the God Family at the first resurrection) when the “rest of the dead” are to come forth from their graves.

These are the unsaved, the countless hundreds of millions and billions of human beings who lived in places like Irkutsk, Afghanistan, Niger, Rwanda, India, China, Japan; who lived from the time before the Flood of Noah until the time of the Battle of Armageddon. They are the Huns, the Magyars, the Celts, the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, and the Toltecs. They are the ancient tribes of Africa, and the Vikings of Norway and Iceland.

Notice the biblical picture: “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great [the masses, peasants and farmers, together with the rich, kings and emperors] stand before God: and the books [Greek: biblios] were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged [remember, being “judged” is not being sentenced!] out of those things which were written in the books [Greek: biblios], according to their works” (Revelation 20:11, 12).

Your God is consistent. He says He does not change (Malachi 3:6). The Bible says: “Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

How is God judging His own people today?

He is judging them according to the Bible, which merely means “books.” It is the “books” of divine writ, the holy Scriptures, which judge us. God tells us we are being judged daily from the pages of His holy Word!

God is not going to judge differently, following the Millennium. He does not change. He is the same.

These countless millions of unsaved, ignorant, oftentimes savage people, who were in the most primitive, darkened state of Satan-inspired idolatry, are going to learn about God; they are going to learn in the same way you are learning, by hearing about, reading, studying, and being taught from the Word of God!

Millions of them lived during a time when human sacrifice to pagan gods was carried out! They are going to be re-educated, brought to a perfect knowledge of God and His purpose for mankind. They will have plenty oftime to learn about God and His way of life.

Notice: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy” (Isaiah 65:17, 18).

Clearly, this scripture tells us that memories of the old world, the sin-sick, crime-ridden, disease-infested, war-torn world in which you and I live today, “shall not be remembered, nor come to mind.” If this is literal, and not merely metaphor, it indicates God will obliterate bad memories.

Though the following scriptures refer to a period of time called the “Great White Throne Judgment,” they give us a pattern God will use concerning the lifespan of humans in the Millennium—the amount of time available for people to learn, and to practice, God’s way of life.

“There shall be no more thence an infant of days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:20).

More on this one-hundred-year period later. For now, notice that God has decreed that after one hundred years, if a person is still unrepentant, still unyielding to God’s laws, still stiff-necked and hardhearted, and living in sin, he will be “accursed,” which means condemned. This truly IS a “sentencing”!

He is judged from God’s Word during a one-hundred-year lifetime. If he or she is still refusing to obey God, to repent and be saved at the end of this time, a sentence is handed down. The sentence is death (Romans 6:23).

Notice it: “For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Eternal of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1).

Jesus said, in explaining the parable of the wheat and the tares to His disciples: “The field is the world [notice, it is not the church!]: the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares [a weed, sometimes called “cheat wheat”] are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 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, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:38-43).

Christ spoke of Gehenna fire. The term comes from a valley just outside the old city of Jerusalem, which served, anciently, as a town dump. Originally owned by the family of “Hinnom,” or “Gehenna,” as some scholars believe, this narrow valley was a place of “perpetual fires.” Today, such practices are extremely rare in modern, developed countries. The stench from constantly smoldering refuse, garbage, and the like is intolerable.

But over two thousand years ago, just such fires continually burned in the piles of refuse, garbage, and discarded material in the valley of Hinnom. Some have proposed that, in the case of convicted criminals who had committed some great crimes and had been adjudged unworthy of decent burial, after being put to death by stoning, their battered bodies would be thrown into the perpetual fires of Hinnom.

Jesus used this noxious place as a type, or an example, of the dreaded “Gehenna fire” which shall destroy the incorrigibly wicked. Read Matthew 13:49, 50.

Jesus used two different words which are translated “hell” into the English language. The most common word is hades in the Greek, and this word has nothing to do whatsoever with fires, or heat, or burning. It means, simply, “the grave.”

Here is the proof. Notice what Jesus said about Capernaum, which had haughtily rejected His teachings; “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell [Greek: hades]: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee” (Matthew 11:23, 24).

Briefly, the word hell in English comes from an old Nordic name for a false, pagan god, deriving from their superstitions about the “underworld of the dead.” It was hel, or behelian. As late as the 1930s many American farmers still spoke of placing their potatoes in “hell” after harvesting. “Hell” merely meant a dark hole in the ground. It is the erroneous word used for the Greek word hades which should have always been translated “the grave.”

But Jesus also spoke of a real “hellfire,” which He called “Gehenna”!

Notice: “And if your right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Gehenna” (Matthew 5:29). Here, I left the untranslated original word Christ used in place. The English-language Bible says “hell.” But Christ’s audience knew immediately what He meant. He referred to the noxious garbage dump outside Jerusalem, with its fires which consumed trash as well as an occasional body of an animal, or a criminal.

As an aside, it is important to note that Christ spoke by way of analogy, or in metaphor, and not literally. How do we know this? Simply by comparing scripture with scripture; by allowing the Word of God to interpret itself, without attempting to put our own meaning into it.

Since our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit,” (Romans 6:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20), and the Bible absolutely forbids disfiguring or maiming our bodies, it is clear Jesus meant something else.

Obviously, He was showing how some human appetites, some desires, some passions, are as difficult to overcome, are such a part of some people, that rejecting them is like “pulling eye teeth,” or gouging out an eye, or cutting off a hand.

It is also obvious that if a kleptomaniac (a compulsive thief) cut off his hand, he could still steal with the other hand; obvious that, if a person committed sins with the eye, he could still commit the same sins with the other eye.

The most important point to be made is that Jesus Christ said those who fail to overcome sin by the power of God, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, will be cast into Gehenna fire, there to be “burnt up,” completely destroyed.

Notice the remainder of the passage you read in Malachi: “And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 4:3). Gehenna fire consumes the bodies of unrepentant sinners, they do not burn forever.

A One Hundred Year Lifespan

Clearly, God shows us through Isaiah’s 65th chapter that He will grant a one-hundred-year lifespan to human beings during the Great White Throne Judgment period, following the Millennium.

There is simply no other way to understand the verses we read. Notice it again: “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days…” (Isaiah 65:20). This reveals a very important and essential truth. Many scriptures show that during the Millennium the human family will continue to marry and bear children. Many scriptures portray the happy, glorious Kingdom of God, in which families and children are present (see Isaiah 11:4-9; Ezekiel 37:24-26; Zechariah 8:5).

However, during this one-hundred-year period, those who are resurrected as infants, and all the little children born during the last months of the Millennium who have not yet matured, will be the last generation of the human family.

From the moment of the beginning of the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11, 12), no more babies are conceived or born.

“There shall be no more thence [there, during this period] an infant of days…” no more one-day-old, or two-week-old babies.

Also, there will be no elderly of mid-seventies, or in their eighties, who die. There will not be an “old man that hath not filled his days,” meaning lived to be one hundred.

Notice the rest of this important scripture: “For the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 65:20).

Obviously, these are two different categories. The child who dies at age one hundred is not classified as a “sinner,” so the logical assumption is that the little infant who began to live at the beginning of this one-hundred-year period of judgment, and who arrives at his one hundredth birthday, simply dies of old age. Then what happens?

One of two possibilities, both completely substantiated in scripture; both already set as precedents by God Himself. One, he is either allowed to die the first physical death (for it is “appointed to men once to die”) and then is instantly resurrected from the dead; or, two, he is changed from flesh to spirit, from human to divine, in an instant, in the “twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52) at the moment of the completion of the one-hundred-year judgment period.

Of course, none of this really concerns you and me, except as a matter of information, a desire to satisfy curiosity about “what happens to other people,” or to our loved ones.

And that curiosity, that concern for loved ones, is what we must now come to understand.

Millions have been left in fear and worry over the fate of beloved family members. They have been deceived by the false teachings of the “immortality of the soul” and the “ever-burning hell,” or by vague, musty old concepts of “purgatory.”

I was once asked by a neighbor of mine, not a member of God’s church, about his father. He described his dad as a very “good and decent” man. His dad had worked all his life for the U.S. Postal Service. He had been a good father, a provider for his family of four. He had been faithful to his wife, and had not been a gambler, or a drunkard. His main passion in life, after his early shift delivering mail, was to simply go to one of his favorite lakes and fish.

“But what happened to him when he died?” my neighbor asked. “I know he was not a Christian. He almost never went to church except when my mother would beg him to on a special occasion. But he didn’t cuss, or drink, or smoke, or anything like that. So, since he wasn’t `saved,’ as they say, but yet he was a `good man,’ did he go to hell?”

Literally millions of puzzled relatives have wondered about such things. And in the answer to these precise questions is some of the very best news you could ever hear! 

To understand, you need to know what your Bible says about the state of the dead.

What is it Like to be Dead?

God says: “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 above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20).

God’s Word says men die in the same fashion as cows, horses, dogs, or sheep. Their condition in death is the same. They both owe their lives to the oxygen in the air. When they die, they both decay, and return to the soil from which they come.

Are the dead conscious in some way?

“For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything,neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them [their memory—their conscious thought] is forgotten” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

David knew this. He knew that man returns to the “dust,” to the elements of the soil, from which we came. He wrote: “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit [Hebrew: sheol, usually translated “hell,” erroneously]? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?” (Psalm 30:9).

Thus, your Bible shows that when humans die, they are no longer conscious. They have no thoughts, no memory, no awareness. The Bible describes death as the deepest kind of sleep—black, stygian oblivion—complete unawareness of the passage of time; no pain, no worry, no memory.

Notice: “While I live I will praise the Eternal: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth [he expires], he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalm 146:2-4).

It is not the clever catch-phrase of some theologian to refer to death as “sleep.”

God’s Word refers to the dead in Christ as those who “sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Notice some other examples: “For this cause [not discerning the Lord’s body in connection with the Lord’s Supper, or Communion] many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30).

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep [die], 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” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

The dead know not anything, your Bible says. They have no memory. They are characterized as being in the most profound sleep, with no conscious thought, no awareness. At the instant of the resurrection, they will once again be thinking, remembering, conscious beings. To them, it will have been as if, from the moment of death to the moment of the resurrection, only a fraction of a second, the twinkling of an eye, had passed!

Millions of them will say: “What happened just then?” Millions will not even know they were dead, for millions have died so suddenly there was no time for thought, or even pain!

If you have any questions at all about whether the dead are conscious, they should have been put to rest by these divinely-revealed truths.

The Human Spirit

Look at what God’s Word says about we human beings, about the human spirit God has given us, which makes us so far superior to animals; which gives us mind, conscience, depth of feeling, and character.

David prayed: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth” (Psalm 31:5).

There are two Hebrew words translated “spirit.” The most commonly used word is ruwach, which means “wind; by resemblance breath, i.e. a sensible [or even violent] exhalation; fig. life, anger, unsubstantiality; by extens. a region of the sky; by resemblance, spirit, but only of a rational being [include its expression and functions]:—air, anger, blast, breath, cool, courage, mind, quarter, side, spiritual, vain, whirlwind.”

David used an entirely different word in his psalm. It is neshamah, pronounced “ne-shawmaw,” and means “a puff, i.e. wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration, intellect, or an animal; blast, breath, inspiration, soul, spirit.”

The first word is most commonly translated “soul,” but is also rendered “spirit” in many places. It refers, usually, to the animal life of man, or the consciousness.

The second word is used more of the intellect, or the innermost psyche, and is correctly rendered, “spirit.”

Notice another example of neshamah, where the word obviously means the innermost consciousness, thought, and intellect of man: “The spirit of man is the candle [light] of the Eternal, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). Here, the word has to do with conscience; with the human character; with deep thought, introspection, meditation, philosophy; with our decision-making ability; accountability.

While man and animal “have all one breath”—that is, the same physical, chemical existence, supported by air, food, and water—they are completely different.

Man has a mind, while animals have brains.

Animals are creatures of instinct, but have no power to know or to wonder about their origin, about who, what, and why they are, and what is their destiny.

Animals have limited ability to reason. Experiments with dolphins, poodles, and chimpanzees have proved this. In one experiment, a dog trapped in a basement was observed to pile boxes atop each other until it had a platform high enough to the small window near the ceiling to escape.

But beyond this very limited ability, animals are creatures of automatically-programmed instinct. They have no creative ability. They cannot speculate, philosophically, the origin of things.

But God has placed a spirit in man—the human spirit. It is this spiritual essence, which is linked to the frontal lobes of the human brain and is conscious only when the brain is conscious, that gives man a mind as opposed to mere animal brain.

A little colt, only minutes after birth, staggers to its wobbly feet and immediately goes directly to the mare’s teats to suckle. Somehow, by mere instinct, and by sight, sound, and smell, the tiny newborn animal knows exactly what to do.

Baby dolphins are born underwater. Immediately, they begin swimming, go to the surface, and take their first breath. Hundreds, no, thousands of examples could be cited from birds, fish, insects, and other animals of how automatically preprogrammed instinct causes them to survive.

Consider a newly-born human baby.

It is completely helpless. It would lie within inches of its mother’s breast and starve to death if it were not cared for by the mother. It is the most helpless of all creatures.

Yet, consider the potential of that tiny human brain. Little by little, as the brain is programmed—as the baby bonds to its mother, father, brothers, and sisters—the baby learns.

Animals are capable only of squeaks, yells, barks, whinnys, bawling, calls, and grunts. While many animals, like elk or whales, are very vocal and utilize a wide range of sounds to communicate simple thoughts to each other, such as danger or feeding, the human mind is capable of learning language, with thousands of words, to express thought.

Any in-depth study into the human brain is a journey through stupendous, awesome, mind-boggling data; an introduction to the most incredibly complex organism known to mankind. How we think, reason, deduce, ponder, imagine, and create is almost incomprehensible.

You can know of nothing that is superior to your own mind, unless you are willing to admit other minds are better educated than yours, that they have stored more knowledge and experience.

But the human mind is the most incredibly complex thing of which we can come to know by the five physical senses. Could our marvelous minds have come into being by lesser intelligence?

Your own intellect demands the answer “No!” Only a vastly superior intelligence could have thought out, designed, and then created the human mind and spirit. Now, think with that marvelous mind God gave you.

It required two parents to produce you.

Your father’s life, in the form of a microscopic spermatozoon, united with your mother’s life, in the form of a fertile egg. At the instant of conception, you and I were much, much smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Yet, in that tiniest of beginnings was preprogrammed, in the DNA (for “deoxyribonucleic acid”), the genetic code which determined your sex, general height, weight, and shape; the color of your hair and eyes, color and texture of your skin, shape of your skull, and length of your fingers and toes—the characteristics which would make you “you” during your life. You would inherit, through this miraculous, microscopic beginning, qualities, proclivities, talents, and abilities from your family, including whether or not you are musical or tone deaf, whether you tend to be artistic or mechanical, and so on.

While it has been demonstrated that environment is a powerful shaper of character, the genetic code from your two parents is the most powerful of the two,

We take human life for granted. Yet, when we study into the incredible reproductive capacity of humans—how, we were conceived, formed in the womb, and born—we are left with a sense of awe and wonder.

David said to God: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written [here, knowing nothing about DNA, David is in awe of the developing human fetus], which in continuance were fashioned when there were as yet none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:14-17).

David was no doubt considering all the functions of the human body, contemplating the human eye, the ear, the sense of smell and touch, and the marvelous way in which all his vital organs contributed to his daily experience of living.

He no doubt meditated about the skeletal framework of our bodies, the musculature, with all the tendons, ligaments, and sinew connecting muscle to muscle and muscle to bone. He thought on the marvelous coordination of limb, hands, feet, and torso; how incredible it had been when he had become so proficient with a sling so as to hurl a rounded stone squarely into the forehead of the giant Goliath—the only unprotected place on His body. He no doubt thought of the awesome athletic feats of men in his army, of all the marvels of the human body.

When he said, “which in continuance were fashioned when there were as yet none of them,” he no doubt was pondering the blood flow from mother to fetus; how it could be that, from a microscopic beginning, bone, tissue, muscle, the eye, the ear, the hands, and the feet could form.

David was in awe of God as Creator. He recognized the miracle that the human body presents to our view; the miracle of human life and reproduction.

It is only through the union between spirit and brain that such introspective thoughts are possible! Animals cannot contemplate their origins. Animals do not marvel at their ability to see, or hear. They cannot praise their Maker.

The human spirit is present from the instant of conception!

When did the Logos (John 1:1), who was the “Word,” become the tiny, microscopic zygote which was to become Jesus Christ? At the instant the Holy Spirit engendered that very Life that was God within the womb of Mary!

Jesus Christ did not “become Christ” at the moment of birth, but nine long months before when He was conceived by the power of God’s Holy Spirit!

Jeremiah was known of God before His birth! Other examples are contained in Scripture, including Cyrus, the Persian monarch, who was named four hundred years before he was born, which absolutely prove that the obscene process of abortion is murder of a human life! John the Baptist was conceived by a miraculous intervention from God; was foreordained to His mission prior to his birth! To imagine that aborting John or Jesus would merely have been a “choice” of a young woman is so unthinkably obscene as to defy human rationality.

There was never a moment—not a single second—when the Holy Spirit was not present with Jesus Christ.

Notice how Paul speaks of the human spirit and its connection with the Holy Spirit: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear: but ye have received the spirit of adoption [Greek: “sonship,” meaning more than legal adoption, but meaning actually being the literal offspring], whereby we cry, Abba, [Hebrew word for “Father”], Father. The Spirit itself [God’s Holy Spirit] beareth witness with our spirit [our human spirit], that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Romans 8:15-17).

These are vitally important truths—profound scriptures.

Let’s understand what God’s Word is telling us.

Why God is the “Father” of Christians

It was the fertile egg of our mothers and the living spermatozoon of our fathers that “bore witness,” once united together, that we were to become the children of our parents!

Here, God shows us that it is the living human spirit connected to our physical brain, together with the living, Holy Spirit of God, our Father, that proves we are GOD’S CHILDREN! 

The Father is called “the Father” because He begets children. He is reproducing after His own kind!

Did you notice that brief sentence? Did you think about it?

Creation was not completed in the Garden of Eden, it was only begun.

God, who is Elohim reveals Himself to us through Jesus Christ as the Father of us all!

As a marvelous part of the pattern of life itself, in all of its forms, God ordained that life begets life, and that life reproduces life of the same kind!

All life comes from previously living creatures of the same kind. Your human, physical life was only possible because two living, human lives came together in conception. You did not come from one previous life of the same kind, but two.

In the same fashion, our heavenly Father begets children through the power of His Spirit, linking His Spirit with our living human spirit, so that a new spirit being is begotten!

This new “creature” is REAL. It is alive. It bears the characteristics of its Father, who is God, and its human life, which is the human spirit inextricably linked to our physical brain.

God does not place His Spirit in mere carnal flesh.

God does not place His Spirit in our kneecaps, or our elbows, or our feet or hands. He places His Spirit in direct union with our human spirit, so that spirit life with Spirit life becomes a new, never-before spirit life!

Scientists know the human brain is divided into various segments, and that each performs different functions. We are all familiar with the fact that a blow on the head may produce memory loss, yet fail to impair any of the other functions of the brain.

They know that the process of thought—the ability of our minds to ponder, philosophize, imagine, wonder, contemplate, create, and decide—is in the frontal lobes, behind our eyes and forehead.

It is in this portion of our brain that the character resides; the ability to feel remorse, sadness, happiness, joy, shame, chagrin, anger, jealousy, lust, greed; the ability to repent, and feel sorrow over wrongdoing; the ability to think, plan, and reason. Our personality, aside from our ability to see, hear, walk, and talk, is controlled by these frontal lobes.

God’s Holy Spirit does not affect our memory, or improve our athletic ability, or improve our hearing or eyesight. It unites with our human spirit to change our character, our very deepest and innermost psyche, our personality!

You and I did not get here by only one life, which begat non-living tissue! No, it required two lives, united together, to produce our one physical life. So it is with God’s process of begetting children.

Now, notice the truth about this “new creature” which is begotten within the human mind. Paul wrote: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts [the “heart” spoken of in the Bible always means the character; the ability of our minds to think, reason, and to feel remorse], to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6, 7).

What is your most precious possession?

We deeply pity those who lost one, or two, or even all four limbs through an accident or in war. It is important we understand this. One may say, “I lost my arm.” It was my arm; it belonged to me. It was part of my body, but it was not me. I am still here. I did not think, plan, reason, feel, or repent with my arm.

A person may say, “I lost both my legs in Vietnam.” Perhaps he now moves about on prosthetic legs, and with canes, or crutches. But he is still here!

Carried to perhaps an ultimate, ridiculous conclusion, the human body is capable of losing all four limbs, several vital organs, eyesight and hearing, capable of being reduced to a piteous trunk of a body, yet the individual is still alive; the personality is intact; the conscious, thinking person is still there.

Paul said we have “this TREASURE,” this priceless, precious, wondrous gift of eternal life, of salvation in “earthen vessels.” We, our human bodies and minds, are the “earthen vessels.” We are like clay pots, which contain something incalculably precious.

Paul continued: “For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man [the new creature in Christ; a newly-begotten spirit being] is renewed day by day. For our light affliction [tests and trials of life], which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. For while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, excerpted).

The New Creature in Christ Dwells in a Temporary Body

Paul continued: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernaclewere dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Notice the language. It is “our earthly house,” but it is not “us.” “We” dwell in this “earthly house,” meaning our fragile, temporal human bodies. While our bodies are very much a part of us, they are not “us.” We dwell inside our bodies, in the frontal lobes of our brains. The new creature in Christ is, in a sense, living in the host body, our physical “earthly house,” our temporary, physical, chemical existence.

But the “house not made with hands” is a new, spiritual body, created of God, to be inherited at the resurrection, or at the time of the instantaneous change (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

Notice what God says about this new body: “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up?’ and `With what body do they come?” (1 Corinthians 15:35). Here, Paul anticipates many of our questions: “What if someone is buried at sea and eaten of sharks? What about cremation? What if someone is burnt up in a fire? What about those who are disintegrated in explosions or airplane crashes?”

God answers: “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened [renewed to life], except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:36-38).

Consider a single kernel of corn. When planted in the soil, the tiny germ that contains the microscopic design of the corn plant is fertilized by the decaying endosperm, which is made up of soft starch and hard starch. The germ begins to sprout, feeding on the starchy endosperm. A root appears, then more. Then, a sprout pushes aside the soil, and reaches for the sun. Eventually, the tiny germ grows into a stalk, perhaps as much as eight feet tall, producing two, three, four or more ears of corn. Each ear may have many hundreds of corn kernels.

The single kernel, planted in the soil, has now produced thousands of new kernels. These are new wealth. They have never existed before, and will never exist again.

In the cycle of life in plants, as in humans, each new living thing is new wealth from the soil; a first time ever, never to be again, living entity.

As the glorious eight-foot tall cornstalk, with perhaps four big yellow ears of corn containing hundreds of kernels each bears little resemblance to the tiny germ in a dying corn kernel, so it is that our decaying (or burnt, or disintegrated) human bodies will be incomparable to the glorious spiritual body which God will give us.

Notice: “All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one [the glory of the stars and planets], and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory [in brightness, size, and beauty]. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:35-42).

Obviously, in the Kingdom of God, there will be spiritual beings of different glory, different splendor, brightness, and different responsibility.

This fits in exactly with Jesus’ parables of the talents and pounds, where each person is given reward according to His own accomplishments. One is given rulership over ten cities, another over five (Luke 19:11-27). See also 1 Corinthians 3:9-15, where a clear distinction is made between salvation, as God’s free, loving gift, and “work,” which results in various degrees of reward.

This helps us understand the difference between reward, which has to do with the degree of overcoming according to our natural individual abilities and God’s help through the Holy Spirit, and salvation, which is the loving free gift of God, and has nothing to do with reward.

Reward is “according to their works,” while salvation is free, the gift of God. As the stars differ, so will newly-born spirit beings differ in splendor and glory, and in degrees of responsibility, in God’s Kingdom.

God clearly shows that David will be king over all Israel, while each of the twelve apostles (Matthias replacing Judas) will be lesser kings, under David, but judging the twelve tribes.

Paul continues: “It [the human earthen vessel, or fleshly body] is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

There is simply no question about the dogmatic, plain, obvious assertion of fact in these scriptures! There is a natural body; that is you and I, our physical bodies in this life. And there is a spiritual body, which is the spirit life, the new creation of SPIRIT which shall inherit God’s Kingdom.

“And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul [Greek: psuche, the same as the Hebrew nephesh, meaning “creature,” or “living being”]; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth [physical, mortal, temporary, made of flesh], earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy” (1 Corinthians 15:45-47).

You and I are like carbon copies of our parents. We are fleshly, like them. We bear their characteristics. We are composed of the same materials. We have many of their proclivities, talents, and abilities.

Now, notice! “And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly” (verse 48).

Is there any remote doubt in your mind about what you just read? This is plainly telling us we will be members of God’s own Family, that we will “be like Him”!

John wrote: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear [in the resurrection] WE SHALL BE LIKE Him for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Millions suppose that salvation means “souls” wafting up to “heaven.” Millions assume we humans, in the resurrection, will be at a level far below our Father. Perhaps we will be like an old hound dog, who gazes adoringly up into the eyes of His master, then thumps his tail on the floor as he lolls before the fireplace. We will be, they think, on some level like angels, like spiritual drones or automatons.

No, we will be born of God, and we will be “like Him,” for we shall “see Him as He is”!

Paul said: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy [we are made in the image of our physical parents], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:49).

Can anything be plainer?

The glory that we are to inherit, the spiritual bodies we are to inherit, will be made in the image of our spiritual Father, and we shall be CHANGED!

Notice: “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [again and again, the Bible characterizes the state of the dead as a deep, profound, consciousless 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” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

The “corruptible” body is no more. Instead, God gives each one of His children a new, brilliant, incorruptible, eternal SPIRIT body.

Peter also spoke of the new “creature in Christ” dwelling in a temporary “booth,” or “kiosk,” or “tabernacle.” He wrote: “Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet [fitting], as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance” (2 Peter 1:12, 13).

Peter knew that he was a new creature in Christ, a begotten son of God, who was only temporarily dwelling in an “earthen vessel,” a human, physical body, which he called a tabernacle, which means “temporary dwelling place.”

He continued: “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shown me” (verse 14). Peter knew the time of his martyrdom was approaching, that he would be killed for the sake of Christ. He had faith, however, to know that it was only like “putting off a garment,” or “putting off a tabernacle,” it was not the end. Peter himself would survive, though remaining in a deep, profound “sleep” for an indeterminate period of time.

But since “the dead know not anything,” the new creature in Christ, the converted son of God that Peter had become, would be completely unaware of the passage of any time!

When he is resurrected at the Second Coming of Christ, it will be to Peter, as to thousands of others, as if it all happened “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”

He concluded, speaking of his approaching death: “Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance” (2 Peter 1:15).

Our human bodies are but temporary dwelling places, subject to aging, to injury, sickness, and death. While we are alive in the flesh, we have a “window of opportunity” to repent of sin; to become convicted of having broken God’s holy laws; to receive baptism, and the laying on of hands to receive God’s Holy Spirit.

When our human spirit is begotten by God’s Holy Spirit, a “new creature in Christ” is begotten. It is REAL. It is as real, as absolute, as certain, as factual as your own human existence!

The Reality of Our Spiritual Life

You are real.

How did you get here? By the uniting of your father’s life-giving cells with your mother’s fertile egg. At the instant of conception, you began! Only a second earlier, and you did not exist! Millions of potential brothers and sisters could have been conceived. They were not. They failed. But you succeeded! You are the result. You are here because two lives came together to produce your one life.

Your parents did not sit down on the couch one day, take out a note pad, and begin drawing up the requirements for a baby.

“Let’s see now,” your father did not say, “It should be a boy, and we would like it to have blond hair, blue eyes, and ten fingers and ten toes. Oh yes, and eyes, and ears, and all the vital organs….” Your mother did not say, “Oh, I’d rather have a girl—let’s make it a girl.” They did not then go to the baby bureau downtown, put in their application, and wait for the stork!

Yet, many deceived persons believe, by a casual assumption, that they can inherit the Kingdom of God by just such a nonsensical fashion!

They hear a message about God, about doctrine. Perhaps they come across seeming irrefutable proof that Easter is pagan. So they study, and read, and take notes, and do some research. Little by little, they become convinced, through painstaking study and research, that Easter is indeed pagan.

So they then add that knowledge to their repertoire of truth, their storehouse of belief. Then, they might, with a great deal of skepticism and begrudging reluctance, study for months to prove to themselves that God’s Ten Commandments have not been done away, that sin is the breaking of God’s laws (1 John 3:4), and that repentance is shame and deep remorse over having been a lawbreaker! Then, they add that bit of truth to their growing storehouse of knowledge.

Eventually, they have amassed a very impressive amount of biblical knowledge. They know a good bit about biblical history, about prophecy, about doctrine.

Sometimes, especially when they come face to face with the seventh-day Sabbath, they become cynical, reluctant, even resentful, of the “new truth” they are learning. Finally, after months, or even years, of “proving” things to themselves, they believe they must accept the things they have learned.

Believe it or not, such people are no more qualified for the Kingdom of God at that point than Satan the devil!

What a shocking statement! Why assert such? Simply because, when it comes to the Bible and doctrine, Satan KNOWS IT ALL!

Satan could quote Scripture to you forwards and backwards! Satan knows all the doctrinal truths of God! But he is in rebellion against God, and will never repent!

You can no more inherit the Kingdom of God by slowly, a step at a time, studying doctrine than you could make out a list, go to the “bureau,” and have a baby!

It is only when we repent of sin (Acts 2:38), then are baptized, and then receive God’s Holy Spirit that we become God’s children, begotten of our spiritual Father, a “new creature in Christ”! Once this “new creature in Christ” is begotten within our minds, it is every bit as REAL as you were REAL when you were a developing fetus in your mother’s womb!

Just as you were nourished by your mother’s bloodstream, so the “new creature in Christ” must be nourished by the Word of God, by Bible studies, by sermons, by studying and reading, by Christian fellowship, and by overcoming hurtful attitudes and non-Christian thoughts.

We must “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” until the moment when we reach the point of spiritual rebirth!

Jesus said: “Ye must be born again,” and showed that the new birth is a spirit birth—being changed from flesh to spirit, from human to divine!

The Third Resurrection

So far, we have seen there are two great categories of human beings who will be involved in the first and second resurrections.

The first resurrection (Revelation 20:6) is at the moment of Christ’s arrival into the clouds above this earth, the moment of Christ’s angels catching up living Christians and the resurrected saints (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17). This is the resurrection to life, the resurrection of Christ’s saints, including the apostles, Abraham and the patriarchs, and all the converted Christians who have lived and died.

For one thousand years, Christ will reign as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS on earth, with millions of other members of the God Family reigning with Him (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 10:5; 20:4; Isaiah 11: entire chapter; Isaiah 2; Micah 4).

The second resurrection is the greatest of all. It occurs after the one thousand years are finished, and is the resurrection to judgment (Revelation 20:5), when God will allow each individual to live for one hundred years (Isaiah 65:20).

Since God does not change, the millions who come up in this great resurrection will be judged “out of the Biblios,” meaning the Word of God, in the same way God is judging you and me today! God says He “changes not.” Therefore, they will be judged out of the revealed Word of God, the Bible, exactly as you and I are being judged.

It is very likely that the vast majority of all these teeming millions will accept God’s rulership, believe the truth they will be taught, repent of their sins, and receive salvation!

Does this constitute a “second chance”? Absolutely not! These teeming millions never heard a single word of the gospel; they never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Or, at least, they never heard the true gospel; never truly had a full chance to understand the truth of God and respond to that truth in repentance.

This will be their first chance!

A “chance” for salvation is to hear the gospel preached. Being born in a pagan land, then dying in a few days of cholera, when your entire society has never heard the name of Jesus Christ, is not a chance for salvation!

Do you have loved ones who died, not being converted? They are dead now—completely oblivious to the passing of time. The Bible speaks of them as being in the very deepest sleep—completely unconscious. They are NOT LOST! They are merely dead!

God says: “It is given to men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

But there is a third category of humans.

They are the incorrigibly wicked. They are the ones who have consciously rejected God’s way of life; have rejected salvation. They are the ones who WILL not repent!

Notice: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

“Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But these, as natural brute beasts [like predatory animals, devoid of human feeling, like mercy, forgiveness, and compassion], made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption” (2 Peter 2:9-12).

To “utterly perish” is to be completely destroyed by fire! Christ warned: “And fear not them which kill the body [our temporary tabernacle], but are not able to kill the soul [the Greek word is psuche, which means psyche, or mind; innermost being, where the human spirit resides]: but rather fear Him [God the Father] which is able to destroy both soul [psuche] and body [soma] in hell [Gehenna, God’s destroying fire]” (Matthew 10:28).

When the life cells that became you united in the womb of your mother, what happened to the millions of potential brothers and sisters who could have been conceived? They perished. They died. They were never united with a fertile egg; they never became a “new creature.”

What happens to each human being who refuses his or her “window of opportunity” for salvation? They perish! Notice: “For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Eternal of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of righteousness [Christ] arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves in the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Eternal of hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3).

Now, notice how Peter concluded his statements about the wicked utterly perishing”: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation [conduct] and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 2:9-12).

Many miles beneath our feet, our tectonic plates, with their mountains and valleys, “float” on a vast, seething, white-hot subterranean sea of “magma,” or molten rock.

Several times in the past, God has submerged the continents beneath the waters of the earth. River deltas, coral atolls, and ancient seashores demonstrate that the earth experienced not just two continental inundations, but several.

The two of which we can come to know are those mentioned in Genesis 1 and Genesis 6 and 7. When we are ushered upon the scene in ancient history, the earth is completely covered with water, stygian black, with the sun blotted out by a Venusian-like atmosphere. God’s first act is to “let there be light,” or, to let the light shine upon the earth for the first time in who knows how many thousands, or millions, of years.

Then, He says: “Let the dry land appear.” Thus, the continents were raised, with the waters roaring from their surface, gouging out valleys, forming lakes, cutting deep river channels.

But mankind became totally corrupt within about one-sixth of human history, resorting to every perversion, violence, and lawless act. Cannibalism was rampant. Murder was everywhere.

God then destroyed the world with a flood, saving only Noah and His family.

Notice how this ancient flood is used as a type of the coming destruction of the world by fire: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

These scoffers argue that all events, such as droughts, famines, wars, earthquakes, and the like are but “cyclical.” They sneer at God’s prophecies; they ridicule His servants. They say it is only a repetitious cycle, that all things continue as they always were.

But God says: “For this they WILLINGLY ARE IGNORANT OF, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was [from Adam to Noah], being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth which are now [in the day in which you and I live] by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:5-7). Notice that these verses precede the ones you read above, concerning the elements melting with fervent heat, and the whole earth being destroyed with fire.

Will God simply submerge the continents beneath the molten magma within the earth? It matters not how He accomplishes it, but, at the end of the human family on earth, and at the beginning of the next phase of God’s creation, the remaining incorrigibly wicked (those who have WILLED to reject God’s truth, who have WILLFULLY rebelled against His holy laws, who have refused to repent) will be burnt up.

Notice the famous parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

The parable shows that both Lazarus the poor beggar and the cruel, cold-hearted rich man, who refused to give Lazarus a thin dime, died. Lazarus is said to have been “carried by the angels” into “Abraham’s bosom.” This merely means a “close association with Abraham,” a friendly, warm, intimate contact with this great man. The parable does not say “heaven.”

Then, at the time of the third and final resurrection, the rich man, having died many years earlier, “in hell [hades, meaning “the grave.” This is not the Greek word Gehenna] he lift up his eyes [he becomes alive again, seeing], being in torments [because of what he sees, not because, just yet, of what he feels], and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented” (Luke 16:19-31).

First, the parable says both the rich man and Lazarus died. This ultimate fact, their deaths, must be understood in the light of all the scriptures we have already read (and dozens more we did not) concerning the state of the dead.

The dead are completely oblivious. Unconscious. The “dead know not anything,” and the dead are characterized as being in the most profound, black, unfeeling sleep. The human brain decays and returns to the dust. The human spirit, which has no consciousness apart from the brain, is completely comatose, “asleep.” It is a hard and fast rule of Bible study that a seemingly ambiguous or metaphorical scripture cannot nullify many plain, clear, easily understood scriptures on the same subject.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man does not nullify all the plain scriptures in your Bible about the state of the dead, about the resurrection to judgment, about the ultimate reality of Gehenna fire.

Notice further that Lazarus did not “go to heaven” but, once resurrected, he was taken to “Abraham’s bosom,” or a close, warm, intimate relationship with Abraham.

The rich man, who died, could only “lift up his eyes,” or become conscious again, in a resurrection.

Which resurrection?

Obviously, this is not the first resurrection, for the rich man is certainly not one of the “dead in Christ.” Obviously, it is not the second resurrection, for the rich man says he is “tormented in this flame.” He sees imminent destruction—horrible DEATH BY FIRE—approaching! Obviously, then, this is the third and final resurrection, when “death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire.”

It is stark terror which causes the rich man’s tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth. He does not ask Lazarus for a fire engine with powerful hoses: he does not ask for a bucket brigade or casks of water. Instead, he asks only for Lazarus to dip his finger into water to cool the rich man’s tongue.

Is it significant that he dare not ask for more?

During Lazarus’ life of privation and suffering, the rich man would no doubt look out of His window as he chewed on sumptuous, gourmet food, seeing Lazarus lying on the ground with open, weeping sores—the dogs licking His wounds. The rich man would not give Lazarus so much as a penny.

Thus, the rich man symbolizes the cruelty of man, the heartlessness of those who abuse orphans, widows, the sick, and the elderly. He symbolizes those who exploit others; those who are miserly, selfish, calloused. He also typifies the incorrigibly wicked; those who remain unmoved by human suffering!

Now, see further proof of the third and final resurrection.

Notice that after we read of the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11, 12), we read of another great event: “And death and hell [hades, meaning the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14, 15).

Revelation 20 begins with the first resurrection, speaking of the “dead in Christ” and the saints who are instantaneously changed at the Second Coming of Christ. This is the “better” resurrection (Hebrews 11:35); the “firstfruits” of salvation (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4). These are the born-anew members of the Family of Divine ELOHIM (Romans 8:15-17; 15:29; 1 Corinthians 15:50-52), who “lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4).

This is the “resurrection to life” of which Christ spoke (John 5:29), the first resurrection.

But we are then told about the “rest of the dead” who “lived not again until the thousand years are finished” (Revelation 20:5). This is the Great White Throne Judgment period of one hundred years, of which we have read, during which all the billions of human beings in all the nations of the world will come up in a great, general resurrection, and be given a glorious opportunity for salvation.

This leaves one category of human beings which have not been dealt with. The incorrigible. The willfully rebellious. Those who have deliberately, consciously rejected God’s truth, His wonderful way of life, His grace, mercy, and salvation. These are characterized by the rich man of the parable of Luke 16. Jude says of them: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ …. these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities” (Jude 4-8).

Do those who “creep in unawares” by the flock know what they are doing? Do they know they are “creeps”?

Surely.

Notice that these evil, false teachers twist the grace of God which is God’s loving, undeserved forgiveness, His pardon of our past sins, into “license.” In other words, they deceive God’s people into thinking they have “permission” to break God’s laws. The people then assume that if their leaders say it, and if a few other members of the church nod their heads and go along with it, that it “must be all right.”

They are those who always believe they should “let God work it out.” This is the excuse used by German SS guards, who murdered countless Jews in death camps all over Europe. They were only “following orders.” It was not their responsibility. It was the responsibility of their leaders. Surely, if something were wrong, then it was up to their leaders to straighten it out.

Today, millions believe God’s perfect, holy, righteous Ten Commandments are done away. They advocate, openly breaking God’s Sabbath. They are teaching licentiousness, which is “permission to sin”! The Bible is very clear about their ultimate reward. They are indicted as being among those who have knowingly, and willfully, rejected God’s laws, when they knew, better!

They are resurrected immediately after the Great White Throne Judgment. As we saw, their resurrection is characterized by the ugliest of words, “death and the grave.” When is a grave not a grave? It is not a grave when there is no body present. The Greek word hades means “grave.” But a grave is merely a hole in the ground unless a dead human body is within.

Now, remember what you read about the Great White Throne Judgment of 100 years duration. There is not to be an infant who has not fulfilled His days of 100 years. A sinner, being 100 years of age, shall be “accursed.” After the Millennium, in the great general resurrection, there will be no more human reproduction. God will stop the human reproductive cycle. There will be no more an “infant of days” during this future time.

God will resurrect all human beings who have never heard, or consciously rejected, the gospel, from infants to the very elderly. But there will be no more new births.

But during this period, Satan, who has been hurled far away from the earth in a symbolic “bottomless pit” (Revelation 20:1-3), will be free to influence humanity again.

Christ’s Righteous Punishments for Crime and Sin in His Kingdom

As Jesus Christ establishes His glorious world rule on this earth, He is joined by perhaps a million or two, who constitute the “dead in Christ” and the living who are “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” at the last trump (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).

God’s Word tells us we are to be “co-heirs with Christ,” that we are to be “like Him: for we shall see Him as He is” (Romans 8:17; 1 John 3:2). The “new creature in Christ” of which we read is to be born of God, given a spirit body, to become a member of God’s own family!

Millions of deceived, professing Christians absolutely refuse to believe the plain, easily understood statements of God’s Word about the future state of the dead in Christ—the state of being of those who are changed from flesh to spirit in the resurrection.

The Jews accused Jesus Christ of “blasphemy” because He “made Himself equal with God.” To them, such a claim was preposterous.

Yet, your Bible insists that the resurrected saints will be co-heirs with Christ, that they shall be like Him for they will see Him as He is!

Suppose you are named as a co-heir by a long lost millionaire uncle you never knew you had. His estate is worth 100 million dollars. As a co-heir with another relative, how much do you receive? Exactly the same amount as your other relative, or 50 million dollars!

A co-heir shares equally. To be “like Him” means exactly what is says. The beautiful “resurrection chapter” of 1 Corinthians 15 shows converted human beings will be changed from flesh to spirit, from corruptible to incorruptible, from human to divine. Millions suppose that salvation entails becoming some lesser being, perhaps slightly above the angelic realm.

The purely fictional fantasies of many professing Christian churches portray vague images of how it will be in the “last days,” or in the “judgment,” or when people allegedly “get to heaven.” They suppose, vaguely, that the sheer joys of “gazing into the Master’s face,” of living in “heavenly mansions,” or of playing harps and wafting about heaven on angelic wings will be the reward of the saved.

But your Bible plainly shows that God Almighty is reproducing after His own kind! Creation was not completed in Eden, it was only begun. The final, superb masterpiece of God’s creation is the re-creation of His own kind, through begettal with His Spirit, growth to become like Him, and final birth into the spiritual family of God in the resurrection!

You CAN “Take It With You” When You Die

Finally, consider: What of beloved family members who have died, but who were never privileged to be called into God’s truth? What of those who, though “good and decent people,” were never truly converted

As you learned earlier, we human beings live in an earthly “tabernacle,” our physical bodies. But we reside in our minds. Our memories are not stored in our kneecaps, or our elbows, but in our minds.

The billions of human beings who will be resurrected in the second resurrection—those who are the “rest of the dead” who do not come up until after the Millennium—are those who never had a real chance for salvation.

What constitutes a chance?

From many, many scriptures, it is obvious that only those who make a determined, conscious decision to reject God’s way of life, His wondrous love, His gracious forgiveness—those who rebel against His laws, and who willfully spurn His salvation will be destroyed in Gehenna fire.

Jesus showed that the Pharisees and the majority of the population of His time could not understand because God had not opened their minds and hearts!

Read it! “And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given…therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross; and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:10-16).

God has deliberately called some few from time to time, but He has not called the masses! The churches do not understand this. Millions assume some vast “tug o’ war” exists between Christ and Satan, Christ trying desperately to “save the world,” while Satan struggles desperately to keep it “lost.” This is a lie of the devil, and portrays the devil as equally strong, or stronger, than Christ.

Your Bible reveals that the vast majority are blinded; that they are deceived. But a deceived person does not know that he or she is deceived. A deceived person can be completely sincere. He or she can be honest, loyal, faithful, believing, loving, caring, and sharing! A deceived person can be the nicest person you ever met!

As my father was fond of saying, “What you don’t know, you don’t know that you don’t know!”

Now, consider the ramifications of these principles, in the next verse: “For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:17).

Prophets and righteous men do not burn in Gehenna fire simply because God, in His infinite wisdom, chose not to reveal His plan of salvation unto them! Such men will come up in the great, general “White Throne Judgment” time.

Now, think!

When God resurrects the dead, it will be as though they had been dead for only a split second of time! So far as they were concerned, they were alive one moment: something happened, perhaps a wreck, or a fall, or a crash, or a bullet! They felt virtually nothing! Then, in a split second of time they are alive again!

Their memory is intact. Their character is intact. The kind of person they were is exactly the kind of person they still are!

So you see, your loved ones and mine, who really never consciously rejected God and His salvation will have a wonderful opportunity to repent, and to be saved, in the Great White Throne Judgment!

Don’t you believe that a person of good character will have a running head start towards receiving God’s truth above those who had poor character? Of course!

That is what I mean when I say, “You can take it with you when you die,” meaning your character!

In summary, then, we have seen there are THREE resurrections revealed in the Bible. The first is the dead in Christ. The second is the “rest of the dead” who “lived not again until the thousand years were finished,” the dead, in the vast majority, who come up for a one-hundred year period of judgment.

But this leaves one category of human beings not yet resurrected: the incorrigibly wicked! They are typified by the rich man of Luke 16, and called by the grisly phrase “death and the grave.” They come up at the end of this phase of God’s plan (2 Peter 3:12) when the earth itself is destroyed by fire.

Then, God says: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

What of those “new heavens and new earth”?

God says: “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. And He that sat upon the throne said, BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!” (Revelation 21:4, 5).

Believe it or not, this is the true BEGINNING of the great plan of God.

Now, every being on earth is divine. Now, all are finally members of God’s great, expanded family!

What then?

Our known universe contains countless galaxies. Galaxies can contain hundreds of billions of stars! Each star, of which our own sun is but an orange dwarf as an example, could hold in its gravitational field any number of planets.

Why do you suppose God has created all those galaxies, all those suns, all those billions upon billions of planets?

Today, they are lifeless, empty, vain, waste, and chaotic.

So was our planet earth, until the One called Elohim said “Let there be light!”

Do you suppose He could ever do it again?

What about those who become “co-heirs with Christ”? Could they ever be called upon to go to a distant planet? Your God and mine is Creator. He has a great, fathomless purpose in all He does.

Perhaps, far from the “end” time, the time of the new heavens and the new earth are but “the beginning.”

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