What Happens After Death? (5)

Nephesh and man

Let's further see how this word is used to refer to mankind in the Scriptures. The first place we find nephesh in reference to mankind is in the second chapter of Genesis: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (verse 7, KJV).

The word translated "soul" in this verse is again the Hebrew word nephesh . Other translations of the Bible state that man became a living "being" or "person." This verse does not say that Adam had an immortal soul; rather it says that God breathed into Adam the "breath of life," and Adam became a living soul. At the end of his days, when the breath of life left Adam, he died and returned to dust.

The soul ( nephesh ) is not immortal, because it dies. This is clear in the Bible. For example, through the prophet Ezekiel God proclaimed, "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die"(Ezekiel:18:4, see also verse 20). Again, the Hebrew word translated "soul" here isnephesh. Indeed, the same word is even used of corpses—dead bodies (seeLeviticus:22:4; Numbers:5:2; 6:11; 9:6-10).So Scripture plainly states that the soul can die. It is mortal —it is in no way im mortal— because it is subject to death and decay.

What happens to the dead?

Superstitions and assumptions, all kinds of beliefs, abound about the state of the dead. Many enjoy being frightened by books and movies about ghosts and other weird twists on the afterlife. Movies and television programs portray apparitions and angels sent back to earth to accomplish some final good deeds or rescue people from difficult situations. Cartoons entertain our children with ideas about animals going to heaven and the antics of friendly ghosts.

On the other hand, of course, many religious groups teach that at death a person goes immediately to his reward or punishment.

But the reality of what happens after death is quite different from all of these ideas. There are no disembodied spirits of dead people wandering about frightening or taking revenge on people—or even helping them.

Furthermore, the Bible does not speak of the dead going to live on forever in a place or condition of "heaven" or "hell." Solomon observed that mankind and animals are destined for, in death, a common fate. "For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other . . . All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust" (Ecclesiastes:3:19-20
).

The book of Daniel refers to the state of the dead in an inspiring prophecy: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel:12:2).

This passage conveys some crucial information. For one, it offers the promise of life after death —not by people living on apart from their bodies after death but through aresurrection from death that will take place in the future. Some will receive immortality then, and some will not. So clearly we are not immortal souls at present. Moreover, the passage compares death to sleep—and explains the resurrection as waking up from that sleep.

Sleep connotes unconsciousness, and the Bible draws the same analogy in other places. How could people who have died be asleep in their graves, profoundly unconscious—as revealed in the Bible—yet be residing blissfully in heaven and looking down at us on earth (or, presumably, suffering in hell and looking up)?

Solomon noted that the dead have no awareness, nor are they in some other state of consciousness: "For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing . . . for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going" (Ecclesiastes:9:5, 10). The person who has died is unconscious and unaware of the passing of time.

To be cont'd. 

God bless you all