When a man dies, what becomes of him? We know something of life and what it is and means. But what in the world happens to us when we die? Where do we go? Heaven? Hell? Purgatory? Limbo? What awaits us in the shadows ahead? What about our dead loved ones? Since we know that the Bible is the word of God shouldn’t we turn to the one dependable source of information? The Bible’s teaching on death is consistent, not confusing. There may be some surprises. But its answers are reasonable, satisfying and best of all, comforting.

Note: The Bible describes death as sleep over 50 times. In order to understand the condition of death or “sleep/rest” we must first understand the condition of life.

Note: God did not put a living soul into Adam. Adam became a living soul as a result of the combination of the body plus the breath or spirit from God. When a light bulb is connected to electricity, we get light. No one puts the light in the bulb. It is the result of uniting those two components. When we take away the electricity, the light ceases to exist. According to the Bible, the soul is a combination of body plus breath, or spirit. When the breath (life force) or “spirit” of God departs from the body, the soul ceases to exist.

DUST + BREATH = SOUL

SOUL – BREATH = DUST

Note: As we have studied earlier, many demons can produce miracles not least of which is impersonating dead loved ones. The story is told of an evangelist who preached on the state of death. Afterwards one of the people in the audience had an “appearing” of his wife who had died earlier. She had the same voice and mannerism of his wife. Convinced of this Bible teaching, he told his “wife” to leave in the name of Jesus Christ and she disappeared and turned into a demon. There is truth only in God’s word.

Conclusion: So when a man dies he does not live somewhere else. He is not in heaven, not in hell, not in purgatory. He is not alive at all, anywhere, in any condition. He is in a state of sleep or unconsciousness.

The dead rest quietly in their graves until Jesus comes. And when we stop to think it through, how could this be improved upon? As always, God has arranged what is best. Instead of permitting the departed one to look down from heaven and see the distress and grief his departing has caused; instead of allowing a departed husband or wife to see his spouse quickly transfer his love to another; instead of permitting parents to witness their children suffering through problems, Jesus has arranged death to be a short period of unconscious sleep. There is no hardship on the departed one, for they are not conscious of passing time. They fall asleep and the next moment (so it seems) they awake and are reunited with their loved ones and Jesus.