The State of the Dead

Ecclesiastes 9:5, NKJV:

"For the living know that they will die;
But the dead know nothing,
And they have no more reward,
For the memory of them is forgotten"

Most Christians tend to believe that there is life after death. I, however, do not. Most believe that you go either to Heaven or to Hell when you die. I don't believe this. I have found no Biblical evidence to support this claim. However, I have found plenty of evidence for the opposite.

But let's compare how most Christians believe in life after death with how ancient cultures taught life after death. Most ancient cultures taught some form of life after death. Take the Egyptians, for example. According to them, when you died, you stood before the god of the underworld who decided your eternal fate. Your soul was either sent to hell or allowed to go to paradise.

 Another example is the ancient Greeks. They taught that all life ended and went to the underworld for eternal misery. Most Christians believe that when you die, you go to Heaven or Hell depending on how you lived your life. Sound familiar? Do you see how strikingly similar the modern popular teaching of life after death among most Christians is with how ancient cultures taught life after death?

So what do I believe in? I believe that you live your life in obedience to one of two masters. You are either serving God or Satan. It really is as simple as that. When you die, you simply cease to exist. You are buried and that's that. If you live your life in true service to God, then the Bible refers to your death as sleep. 

When you go to bed at night, and wake up in the morning, you have no recollection of the time that passed during your 8 or so hours of shut-eye. It's a similar thing for the righteous dead. 1 Kings 2:10 mentions the death of King David. He was a righteous man and this passage reads thus:

     "So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David."

That word slept is  שָׁכַב or shakab. Translated it means "to lie down." It has multiple uses but the point here is that it does not refer to David going to Heaven. There is a whole slew of other examples. Only 3 humans are listed by name as going to Heaven before the Second coming.

Enoch, Elijah, and Moses. The Bible documents Moses as having died but Jude brings to our attention that Michael, the archangel, disputed with the devil about the body of Moses. Why would this need to happen if Moses was already in Heaven, according to pagan mythology and what most Christians believe?

In the article, The God of Hell, Marvin Moore addresses the doctrine of Hell that most Christians believe. After the introduction, he address the question of who is in charge of Hell. He says, and I agree with him, that God is in charge. To quote directly:

"The Bible’s most descriptive passage about hell says that “fire came down from heaven and devoured [the wicked]” (Revelation 20:9; emphasis added).* If the fire comes down from heaven, it has to come from God, because He’s in charge of heaven, not Satan. Two other biblical accounts of the destruction of the wicked—the flood of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah— clearly show God initiating the destruction, not Satan (Genesis 6:5–7; 19:24)."

He goes on to answer the question, when is Hell? Most Christians believe that Hell is a place that has been in existence since the fall of Adam and Eve. I disagree. And so does Mr. Moore. He quotes Malachi 4:1 which says, "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the Lord Almighty." (Emphasis his).

Revelation 20 describes the millenium after the Second Coming. It describes the destruction that will befall the wicked at the end of this 1,000 year period. The fire that comes down from Heaven is at the end of this millenium. "So if hell won’t even start until 1,000 years after Christ’s second coming," Mr. Moore says, "it certainly cannot be going on now."

 He goes on to make his final point that God simply wouldn't make people suffer like that. The Bible refers to the destruction of the wicked as God's strange act. Isaiah 28:21 reads like this: "For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act."

God doesn't want to destroy anyone but He cannot allow sin to go on forever. The Bible also says in Revelation 21:4, "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”


I don't know about you, but in an eternal Hell, I would think there would be a lot of tears and sorrow. Also, why would God allow an eternal Hell when He Himself promised that there will be no more pain, and that the "former things have passed away?" 


Here are a couple of links to help with further study.


The God of Hell by Marvin Moore in the Signs of the Times.


Spirits of the Dead: Do They Speak and Hear? by Joe Crews with Amazing Facts.


Are the Dead Really Dead? by Amazing Facts