Be Ye Ready

STATE OF THE DEAD (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6)

As many are aware, today we see the majority of religions, including some Christian denominations are proclaiming that we should pray to the dead as they are saints. Please see - Psalms 146:3-4.

  • Most teach that when a person dies they go to a spirit world where they can be contacted by us in prayer, or by a psychic or spirit guide in a séance. See - Job 14:12.
  • Some also teach re-incarnation where the soul goes from one life to the next forever in the hopes of cultivating enough wisdom to become perfect and therefore eternal in nature. Please see - 1 Timothy 6:15-16.
  • Still others teach that the spirit of the deceased can actually haunt people if the deceased had been wronged in some major way when they were living. Please see - Psalms 89:48
  • Some even go so far as to claim that the mother of Jesus Christ, Mary, appears from time to time to relay messages from heaven. And believe that she intercedes on human behalf. Please see - John 19:26-27.
  • And finally, others teach that the dead are allowed to come back from heaven, physically appear unto us to warn us of mortal dangers if we don't heed their heavenly warnings and follow their advice. Please see - John 5:28-29.

    

WHAT THE BIBLE HAS TO SAY ABOUT WHERE WE GO WHEN WE DIE:

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). BUT GOD, WHO ALONE IS IMMORTAL, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people. When Christ, who is our life, appears He will resurrect the righteous dead and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up together to meet their Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later. - 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

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 is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any [thing] that is done under the sun. - Ecclesiastes 9:5-6.

WHAT DID JESUS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT SPIRITS?

"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.  But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.  And he said unto them, why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." - Luke 24:36-39. Please also see these Bible Texts - John 11:11-14; Colossians 3:4; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 & 51-54; Revelation 20:1-10; Psalms 6:3-5; Psalms 115:17 & Isaiah 38:5-6.

  • So then, when one is dead, the body is buried (will rot and dry) or cremated (burnt to ashes). How then can one come back to life as a spirit having the same features? This is the work of Satan and his angels, who appear in the guise of dead persons to deceive and misguide.