by Bishop Marthy C. Austria House Under The Grace of Christ Fellowship PURE GRACE
What was the state of dead, both righteous and wicked during the Old Testament times?
In order to understand it, first we must learn the composition of man that God made.
Gen 2:7 “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.”
I. Here is the composition of man:
DUST (physical body) + BREATH OF LIFE (spirit) = LIVING SOUL.
Man is a LIVING SOUL composed of dust and breath of life.
II. Let us reverse the process:
DUST (physical body) – BREATH OF LIFE (spirit) = DEAD SOUL.
A. Man becomes a DEAD SOUL when the breath of life leaves the physical body.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
B. When it happens, man, the soul himself is dead – a DEAD soul. The soul dies. It is not immortal.
Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
C. When man (the soul) dies, he stops existing. The breath of life (spirit) goes back to God who gave it, and he (the physical body) returns to the earth – which means he returns to the dust. That’s the grave. When man dies, he goes to hell/grave. A place of non-existence and unconsciousness. The Bible calls this state of the dead as “sleep”.
D. All OT people, righteous or wicked, when they died went to Hell or THE GRAVE, called in the Old Testament as SHEOL. Contrary to popular teaching, it was not a place of waiting for conscious spirits of the dead waiting for the resurrection, but it was a place of unconsciousness and inactivity.
E. All the saints from Old Testament times up to New Testament times slept in hell/grave until the Parousia/ arrival/coming of Christ in 70 A.D.
III. Look at these verses that teach that the OT and NT dead people “slept” in their graves.
A. Ecclesiastes
Eccl 9:5 “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”
Eccl 9:6 “Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.”
Eccl 9:10 “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, whither (where) thou goest.”
Eccl 3:19 “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.”
Eccl 3:20 “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”
B. Psalms
Psa 6:5 “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
Psa 49:12 “Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.”
Psa 49:14 “Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.”
Psa 49:20 “Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.”
Psa 88:11-12 “Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”
Psa 115:17 “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence”
Psa 146:3-4 “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.”
C. Job
Job 14:10 -12 “But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.”
Job 14:13-15 “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 17:11-16 “My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, thou art my father: to the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.”
D. Isaiah
Isa 38:18 “For the grave cannot praise Thee, death can not celebrate Thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.”
E. John
About Lazarus: John 11:11, 13 “These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep… Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.”
F. Acts
About Stephen: Acts 7:60 “And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
About King David: Acts 13:36 “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption”
G. 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 11:30 “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”
1 Corinthians 15:51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”
H. 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 “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 them which are asleep.”
Prepared by:
Bishop Marthy C. Austria
H.U.G. of Christ Fellowship
Pleroma Bible Training Centre
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