(This article reflects the viewpoints of another and does not necessarily reflect the understanding of Qumran Bet Community or AmYHWH. Perhaps truth would be better served if you also added your contribution to this piece.)

THE BIG QUESTION

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE?

Ken Graydon

The Tanakh has the answers to the questions about life and death and all the steps in between. A situation we all face is dying. Because this is a challenge to us - we dress up this event either, in very solemn ways or with a forced jocularity.

 

You will have heard people talking after the death of some prominent people “they’re looking down from heaven watching out for us.” That is not what the Tanakh says.

 

After the death and subsequent funeral of Princess Diana there were newspaper articles discussing whether she is in heaven. This is a sad, disturbed woman caught up in adultery – no she is not in heaven!

 

The ETERNAL says we are a soul and we shall die.  If you have been involved in some form of churchianity you may have been taught that we are made up of ‘body’, ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’, as usual this is the opposite to the clear truth of the ETERNAL in the Tanakh.

 

Genesis 2:7 the ETERNAL formed man from the dust of the earth. HE blew into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. The breath was the ‘life’ of the man – without it he was just a lifeless body.

Genesis 3:19  By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat until you return to the ground – for from it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.

Ecclesiastes 9: 5-6 since the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more recompense, for even the memory of them has died. Their loves, their hates, their jealousies have long since perished; and they have no more share till the end of time in all that goes on under the sun.

 

The scriptures make it very clear that death is like a very sound sleep, we know nothing, we do not praise the ETERNAL, we do not remember. As it is when you sleep soundly, you have no idea how long you have slept. No bits or parts of us go wafting off to heaven. We are in the grave.

 

As always, when you go before the ETERNAL to seek answers to the questions of life or death, HE gives them to you from the Tanakh. If you read in your scriptures the 37th chapter of Ezekiel you will see what happens when the ETERNAL raises us up from the grave. Notice, particularly for those of us called to this degree of obedience, the three actions that are to take place in sequence:-

 

          Vv 11-14 raised from the grave and restored to life.

          Vv 16-23 ‘lost’ Israelites returned to The Land

          Vv 24-28 David will be king over them for all time.

 

This all takes place here, on earth. The Temple will be built on earth – that is where we will be in The World To Come.

 

There is still the matter of obedience, of judgement and selection. Once again you will see the truth of the Tanakh is the very opposite of the deceptive teachings of churchianity.

 

Exodus 32:32-33 Moses said “Now, if you will forgive their sin [well and good]; but if not, erase me from the record which You have written!” But the ETERNAL said to Moses, “He who has sinned against Me, him only will I erase from My record.”

 

Malachi 3:14-21 You have said, “It is useless to serve ETERNAL. What have we gained by keeping His charge and walking in abject awe of the ETERNAL? And so, we account the arrogant happy: they have indeed done evil and endured; they have indeed dared the ETERNAL and escaped.” In this vein have those who revere the ETERNAL been talking to one another. The ETERNAL has heard and noted it and a scroll of remembrance has been written at His behest concerning those who revere the ETERNAL and esteem His name. And on that day that I am preparing, said the ETERNAL, they shall be My treasured possession; I will be tender toward them as a man is tender toward a son who ministers to him. And you shall come to see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him who has served ETERNAL and him who has not served Him.

For lo! That day is at hand, burning like an oven. All the arrogant and the doers of evil shall be straw, and the day is coming – said the ETERNAL – shall burn them to ashes and leave them neither stock nor boughs. But for you who revere My name a sun of victory shall rise to bring healing. You shall go forth and stamp like stall fed calves, and you shall trample the wicked to a pulp, for they shall be dust beneath your feet on the day that I am preparing – said the ETERNAL.

 

The ETERNAL has a record of our obedience, or lack of it, He is not fooled by appearances – He knows your heart and He knows if you are in repentance.

 

What happens? The ETERNAL is described as a consuming fire [Exodus 24:17, Deuteronomy 4:24 and Isaiah 30:27], what does He consume?  Firstly, He consumes Satan. Yes, that’s right!

 

Ezekiel 28:14-19 I created you as a cherub with outstretched shielding wings; and you resided on ETERNAL’s holy mountain; you walked among stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways, from the day you were created until wrongdoing was found in you. By your far-flung commerce you were filled with lawlessness and you sinned. So I have struck you down from the mountain of ETERNAL and I have destroyed you, O shielding cherub from among the stones of fire. You grew haughty because of your beauty, you debased your wisdom for the sake of your splendour; I have cast you to the ground, I have made you an object for kings to stare at. By the greatness of your guilt, through the dishonesty of your trading, you desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made fire issue from you and it has devoured you; I have reduced you to ashes on the ground, in the sight of all who behold you. All who knew you among the peoples are appalled at your doom. You have become a horror and have ceased to be, forever.

 

Satan is to be devoured by the fire – he does not rule over anything. The many people who have been serving him will look on in horror as he is destroyed because they too will be going into the fire for destruction.

 

Satan had lived with the ETERNAL as a covering cherub [a pattern for the covering angels on the Ark of the Covenant] but he went off course. He could no longer live in the fire of the ETERNAL! Who can?

 

Isaiah 33: 14-16 Sinners in Zion are frightened, the godless are seized with trembling; “Who of us can dwell with the devouring fire: who of us can dwell with the never-dying blaze?”

He who walks in righteousness, speaks uprightly, spurns profit from fraudulent dealings, waves away a bribe instead of grasping it, stops his ears against listening to infamy, shuts his eyes against looking at evil. Such a one shall dwell in lofty security, with inaccessible cliffs for his stronghold, with his food supplied and his drink assured.

 

Only the righteous [and repentant forgiven ones] can live through the consuming fire. Sinners are destroyed like burnt stubble – no eternal suffering – just burning and destruction.

 

Satan and his many followers, both inside churches and outside, have seen the Laws of the ETERNAL as repressive and taking away their freedom. How do you see it when you face the ultimate stark truth? The freedom to do your own thing and fiery destruction – or follow the Laws of the ETERNAL and live through the consuming fire to be in the presence of the ETERNAL and King David in the Wonderful World to Come.

 

Do you choose to live splendidly or die horribly?

 

See also the article ‘The Fire and the Flame’

 

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