Someone sent me this document. Not that I agree or disagree with it but it does talk about the subject on hand, here it is:
Death. Death entered the world as a consequence of sin (Gen 2:16, 17; 3:19; Rom 5:12), and is labeled an enemy (1 Cor 15:26). All men are appointed to die (1 Cor 15:22; Heb 9:27), but all will be made alive again (Jn 5:28, 29; 1 Cor 15:22).
In the Bible death is frequently called a sleep. David, Solomon, and many other kings of Israel and Judah were after death described as sleeping with their forefathers (1 Ki 2:10; 11:43; 14:20, 31; 15:8; 21:1; 26:23; etc.). Job referred to death as a sleep (Job 7:21; 14:1012), as did the psalmist (Ps 13:3), Jeremiah (Jer 51:39, 57), and Daniel (Dan 12:2). In the NT Christ stated that the dead daughter of Jairus was sleeping (Mt 9:24; Mk 5:39). He referred to the deceased Lazarus in the same manner (Jn 11:1114). Paul and Peter also called death a sleep (1 Cor 15:51, 52; 1 Th 4:1317; 2 Pe 3:4). Many saints which slept arose from their graves at the resurrection of Christ and appeared to many (Mt 27:52, 53). Luke, the writer of Acts, described the martyrdom of Stephen as a falling asleep (Acts 7:60).
Sleep is a fitting symbol of death, as the following comparisons demonstrate: (1) Sleep is a condition of unconsciousness. The dead know not any thing (Ec 9:5, 6). (2) In sleep conscious thought is dormant. His breath goeth forth
; in that very day his thoughts perish (Ps 146:4). (3) Sleep brings an end to all the days activities. There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave (Ec 9:10). (4) Sleep dissociates us from those who are awake, and from their activities. Neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun (v 6). (5) Normal sleep renders the emotions inactive. Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished (v 6). (6) In sleep men do not praise God. The dead praise not the Lord (Ps 115:17). (7) Sleep is transitory and presupposes an awakening. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee (Job 14:15). The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth (Jn 5:28, 29). See Resurrection.
In the sleep of death the breath ceases (Ps 146:4), the physical body decays and its elements mingle with the earth from whence they came (Ps 146:4; Gen 3:19), and the spirit returns to God, from whence it came (Ec 12:7). However, the spirit thus separated from the body is not a conscious entity (see Spirit). It is the character of man, which God preserves until the resurrection (1 Co 15:5154; Job 19:2527), so that every man will have his own character (see SDACom 6:1093). At Christs second coming the righteous will be granted immortality, and will at the same time be clothed with glorified bodies (1 Cor 15:3549).
Between the time of dying and the resurrection the dead are represented as sleeping in Sheol (Ec 9:10, RSV) or in Hades (Acts 2:27, 31, RSV). They are not in heaven (vs 29, 34), for they are not united with their Lord until the Second Advent (Jn 14:13).
The Bible refers to a second death (Rev 20:6). The first death comes to all and is the normal outworking on humanity of the degenerative effects of sin. The second death comes to the finally impenitent at the close of the 1,000 years of Rev 20, when the wicked are eternally annihilated (Mt 10:28). In the conflagration the earth is purified by fire (2 Pe 3:10). With the destruction of Satan and the unrighteous, death itself is destroyed (1 Cor 15:26; Rev 20:14). See Second Death.
Figuratively, sinners are described as being dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1; cf. Col 2:13). Except as the Holy Spirit touches their hearts, they are insensitive to all spiritual things. In Rom 6:2 Paul, reversing the figure, refers to Christians as now being dead to sin, hence no longer living in it.
Second Death. A term appearing 4 times in the Bible (Rev 2:11; 20:6, 14; 21:8), describing the death suffered by the wicked at the close of the 1,000 years (ch 20:2, 3, 4, 6, 7), or *millennium. At the beginning of the millennium the wicked are struck down at the presence of Christ (ch 19:11, 1621). At the end of the millennium they, together with all the wicked of previous ages, are resurrected (Rev 20:5; Jn 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15). They then join in a final act of defiance against God, at which fire flashes from heaven and consumes them (Rev 20:8, 9). This is the second death (v 14). The Bible teaches that this second death is not an endless fiery torment but total destruction (Mt 10:28). See Death; Hell; Soul; Spirit. The righteous are shielded from the second death (Rev 2:11), which is reserved for the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars (ch 21:8; cf. ch 20:15).
Hell. [Heb. sheÕoÆl; Gr. hadeµs and geenna; the Greek verb tartarooµ, to cast (down) to hell, occurs once (2 Pe 2:4).] The Heb. sheÕoÆl and the Gr. hadeµs refer to the unseen world, the world of the dead, as does the English word hell in one of its meanings. However, since the English term hell connotes also a place of punishment for the impenitent, such a translation often creates confusion. Consequently, the RSV and other modern translations prefer to transliterate the Heb. sheÕoÆl as Sheol and the Gr. hadeµs as Hades. This trend in translation is a recognition of the difference in meaning between the English hell as often understood today and the Hebrew and Greek terms.
The close connection between Sheol and death may be illustrated from Hebrew parallelisms. For example, in the song of David recorded in 2 Sa 22:251 the following appears: When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; the sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me (vs 5, 6). In Isaiah appears this parallelism: We have made a covenant with death, and with hell we are at agreement (Is 28:15; cf. v 18).
Hadeµs, the Greek equivalent of sheÕoÆl, occurs 10 times in the NT and is generally transliterated in the RSV as Hades. The following are instances of its use: Capernaum shall be brought down to hell (Mt 11:23; Lk 10:15). The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church (Mt 16:18). The Messiahs soul was not left in hell (Acts 2:27, 31). Jesus holds the keys of hell and of death (Rev 1:18). Hell followed with the pale horse (ch 6:8). Death and hell delivered up their dead (ch 20:13), and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire (v 14). The Revelation passages particularly reveal the close connection between death and hell. In only one Bible reference is punishment in Hades indicated (Lk 16:23, RSV), but this is in a parable which by itself must by no means be regarded as doctrinally definitive.
The Greek term denoting a place of punishment is geenna, used 12 times in the NT. Geenna (in the RSV footnotes: Gehenna) is the Grecized form of GeÆ Hinnom, Valley of Hinnom, a gorge near Jerusalem repeatedly mentioned in the OT (Jos 15:8; 2 Ki 23:10; 2 Chr 33:6; Jer 7:31). Here the barbaric heathen rite of burning children to Molech was conducted (2 Chr 28:3; 2 Chr 33:1, 6), an abomination that King Josiah abolished, desecrating the high places where this form of worship had been practiced. Jeremiah predicted that because of this sin the Lord would make the valley of the son of Hinnom a valley of slaughter where the corpses of the Israelites would be buried till there was no more place for them, and the remaining dead bodies would be food for the fowls of the heavens (Jer 7:32, 33). This doubtless led to the valleys being regarded as a place of judgment of the wicked. See Valley of Hinnom. Later rabbinical tradition claims that the Valley of Hinnom was also a place outside the city for burning carcasses and rubbish.
The expression geenna occurs 3 times in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:22, 29, 30). In ch 10:28 Jesus spoke of Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, and in ch 18:9 of hell fire. He warned the Pharisees of the damnation of hell (ch 23:33). He stated that it is better to be maimed and yet gain eternal life than to be cast into hellfire (Mk 9:43, 45, 47). His reference to hell in Lk 12:5 makes clear that hell is an experience beyond death. In Mt 23:15 the expression child of hell, literally child of Gehenna, is used for converts to Judaism who were even more bigoted than the Pharisees who had converted them.
These references to a final punishment of sinners by the fire of hell are further clarified in such texts as Mt 3:12, where sinners are likened to chaff that is burned with unquenchable fire (cf. Mk 9:4348; Lk 3:9). In Mt 25:41 the wicked are represented as being consigned to everlasting (aioµnios) fire, which is defined as everlasting (aioµnios) punishment (v 46). This fire, which will purge the earth (2 Pe 3:1012; cf. Mt 3:12; Lk 3:17), will be kindled at the close of the *millennium, when both soul and body of the finally impenitent will be annihilated by fire (Mt 10:28; Rev 20:9).
A study of the usage and meaning of the Greek term aioµnios, as used in connection with the fire of the last days, shows that the emphasis is on its destructiveness rather than on its duration. For example, Sodom and Gomorrah met with the punishment of eternal (aioµnios) fire (Jude 7). The fire completely destroyed these cities, but became extinct long centuries ago. Jude set forth the destruction of these cities as an example of the fate that awaited the licentious apostates of his day. The term unquenchable may be similarly understood. Jeremiah predicted that God would kindle a fire in the gates of Jerusalem that would not be quenched (Jer 17:27). This prediction was fulfilled when the city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (ch 52:12, 13; cf. Neh 1:3). Obviously that fire is not burning today. Clearly the meaning is that it would not be quenched but would thoroughly destroy.
Although aioµnios fire denotes fire that is effectively destructive, the expression also implies that the fire will endure for a time (see Everlasting). This is consonant with the teaching that hell will be a place of punishment (Mt 25:41, 46; 2 Pe 2:9), and that there will be degrees of punishment. Christ comes to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev 22:12). The servant who knew his lords will, and prepared not himself
shall be beaten with many stripes, whereas the servant who did not know his lords will, and committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes (Lk 12:47, 48). The punishment is described as much more severe than the death penalty anciently inflicted in the Jewish economy (Heb 10:28, 29, 31). So, although hells fires will eventually annihilate the wicked (Mt 10:28), it is obvious that the destruction is not instantaneous. See Death.
Tartarooµ, to cast into Tartarus, is used only once (2 Pe 2:4). According to the Greeks and to Jewish apocalyptic literature Tartarus was a place lower than Hades where divine punishment was meted out. Peter uses the term to describe the place where the rebellious angels were cast (cf. Jude 6).
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