This dear girl had not been properly instructed for the Bible teaches that the dead do know something. They are very conscious. You see, God cre ated you and me for eternal con scious existence. Never accept the false theory that the dead know not anything. These cultists have simply built a doctrine on the part of the text. They have wrested a text from its context and built upon it a false system of error. This is the devil’s lie. The devil would like you to be lieve that your soul sleeps and you are unconscious throughout eternity. It is not so. We need to consider in our next message some of the plain and posi tive Scriptures on this subject. At this moment, however, without wait ing any longer, will you receive by faith God’s gracious truth, revealed in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Any one of us could die before turn ing the next page. May I solemnly warn you that if you have never been born again, you should come to Christ at once. Confess that you are a sinner. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let God save your soul. P art II T here are some very plain and helpful Scriptures in the Word of God concerning life after death. In Philippians 1 :21 Paul says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Here is an inspired statement that is true. The unsaved man, in his right mind, does not consider death to be gain. To him, death brings a sting, according to I Cor. 15:55-56. Through fear of death, he is all of his lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:15). Why should he fear death if this would end all? Death is an enemy to the unregenerated; it’s a terror (Job 24:17). For the Chris tian, death simply means to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better (Phil. 1:23). Another plain Scripture is found in Rev. 14:13, “And I heard a voice
apart from the revelation of God. Every Christian knows that such a conclusion is false. Of all the false reasonings of the natural man, one statement in the book of Ecclesiastes is the height of folly. See 9:5 in which we read, “The dead know not anything.” False cultists such as Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others, have seized this lie and have built their erroneous theory of soul sleep upon it. These perplexing scrip tures don’t teach us about the condi tions of the dead. They show us how far wrong a man can be when he reasons apart from divine revela tion. When Solomon said that the dead know not anything, he was not speaking of the truth. Come to Luke in the New Testament. When the rich man died and went to hades, he was conscious. He was in torment and suffering as he begged and pleaded for mercy. He said, “Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame” (16:24). Did he know any thing? He certainly did. He knew that his brothers were unsaved. He wanted someone to testify to his fam ily before they died. Whenever a man reasons apart from divine rev elation, he always comes to a false conclusion. Many years ago, my wife was in a hospital in the city of Philadel phia. She had undergone major sur gery and had a very lovely nurse. We knew the woman was religious by the way she acted and reacted. One day in the corridor, I asked, “Do you go to church?” I wanted to get to spiritual matters. She said, “Oh, yes, I never miss.” She was so gracious, I inquired, “Where are you going when you die?” She brushed it off nonchalantly, “Oh, I never give that a second thought. Don’t you know that when you’re dead a per son doesn’t know anything?” I won dered where she went to church. 16
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