Paradise. Paul died, and yet he was conscious in Paradise (II Cor. 12:1- 4). The different deaths mentioned in the Bible are conscious states. These scriptures are pertinent. In I Samuel 28 we have the rec ord of Saul’s visit to the witch of Endor. He requested her to call up Samuel from the dead. Surreptitious ly, the woman may have resorted to ventriloquism, according to some Bible teachers. That just isn’t so. Read the account in I Samuel 28:7- 20. The Scripture is positive in its statement that Samuel did speak with Saul. Samuel had died and was buried according to I Samuel 25:1, yet he was conscious. See what the Bible says. When our Lord took up with him, Peter, James and John to the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with them. Moses and Elijah had been with the Lord for centuries. Yet they were both conscious. Read the ac count of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. The rich man died and was buried. In hades he cried and prayed. He was in torment. Cer tainly these verses indicate that he was conscious. He would gladly have repented and changed his ways if he could. Alas, he had sealed his own doom to a conscious eternity in hell. That’s a positive Scripture. The death of a body does not mean non - existence or unconsciousness. The promise of Christ to the dying thief was that he, the dying thief, would be with Jesus that very day in Paradise. That meant that the man would know he was there; that he would know Christ (Lk. 24:43). Let us assume for a moment that I should drop dead this very instant. Apparently there would be those who would be conscious that some thing had happened because my voice would cease to speak and my body no longer would move. “He died,” they would say. Yes, this is true. Why did the voice cease to speak? There is a vocal box in this body. 17
from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” The primary interpretation is a reference to those saints who die in the Great Tribulation. Then it will certainly be far better to die than to live. What is said, however, is applicable to all who have followed the Lord. Whenever the true believ er dies, he is blessed with eternal rest. An unconscious person is not happy. In Christ only does one find rest. When we are absent from this body, we are at home with Him, that celestial and happy rest of eternity. Toil, trial, and tribulation will be for ever ended when our Lord comes. Death in the Bible simply means a separation. There is the separation of the soul or the spiritual part of man from the body, which is the ma terial part. This takes place when the' body dies or ceases to function. This stroke of death must come to every man. By virtue of the solida rity of the human race, no one can escape it. Man dies, yet he is con scious. There is the separation of the believer from the penalty and power of sin by his union with Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:1-7). He is dead to sin’s penalty and power, as well as dead to the world (Gal. 6:14). Still he is conscious. The unbeliever cannot understand the Christian’s indifference to this world’s system and this world’s goods. The answer is death or sep aration from them. The separated Christian is dead, yet conscious. This is the language of the Bible. Every kind of death spoken of in the Bible is a conscious state. Moses was dead, His body having been buried in the land of Moab, yet Moses himself appeared at the trans figuration of our Lord. He was dead yet conscious. When our Lord died, His body was laid in Joseph’s tomb, yet He Himself was conscious in
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