The First Death

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* Before the fall

Genesis 2:16-17 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”

Genesis 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

* After the fall

Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Genesis 4:10-11 Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground. Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

Genesis 5:5 All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, then he died.

The Sleep of Death

Psalm 13:3
Look on me and answer, O Yahweh my God. Give light to my eyes, or
I will sleep in death;

1 Kings 2:10
So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

1 Kings 11:43
And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father

* 22 other Israelite kings “slept” with their fathers when their lives ended.

Matthew 9:23-26
When Yeshua entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.

John 11:11-15
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."
His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." Yeshua had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

Acts 7:59-60
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:16-20
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:51-54
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Yeshua died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Yeshua those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

* The first death is called sleep because the dead are unconscious for a time, but will wake up once again at the resurrection. Every living person spends long periods of time unconscious while sleeping. Is it so difficult to imagine that dead people spend their time in the grave unconscious? Is it difficult to imagine that from their individual perspective the resurrection will happen an instant after they die? Dead people do not see the time passing as the living people do. They can’t – they’re sleeping.

The dead are NOT conscious.

Psalm 6:4-5
Turn, O Yahweh, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.
No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?

Psalm 30:9
"What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

Psalm 88:5
I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care.

Psalm 94:17
Unless Yahweh had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

Psalm 146:3-4 (NASB)
Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; In that very day his thoughts perish.

Ecclesiasties 9:5-6
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

Ecclesiasties 9:10
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Isaiah 38:18-19
For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today;

* The dead (both saved and condemned) cannot: remember God, praise God, sing praise to God, hope for God’s faithfulness, or have feelings of emotion. Living people are capable of these things, not the dead.

What do the dead tell us?

2 Kings 13:21
Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

John 11:43-44
When he had said this, Yeshua called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Yeshua said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Matthew 27:50-53
And when Yeshua had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Yeshua' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

Acts 9:36-42
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!"

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

Acts 20:9-12
Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!" Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

* Our Creator brought many mortal people back from the grave to spend more time here among the living. There is complete silence in the scripture about a first hand witness of paradise, the bosom of Abraham, or of heaven. There is no message relayed from other dead people that they met and talked with during their time in the grave. If you had some fantastic conscious experience while your were dead, wouldn’t you be compelled to tell someone? Don’t you think that at least one such witness would be recorded in scripture? I admit that an argument based on silence is not a great argument, but it is an argument.

* Additionally, the living people in the bible never indicate that dead people are doing something that living people do.

John 11:21-26
"Lord," Martha said to Yeshua, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." Yeshua said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Yeshua said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Are the dead with Yeshua?

* Let’s consider the experience of a person who dies with saving faith in Yeshua. If the dead have no memory and no conscious recognition of time, then the second coming of Christ will arrive in an instant. One minute they remember having their last mortal thought, and the next minute they are joyfully surprised by the glorious return of our Savior. They drink in the fact that the resurrection of the dead in Christ has occurred! The resurrection happens in the twinkling of an eye from each person’s individual perspective in time. It is just the same as morning coming in the twinkling of an eye after we fall asleep at night. We do not perceive or recognize the time that passes while we are unconscious and we do not know what is going on around us during that time.

2 Corinthians 5:8
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21-24
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

* These two statements from Paul specify two separate things in one sentence. Do not assume that these two things are joined absolutely in time. Look at what Paul says:

	I desire	to	depart	and	be with Christ
	I prefer	to be	away from the body	and	at home with the Lord.
*	I desire	to be	away from California	and	at home with my family in Indiana.

* Fulfilling the first part of these three statements can take place at a much earlier time than the fulfillment of the second part. Paul planned to meet the Lord at the first resurrection.

1 Thessalonians 4:17
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Luke 23:43
Yeshua answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

* Hebrew has no punctuation. This verse could have an error with the comma location. Our Savior could be saying: I tell you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise. The word “today” is indicating when he is telling the truth. This was a saying of the time used to indicate that the speaker was saying something meaningful and something that could be trusted. Look at the following examples.

Deuteronomy 26:3
and say to the priest in office at the time, "I declare today to Yahweh your God that I have come to the land Yahweh swore to our forefathers to give us."

Deuteronomy 30:16
For I command you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

Deuteronomy 5:1
[ The Ten Commandments ] Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, O Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them.

Acts 20:26
Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men.

In conclusion

1 Corinthians 15:16-19
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

* Paul explains that the resurrection of the dead is our hope. Without a resurrection the dead are already lost. Without resurrection, we only have a hope of being blessed by Yahweh while we live out our earthly life. Paul claims that would be a pitiful existence. Paul gives no third option of living without our bodies in heaven.

Death is bad news. It is the absence of life. It is the end of our existence unless we are brought back to life by the power of Yahweh. The good news is that the dead in Christ will wake up when Yeshua returns from heaven. That moment will come an instant after they die – FROM THEIR OWN PERSPECTIVE. Living people who are conscious and awake can perceive the passage of time. All those who sleep, both the dead and the living, cannot. It’s that simple.

Any comments or questions accepted.