“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:6)
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” (Rev. 20:5)
God does not think like we think, His ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts, there is no such thing relative to our way of thinking to the Lord as a “dead person.”
“Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Eze. 18:4)
There is eternal life and there is eternal death, there is no such thing as soul sleep. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2nd Cor. 5:8)
There is no such thing as the cessation of conciseness, everyone ever born is in the way that we can best describe it, still alive. There are two ways man views life in this regard, breathing, air flowing in and out of the lungs, and brain function, if those cease to exist, in the mind of man, better said in thoughts of unrepentant mankind, life has come to an end. In truth though we who have been blessed to see the truth, understand by faith that existence eternally has just begun.
“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” (Luke 16:23)
No one truly ever dies, the plane of existence changes.
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan. 12:2)
I have met people who hate the Living God, they see Him as a killer of people, of one that holds no qualms about taking the life of many people, and if you have studied the Old Testament you will see, albeit through the eyes of faith, that this is true. The Almighty has not only killed untold numbers of people but has sent those who follow Him out to do the same.
“And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.” (Rev. 16:7)
The people, every person who has ever lived, are still alive, yet not in the manner of what mankind considers life.
“Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” (Matt. 25:41)
“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:” (Gen. 3:22)
There are today in places that no man can see people rejoicing beyond all measure, experiencing pleasures forevermore, living life eternally. There are those in anguish far beyond the ability of mankind to imagine, living in perpetual anguish and hopelessness, in never-ending pain and sorrow. No one truly dies my friends, not in the manner that many conceptualize that word.
Eternal joy awaits those who have trusted in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only means to that eternal life, eternal death awaits those who do not. The second death is the Lake of Fire, those in hell will remain there until the Great White Throne of Judgment, when the Judge of all the world will judge them as they wanted to be judged, by their works, and as Belshazzar heard, they will hear. “TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Dan. 5:27)
Those on that day, along with Satan and all that were cast out with him from heaven, hell and death itself, will be cast into the Lake of Fire. “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:11)
No one truly dies, but few will live forever.
The one who contemplates these truths deeply will understand fully the need to reach out to all they meet with the Gospel, their heart will be turned from stone to flesh, they will beg the Almighty to use them for His glory in this regard, for the truth of Hebrews 9:27 has been revealed to them, and the eternal consequences of it.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Heb. 9:27)
