PAST COLUMN #13

From the West Meadow
By Pastor Wesley Higgins

Death–some have called it the “great unknown mystery”. What is it? What happens when we die? Can we ever know? Some people claim to be able to communicate with the dead: is this possible?

Man has been speculating about death for millennia, never coming up with the answer by himself--but the knowledge has always been available to us from our Creator. There is only one true source for knowledge that goes beyond what we can discern from our physical senses. Proverbs 1:7 tells us “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” and John 17:17 says “your word is truth.”

So what happens in death? Is there knowledge and communication? Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 gives the straight answer. “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing...whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going”. That’s quite plain. If the dead know nothing, and there is no device, or knowledge, or wisdom in the grave, then there is no communication from the grave. There is no communication with the living; neither do the dead have communication with God. “For in death there is no remembrance of You (God); In the grave, who will give You thanks?” (Psalms 6:5)

But this isn’t the whole story. God’s word also reveals that death is a temporary step in God’s plan of life. Job states, “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come” (Job 14:14). The apostle Paul declares, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed–in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O Hades (grave), where is your victory?...But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:51-57)

So we see that God’s Word is quite plain on the subject of death. When you’re dead, you’re dead; “you don’t know nothin’”, you can’t communicate with anyone on earth or in heaven. We return to dust from which we are made–see Ps. 103L:14-18. But the good news is that the Bible also reveals death is but a temporary state in the road to life everlasting. Jesus said ‘ “I have come that they may have life (John 10:10). But more on that another time.

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