Bible Study on Death
Death is defined in the Bible as simply returning to dust:
God formed man out of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7), and when Adam sinned, God explained death to him by saying “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19).
Ecclesiastes 3:20 says that “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” At death, both the righteous and the wicked go to one place.
This place is the grave, and in it, there is no consciousness: Psalm 6:5 says “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
Death is consistently referred to as sleep in the Bible. A couple examples:
Psalm 13:3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
John 11:11-14 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died…”
A couple of biblical examples that prove that people don’t go to heaven when they die:
Acts 2:29, 34: Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day… For David is not ascended into the heavens…
Daniel 12:13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
In the beginning, God called the creation "good" (Genesis 1:31). Sin has marred God's creation (Genesis 3:17-19, Romans 8:22). After the lake of fire (Revelation 20) has destroyed every vestige of sin, God creates a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21), and everything is good again. The lake of fire has no place on the new earth.
So why do the majority of Christians believe that we go to heaven when we die? Short answer: the Catholic Church. Catholic doctrine became tradition, and Protestant churches have, to differing degrees, failed to root out the unbiblical Catholic traditions they inherited.
