Where do we as Seventh-day Adventists, stand when it comes to death?
With over seven billion people on this earth, endless truths and beliefs have developed, establishing a foothold in our heavily, influential media. As the remnant church, it is crucial we know the gospel truth. In saying this, my small group from Dandenong Filipino-Australian Church decided to meet up to tackle the uncertainties that revolve around death.
The first question we delved into was, ‘does man have an immortal soul?’ Romans 6:23 tells us of how the wages of our sin is death, 1 Timothy 6:16 continues, telling us of how God “alone is immortal” diminishing the speculations of ‘human immortality”.
As we progressed into our bible study, we continued to learn through Psalms 146:4, that when an individual dies, the spirit given by God (the breath of life) departs from them. The remaining corpse rests “in silence” (Psalms 115:17) as it returns to the dust in which it was created (Genesis 2:7). Just as a car engine needs fuel to run, we as humans NEED God’s breath of life in order to be alive and to function. If you really think about it, the breath of life is what enables all human functions. It is that ‘spark of life’ that science will forever fail to explain and recreate; life comes from God and God alone, without the breath of life, we are nothing but dust.
Jesus describes death as a slumber in John 11:11-13. In slumber, an individual knows nothing of their environment, this same feature is shared in death as the “dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5). The bible continues to proclaim that the dead “…never again will have part in anything that happens under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:6).
A large portion of humanity believes in the ability of the dead taking the form of ghosts. These ghosts are supposedly haunting houses to which they previously lived in and observing us without being seen. Looking for answers, we opened Job 7:9-10 which explicitly states that those who go down into the grave do not return, “…he will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.”
Spirits and ghosts do indeed exist; however, they are not of the dead. Lucifer was cast from heaven with a third of heaven’s angels, if any haunting were to occur, it is the Devil’s work. Until the Messiah returns, the dead remain dead! Those who are in their graves when he comes, “…will hear his voice and come out — those who have done what is good will rise to live”. (John 5:28-29).
The tragic death of Gianna and Kobe Bryant continues to stun the world as they lost their lives in the unforeseeable helicopter crash. The world responded with overwhelming love and support for the Bryant family, along with the other families affected by the crash. Social media also responded stating that Kobe is in heaven watching over them but through the few verses my small group and I studied, we know that this is not true. But there is hope!
The coming of our Lord and Saviour draws near and those who choose to follow him will be saved, dead or alive! “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain…” (Revelation 21:4)
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33).
Big special thanks to Gideon Adebayo for inspiring this bible study and to Eden Madebo, Ellen Schwalger, Glonaida Quiapon and Isaac Richards for joining me in this worthwhile discussion of death.