Objection:
We agree that those who died in Old Testament days remained unconscious in their graves, as the Old Testament Scriptures prove. (See, for example, Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10). But when Christ came, He declared that “whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” John 11:26. That proves that those who believe in Christ do not die in the New Testament times but go direct to heaven. In support of this conclusion is Paul’s declaration that Christ “abolished death” (2 Timothy 1:10), also the repeated statements of Scripture that the Christian now possesses everlasting life.
Answer:
The objector admits that the Old Testament worthies did not go to their heavenly reward at death but are laying silent in the grave. The Scriptural evidence is overwhelming. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the multitude: “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…” Acts 2:29, 34.
But this admission regarding these good men of Old Testament days is fatal to the whole case for the immortal-soul doctrine. Why do most Christian people believe that a Christian goes to heaven at death? Because they believe that there resides within man an immortal soul and that the soul of the man who is a Christian must, of course, go to heaven when the man’s body goes to the grave. Then, we would ask: Did righteous men begin to have immortal souls only at the beginning of the Christian Era? We have never heard that idea set forth seriously by any exponent of the immortal-soul doctrine. But if men had always had immortal souls, what happened to the souls of the holy men of Old Testament times when they died? It is a denial of the whole immortal-soul doctrine to say that the souls of those ancient worthies stayed in the grave! An immortal, conscious entity, the real man, lying in the dust for ages? That idea passes credulity; no one believes it.
We think that the objector should take some definite position, for how can we hope to answer unless we know what he affirms. Suppose he assumes that the Old Testament worthies did have immortal souls, which is the standard teaching of almost all Christendom. In that case, he denies that position by his admission that these worthies “remained unconscious in their graves.” But suppose he affirms that those worthies did not have immortal souls. In that case, the heavy burden of proof rests on him to present clear Scriptural evidence that Christ, when He came to earth, gave to believers from that time onward immortal souls so that instead of remaining “unconscious in their graves,” they go directly to heaven at death. Apparently, he takes this latter view and offers as proof of his position John 11:26.
Before we specifically examine this text, we wish to show that the Bible makes no distinction between the state in death of Old Testament and New Testament holy men. Note this parallel:
Old Testament Saints
“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39, 40.
New Testament Saints
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17.
As regards the Old Testament saints, they must await a future date for their reward, and that date is when all God’s elect are ready. We will receive our reward together.
When Paul writes to the Thessalonian church “concerning them which are asleep,” that they “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13), he was discussing New Testament saints who had died. He does not here teach that their fellow believers who had died—”are asleep”—had gone to meet their Lord. On the contrary, he sought to make clear to them that the righteous living at the last great day would not precede to glory those who “are asleep.” We are to go to our reward together, which is precisely what Paul, in Hebrews, teaches regarding the Old Testament saints in relation to the New Testament ones!
Thus we conclude that there is no difference between Old and New Testament saints regarding the time when they go to heaven. We find reinforcement of this conclusion in the words of John, who thus speaks of Christians in the last days of earth’s history. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” Revelation 14:13. So we come inevitably to the conclusion that whatever Christ was seeking to teach in John 11:26, He was not seeking to tell His followers that beginning then, they, in contrast to the ancient worthies, would escape death, possess an immortal soul, and thus would go to heaven when they die.
Then what was He seeking to tell Martha when He said to her, “Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”? That is not a solitary passage either. We find Him speaking to the Jews, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” John 8:51.
We believe that the explanation is this: When God first placed man on the earth, He warned him against the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and said, “In the day that thou eats thereof thou shall surely die.” Genesis 2:17. Some have wondered how that judgment was fulfilled since Adam lived on for centuries after eating the forbidden fruit. But the reasonable answer is that on the day Adam ate the fruit, he came under the condemnation of death. His fate was there irrevocably fixed. Thus in the sight of God, who declares “the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done” (see Isaiah 46:10), thinking of the ultimate end instead of the relatively brief period before the judgment is executed, Adam could be considered dead the moment he ate the fruit.
It is in this sense that we understand Paul’s words, for example, where he tells the Colossian church that before they accepted Christ, they were “dead” in their “sins” (see Colossians 2:13). Also, his words are descriptive of a lewd woman: “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” 1 Timothy 5:6.
Contrast with these and similar texts, the words of our Lord: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24. Note also the words of John: “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” 1 John 3:14. Then take the words of Paul: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Romans 8:6.
How evident that the Bible writers consider man as being in one or the other of two states, lost or saved, and that moving from one state to the other is passing “from death unto life.”
Add to these Scriptural facts another: The Bible speaks of two deaths and two resurrections. We read the promise: “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” Revelation 2:11. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power…” Revelation 20:6. But this is simply another way of saying that the first death does have power, even over the righteous. The “second death” is the death suffered by those cast “in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” Revelation 21:8.
The first death brings all men to the grave on earth, where all sleep until they are resurrected at the end of time—the righteous in the first resurrection, the wicked in the second. Christ describes the first as the “resurrection of life,” the second as the “resurrection of damnation.” Obviously, then, the first death is, as it were, a “sleep,” for there is a sure awakening. (See Daniel 12:2). But not so with the second death, which brings wicked men into the lake of fire, that burns them up so that there is left of them “neither root nor branch.” (See Malachai 4:1).
That is why the Bible, when speaking of the righteous of all ages, declares, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” Such persons “die in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13), they “sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and come forth in the first resurrection to dwell eternally with their Lord.
But the wicked, “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), dwell under “condemnation” of death (John 5:24); they are dead even while they live (1 Timothy 5:6); they go down into Christless graves, rise in the second resurrection to receive judgment, and go down in the second death (Revelation 21:8).
When we see Christ’s statement in John 11:26 in this setting, we have no difficulty understanding it. We do not have to give His words a strained interpretation. We do not have to make ourselves believe the un-Scriptural idea that there is a difference between Old and New Testament saints. We do not have to reject the evidence of our senses and claim that when the Christian goes down into the grave, he really goes to heaven. We understand Christ to mean that those who accept His proffered salvation are freed from the penalty of death that hangs over all men and will never suffer that “second death,” which is death in the ultimate sense of the word, for there is no return from it. Indeed, the “second death” is the opposite of eternal life, which is the gift given to the Christian. Of the one who has eternal life or everlasting life, it can be said that the “second death” has no power over him.
Christ declared to the unbelieving Jews, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John 5:40. But the Christian has accepted Christ, who is life, into his heart. That is why he has everlasting life abiding in him. When the Christian dies, he commends to God his life, as did the martyr Stephen, then sleeps in Jesus against the day of the “resurrection of life.” Such a one never truly sees or experiences death. He encounters only a little time of sleep.
Adam Clarke, Methodist theologian, in his commentary, says this in a comment on the phrase “shall never die” in John 11:26:
“Or, Shall not die for ever. Though he die a temporal death, he shall not continue under its power for ever; but shall have a resurrection to life eternal.”
In the light of the preceding, Paul’s statement that Christ “abolished death” (2 Timothy 1:10) may most naturally be understood to mean this: Christ, having risen from the grave, has the victory over death, and has provided thereby absolute assurance that it will be abolished. Paul clarifies that the actual abolition of death awaits the second coming of Christ when the righteous dead are raised. Then it is that “death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54.
Compare Paul’s words with John’s description of the final consuming fires that are to burn up every trace of sin: “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Revelation 20:14. Then, and not until then, will death truly be “abolished.” Christ’s resurrection made certain the abolition of death, even as it ensured the resurrection of all who have died in Christ. But even as the resurrection of the righteous awaits the end of the world, even so, the abolition of death awaits that tremendous hour.
