Many verses and words have been presented in this series to show that when one dies he or she goes to a grave and no where else. It is not a popular doctrine because people do not want to believe that they will not live on after drawing their last breath. Yet, that is what the message found in the Bible tells us. God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he became a living being, Genesis 2:7. God told Adam not to eat of that one tree and both he and Eve did with full knowledge they would die if they disobeyed, Genesis 2:17. They believed the serpent when he told them they wouldn’t die. God banished them from the Garden, and as such, they lost their relationship with God, dying spiritually, and at some later point they died physically.

Adam and Eve reveal that two kinds of death, physical and spiritual, occur for every human and the physical death includes Enoch and Elijah. Paul wrote of both in Romans and of physical death he wrote in 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; All includes everyone who lived before Paul wrote those words and all also includes everyone since those words were penned. Then he wrote Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (Romans 5:12) Death is the end for everyone unless Jesus returns before some die and notice that Paul made no exception for anyone to escape physical death.

Then in Romans 7, Paul addressed spiritual death and its solution from verse 4 through 25. Though there are different views of the meaning of those verses, the meaning for those different views isn’t the issue for the subject being discussed. The subject is spiritual death and Paul knew that under the law he was spiritually dead. He asks a question in verse 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Paul knew that not only was he dead spiritually, but physical death was certain. Then he proclaimed the solution in verse 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. With Paul in Christ and Christ in him, he no longer had to try to be saved by observing the law which enabled him to devote his efforts for the service of God. He also knew he had to die and could not change or prevent it and in that a manner, he had to serve the law of sin, the death of the physical body. He wrote the explanation for chapter 7 in Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. ). Paul wrote more glorious words in Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Jesus Christ frees the believer from spiritual death by faith upon obedience to the gospel and physical death when God will raise the believers to immortality by means of the Holy Spirit at the second coming of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:51-57).

Jesus Christ is the salvation of the criminal on the cross and for everyone else who will confess and obey him. Jesus said Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33) Did the one criminal not confess Jesus when he asked him to remember him while he hung on the cross while one of the other two did not? (Luke 23:32-43) The answer Jesus gave the man was confirmation of Matthew 10:32.

There is no biblical evidence that anyone went to heaven prior to the resurrection of the Lord. There is no biblical evidence that there is anyone in heaven with Jesus where he now sits at the right hand of God. There is no biblical evidence that there are disembodied spirits in heaven with Jesus. The evidence in the scriptures is that the dead are in their graves awaiting the second coming. Read all of Hebrews 11 and then take verse 40 to heart: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Pete said, Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher [grave dec] is with us unto this day. (Acts2:29) Not one word that any of them were anywhere but in a grave.

Surely, those who value the truth and want to understand the message of God will do as those of Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. May God guide and bless your effort as you examine the teachings in the series to see if the truth has been presented.  

12-19-2012 DEC

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