97: The Sleep of the Dead (Kingdom of God 6)

What happens when you die? Is there an intermediate state? What does the bible teach about the dead before resurrection? These questions are important for our study of the kingdom of God.  If you go straight to heaven when you die, you’re not going to care very much about what happens when Jesus returns.  You may find it marginally interesting, but it’s what’s next for you.  In this way, the doctrine of heaven-at-death eclipses Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom.  However, as it turns out, the bible teaches that the dead are asleep until the resurrection on the last day.  In this lecture you’ll learn the primary texts that support conditional immortality and you’ll see how this Hebrew notion compares to what other cultures and religions say about the afterlife.

This is lecture 6 of the Kingdom of God class, originally taught at the Atlanta Bible College.  To take this class for credit, please contact ABC so you can do the work necessary for a grade.

Notes:

difference between conditional immortality and natural immortality

• natural means immortality is part of nature
• conditional means immortality is conditioned on God giving it

death is sleep (sleep = not awake)

• RIP = rest in peace

sleep is the dominant metaphor the bible uses to talk about death

• David slept with his fathers
  • 1 Kings 2.10 10 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.
• Solomon slept with his fathers
  • 1 Kings 11.43 43 And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
• Jeroboam slept with his fathers
  • 1 Kings 14.20 20 And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. And he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
• death is lying down, quietly in sleep, and at rest
  • Job 3.11, 13-14, 17, 19 11 “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?…13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest, 14 with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves…17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest…19 The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.
• the dead know nothing and do nothing
  • Ecclesiastes 9.5, 10 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten…10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
• no remembrance or praise of God in sheol
  • Psalm 6.4-5 4 Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.  5 For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?
• help me or else I’ll sleep the sleep of death
  • Psalm 13.3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
• the dead do not praise the LORD
  • Psalm 115.17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.
• breath [ruach/spirit] departs, return to earth, plans perish
  • Psalm 146.3-4 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.
• Jesus calls Lazarus asleep when he is dead
  • John 11.11-14 11 After saying these things, he said to them, R