Man's View Of Death
Ecclesiastes 9:5 says, “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”
Many religions in the world falsely teach that once a person dies, the soul is unconsciously sleeping in the grave. Some don’t even believe in a bodily resurrection, just like the Sadducees (Mk 12:18). They ignore the plain teaching of the Bible concerning death (Heb 9:27)! Solomon, the preacher and writer of Ecclesiastes (Ecc 1:1), gives us a vivid illustration of the vanity or futility of life (Ecc 1:14), when viewed from the human perspective (Ecc 9:9). The phrase “under the sun” (v. 6), which is repeated 27 times in this book, is an expression that is applied to all earthly objects.
It describes man’s thinking and “all the works that are done under the sun” (Ecc 1:14), or done in this world. Therefore, if we look at things from our own viewpoint, it does appear that when people die, they “know not any thing.” They lie in the grave unconscious and “the memory of them is forgotten.” However, the Bible teaches that “God formed man of the dust of the ground” (Gen 2:7), and when a person dies, the body “turn to dust again” (Ecc 3:20). The “the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc 12:7).
The soul of a person who have trusted Jesus as Lord and Saviour by faith (Rom 10:9), shall immediately go in the presence of God in Heaven after death (2 Cor 5:8). But those who reject Him and remain lost at death shall lift up their eyes in hell (Lk 16:23); and there will be no escape from that terrible place (Lk 16:26), for they “shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Mt 25:46). Lost folks who are still alive don’t have to end up in hell and away “from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thes 1:9). God is gracious, merciful, and longsuffering (2 Pet 3:9). There is still time for them to repent and be saved! God bless you!
- Pastor Melito Barrera
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