The Dead.

Ecc_9:5  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.

We think the memory of our dead loved ones will go on forever, but the truth is, they will be forgotten and we too will be forgotten- just wait a few generations and they're gone. 

Can you tell me you honestly have vivid memories passed down of more than your great grandparents, maybe, just maybe, your great, great grandparents?  Yet there have been many generations prior to those great grandparents, now… forgotten.   The memory of them is truly forgotten.  The dead, truly do know not any thing,  and truly have no more rewards.  

So why have we succumbed to the lies that the dead are alive?

Satan came up with that lie when he enticed Eve to sin. Remember--

Gen 3:4  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die

And did she die?

Wait, before you answer, 'No. She kept living.'  is she still alive today?

Absolutely not.

Unless you are caught up in Satan's deception and believe that when her body ceased to function she kept on living in another manner.

If you believe the living do not truly die, but transform you cannot ever say that anyone dies, really dies- knowing nothing as our Bible teaches.

If we merely lose the ability to live inside flesh and bones, but live on with a knowledge of all we've ever known while in our body, that's not death, that's transformation.

And transformation is what the majority of the world have come to believe. Their loved ones are merely transformed from body-living to spirit-living on another plane of existence so that we cannot really communicate with them easily, though many try and some believe they've succeeded.  Because people believe in this transformation- and not Biblical death- they talk to their spiritually transformed loved ones. Not only do they talk to them, they do so truly believing that spiritually transformed loved ones can hear them and know all they are saying. In fact the spiritually transformed love one has access to everything in their new form and know even the thoughts of those they've left behind untransformed as yet. Those spiritually transformed loved ones have joined all the other spiritually transformed from the first person to lose their flesh and bones, to the most current to do so.

Satan has honed his deception that death means transformation, to perfection, and the whole world is all but caught up in that deception.

They say goodbye to their loved one bodies all the while living under the belief that loved one is in a better place, better than this world in a newly transformed life.  They want to believe this because it's what they want to believe will happen to them too when their body no longer functions, they want to transform.

So all those who believe in transformation explain this-

Ecc_9:5  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.

And this-

Psa_6:5  For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

Psa_88:11  Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

Ecc_9:10  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Joh_11:17  Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. 

Lazarus hadn't transformed- if he had, why in the world would Jesus take that transformation away from him and make him return to his body? Talk about cruel!

Are all those verses, lies? Is there knowledge for those who have been put in the grave? Why aren't there great books of the Bible, entire chapters, plentiful verses speaking about our transformation upon body death? Why doesn't it say - that body will never do a thing again, but you will continue to think and praise, and worship, and work in a new form?  Why?  If this is something to be desired, if DEATH if merely a transformation why would it be something unwanted?!?!?!?!?!

Remember this--

Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

So, what? If man merely transforms upon their dying, why would it matter? Why wouldn't God want us to eat of that tree and die so we could live in a better existence? 

These are questions that NEED answering because SATAN is going to deceive all but the very elect, and if we are among the deceived we die eternally, we become non-existent, no transformation at all whatsoever in any way, shape, or form except to ash and then nothingness.

'Thou shalt surely die.'  Was NOT an encouragement.

Even those who believe in this instant transformation don't seem to be clamoring for its happening to them any time soon. We go to great lengths to keep ourselves alive.  Why because most people have a smidgen of doubt as to whether they really transform upon their body's end. Oh, they might go on and on about their happy loved ones in heaven, but somewhere deep down they're not all that sure about what exactly goes on after that last breath is taken, and that last heartbeat is beat.

Satan told Eve she would not surely die. 

God told Adam that he would surely die.

Who do you want to believe?

Death isn't something to be encouraged about. Dying is an ending of all chance to choose Salvation. The choice you've made while living is the choice you are left with.  Dying means no more praising God. Dying means no more thinking. Dying means no more knowledge at all whatsoever, all knowledge gone.  Dying is just what Jesus said it was--

Joh 11:11  These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Joh 11:12  Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

Joh 11:13  Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.

Joh 11:14  Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

Death is a sleep.  All thoughts gone. You don't praise anyone in your sleep. You don't have knowledge while you are sleeping, there is a nothingness you experience during those hours. Even if you say you dream, there is still a lot more time spent in the nothingness than in the dreaming. Death is a sleep, not a transformation into an awake, aware, knowledge filled being- at least not until Christ returns. 

1Th_4:16  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.

Those dead are rising, yes?  They aren't being pulled from their spirit transformed existence, but being called to rise from the graves. So, if they aren't still in that sleep state- a spiritual sleep state from bodies long decayed- what exactly is rising from the grave?

And what about this--

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

When does this transformation take place?

At the last trump.

We just read the verse above-- 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.

This is what the Bible teaches, this is what God teaches.

What a blessing it is for us to know that our dead loved ones are SLEEPING peacefully. They aren't alive in some spirit changed form knowing all that goes on with our lives, and they aren't being tortured unmercifully, unendingly in a lake of fire and brimstone. They are SLEEPING in PEACE, they really are RESTING in PEACE, not awake anywhere at all whatsoever. They have no more thoughts, all thinking is done.  When Christ comes if they are His as determined by whether or not they've chosen to be God's, truly chosen in all God's truth, they will then rise from that sleep and be transformed in the twinkling of an eye. They will once more have knowledge, and the first thought upon their waking will be of their SAVIOR!

PRAISE GOD FOR HIS LOVE!

Praise God for His amazing TRUTH!

Bless us with understanding, Your understanding!  Bless us with truth, Your truth!

All in Your amazing LOVE, Your mercy, Your forgiveness!