JD: Now this past year of the Covid pandemic has probably caused many of us to think more about death than we usually do. Would you not agree?
DJ: Well yes I would. I have to admit that death is certainly something I thought about this year maybe more than previously. We’ve all had loved ones, friends or colleague who have been sick or even died as a result of Covid-19. Apparently a lot of deaths were attributed to the Coronavirus that may or may not have been the actually cause of death. But Covid does seem to have had a significant impact. But even beyond Covid most of us have had someone we know or know of who has died recently but I don’t recall us discussing death too much from a Biblical prospective.
JD: Now let’s get back to the concept of death in the Bible. Remind everybody what exactly is death and what kinds of death does the Bible speak about?
DJ: Well Jimmy I did a search of the New King James version in my Bible software for death and related terms like dead, died, dying, dies and so on and came up with 882 times in the Old Testament and 421 times in the New Testament. All together is over 200 times more than life than related terms are mentioned. Some times death is used metaphorically for example it’s used of faith that has no value in James 2. And Abraham and Sarah’s inability to have children in Romans 4 is talked of in terms of their bodies being dead. Most often its used of physical death and spiritual death. Physical death is when the body stops functioning and the soul departs which Paul refers to in II Corinthians 5:8 when he says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Now spiritual death is our separation from the life of God which began when Adam made of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that’s the condition we’re all born with, trespasses and sin as we read in Ephesians 2. Now the second death is eternal separation from God and conscious suffering in the lake of fire for unbelievers of all of history. We read about this in Revelation 20 concerning the great white throne judgment. Jimmy our eternal destiny is sealed at death. There are no second chances. As Hebrews 9:27 says it is appointed unto men to die once and after this the judgment. So we all must be prepared to die at any moment.
JD: David James, Bible in hand discussing with us the issue of death.
We report this information because it is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
Dave’s Biblical look at death is very thought provoking. Hebrews 9:27 is an absolute man appointed wants to die and then the judgement. A judgement for Christians the judgement seat of Christ and for lost people the great white throne.
