Thursday, September 13, 2018

Job's Death / "Hell" Question

"If Job was looking to escape the pain and suffering of a trial, why did he ask God to hide him in hell?

To find the answer, we have to unearth the second key to understanding the afterlife:

.....“there is no … knowledge or wisdom in the grave,” but that passage has more to tell
us—specifically, “the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

When Lazarus died in the New Testament, Jesus told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (John 11:11).

Paul explained that King David “fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption” (Acts 13:36).

He also told the Corinthians about 500 believers who had seen the resurrected Jesus Christ—“of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:6).

Over and over biblical authors compare death to a deep sleep. The dead know nothing. They are not aware of anything; they do not feel pleasure or pain. That’s why Job begged God to hide him in Sheol—because there, in the grave, Job would be free of pain and suffering.

....hell—from Sheol in the Old Testament Hebrew and Hades in the New Testament Greek—isn’t the fiery pit of torment many Christians imagine it to be. Those in this hell are simply in a state of unconsciousness, like a deep sleep."
LH&T