Monday, June 17, 2024

"Asleep"

"When He comes to give reward to His people, and when He calls for them, they, all that are dead, are found in the grave: "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28,29
Therefore the Bible answer to this question is plainly that he is in the grave.

Q: But what is his condition there? 
A: Let us read a verse from Job again: "Man gives up the ghost,
and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up; so man lies down, and rises not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep
.
" (Job 14:10-12) This shows that man, when he dies, is asleep. 
Again, Job says that if he had died when he was an infant, "now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept; then had I been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth.… There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master." (Job 3:13-19)

In the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, twenty-five times is the record made of their deaths, "He slept with his fathers."

Not to multiply texts, we again turn to the Word of Christ. Lazarus
was sick. Jesus and His disciples were some distance away, and Lazarus died. Jesus said: "Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said the disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spoke of his death; but they thought that He had spoken of taking rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." (John 11:11-14) Here are the Words of Christ: "Lazarus sleeps;" "Lazarus is dead."

 Therefore the plain Word of Christ is that when a man is dead he is asleep." 
A.T. Jones