Answering the question of what death is, should not be difficult. If we look it up in various dictionaries, we get definitions such as: the state that occurs when life ends, deceased, no longer alive, etc. Wikipedia describes it a bit more extensively:
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism.
absence of life
Death is nothing in itself, but it describes the absence of something: death is the absence of life. Just as darkness is the absence of light. When a person dies and dies, that is the cessation of life.
misunderstanding
And with that, the question of what death is could be answered. We could discuss countless verses from Scripture where this is confirmed and we will do so. But there is a widespread misunderstanding regarding death. In general, people teach that death is not really death. Man would have an immortal soul and when he closes his eyes on earth, he opens his eyes again elsewhere.
This idea prevails in all religions, including the Christian one. But this is also often the idea outside of religion. People do have a feeling ’that there must be something’ after this life. There are also people who do not believe in ‘a god’, but do talk to their deceased relatives. But also think of expressions such as: he is now a star in the sky.
the Christian version
The Christian interpretation of this is that things are said about the deceased such as ‘he now rejoices before God’s throne’, that he ‘has been taken up into heavenly glory’, ‘is now in a better place’, etc. All these statements insinuate that death is not really death, but a continuation of life. Where this comes from and what consequences these ideas about death have, I want to discuss in the following blogs.
Because what does the Bible say about the state of the dead? In order to give as clear a picture as possible of what death is, we will have to look at quite a few Bible passages about which there are misunderstandings. For example: what happened to Enoch and Elijah? What is the parable of the poor man and Lazarus about, is that a description of the state of the dead? What did Jesus say to the murderer on the cross? Did Saul speak to a dead Samuel at the soothsayer of Endor? And: what is the second death? Etc.,