n2thelight, your personal logic is getting in the way of a “thus sayeth the Lord”. The Bible clearly states the reason why the living will not precede those who are asleep/dead is because both the righteous living and dead are “
gathered up together” to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thess. 4:16,17)
Your current understanding is creating an internal conflict within these texts. That is a sign your understanding is incorrect because the Bible never contradicts itself. Truth is understood when we discover the harmony of the sum of all the parts as it pertains to any subject.
I will provide you with a portion of a bible study on the condition of man in death. I ask that you consider it prayerfully. If you can except this information you then will find harmony within the texts given throughout the Bible as it speaks to the issue of death.
Spirit Returns to God
“And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit [
ruach]
returns to God who gave it.” (
Ecclesiastes 12:7, insertion mine.) Some people use this text to prove that the spirit of man, something intelligent returns to God at the time of death.
Advocates of the external soul reason that when the body and the spirit are separated, the spirit (or “ruach”) returns to God who gave it. The Hebrew word “ruach” means wind or breath. Notice how this word is translated a few verses earlier:
“As you do not know the path of the wind [ruach]
, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” (
Ecclesiastes 11:5)
The ruach of the righteous, as well as the ruach of the wicked, returns to God at death! The text is clear on this point: The “breath of life” is a gift from God to all people at birth and the “breath of life” [ruach] returns to God who gave it when we die, regardless of our moral behavior!
Job’s use of the word “ruach” helps clarify the meaning even further. He says,
“As long as I have life within me, the breath [ruach]
of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak deceit.” (
Job 27:3,
4 [KJV]) An unrefined translation of Job’s comment might read, “As long as I have life within me and the breath from God in my nose, my lips will not speak lies.”
Neither Solomon nor Job used the word “ruach”
to mean a conscious spirit roaming the heavens. King David also knew that death brought an end to consciousness. He said,
“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit [
nephesh]
departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” (
Psalms 146:3,
4)
The Hebrew word “nephesh” also means breath. This word is used many times in the Bible to describe the breath of living creatures. Notice:
“And the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath [nephesh]
of life, and man became a living being.” (
Genesis 2:7)
Concerning the flood, the Bible says,
“Everything on dry land that had the breath [nephesh]
of life in its nostrils died.” (
Genesis 7:22, insertion mine.)
King David believed the dead were in their graves and not in Heaven praising the Lord. He said,
“It is not the dead who praise the Lord, those who go down to silence; it is we [the living]
who extol the Lord . . . .” (
Psalm 115:17,
18, insertion mine.)
The Apostle Peter also confirmed this point. On the day of Pentecost he spoke about King David saying,
“Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day . . . For David did not ascend to heaven . . . .” (
Acts 2:29,
34)
Solomon leaves no room for doubt regarding this topic. He explains the state of man in death very clearly. He said that the dead are unaware of anything that occurs on Earth. He wrote,
“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.” (
Ecclesiastes 9:5,
6)
Jesus Called Death “Sleep”
Many Christians do not correctly understand man’s condition in death. Thirteen times in the New Testament, death is called
sleep. There are two reasons for this: First, death is actually like a sleep. (See
John 11:11-14.) There is no awareness in death (or during a good night’s sleep). Second, the first death is temporary (just as sleep is temporary), whereas the second death lasts forever. When Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha died, Jesus referred to Lazarus’ death as sleep. ( John 11.) Why did Jesus refer to Lazarus as being asleep?
For an obvious reason – the death that Lazarus experienced was
temporary, just like sleep is temporary. When we sleep deeply, we are unaware of our surroundings. However, sleep does not last forever. Think of the “resurrection” as a powerful awakening. Every person who lives and dies will live again and God will awaken from their sleep everyone who dies in one of two resurrections. The Bible indicates there are two resurrections – one for the saints and the other for the wicked. The first resurrection occurs at the Second Coming. This means there will be a judgment of human beings
prior to the Second Coming, because Jesus will decide who is righteous and who is not before He comes. Therefore, those judged to be righteous will be resurrected at the Second Coming. (
1 Thessalonians 4:16) The people judged to be wicked will be resurrected at the end of the millennium. (
Revelation 20:5)
This is a critical point: Natural death (the first death) is not the
penalty for sin.
Natural death comes as a consequence of being separated from the Tree of Life. The penalty for sin, however, is death by execution and God will implement the penalty for sin at the end of the millennium. (
Revelation 20:14,
15)
Explained in another way perhaps more clearly, one has to understand how we where formed in the beginning. According to Gen. 2:7, God combined two elements to make a soul, they are the dust of the earth/body and the breath of life/spirit. (Spirit within this contexts is not the Holy Spirit or as many believe a persons intellect that is immortal.)
In death the soul ceases to exist simply because the two elements which are needed to make a soul/living being are separated. Thus the soul is no more. If this is hard to wrap your mind around think about it in these terms. If you walk into a dark room and want light you turn on the light switch, which allows a electrical current to travel to a light bulb and the union of the electrical current with the light bulb produces the light you seek. When you exit the room and turn off the light switch the electrical current is stoped from uniting with the light bulb and the room returns to darkness.
Did the light leave the room and go to heaven or did it cease to exist? Such is the condition of man in death/sleep until a time when Christ reunites His Spirit/breath of life to all who are asleep in their graves and all will come forth in either the first or second resurrection.
