Bible Study Who/What is Death?

[ReginaForbes]

1 Corinthians 15:26
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

So here in scripture, death is described as an enemy. As I was searching I was looking for the description of the "Angel of Death" that people say to describe death- and I can't find it! So even I learned something new!

But I was wondering- what exactly IS death? Is it an angel? a fallen one? the devil himself? or simply a personification of a phenomenon that came about after the fall of Adam? Who or What is death??

 

[Malachi]

While death is personified as an "enemy" it is a state of being. There are two deaths in the Bible -- the first death and the second death (Revelation 21:8). The first death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body (Acts 7:59 - 8:2), whereas the second death is the separation of the sinner from God in the eternal Lake of Fire (see also Rev. 20:11-15).

The reason death is the "enemy" is because it bars union and communion with God. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). For the believer, death has no terrors, since to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

 

[Chopper]

A simple explanation Regina is the ending of this life as I know it and the beginning of the next life. I can't have the life that I so long for until this life ends. So, death to me is a relief from sin, an aging body and so on. Death then is my friend. An enemy? Yes, it robs God of reaching an unsaved one from ever becoming His child, and most unbelievers are afraid of death because they really don't know what awaits them.

 

[Sinthesis]

The messenger of death. What does death communicate to you? As a contrast to life?

 

[Gary]

Death is the absence of Life.

 

[Lewis]

A simple explanation Regina is the ending of this life as I know it and the beginning of the next life. I can't have the life that I so long for until this life ends. So, death to me is a relief from sin, an aging body and so on. Death then is my friend. An enemy? Yes, it robs God of reaching an unsaved one from ever becoming His child, and most unbelievers are afraid of death because they really don't know what awaits them.

Good answer

 

[JohnD]

Commercial theology tends to send us on larks that are not true. While Touched by an Angel's "angel of death" does not exist (certainly not as a benevolent office held by angels) there is (are) destroyer(s). In the Passover (Exodus 12) you read that the LORD says he himself will pass over those who have the blood on the door posts and lintels (prophetic of his own blood on the cross), but in verse 23 it specifically says the destroyer will not come into your houses to smite you.

Revelation 9:11 (KJV)
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Abaddon in Old Testament:
Job 26:6: the grave (Sheol) is naked before Him, and destruction (Abaddon) has no covering.
Job 28:22: destruction (Abaddon) and death say...
Job 31:12: it is a fire that consumes to destruction (Abaddon)...
Psalm 88:11: Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave (Sheol) or thy faithfulness in destruction (Abaddon)?
Proverbs 15:11: Hell (Sheol) and Destruction (Abaddon) are before the LORD, how much more than the hearts of the children of men?
Proverbs 27:20: Hell (Sheol) and Destruction (Abaddon) are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. (KJV, 1611)

The death that is thrown into the Lake of Fire is literal death. Nothing else will ever die again. Death will end.

 

[TimothyW]

1 Corinthians 15:26
"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

So here in scripture, death is described as an enemy. As I was searching I was looking for the description of the "Angel of Death" that people say to describe death- and I can't find it! So even I learned something new!

But I was wondering- what exactly IS death? Is it an angel? a fallen one? the devil himself? or simply a personification of a phenomenon that came about after the fall of Adam? Who or What is death??

I think it really means death. The end of life, the condition of Not Being Alive Anymore. This "enemy" is defeated by God giving us eternal life.

 

[Chopper]

Life is the creation of God. Life and the ceasing of that life is all controlled by the Creator. He giveth, and taketh away. Job 1:20 "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away." The following verse in Exodus 12:23 is about the destruction of the Egyptian first born.

Exodus 12:23 "For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you."

A few writers say that the "destroyer" was an angel, either good or bad, no one knows. They refer to this being as the "Destroying angel" The interesting part of that story was that Jehovah was present giving orders to the destroyer.

When my fist Wife died of cancer, I kept asking the Lord WHY! at one time, He must have been tired of my continual question, He spoke to my heart and said, "I give life and I take it away." That had to be good enough. And it was.

Death? God taking back what He created.

 

[Kathi]

People die because of "original sin' the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

 

[jasonc]

Life is the creation of God. Life and the ceasing of that life is all controlled by the Creator. He giveth, and taketh away. Job 1:20 "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away." The following verse in Exodus 12:23 is about the destruction of the Egyptian first born.

Exodus 12:23 "For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you."

A few writers say that the "destroyer" was an angel, either good or bad, no one knows. They refer to this being as the "Destroying angel" The interesting part of that story was that Jehovah was present giving orders to the destroyer.

When my fist Wife died of cancer, I kept asking the Lord WHY! at one time, He must have been tired of my continual question, He spoke to my heart and said, "I give life and I take it away." That had to be good enough. And it was.

Death? God taking back what He created.

that sounds so jewish.

 

[Edward]

Life is the creation of God. Life and the ceasing of that life is all controlled by the Creator. He giveth, and taketh away. Job 1:20 "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away." The following verse in Exodus 12:23 is about the destruction of the Egyptian first born.

Exodus 12:23 "For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you."

A few writers say that the "destroyer" was an angel, either good or bad, no one knows. They refer to this being as the "Destroying angel" The interesting part of that story was that Jehovah was present giving orders to the destroyer.

When my fist Wife died of cancer, I kept asking the Lord WHY! at one time, He must have been tired of my continual question, He spoke to my heart and said, "I give life and I take it away." That had to be good enough. And it was.

Death? God taking back what He created.

That's the curious thing brother. It's passages like the one you posted, among others, that makes wonder if Death might really have a persona? There are others in scripture also which are referred to in such a way that implies one with a persona, like Wisdom:

Proverbs 1:20
20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:/

It even refers to Wisdom as a female...Interesting.

 

[jasonc]

That's the curious thing brother. It's passages like the one you posted, among others, that makes wonder if Death might really have a persona? There are others in scripture also which are referred to in such a way that implies one with a persona, like Wisdom:

Proverbs 1:20
20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:/

It even refers to Wisdom as a female...Interesting.

ok the glory of god in the Hebrew wording is a female.

 

[Edward]

ok the glory of god in the Hebrew wording is a female.

Yeah, I know that Hebrew does some funny things with genders in words at times, nevertheless, gender aside even, the implication is clear...Wisdom speaks...

And Death, gets thrown into the lake of fire. Not that death just doesn't happen anymore, but literally thrown into the fire, bodily, it sounds like.

 

[Chopper]

that sounds so jewish.

Thanks for the compliment. That's the nicest thing anyone has told me for a long time.

 

[jasonc]

Yeah, I know that Hebrew does some funny things with genders in words at times, nevertheless, gender aside even, the implication is clear...Wisdom speaks...

And Death, gets thrown into the lake of fire. Not that death just doesn't happen anymore, but literally thrown into the fire, bodily, it sounds like.

concept. not a literal being. sheol is a real place and yet also has anthropic words used to describe it. hell hath no fury..

 

[jasonc]

yup, its what they would say.

The world was created with humanity as its focus. This took a full cycle of time: seven days. When creation is reversed and the human soul returns to its source, that, too, is marked with a week's cycle: the Shivah, seven days which the closest relatives devote exclusively to mourning the soul's departure, and the extended family, friends and community comfort them with their presence, their empathy, and their words of consolation.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/282506/jewish/Soul-Talk.htm

 

[Chopper]

That's the curious thing brother. It's passages like the one you posted, among others, that makes wonder if Death might really have a persona? There are others in scripture also which are referred to in such a way that implies one with a persona, like Wisdom:

Proverbs 1:20
20 Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:/

It even refers to Wisdom as a female...Interesting.

What would you describe the persona of death be?

 

[jasonc]

What would you describe the persona of death be?

without really looking at the bible on this, the grim reaper

 

[rthom7]

Its posts everyone, like Chopper's replies that God gives life and takes it again...

Remember when Lucifer and his angels sinned they were kicked out of heaven...

Re 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

But nobody had died yet....

God told Adam the day you eat of this wrong tree you will dying die...the Hebrew word muwth is repeated twice....

The first muwth is called in Scripture a sleep....

The second muwth, is known in Scripture as Sheol, a place of nonexistence....

Notice God demonstrates Himself what Sheol is when Adam and Eve first sinned...

He took animals and clothed them, this might assume they were killed for the very first time....Satan must have been amazed that creatures could die....

Ge 3:21 ¶ Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

So death is when GOD removes his life force from his creation....it's like Him switching off his power on that creation of His...

Notice a living being is dust + breath of God's life force
and a dead being is dust - the life force of God

We learn from scripture this life force is administrated by "ruwach" the wind of the Holy Spirit....

So think of death as a switching off of God's life force within you....

The wicked who experience the second death have the switching off of God's power for eternity, so for them they cease to exist, and so the second death or shoal is really a condition of non-existence.

Hope that helps
Shalom