4. What happens to us when we die

WHY THE QUESTION ARISES:
Most of the world’s religions teach that something inside a person continues living after death. Some hold that the dead can harm the living or that God punishes the wicked by condemning them to eternal torment in a fiery hell. Do you remember the conversation in the Garden in Eden between a serpent and Eve? It is quoted for us at Genesis 3:1-5. Let me quote this for you directly from the Bible. Here it says: 1 "Now the serpent proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that Jehovah God had made. So it began to say to the woman: “Is it really so that God said YOU must not eat from every tree of the garden?” 2 At this the woman said to the serpent: “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. 3 But as for [eating] of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘YOU must not eat from it, no, YOU must not touch it that YOU do not die.’” 4 At this the serpent said to the woman: “YOU positively will not die. 5 For God knows that in the very day of YOUR eating from it YOUR eyes are bound to be opened and YOU are bound to be like God, KNOWING good and bad." If man or any portion of man exists alive in any form, in any place after death, then Satan told the truth and God was a liar.



WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES:
At death, humans cease to exist. “The dead . . . are conscious of nothing at all,” states Ecclesiastes 9:5. Since the dead cannot know, feel, or experience anything, they cannot harm—or help—the living.—Psalm 146:3-4. Genesis 3:19 and Ecclesiastes 9:6- 10.


WHY THE QUESTION ARISES:
We want to live, and we want to enjoy life with those we love. It is only natural that we yearn to see our dead loved ones again.


IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR THE DEAD? & WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH?:
Most people who have died will be resurrected. Jesus promised that “those in the memorial tombs will . . . come out.” (John 5:28, 29) In harmony with God’s original purpose, those resurrected as humans will have the opportunity to live on a paradise earth. (Luke 23:43) This promised future includes perfect health and everlasting life for obedient humans. The Bible says: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”—Psalm 37:29 Job 14:14-15; Luke 7:11-17; and Acts 24:15.