"The Divine Aristocracy" - Thanatology (page 6 of 18)

Thanatology

Ecclesiastes 9:5:

"For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten."

The only reward that an unsaved person will receive is what they can get out of this world, which will be over before they know it.

What does it mean that the dead know nothing? It is amazing to me how many Christians ask me what happens when we die. Studying the subject of death in the Bible is called thanatology, from the Greek word “thanos”. (We're thinking of doing a conference on this subject.) When you die, will you go to be with the Lord, or will you go to sleep? Well, time as we know it exists only relative to us. In eternity, there is “chromos”, from which we get the word “chronology”; it means an order of events outside time. What most of us are inclined to do is to think of eternity as a clock that keeps going forever. We translate the Greek term “kairos” and the Hebrew term “olama olamin” as “forever and ever”, but their meaning is not exactly that, although it does include that. It is not a clock that continues “forever and ever”, but rather the absence of any clock at all.

The Bible talks about the deaths of Christians as sleep for two reasons: First, when you go to sleep, you wake up again. The next thing a person knows after they have fallen asleep is that they are waking up, just as Christians who have died or “fallen asleep” before Christ comes will arise at the Resurrection having been unaware of the time that passed between their earthly death and the Resurrection event. Relative to us, relative to time, those who have died in Christ are asleep and awaiting the Resurrection. They are unconscious of anything that is going on in this world.

The second reason the Bible uses the illustration of sleep is this: a person's consciousness enters a different realm while they sleep. Neurophysiologists tell us that everybody dreams. They derive this information from observing brain wave activity, eyes flickering, etc. In a dream, it is possible to talk to and be with people who are dead as if they are alive again, and it makes sense in the context of the dream. It is possible to see past events happening in the present. It is also possible to dream of future events which have not yet happened. Somehow, the past, present, and future can all be the same in a dream. You have chronos, a chronology of events, but no time.

Think of what happens to John in the book of Revelation: he enters eternity and sees the 24 elders in Revelation 4, who are the 12 patriarchs of Israel and the 12 apostles. He, of course, is one of these apostles and elders, and so sees himself in eternity. Another example from Scripture is the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world; outside of time. Scripture tells us that we are already seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6) – part of our problem is that we do not see ourselves from an eternal perspective, the way Ephesians describes it. We are already the aristocracy. When we die, we enter eternity, which is a different realm. Therefore, relative to the one who dies, he is with the Lord. But relative to this realm, this earth, the next thing that one will be aware of is the Resurrection.

Part of the problem with Calvinism is that they try to apply time to eternity. Because Calvinism is based on humanism, Calvinists try to figure things out intellectually which can only be comprehended intellectually to a certain point. They like to emphasize that we're predestined – well, of course, because relative to eternity every choice has already been made. Do I believe in eternal security? Yes, because we are already seated with Christ in heavenly places; in eternity it's already happening. I believe in eternal security as the Bible teaches it. But once saved always saved? No – relative to us it is a variable. Again, this is a thing we can only understand to a certain point.

In England we call American football “gridiron”; it's not so popular, though some people like it. I, however, prefer a game called rugby. So when I have to speak at a church and there's a rugby match on, I try to get someone to videotape it for me. (I do NOT like it when people tell me the scores, which has happened to me twice.) Then, when I get home, I watch the match. Relative to the players, the match is a done deal; it's over. I, however, can be just as involved in the game after the fact (as long as nobody tells me something they shouldn't) as if I were watching it in real time. Relative to me, the match is still going on and can go either way. Our relationship to time and eternity is something like that; to try explaining it any further is beyond me – that is the most the Bible tells us.

'The dead know nothing'; they are asleep. When people are asleep or comatose, they are unaware of the events around them, but that is not to say that they don't have any consciousness: their consciousness has simply entered a different realm. Those, then, are the two reasons the Bible uses sleep as an illustration of what death is like for believers.

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