OK. Here are some examples of the changing and evolving beliefs.
1. All dead go back to earth (Sheol) and stay there. No judgment and no resurrection.
Genesis 3:19
Job 14:10-12
Psalms 146:4
Ecclesiastes 3:20
2. Spirit of the dead can come back, communicate and know the future
1 Samuel 28
3. Resurrection of the righteous (only) in the world to come. The wicked will end in Sheol.
Psalms 49:13-15
Isaiah 26:19
4. Resurrection and judgment of the dead, both wicked and righteous.
Daniel 12:2-3
5. The dead are conscious in other realms and waiting for the final judgement
Luke 16:19-31
Luke 23:43
1 Peter 3:18-20
1 Peter 4:6
Revelation 6:9-11
Revelation 7:9-12
Mark 12:27
(Find more here:
What the Bible Says About Death, Afterlife and the Future)
Wow, you got a lot going on there, but I greatly appreciate your response. It really helped me at honing my research, and I do hope that I hear back from you. Take good care
Job 14:10 “But a man dies and lies powerless;When a human expires
,
where is he?”(Ecc 3:19,20)
(Ecc 9:10) (Gen 3:19) (Ps 104:29) (Ecc 3:20) (Ecc 9:5) “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, ,,, (Ps 146 :4) “His spirit goes out, he returns to the ground;
On that very day his thoughts perish.”
Job 14:12 “Man also lies down and does not get up. Until heaven is no more, they will not wake up, Nor will they be
aroused from their sleep.”(Ps.13:3) (John 11:11) “After he said these things, he added: “Lazʹa·rus
our friend has fallen asleep, but I am traveling there to awaken him.”( Act 7:59,60) “As they were stoning Stephen, ……
he fell asleep in death.”
Reading further into Job 14, looking into verses 13 and 14, it says; That you would hide me
until your anger passes by, That
you would set a time limit for me and remember me!If a man dies, can he live again? I will wait all the days of my compulsory service Until my relief comes.”
(John 11:25) Jesus said
The one who exercises faith in me, even though he dies, will come to life;
(Acts 26:8) Why is it considered unbelievable among you that God raises up the dead?(1 Cor 15:12) “Now if it is being preached that Christ has been raised from the dead,
how is it that some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” (Rev 20:13) “And the sea gave up the dead in it, and death and the Grave gave up the dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.
At Job 14:15 “You will call, and I will answer you”
One of the most beautiful scriptures is (Isa.26:19)
“Your dead will live. My corpses will rise up. Awake and shout joyfully,
You residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of the morning, And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life.”
(Daniel 12:13)
but you will stand up for your lot at the end of the days. (John 5:28,29)
all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out,
those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” -------
(John 11:43,44) The man who had been dead came out with his feet and hands bound with wrappings, and his face was wrapped with a cloth.
(Acts 24:15)
there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.
Concerning King Saul and the spirit medium
The setting was a battlefield in northern Israel. King Saul and his forces were confronted by a fearsome Philistine army. When Saul got to see the camp of the Philistines, “his heart began to tremble very much.”
At this point in his kingship, Saul had abandoned true worship. (1Sam 15:23) “for rebelliousness is the same as the sin of divination, and pushing ahead presumptuously the same as using magical power and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, he has rejected you from being king.” As a result, his pleadings to Jehovah were answered with silence. (
1 Sam. 28:3, 5, 6)
Saul begged the spirit medium to “bring up Samuel” from the dead. The medium summoned an apparition. This “Samuel” told Saul that the Philistines would prevail and that Saul and his sons would die in battle. (
1 Samuel 28:7-19)
Was that really Samuel returned from the dead?
Think about it. The Bible states that at death a person “goes back to his ground” and that “his thoughts do perish.” (
Psalm 146:4) Both Saul and Samuel knew that God condemned contact with spirit mediums (Lev.19:31) (Lev 20:6) ”As for the person who turns to the spirit mediums and the fortune-tellers so as to commit spiritual prostitution with them, I will certainly turn against that person and cut him off from his people.”(Deut 18:10-12) In fact, Saul had earlier taken the lead in ridding the land of spiritistic practices!
If faithful Samuel were still alive as a spirit, would he violate God’s law and cooperate with a spirit medium in order to meet Saul? Jehovah had refused to talk with Saul. Could a medium, in effect, force God Almighty to communicate with Saul by means of dead Samuel? Logically, No. Clearly,
this “Samuel” was not God’s faithful prophet in any form. It was a spirit—a wicked demon pretending to be dead Samuel(1Sam 16:14-17)
Now the spirit of Jehovah had departed from Saul, and a bad spirit from Jehovah terrorized him. The servants of Saul said to him:
“You see that a bad spirit from God is terrorizing you. …….
Whenever a bad spirit from God comes upon you, ,,,,,, (1 Sam 18:10)
a bad spirit from God gripped Saul,
and he started to act strangely inside the house,,,, (1 Sam 19:9)
And a bad spirit from Jehovah came upon Saul.. Notice that this bad spirit had been tormenting Saul for some time
before he gave in to the demon and consulted with a spirit medium at 1Sam 28.
(1 Chron.10:13) Saul died….because he had not obeyed the word of Jehovah, also for consulting a spirit medium
(Luke 16:19-31) This is one of Jesus many parables, and therefore
is not meant to be taken literally. Jesus here uses the rich man to represent the Jewish religious leaders, including not only the Pharisees and the scribes but the Sadducees and the chief priests as well. This proud rich-man class views the poor, common people with utter contempt, calling them
‛am ha·’aʹrets, or people of the earth. The beggar Lazarus represents these people to whom the religious leaders deny proper spiritual nourishment and privileges. Hence, like Lazarus covered with ulcers, the common people are looked down upon as spiritually diseased and fit only to associate with dogs. Yet, those of the Lazarus class hunger and thirst for spiritual nourishment and so are at the gate seeking to receive whatever meager morsels of spiritual food may drop from the rich man’s table.
(Luke 23:43) This promise made to the criminal hanging next to Jesus was not the promise to be in “the paradise of God” mentioned at Re 2:7, since that promise was made to “the one who conquers,” that is, Christ’s corulers in the heavenly Kingdom. (Lu 22:28-30) This criminal was not a conqueror of the world with Jesus Christ; nor had he been “born from water and spirit.” (Joh 3:5; 16:33) He will evidently be one of “the unrighteous” who are resurrected as earthly subjects of the Kingdom when Christ rules over the Paradise earth for a thousand years.—Ac 24:15; Re 20:4, 6.
(1 Peter 18-20) Jesus was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. And in this state he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
who had formerly been disobedient when God was patiently waiting in Noah’s day,” …….. If you’ve been following along thus far, then you must be aware of the existence of bad spirits. (Jude 6) “And the angels who did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place, he has reserved with eternal bonds in dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.” See also (2 Peter:4) Eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day seems to indicate that they are greatly restricted, unable again to materialize as they did prior to the Flood. They were cut off from the spiritual light of God’s organization, and they have only everlasting destruction awaiting them. (James 2:19) “You believe that there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well.
And yet the demons believe and shudder.”
Since the time of the Flood, God has not permitted these demon angels to take on fleshly bodies, so they cannot directly satisfy their unnatural sexual desires. Yet they can still exercise dangerous power over men and women. In fact, with the help of these demons Satan is “misleading the entire inhabited earth.” (Revelation 12:9) Devil and Satan,
who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth,
and his angels were hurled down with him.”
Paul said: We have a wrestling . . .
against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:11-13.
(Acts 16:16-19) a servant girl
with a spirit,
a demon
At (Mark 12:18-27), Jesus knew the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, yet supposedly accepted the writings of Moses, were trying to entrap him so that they would have sound reason to persecute him. So Jesus quoted from Moses writings “But concerning the dead being raised up, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account about the thornbush, that God said to him: ‘I am the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob’? He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living. ... At that time, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for many years. Each of them were faithful servants of the True God Jehovah. Do you believe that Jehovah would no longer consider Himself their God? Obviously the Sadducees failed to entrap Jesus.
(Revelations)adds its testimony to many other Bible prophecies, showing that our father Jehovah God purposes to create new heavens and a new earth. (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-5) Primarily, its message is addressed to anointed Christians, whom Jesus has bought with his blood to become
corulers with him in the new heavens. (Revelation 5:9, 10) Who are the anointed? (Rev.7:4) (Rev.14:1) And who will the anointed Christians that are
with Jesus rule over? (Rev.7:9,10) (Isa.2:2)
2 Timothy 3:16,17
“All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work”
So which is wiser?
To make the clear statements of scripture conform to our imperfect human conceptions of what may be implied?????
Or
To believe the clear teaching of our Creator’s Inspired Scripture, and accept that these perceived implications might be due to our misunderstanding of scripture or completely in error?????
