LIFE AFTER DEATH IS IT POSSIBLE?

What is the condition of the dead?

 THE BIBLE'S ANSWER:  "The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have anymore reward, because all memory of them is forgotten.  Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work, nor planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going." -Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10. 

The Grave, simply put, is where humans go when they die (back to the dust from whence we came) it is a symbolic place or condition where any consciousness or activity ceases. how did the faithful Job view the grave? He had lost all his possessions and children in one day, and then he was struck with agonizing boils all over his body.  He pleaded with God:  "O that in the Grave ["in hell," Catholic Douay Version]  you would conceal me, that you would hide me."  (Job 1:13-19; 2:7; 14:13)  There is another way to learn about the condition of the dead.  We can examine the inspired Scriptural records concerning eight people who returned from the dead.  A widow's son,  a Shunammite boy, Elisha,  the corpse of a man who had recently died was hastily left in the same burial place where Elisha's bones lay, the son of a widow, whose name was Nain, Jarius' daughter, Lazarus, Dorcas, and Eutychus. 

Not one of those eight people spoke about being in a place of bliss or torment. If the people who were resurrected had gone to such a place when they died,m would they not have told people about it?  And would this not be included in the inspired Bible record for all to see?  In the Scriptures, nothing of the kind is  recorded. Those eight people evidently had nothing to say on the subject. Why not? Because they had been unconscious, as if in a deep sleep. In fact, the Bible sometimes uses sleep as an illustration to explain death. For example, faithful David and Stephen both "fell asleep in death." -Acts 7:60; 13:36. 

What hope, then, is there for the dead? Can they awaken from this sleep?

Next time: LIFE AFTER DEATH IS IT POSSIBLE?  -Is There Hope for the Dead?

From the Watchtower magazine, 2015