Almost everyone is interested in knowing what happens when a person dies. There is only One who can answer that question—the One who went into the grave and came forth again.

The question asked. Verse 12—the answer. The atmospheric heavens are here referred to. Those who have gone down into the grave are still asleep, as the latter part of the text brings out. "They will not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Death, then, is a sleep, an unconscious state.

"O that You would hide me in the grave, that You would keep me secret, until Your wrath be past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me!" Job 14:13.

"If a man die, will he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. {15} You will call, and I will answer You: You will have a desire to the work of Your hands." Job 14:14, 15.

"If a man die, will he live again?" Death is the opposite of life. Here is the answer to the question: "All the days of my appointed time I will wait, until my change comes. You will call, and I will answer You."

"If I wait, the grave is my house: I have made my bed in the darkness." Job 17:13.

Job said he would wait until his change came. Where is he going to wait? The answer is clear—in the grave.

"I know that my Redeemer lives." It is a wonderful thing to know that our Redeemer lives, and that in the latter day He will stand upon the earth. Even though the worms destroyed his body, yet Job said in his "flesh" he would see Yah.

When a person dies, all that is intelligent goes into the grave. Therefore it will be necessary to have a resurrection from the dead in order to see Yasha.

"For the living know that they will die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. {6} Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any thing that is done under the sun." Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6.

Yah declares that the dead know nothing. Love, hatred, and envy are perished. If the dead were in a land of bliss, where the atmosphere is surcharged with love, how could these people be up there as loveless beings?

On the other hand, if they were in a place of torment, where everything is permeated with the spirit of Satan, how could they be there without manifesting in some way their hatred?

"Neither have they anymore a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." We are living under the sun; therefore the dead have nothing to do with that which may happen here on the earth.

"For in death there is no remembrance of You: in the grave who will give You thanks?" Psalm 6:5.

There is no remembrance in death.

"Will You show wonders to the dead? will the dead arise and praise You? Selah. {11} Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or Your faithfulness in destruction? {12} Will Your wonders be known in the dark? and Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?" Psalm 88:10-12.

The grave is called "the land of forgetfulness."

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. {4} His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Psalm 146:3, 4.

Thoughts perish at death, thus rendering a person incapable of adoring Yah and incapable of knowing anything here on earth.

"There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. {18} There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor." Job 3:17, 18.

In death "the wicked cease from troubling. . . There the prisoners rest together"—the good, the weary, and the wicked. "They hear not the voice of the oppressor." If they were in a place of torment, they certainly would hear the voice of the great oppressor, Satan.

"The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master." Job 3:19.

Satan, and his followers, are masters, and hard ones. Death brings a release from Satan’s rule.

Good and bad sleep until the resurrection.

David, a man after Yah’s own heart, said before he died, "I go the way of all the earth." But did David go to the place of his reward when he died?

This is the first time "soul" is mentioned in the Word of Yah. After man was created a perfect being, he was lifeless until the breath came into him. Then, the Bible declares, he became a "living soul"—not that he has one, but he became one.

The word soul in the original Hebrew is nephesh. It is translated "creature" in this text. If Adam became a living nephesh (creature), the same is true of animals. Yah refers to the animals as creatures, or souls; this is in perfect keeping with the translation of this word from the Hebrew.

"And levy a tribute to Yah of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of 500, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:" Numbers 31:28.

Here it speaks of "one soul of 500," whether human or animal; thus showing that the word soul is applied to the animal kingdom as well as to man.

"And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea." Revelation 16:3.

What lives in the sea? The fish family. They are referred to as "souls."

"Soul in hell" (Hades, the grave). When Yasha died, He was put in the grave. David saw in vision a scene of the resurrection of Yasha, and he declared that Yasha was to be resurrected before decomposition set in. His soul was not left in hell, or the grave. The teaching of the "soul" that goes to heaven at death is not in keeping with the Word of Yah.

The soul, being the person, dies and goes into the grave.

"And Yah the Almighty formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7.

When Yah formed man, he was lifeless until the breath came into him. Where did Yah breathe this breath of life? Into man’s nostrils. When that breath of life came in contact with the body, all the human organs began to function. They were motionless until the breath of life came in.

Spirit in nostrils. Spirit of Yah is the breath of life from Yah.

"For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; they have all one breath; so that a man has no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. {20} All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20.

One thing comes to both man and beast. What is it? What is that breath? The breath of life. And the same Creator who gave breath to produce life in man gave breath to produce and sustain life in the beast.

"Who knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth?" Ecclesiastes 3:21.

"Who knows?" A question is asked about the spirit of man and beast at death.

"Then the dust will return to the earth as it was: and the spirit will return to God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7.

The spirit or breath of Yah returns to the Almighty who gave it. Notice this text says nothing about the spirit of the righteous or wicked, but that all breath goes back to Yah.

"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, {2} And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. {3} And he said unto me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live? and I answered, O Lord GOD, You know.’ {4} Again he said unto me, ‘Prophesy upon these bones, and say to them, O you dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. {5} Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live: {6} And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you will live; and you will know that I am the LORD.’ {7} So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. {8} And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. {9} Then said he to me, ‘Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus says the Lord GOD; Come from the 4 winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ {10} So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. {11} Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel:’ behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. {12} Therefore prophesy and say unto them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. {13} And you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, {14} And shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall place you in your own land: then you will know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, says the LORD." Ezekiel 37:1-14.

Valley of bones. The question is asked, "Can these bones live?" Hear the Word of Yah. The Word of Yah has creative and re-creative power. "I will cause breath to enter into you, and you will live." The words spirit and breath are used interchangeably in these verses.

This also applies to the following: "The souls of those whom we desire to save are like the representation which Ezekiel saw in vision—a valley of dry bones. They are dead in trespasses and sins, but God would have us deal with them as though they were living. Were the question put to us, "Son of man, can these bones live?" our answer would be only the confession of ignorance, "O Lord, Thou knowest." To all appearance there is nothing to lead us to hope for their restoration. Yet nevertheless the word of the prophecy must be spoken even to those who are like the dry bones in the valley. We are in no wise to be deterred from fulfilling our commission by the listlessness, the dullness, the lack of spiritual perception, in those upon whom the Word of God is brought to bear. We are to preach the word of life to those whom we may judge to be as hopeless subjects as though they were in their graves." SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, page 1165.

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘has God said, You must not eat of every tree of the garden?’ {2} And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: {3} But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You must not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ {4} And the serpent said unto the woman, ‘You will not surely die: {5} For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil.’" Genesis 3:1-5.

Where did the teaching of life after death originate? From the devil. Satan’s first lie to man. When people today claim that the dead know more after they die than they ever did before, they are re-echoing what Satan said in the Garden of Eden.

The teachings of the immortality of the soul is Satan’s doctrine. Is this belief in the Savior’s assemblies today? Death does not mean life. "You will not surely die" is the teaching nearly every church, Protestant and Roman Catholic, believes and teaches. This teaching of the immortality of the soul opens the door to all kinds of deceptions.

If the Bible teaching were followed on this subject, we would not have such doctrines as the following: canonization of saints, purgatory, masses for the dead, the invocation of saints, and the worship of the virgin Mary. There are other teachings, such as spiritism and transmigration of the soul, which have their origin in the false conception of life after death.

May Yah help us to adhere to what the Word of Yah says so as not to be deceived.