<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

Aron Crews

01 If God is Love... Why Suffering?

02 If God is Love... Why Satan?

03 If God is Love... Why the Bible?

04 If God is Love... Why the Sabbath?

05 If God is Love... Why the Rules

06 If God is Love... Why the Church?

07 If God is Love... Why Death?

Lord, we thank you for bringing each and every 1 of us here.

Above all, may you grant us your Holy Spirit, because without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing good, because all good things come from you.

And all good that is done in us is done through you working in us.

We ask that you touch Pastor Cruz, be with him as he speaks.

May you please bless this food, help us to nourish and strengthen our bodies, and thank you for always providing for us.

Death, as we all have experienced, well, not personally, not yet, but I'm sure experienced from a friend, a loved 1, a family member, and the world around us on the news, is not a good thing.

We instinctively, intuitively know as humans that death is not a good thing.

Yet many Christians view death not as a bad thing per se.

Now yes, many Christians will go to a funeral and they'll cry and they're like, oh you know my grandma died, that's a terrible thing.

However, their perspective of many is, oh, death is not an end, but rather a new beginning.

And life goes immediately on beyond the grave.

Is this the picture that the Bible paints?

That death is not actually a bad thing and cheer up folks because like death is just a portal to a better life beyond.

No, in fact, Scripture teaches that death is an enemy.

That it was not part of God's original plan.

It's not what he has intended to be the experience of humankind.

We read in 1 Corinthians 15 that the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

That there is a day coming when death itself will die.

Romans 6, Paul says that the wages of sin, of course introduced in Genesis 3 to the human race, the wages of sin is death, which is contrasted with the gift of God, which is eternal life.

A scholar named George Hardy wrote a book and in that book he asked the question, there are 2 questions that ultimately matter.

There are a lot of myths about resurrection and this and that, but Has anyone actually escaped death, died and come back from it?

And number 2, is that cheat code, if you will, available to me?

I don't have time to go through the very, in my opinion, convincing and compelling and credible evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.

That would be a whole seminar, a whole presentation in and of itself, but there are many books that have been written to argue the case for the resurrected Christ.

So the Bible declares and claims that yes, indeed, Jesus, who was fully man, yet also fully God, died, fully died, and yet came back to life.

And we read in Revelation 1, verse 18, Jesus says, I am the living 1.

I died, but look, I am alive forever and ever and I hold the keys of death and of the grave." Now what is the purpose of keys?

To lock or to unlock and open a location.

Jesus says, I've been to death, I've got the keys, you know, I've been there, got the t-shirt, right, I got the VIP pass, and if you die I can unlock the door of death and get you out.

Jesus went to death, came back from it, and he's made that same scenario available to us.

Timothy says, Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

God, although death was not an original part of his good plan of creation, it is an imposter that came in through sin and Satan's misrepresentations, but God has responded to death through the death of his own son and provided a way of escape.

And frankly, in my view, that's exactly what a God of love would do.

Not leave us to die forever, not leave us to suffering forever, but only for a season and a time.

So, what is the Bible's teaching about what happens when we die?

Well, Revelation chapter 2 communicates that he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

Now have you guys ever heard of World War II?

So, and by the way, it wasn't called World War I, you know, originally, it was called the Great War, and then when there was a sequel it then became known as the First World War anyway so when the Bible says a second death that implies that there is a First death and this is what Jesus confirms when he says do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul communicating that there's 2 kinds of ways that someone can be killed, that someone can die.

A first death, which would be likened to the death of the body, and a second death, a death that is likened to the death of the soul.

There's also, Revelation communicates 2 different resurrections.

There's the first resurrection, which is the 1 that those who participate in it are called blessed and holy.

Over such, the second death has no power.

We're going to get more into resurrection tonight and tomorrow, but just to highlight for us now, there is a, Jesus communicates a resurrection of life for those who are saved and have put their trust in Jesus for eternal life, and then there is a resurrection, a coming back to life that ultimately leads to the judgment, hell, condemnation.

There is a story about a young boy who was walking through a grave, graveyard, and there was a particular tomb that said the following etched onto it.

So prepare for death and follow me Quite clever and rhyming and stuff, but the young boy said hey I've been taking English class And then he writes back on the tombstone to this dead man and says to follow you I'm not content until I know just where you went and isn't that the question that humans?

Naturally asked right death is an imposter it's not supposed to happen, but what happens to that lifeless, still body there?

Is there something beyond for that person?

Well, in order to understand death, we have to first understand the ingredients of life.

So for that, we go to Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, where we read that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, dirt, dust, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life the Ruach the spirit the breath of life and then it says that man Became notice the language became a living soul This helps us understand that humans do not have a soul, but rather you are a soul.

The biblical teaching of the soul is the entire makeup of a human person.

The body, the mind, the electrical current running through our veins, the breath of life, all of it put together is a soul.

And the ingredients for this soul, this living person, would be a body, the dust of the ground, plus the vivifying influence of the spirit of God called the breath or the spirit of life, and together these things make up the living soul.

You can also think of it like a light bulb that has a bulb, a bulb that has the physical body, and then when you put in the electrical current, you then have light, right?

The light goes on and off as you cut off and give access again of the bulb to the electrical current.

You can also think about it as a wooden box, right?

The wood plus the nails hammered together equals a box.

But what would happen if you deconstruct the box and you separate the wood, put it in a pile over here, and you put the nails in a pile over here.

And so the body without the breath of life is no longer a living soul.

You have to have both ingredients or else you have no life.

As we read in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7, then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit, that's the breath, will return to God who gave it.

When you turn off the lights in the room, the electrical current just no longer goes to the bulb.

It just continues on with the circuit, right?

And so the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God, once someone dies, that breath of life just goes back to God, right?

Now, the question is, is where does someone go when they die?

Well, we don't have to read too far into scripture, just the third chapter, to actually find out where someone goes when they die.

It says, God, speaking to Adam, in the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread until you return to the ground.

For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.

I mean, I don't know how many times, what, 5 times, you, right?

This is just, we know this, this is biology.

This is, you die and your body naturally decomposes and returns to the dust.

Is there an experience that 1 has immediately after dying, returning to the dust?

The Bible also answers that question quite clearly.

Back to Menu

Series

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

07 If God is Love... Why Death?

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Unlocking Prophecy

14- Facing Death Unafraid

1h 1m

Plenary

It’s Time to Eat Grandpa

1h 11m

Prophecies of Hope

11. The Mysteries of the Mummies

51m

Unlock Revelation

9. The Mystery of Death

1h 28m

Total Member Involvement

3. It’s Time To Eat Grandpa

1h

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

19 Our High Priest’s Victory Over Death

52m

The Afterlife

The Afterlife- Part 1

39m

Which Way, America?

09 Spiritualism in America

58m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

19 Our Great High Priest’s Victory Over Death

1h

The Doctrine of Personal Ministries

Part 4 - Doing the Wrong Job Well

1h 18m

Sound Doctrine