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DEATH
(maweth; thanatos):
PHYSIOLOGICAL AND FIGURATIVE VIEW
The word "Death" is used in the sense of (1) the process of dying
(Genesis 21:16); (2) the period of decease (Genesis 27:7); (3) as a
possible synonym for poison (2 Kings 4:40); (4) as descriptive of
person in danger of perishing (Judges 15:18; "in deaths oft" 2
Corinthians 11:23). In this sense the shadow of death is a familiar
expression in Job, the Psalms and the Prophets; (5) death is
personified in 1 Corinthians 15:55 and Revelation 20:14. Deliverance
from this catastrophe is called the "issues from death" (Psalms 68:20
the King James Version; translated "escape" in the Revised Version
(British and American)). Judicial execution, "putting to death," is
mentioned 39 times in the Levitical Law.
Figuratively: Death is the loss of spiritual life as in Romans 8:6; and
the final state of the unregenerate is called the "second death" in
Revelation 20:14.
Alex. Macalister
THEOLOGICAL VIEW
1. Conception of Sin and Death:
According to Genesis 2:17, God gave to man, created in His own
image, the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, and added thereto the warning, "in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die." Though not exclusively, reference is
certainly made here in the first place to bodily death. Yet because
death by no means came upon Adam and Eve on the day of their
transgression, but took place hundreds of years later, the expression,
"in the day that," must be conceived in a wider sense, or the delay of
death must be attributed to the entering-in of mercy (Genesis 3:15).
However this may be, Genesis 2:17 places a close connection between
man's death and his transgression of God's commandment, thereby
attaching to death a religious and ethical significance, and on the
other hand makes the life of man dependent on his obedience to
God. This religious-ethical nature of life and death is not only
decidedly and clearly expressed in Genesis 2, but it is the
fundamental thought of the whole of Scripture and forms an
essential element in the revelations of salvation. The theologians of
early and more recent times, who have denied the spiritual
significance of death and have separated the connection between
ethical and physical life, usually endeavor to trace back their
opinions to Scripture; and those passages which undoubtedly see in
death a punishment for sin (Genesis 2:17; John 8:44; Romans 5:12;
6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21), they take as individual opinions, which
form no part of the organism of revelation. But this endeavor shuts
out the organic character of the revelation of salvation. It is true that
death in Holy Scripture is often measured by the weakness and
frailty of human nature (Genesis 3:19; Job 14:1,12; Psalms 39:5-6;
90:5; 103:14-15; Ecclesiastes 3:20, etc.). Death is seldom connected
with the transgression of the first man either in the Old Testament or
the New Testament, or mentioned as a specified punishment for sin
(John 8:44; Romans 5:12; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21; James 1:15); for
the most part it is portrayed as something natural (Genesis 5:5; 9:29;
15:15; 25:8, etc.), a long life being presented as a blessing in contrast
to death in the midst of days as a disaster and a judgment (Psalms
102:23 f; Isaiah 65:20). But all this is not contrary to the idea that
death is a consequence of, and a punishment for, sin. Daily, everyone
who agrees with Scripture that death is held out as a punishment for
sin, speaks in the same way. Death, though come into the world
through sin, is nevertheless at the same time a consequence of man's
physical and frail existence now; it could therefore be threatened as a
punishment to man, because he was taken out of the ground and was
made a living soul, of the earth earthy (Genesis 2:7; 1 Corinthians
15:45,47). If he had remained obedient, he would not have returned
to dust (Genesis 3:19), but have pressed forward on the path of
spiritual development (1 Corinthians 15:46,51); his return to dust
was possible simply because he was made from dust (see ADAM IN
THE NEW TESTAMENT ). Thus, although death is in this way a
consequence of sin, yet a long life is felt to be a blessing and death a
disaster and a judgment, above all when man is taken away in the
bloom of his youth or the strength of his years. There is nothing
strange, therefore, in the manner in which Scripture speaks about
death; we all express ourselves daily in the same way, though we at
the same time consider it as the wages of sin. Beneath the ordinary,
everyday expressions about death lies the deep consciousness that it
is unnatural and contrary to our innermost being.
2. The Meaning of Death:
This is decidedly expressed in Scripture much more so even than
among ourselves. For we are influenced always more or less by the
Greek, Platonic idea, that the body dies, yet the soul is immortal.
Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite consciousness, and is
nowhere found in the Old Testament. The whole man dies, when in
death the spirit (Psalms 146:4; Ecclesiastes 12:7), or soul (Genesis
35:18; 2 Samuel 1:9; 1 Kings 17:21; Jonah 4:3), goes out of a man.
Not only his body, but his soul also returns to a state of death and
belongs to the nether-world; therefore the Old Testament can speak
of a death of one's soul (Genesis 37:21 (Hebrew); Numbers 23:10 m;
Deuteronomy 22:21; Judges 16:30; Job 36:14; Psalms 78:50), and of
defilement by coming in contact with a dead body (Leviticus 19:28;
21:11; 22:4; Numbers 5:2; 6:6; 9:6; 19:10 ff; Deuteronomy 14:1;
Haggai 2:13). This death of man is not annihilation, however, but a
deprivation of all that makes for life on earth. The Sheol (she'ol) is in
contrast with the land of the living in every respect (Job 28:13;
Proverbs 15:24; Ezekiel 26:20; 32:23); it is an abode of darkness and
the shadow of death (Job 10:21-22; Psalms 88:12; 143:3), a place of
destruction, yea destruction itself (Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Psalms
88:11; Proverbs 27:20), without any order (Job 10:22), a land of rest,
of silence, of oblivion (Job 3:13,17-18; Psalms 94:17; 115:17), where
God and man are no longer to be seen (Isaiah 38:11), God no longer
praised or thanked (Psalms 6:5; 115:17), His perfections no more
acknowledged (Psalms 88:10-13; Isaiah 38:18-19), His wonders not
contemplated (Psalms 88:12), where the dead are unconscious, do no
more work, take no account of anything, possess no knowledge nor
wisdom, neither have any more a portion in anything that is done
under the sun (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6,10). The dead ("the Shades" the
Revised Version, margin; compare article DECEASE, IN NEW
TESTAMENT ) are asleep (Job 26:5; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:6;
Psalms 88:11; Isaiah 14:9), weakened (Isaiah 14:10) and without
strength (Psalms 88:4).
3. Light in the Darkness:
The dread of death was felt much more deeply therefore by the
Israelites than by ourselves. Death to them was separation from all
that they loved, from God, from His service, from His law, from His
people, from His land, from all the rich companionship in which they
lived. But now in this darkness appears the light of the revelation of
salvation from on high. The God of Israel is the living God and the
fountain of all life (Deuteronomy 5:26; Joshua 3:10; Psalms 36:9).
He is the Creator of heaven and earth, whose power knows no
bounds and whose dominion extends over life and death
(Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; Psalms 90:3). He gave life to
man (Genesis 1:26; 2:7), and creates and sustains every man still
(Job 32:8; 33:4; 34:14; Psalms 104:29; Ecclesiastes 12:7). He
connects life with the keeping of His law and appoints death for the
transgression of it (Genesis 2:17; Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy
30:20; 32:47). He lives in heaven, but is present also by His spirit in
Sheol (Psalms 139:7-8). Sheol and Abaddon are open to Him even as
the hearts of the children of men (Job 26:6; 38:17; Proverbs 15:11).
He kills and makes alive, brings down into Sheol and raises from
thence again (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7). He
lengthens life for those who keep His commandments (Exodus
20:12; Job 5:26), gives escape from death, can deliver when death
menaces (Psalms 68:20; Isaiah 38:5; Jeremiah 15:20; Daniel 3:26),
can take Enoch and Elijah to Himself without dying (Genesis 5:24; 2
Kings 2:11), can restore the dead to life (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34;
13:21). He can even bring death wholly to nothing and completely
triumph over its power by rising from the dead (Job 14:13-15; 19:25-
27; Hosea 6:2; 13:14; Isaiah 25:8; 26:19; Ezekiel 37:11-12; Daniel
12:2).
4. Spiritual Significance:
This revelation by degrees rejects the old contrast between life on
earth and the disconsolate existence after death, in the dark place of
Sheol, and puts another in its place. The physical contrast between
life and death gradually makes way for the moral and spiritual
difference between a life spent in the fear of the Lord, and a life in
the service of sin. The man who serves God is alive (Genesis 2:17);
life is involved in the keeping of His commandments (Leviticus 18:5;
Deuteronomy 30:20); His word is life (Deuteronomy 8:3; 32:47).
Life is still for the most part understood to mean length of days
(Proverbs 2:18; 3:16; 10:30; Isaiah 65:20). Nevertheless it is
remarkable that Prov often mentions death and Sheol in connection
with the godless (Isaiah 2:18; 5:5; 7:25; 9:18), and on the other hand
only speaks of life in connection with the righteous. Wisdom,
righteousness, the fear of the Lord is the way of life (Isaiah 8:22,22;
11:16; 12:6; 13:14; 14:27; 19:23). The wicked is driven away in his
wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death (Isaiah 14:32).
Blessed is he who has the Lord for his God (Deuteronomy 33:29;
Psalms 1:1-2; 2:12; 32:1-2; 33:12; 34:9, etc.); he is comforted in the
greatest adversity (Psalms 73:25-28; Habakkuk 3:17-19), and sees a
light arise for him behind physical death (Genesis 49:18; Job 14:13-
15; 16:16-21; 19:25-27; Psalms 73:23-26). The godless on the
contrary, although enjoying for a time much prosperity, perish and
come to an end (Psalms 1:4-6; 73:18-20; Isaiah 48:22; Malachi 4:3,
etc.).
The righteous of the Old Testament truly are continually occupied
with the problem that the lot of man on earth often corresponds so
little to his spiritual worth, but he strengthens himself with the
conviction that for the righteous it will be well, and for the wicked, ill
(Ecclesiastes 8:12-13; Isaiah 3:10-11). If they do not realize it in the
present, they look forward to the future and hope for the day in
which God's justice will extend salvation to the righteous, and His
anger will be visited on the wicked in judgment. So in the Old
Testament the revelation of the new covenant is prepared wherein
Christ by His appearance hath abolished death and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). See
ABOLISH . This everlasting life is already here on earth presented to
man by faith, and it is his portion also in the hour of death (John
3:36; 11:25-26). On the other hand, he who lives in sin and is
disobedient to the Son of God, is in his living dead (Matthew 8:22;
Luke 15:32; John 3:36; 8:24; Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13); he
shall never see life, but shall pass by bodily death into the second
death (Revelation 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8).
5. Death in Non-Christian Religions and in Science:
This view of Scripture upon death goes much deeper than that which
is found in other religions, but it nevertheless receives support from
the unanimous witness of humanity with regard to its unnaturalness
and dread. The so-called nature-peoples even feel that death is much
more of an enigma than life;
Mythology, chapter xiii) says rightly, that all peoples have the
conviction that man by nature is immortal, that immortality wants
no proof, but that death is a mystery and must be explained.
Touching complaints arise in the hearts of all men on the frailty and
vanity of life, and the whole of mankind fears death as a mysterious
power. Man finds comfort in death only when he hopes it will be an
end to a still more miserable life. Seneca may be taken as interpreter
of some philosophers when he says:
("It is stupid to die through the fear of death") and some may be able,
like a Socrates or a Cato, to face death calmly and courageously; what
have these few to say to the millions, who through fear of death are
all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:15)? Such a mystery
has death remained up to the present day. It may be said with
Kassowitz, Verworm and others that the "cell" is the beginning, and
the old, gray man is the natural end of an uninterrupted life development, or with Metschnikoff, that science will one day so lengthen life that it will fade away like a rose at last and death lose all
its dread; death still is no less a riddle, and one which swallows up all
the strength of life. When one considers, besides, that a number of
creatures, plants, trees, animals, reach a much higher aage than man;
that the larger half of mankind dies before or shortly after birth; that
another large percentage dies in the bloom of youth or in the prime
of life; that the law of the survival of the fittest is true only when the
fact of the survival is taken as a proof of their fitness; that the
graybeards, who, spent and decrepit, go down to the grave, form a
very small number; then the enigma of death increases more and
more in mysteriousness. The endeavors to bring death into
connection with certain activities of the organism and to explain it by
increasing weight, by growth or by fertility, have all led to shipwreck.
When Weismann took refuge in the immortality of the "einzellige
Protozoen," he raised a hypothesis which not only found many
opponents, but which also left mortality of the "Korperplasma" an
insoluble mystery (Beth, "Ueber Ursache und Zweck des Todes,
Glauben und Wissen (1909), 285-304, 335-48). Thus, science
certainly does not compel us to review Scripture on this point, but
rather furnishes a strong proof of the mysterious majesty of death.
When Pelagius, Socinus, Schleiermacher, Ritschl and a number of
other theologians and philosophers separate death from its
connection with sin, they are not compelled to do so by science, but
are led by a defective insight into the relation between ethos and
phusis. Misery and death are not absolutely always consequences
and punishment of a great personal transgression (Luke 13:2; John
9:3); but that they are connected with sin, we learn from the
experience of every day. Who can number the victims of
mammonism, alcoholism and licentiousness? Even spiritual sins
exercise their influence on corporal life; envy is a rottenness of the
bones (Proverbs 14:30). This connection is taught us in a great
measure by Scripture, when it placed the not yet fallen man in a
Paradise, where death had not yet entered, and eternal life was not
yet possessed and enjoyed; when it sends fallen man, who, however,
is destined for redemption, into a world full of misery and death; and
at last assigns to the wholly renewed man a new heaven and a new
earth, where death, sorrow, crying or pain shall no longer exist
(Revelation 21:4).
Finally, Scripture is not the book of death, but of life, of everlasting
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It tells us, in oft-repeated and
unmistakable terms, of the dreaded reality of death, but it proclaims
to us still more loudly the wonderful power of the life which is in
Christ Jesus.
Herman Bavinck, from the International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia
(maweth; thanatos):
PHYSIOLOGICAL AND FIGURATIVE VIEW
The word "Death" is used in the sense of (1) the process of dying
(Genesis 21:16); (2) the period of decease (Genesis 27:7); (3) as a
possible synonym for poison (2 Kings 4:40); (4) as descriptive of
person in danger of perishing (Judges 15:18; "in deaths oft" 2
Corinthians 11:23). In this sense the shadow of death is a familiar
expression in Job, the Psalms and the Prophets; (5) death is
personified in 1 Corinthians 15:55 and Revelation 20:14. Deliverance
from this catastrophe is called the "issues from death" (Psalms 68:20
the King James Version; translated "escape" in the Revised Version
(British and American)). Judicial execution, "putting to death," is
mentioned 39 times in the Levitical Law.
Figuratively: Death is the loss of spiritual life as in Romans 8:6; and
the final state of the unregenerate is called the "second death" in
Revelation 20:14.
Alex. Macalister
THEOLOGICAL VIEW
1. Conception of Sin and Death:
According to Genesis 2:17, God gave to man, created in His own
image, the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil, and added thereto the warning, "in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die." Though not exclusively, reference is
certainly made here in the first place to bodily death. Yet because
death by no means came upon Adam and Eve on the day of their
transgression, but took place hundreds of years later, the expression,
"in the day that," must be conceived in a wider sense, or the delay of
death must be attributed to the entering-in of mercy (Genesis 3:15).
However this may be, Genesis 2:17 places a close connection between
man's death and his transgression of God's commandment, thereby
attaching to death a religious and ethical significance, and on the
other hand makes the life of man dependent on his obedience to
God. This religious-ethical nature of life and death is not only
decidedly and clearly expressed in Genesis 2, but it is the
fundamental thought of the whole of Scripture and forms an
essential element in the revelations of salvation. The theologians of
early and more recent times, who have denied the spiritual
significance of death and have separated the connection between
ethical and physical life, usually endeavor to trace back their
opinions to Scripture; and those passages which undoubtedly see in
death a punishment for sin (Genesis 2:17; John 8:44; Romans 5:12;
6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21), they take as individual opinions, which
form no part of the organism of revelation. But this endeavor shuts
out the organic character of the revelation of salvation. It is true that
death in Holy Scripture is often measured by the weakness and
frailty of human nature (Genesis 3:19; Job 14:1,12; Psalms 39:5-6;
90:5; 103:14-15; Ecclesiastes 3:20, etc.). Death is seldom connected
with the transgression of the first man either in the Old Testament or
the New Testament, or mentioned as a specified punishment for sin
(John 8:44; Romans 5:12; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21; James 1:15); for
the most part it is portrayed as something natural (Genesis 5:5; 9:29;
15:15; 25:8, etc.), a long life being presented as a blessing in contrast
to death in the midst of days as a disaster and a judgment (Psalms
102:23 f; Isaiah 65:20). But all this is not contrary to the idea that
death is a consequence of, and a punishment for, sin. Daily, everyone
who agrees with Scripture that death is held out as a punishment for
sin, speaks in the same way. Death, though come into the world
through sin, is nevertheless at the same time a consequence of man's
physical and frail existence now; it could therefore be threatened as a
punishment to man, because he was taken out of the ground and was
made a living soul, of the earth earthy (Genesis 2:7; 1 Corinthians
15:45,47). If he had remained obedient, he would not have returned
to dust (Genesis 3:19), but have pressed forward on the path of
spiritual development (1 Corinthians 15:46,51); his return to dust
was possible simply because he was made from dust (see ADAM IN
THE NEW TESTAMENT ). Thus, although death is in this way a
consequence of sin, yet a long life is felt to be a blessing and death a
disaster and a judgment, above all when man is taken away in the
bloom of his youth or the strength of his years. There is nothing
strange, therefore, in the manner in which Scripture speaks about
death; we all express ourselves daily in the same way, though we at
the same time consider it as the wages of sin. Beneath the ordinary,
everyday expressions about death lies the deep consciousness that it
is unnatural and contrary to our innermost being.
2. The Meaning of Death:
This is decidedly expressed in Scripture much more so even than
among ourselves. For we are influenced always more or less by the
Greek, Platonic idea, that the body dies, yet the soul is immortal.
Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite consciousness, and is
nowhere found in the Old Testament. The whole man dies, when in
death the spirit (Psalms 146:4; Ecclesiastes 12:7), or soul (Genesis
35:18; 2 Samuel 1:9; 1 Kings 17:21; Jonah 4:3), goes out of a man.
Not only his body, but his soul also returns to a state of death and
belongs to the nether-world; therefore the Old Testament can speak
of a death of one's soul (Genesis 37:21 (Hebrew); Numbers 23:10 m;
Deuteronomy 22:21; Judges 16:30; Job 36:14; Psalms 78:50), and of
defilement by coming in contact with a dead body (Leviticus 19:28;
21:11; 22:4; Numbers 5:2; 6:6; 9:6; 19:10 ff; Deuteronomy 14:1;
Haggai 2:13). This death of man is not annihilation, however, but a
deprivation of all that makes for life on earth. The Sheol (she'ol) is in
contrast with the land of the living in every respect (Job 28:13;
Proverbs 15:24; Ezekiel 26:20; 32:23); it is an abode of darkness and
the shadow of death (Job 10:21-22; Psalms 88:12; 143:3), a place of
destruction, yea destruction itself (Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Psalms
88:11; Proverbs 27:20), without any order (Job 10:22), a land of rest,
of silence, of oblivion (Job 3:13,17-18; Psalms 94:17; 115:17), where
God and man are no longer to be seen (Isaiah 38:11), God no longer
praised or thanked (Psalms 6:5; 115:17), His perfections no more
acknowledged (Psalms 88:10-13; Isaiah 38:18-19), His wonders not
contemplated (Psalms 88:12), where the dead are unconscious, do no
more work, take no account of anything, possess no knowledge nor
wisdom, neither have any more a portion in anything that is done
under the sun (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6,10). The dead ("the Shades" the
Revised Version, margin; compare article DECEASE, IN NEW
TESTAMENT ) are asleep (Job 26:5; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:6;
Psalms 88:11; Isaiah 14:9), weakened (Isaiah 14:10) and without
strength (Psalms 88:4).
3. Light in the Darkness:
The dread of death was felt much more deeply therefore by the
Israelites than by ourselves. Death to them was separation from all
that they loved, from God, from His service, from His law, from His
people, from His land, from all the rich companionship in which they
lived. But now in this darkness appears the light of the revelation of
salvation from on high. The God of Israel is the living God and the
fountain of all life (Deuteronomy 5:26; Joshua 3:10; Psalms 36:9).
He is the Creator of heaven and earth, whose power knows no
bounds and whose dominion extends over life and death
(Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; Psalms 90:3). He gave life to
man (Genesis 1:26; 2:7), and creates and sustains every man still
(Job 32:8; 33:4; 34:14; Psalms 104:29; Ecclesiastes 12:7). He
connects life with the keeping of His law and appoints death for the
transgression of it (Genesis 2:17; Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy
30:20; 32:47). He lives in heaven, but is present also by His spirit in
Sheol (Psalms 139:7-8). Sheol and Abaddon are open to Him even as
the hearts of the children of men (Job 26:6; 38:17; Proverbs 15:11).
He kills and makes alive, brings down into Sheol and raises from
thence again (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7). He
lengthens life for those who keep His commandments (Exodus
20:12; Job 5:26), gives escape from death, can deliver when death
menaces (Psalms 68:20; Isaiah 38:5; Jeremiah 15:20; Daniel 3:26),
can take Enoch and Elijah to Himself without dying (Genesis 5:24; 2
Kings 2:11), can restore the dead to life (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34;
13:21). He can even bring death wholly to nothing and completely
triumph over its power by rising from the dead (Job 14:13-15; 19:25-
27; Hosea 6:2; 13:14; Isaiah 25:8; 26:19; Ezekiel 37:11-12; Daniel
12:2).
4. Spiritual Significance:
This revelation by degrees rejects the old contrast between life on
earth and the disconsolate existence after death, in the dark place of
Sheol, and puts another in its place. The physical contrast between
life and death gradually makes way for the moral and spiritual
difference between a life spent in the fear of the Lord, and a life in
the service of sin. The man who serves God is alive (Genesis 2:17);
life is involved in the keeping of His commandments (Leviticus 18:5;
Deuteronomy 30:20); His word is life (Deuteronomy 8:3; 32:47).
Life is still for the most part understood to mean length of days
(Proverbs 2:18; 3:16; 10:30; Isaiah 65:20). Nevertheless it is
remarkable that Prov often mentions death and Sheol in connection
with the godless (Isaiah 2:18; 5:5; 7:25; 9:18), and on the other hand
only speaks of life in connection with the righteous. Wisdom,
righteousness, the fear of the Lord is the way of life (Isaiah 8:22,22;
11:16; 12:6; 13:14; 14:27; 19:23). The wicked is driven away in his
wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death (Isaiah 14:32).
Blessed is he who has the Lord for his God (Deuteronomy 33:29;
Psalms 1:1-2; 2:12; 32:1-2; 33:12; 34:9, etc.); he is comforted in the
greatest adversity (Psalms 73:25-28; Habakkuk 3:17-19), and sees a
light arise for him behind physical death (Genesis 49:18; Job 14:13-
15; 16:16-21; 19:25-27; Psalms 73:23-26). The godless on the
contrary, although enjoying for a time much prosperity, perish and
come to an end (Psalms 1:4-6; 73:18-20; Isaiah 48:22; Malachi 4:3,
etc.).
The righteous of the Old Testament truly are continually occupied
with the problem that the lot of man on earth often corresponds so
little to his spiritual worth, but he strengthens himself with the
conviction that for the righteous it will be well, and for the wicked, ill
(Ecclesiastes 8:12-13; Isaiah 3:10-11). If they do not realize it in the
present, they look forward to the future and hope for the day in
which God's justice will extend salvation to the righteous, and His
anger will be visited on the wicked in judgment. So in the Old
Testament the revelation of the new covenant is prepared wherein
Christ by His appearance hath abolished death and hath brought life
and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). See
ABOLISH . This everlasting life is already here on earth presented to
man by faith, and it is his portion also in the hour of death (John
3:36; 11:25-26). On the other hand, he who lives in sin and is
disobedient to the Son of God, is in his living dead (Matthew 8:22;
Luke 15:32; John 3:36; 8:24; Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13); he
shall never see life, but shall pass by bodily death into the second
death (Revelation 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8).
5. Death in Non-Christian Religions and in Science:
This view of Scripture upon death goes much deeper than that which
is found in other religions, but it nevertheless receives support from
the unanimous witness of humanity with regard to its unnaturalness
and dread. The so-called nature-peoples even feel that death is much
more of an enigma than life;
Mythology, chapter xiii) says rightly, that all peoples have the
conviction that man by nature is immortal, that immortality wants
no proof, but that death is a mystery and must be explained.
Touching complaints arise in the hearts of all men on the frailty and
vanity of life, and the whole of mankind fears death as a mysterious
power. Man finds comfort in death only when he hopes it will be an
end to a still more miserable life. Seneca may be taken as interpreter
of some philosophers when he says:
("It is stupid to die through the fear of death") and some may be able,
like a Socrates or a Cato, to face death calmly and courageously; what
have these few to say to the millions, who through fear of death are
all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:15)? Such a mystery
has death remained up to the present day. It may be said with
Kassowitz, Verworm and others that the "cell" is the beginning, and
the old, gray man is the natural end of an uninterrupted life development, or with Metschnikoff, that science will one day so lengthen life that it will fade away like a rose at last and death lose all
its dread; death still is no less a riddle, and one which swallows up all
the strength of life. When one considers, besides, that a number of
creatures, plants, trees, animals, reach a much higher aage than man;
that the larger half of mankind dies before or shortly after birth; that
another large percentage dies in the bloom of youth or in the prime
of life; that the law of the survival of the fittest is true only when the
fact of the survival is taken as a proof of their fitness; that the
graybeards, who, spent and decrepit, go down to the grave, form a
very small number; then the enigma of death increases more and
more in mysteriousness. The endeavors to bring death into
connection with certain activities of the organism and to explain it by
increasing weight, by growth or by fertility, have all led to shipwreck.
When Weismann took refuge in the immortality of the "einzellige
Protozoen," he raised a hypothesis which not only found many
opponents, but which also left mortality of the "Korperplasma" an
insoluble mystery (Beth, "Ueber Ursache und Zweck des Todes,
Glauben und Wissen (1909), 285-304, 335-48). Thus, science
certainly does not compel us to review Scripture on this point, but
rather furnishes a strong proof of the mysterious majesty of death.
When Pelagius, Socinus, Schleiermacher, Ritschl and a number of
other theologians and philosophers separate death from its
connection with sin, they are not compelled to do so by science, but
are led by a defective insight into the relation between ethos and
phusis. Misery and death are not absolutely always consequences
and punishment of a great personal transgression (Luke 13:2; John
9:3); but that they are connected with sin, we learn from the
experience of every day. Who can number the victims of
mammonism, alcoholism and licentiousness? Even spiritual sins
exercise their influence on corporal life; envy is a rottenness of the
bones (Proverbs 14:30). This connection is taught us in a great
measure by Scripture, when it placed the not yet fallen man in a
Paradise, where death had not yet entered, and eternal life was not
yet possessed and enjoyed; when it sends fallen man, who, however,
is destined for redemption, into a world full of misery and death; and
at last assigns to the wholly renewed man a new heaven and a new
earth, where death, sorrow, crying or pain shall no longer exist
(Revelation 21:4).
Finally, Scripture is not the book of death, but of life, of everlasting
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It tells us, in oft-repeated and
unmistakable terms, of the dreaded reality of death, but it proclaims
to us still more loudly the wonderful power of the life which is in
Christ Jesus.
Herman Bavinck, from the International Standard Bible
Encyclopedia