Death: The Final Frontier… Or Is It? | Part 3 (Episode 17)

Welcome back to “Tomorrow’s Truth Found Today.”

In Episode 17, Part 3 of our series “Death: The Final Frontier… Or Is It?”, we conclude our deep dive into what the Bible actually teaches about death, the soul, heaven, hell, and the resurrection.

There is a lot of confusion in the world today about what happens when we die. Many believe we go immediately to heaven or hell—but is that truly what Scripture says?

In this final part, we explore:
• The true state of the dead  
• Why the resurrection is essential  
• Who really has immortality  
• What the Bible actually means by “hell”  
• Why no one is being punished right now  
• The truth about judgment and the second death  

We also examine key scriptures including:
Acts 17:11, Job 14, John 5, John 6, 1 Timothy 6:16, Ezekiel 18:4, Hebrews 11, Revelation 20, and more.

My hope is that this study encourages you to search the Scriptures for yourself—just like the Bereans—and to build your understanding on truth, not tradition.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” — Romans 6:23

You are worth it.

Thank you for listening, and I’ll see you in Episode 18.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello again, Mark Long here with another chapter of Tomorrow's Truth Found Today. We continue with episode 17 and the third part of Death, the Final Frontier. Or is it? Here again, I'm asking that you please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel. And please share this information with everyone you know. My friends, our world today, it is in desperate need of revival. Now, I'd like to do a short recap of part two. I stated that there's individuals who claim they can speak to the dead. You gotta know that that's not true, and actually, it's impossible. Then we read in Ephesians 6.12 what the Apostle Paul wrote. He said that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities in spiritual wickedness. That scripture lines up with Revelation 16, 14. For they are spirits of demons performing signs. We also learned that Satan is a liar. That's John 8.44. I continued on by saying, unfortunately, there are many churches that are failing to teach the deeper things of God, which is what causes confusion. We also looked at Ecclesiastes 9.5 and learned the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing. Finally, I shared that we all have a duty to hold preachers accountable, to teach and to preach God's actual truth and not man-made opinions. Now, on to part three. To start with, I know how hard this information is to accept, and please hang in there, put it all together, trust God's word, and it will all become clear. Let's start by saying something that we all need to do. We need to take on the attitude the Bereans had. Turn to Acts 17, 11, where we're told they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. That's what we need to do. If we fail to do what the Bereans did, it becomes easy to see how man has gotten so far off track and has actually turned to myths and fables about death and the things that are falsely believed today. Take a moment. And let's see what Job tells us about death. Job 14, 1 and 2 says this man who is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. Job, my friends, clearly understood he was going to die and not continue on in some other way, as many believe today. Following that, continue on down to verse 14. Job asks a question. If man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service will I wait until my change comes. My friends, Job had no misgivings about dying, and the fact that we won't, that he won't live again until God calls him back to life, as he clearly stated, until my change comes. Now, following that, turn to John 5, 28 and 29, where we learn about the state of the dead. John wrote, Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, those that have done good to the resurrection of life, those that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. So now ask yourself, where are all these people today? The simple answer is they're in their graves. Knowing that, there arises another question. If when we die, we either go to heaven or hell, as many believe today, then why did John write about a resurrection at all? There's four scriptures in John chapter 6 that clearly states that he will raise us up at the last day. That's John 6.39, 40, 44, and 54. Part of the problem, I believe, we have today is that we've been taught to believe we have an immortal soul and that we continue on after death one way or another. People believe that because that's what most churches are teaching today. But is that what the Bible teaches? Do we in fact have an immortal soul? Turn to 1 Timothy 6.16 and let's put that idea to rest. Let's learn who only has immortality. It states, and this is speaking of God, it says, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. We also read in Ezekiel 18 4, Behold, all souls are mine. The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul that sins will die. Understand this, my friends. We are not immortal, nor do we have an immortal soul. That's what your Bible teaches. Now, it may come as a shock, but that is in fact true. We have to rid ourselves of all these preconceived ideas about death and the immortality of the soul. But wait, you might be thinking, what about all the spiritual giants of the past, people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Jeremiah, and all the New Testament writers for that matter? Surely they must be in heaven, right? No, they are not. They're still in the graves that they were placed in when they died. You have to decide whether or not to believe God's word or man-made traditions. It's your choice. Continuing on, let's go to the 11th chapter of Hebrews and examine a couple people that proves that none of these individuals are in heaven today or anybody else. We'll start with Enoch, a man who many believe was taken to heaven and didn't die. Turn to Genesis 5, 23 and 24. We're told, so all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. To elaborate on this scripture, we need to turn in the King James Bible to Hebrews 11:5, where we're told, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. Now, go back to Genesis 5.23, where we have God giving Enoch's total age of 365 years. So if he didn't die, then why was his total age or his ending age mentioned at all? Remember, Hebrews 11.5 says he was translated. He was not found. Obviously, somebody was looking for him, but probably not with the best intentions. So at this point, we have to discover what the term translated means. Here we're going to consult Strong's exhaustive concordance. The definition of translated means, and it's the number 3346 in the Greek section of the book, it tells us translation means, or translated means, to transport, carry over, transfer, or remove. It says nothing about dying. On the other hand, Hebrews 11 5 states he was taken. Genesis 5.23 states his total years were 365. Nothing here declares he would never die. The same translation also happened to Philip after he taught the Ethiopian eunuch. That story is in Acts 8, 26 to 40. It ends by saying, Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away and translated him so that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found in Azotis, and passing through, he preached in all the cities where he came until he came to Caesarea. My friends, Philip was translated. He was moved from one place to another, the same as Enoch. Remember what Christ tells us in John 3.13. No one has ascended to heaven. Next we come to Abraham, a man who was known for righteousness, who sojourned in the land of promise. But what was the promise? Abraham was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. That's Hebrews 11:10. Throughout this 11th chapter, we learn not only about great faith, but also about promises. Please take a few moments and read this chapter and pay close attention to verse 13, where we all learn that all these people of faith died. They didn't receive the promises, but having seen them afar off and were assured of them, embraced them and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Pretty simple. Here's the gist of it, my friends. These all had faith. They all knew the promises, and they all embraced them. They also knew that they were strangers on the earth, and yet they all died, not having received the promises. And how do we know that? Because they all saw them afar off again. Look at verse 13. Verse 39 tells us emphatically that none of them received the promises, but that God, having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Understand this. Nobody is going to receive these promises until we all receive them at the same time when Christ returns. We have to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. Remember John 4, 24. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. Now, we've come through two stages of the Bible's description about death, and yet there still remains one huge question. If, as we've learned, one, when we die we remain that way, and two, nobody's in heaven today, then what about the idea of hell? Are there actually people burning in hell today? And for that matter, what about the millions of people who've never had a chance to receive salvation? And those that have never even heard about Jesus Christ, are they all damned for eternity? Rest easy, my friends. No one's suffering today, and no one is burning in hell. Why? Because nobody's been judged yet. Trust me, those that have died are still dead today. We need to understand. And turn to Revelation 20, 4 through 6, where it says, And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast for his image, and had not received his mark on their forehead or on their hands. And they lived and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall become priests of God, or shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. My friends, this does in fact prove that no one lives on after death. Look at what it said. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. Now, let's continue on and read verses eleven through 15. We're told, Then I saw a great white throne, judge, a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Reading these scriptures, ask yourself this Is anybody burning today? No, they're not. Remember, we're not immortal. Understand something. False information is the very starting point of deception. We have to hold fast to what Scripture tells us and always remember Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, let's look at the word hell. The King James Bible has the word hell appearing 31 times in the Old Testament and 23 times in the New Testament. However, in the original scriptures, there's only four words that have ever been translated in all 54 scriptures that use the word hell. Our first word for hell in the Old Testament is the word Sheol. It means a common grave or a pit. The second word for hell, found in the New Testament, is Hades. It also means a grave or a pit. The third word for hell is Gehenna, meaning valley of the Son of Hinnum. Christ spoke of Gehenna fire in Matthew 5.22, 29 to 30, 10, 28, 18, 9, 23, 15, and 33, also in Luke 12, 5. The word hell also appears in James 3.6, which means to cause a blaze, ignite, or to inflame with passion. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the place of torment. The fourth word for hell is Tataro O Tataros. It is found in 2 Peter 2, 4 through 5. It states, for if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, Tataru or Tataros, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but save Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the root of the ungodly. This word taru is quite different from the other three words for hell. It means to incarcerate in eternal torment. You may think, uh-huh, here's proof, we are immortal, but not so fast. Let's look at verse 4 and see what it actually says is talking about, and who it's talking about, and who's in torment. It states, for God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to taru, hell, tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment. This scripture has nothing whatsoever to do with people burning in hell. But it does talk about angels being incarcerated. It also states that angels haven't been judged yet. 1 Corinthians 6, 3 proves this. It says, Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? Remember, they are to be reserved for judgment. Study this information, my friends, and get a better understanding about our subject of death. We're now at the end of our study, and hopefully, by now, you have at least a fundamental grasp of what to expect when facing death. Remember, we have to look to God's word for truth and never depend on speculation. I pray that what's been offered in this three-part series helps to remove some of the lies that have been spread about death. And please know this information is by no means all there is to know about death. It just is a good starting point. My only hope is that I've provoked you enough to study this information and equip yourself with God's truth, not only about death, but all things pertaining to salvation. My friends, there is in fact a place of punishment. But it is not a place of punishing. Remember, Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. One last thing. There's no such place as purgatory. That is an invention of the Catholic Church that was started back in the 13th century. I'm going to close for now by again asking. Please, please study this information and pray that God grants you guidance and understanding. And always remember, my friends, you are worth it. Take care, and I'll see you in episode 18.

unknown 14:42

Bye for now.