What Christianity teaches about life after death

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In Western popular culture, the dead
can often follow what happens on the
Earth as 'angels', but what does
Christianity really teach about life
after death? Do the dead know what is
happening?
The ﬁrst thing to know is that men do not become Angels after death,
mankind does not transcend death with the ability to leave hell or
heaven and come to earth as they please to visit the living nor do they
change their estates.
Tony Mariot What Christianity teaches about life after death? Page ! of !1 15

Jesus makes the point in His discussion about the realities of what the
conditions were during the dispensation of time when He lived on the
Earth by describing an actual account of the rich man and Lazarus.
Luke 16: 25–31
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented.
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf ﬁxed:
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can
they pass to us, that would come from thence.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to
my father's house:
28 For I have ﬁve brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear
them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the
dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
There is only one account in scripture, where a living person attempts
to talk with the dead (1 Samuel 28:7-20). Samuel was a prophet of God,
He dies and Saul, King of Israel, wanted to learn about the future
events of an impending war. Saul would typically consult Samuel and
God would speak through Samuel and tell Saul what He wanted Saul
to do. Every war Saul was in, God would deliver his enemies into his
hands because Saul was the anointed King of Israel.
But at the point of this encounter with a witch, Saul was no longer the
anointed of God. God had instructed Samuel before his death, to
anoint David as King of Israel because Saul sinned against God’s
word. Saul was on his own and for this reason, Saul sought out a
witch to speak with Samuel, who was dead.

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The ﬁrst thing we need to do, is establish some facts.
The ﬁrst of which, was Samuel dead?
“Now Samuel was dead” (1 Samuel 25:1, 28:3).
Saul knew that it was against God’s word to seek out familiar spirits
or witches.
“And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and wizards out of
the land” (1 Samuel 28:3).
Saul knew it was wrong and had already moved those that did such
things out of Israel, Saul knew what they were doing was an
abomination to the Lord, according to the law.

“A man also or woman that has a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall be
put to death” (Leviticus 20:27).
Saul sent his servants to ﬁnd a woman who had a familiar spirit, a
witch (1 Samuel 28:6-7).
Jesus revealed the realities of life after death during the dispensation
of Saul’s lifetime, which applied until Christ’s resurrection (Luke
16:19-31). This is the only account where Jesus used names of real
people instead of speaking metaphorically in a parable.
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Jesus did this so people would know this was not a parable, but that
he was revealing what is real about Hell and then, Paradise.
Hell and Paradise existed in proximity. This was true during Saul and
Samuel’s lifetime. During this period in time, Jesus had not yet come,
so everyone who died believing on the coming of the Messiah, died in
faith.
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off” (Hebrews 11:13)

This means that everyone who died in faith went to Paradise, which
was a temporary holding place for believers until the resurrection of
Christ. Paradise was referred to as Abraham’s Bosom (Luke 16:22-23).
After the resurrection and ascension of Christ and the believers,
Paradise was emptied and Hell expanded.
“And the graves were opened and many of the bodies of the Saints which
slept arose, and come out of their graves after His resurrection” (Matthew
27:52-53)
Note: Those in the Catholic faith hold onto this teaching with a twist.
They teach “Purgatory” as an intermediate state. In short, there is no
such place in the scriptures that supplant what Jesus said about
Paradise. Purgatory is inconsistent with what Jesus said. In the
"Catechism of the Catholic Church - The celebration of the Christian
Mystery". The Holy See.
The Roman Catholic theology states that Purgatory is an intermediate
state after physical death in which some of those ultimately destined
for heaven must first "undergo purification, so as to achieve the
holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven," holding that "certain
offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to
come.”
Entrance into Heaven requires the "remission before God of the
temporal punishment due to venial sins whose guilt has already been
forgiven," for which indulgences (payments) may be given which
remove "either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin,"
such as an "unhealthy attachment" to sin.
Only those who die in the state of grace but have not yet fulfilled the
temporal punishment due to their sin can be in Purgatory, and
therefore no one in Purgatory will remain forever in that state nor go
to hell.

The notion of Purgatory is associated particularly with the Latin Rite
of the Catholic Church (in the Eastern sui juris churches or rites it is a
doctrine, though it is not often called "Purgatory", but the "final
purification" or the "final theosis").
After the Saints left their graves, they walked around a bit on the
planet surface as evidence of the resurrection. The expansion of Hell is
predicted by Isaiah.
“Therefore Hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without
measure” (Isaiah 5:14)
Since the resurrection, everyone goes directly into their judgment.
There is no more Paradise you go to Heaven or Hell instantly. The
Luke 16 account, describes that people who lived during the
dispensation of Samuel and Saul went to Hell or Paradise.
There was no provision for the dead to pass from one reality to the
next. Jesus made it a point to give details on this fact as well.
“A Great Gulf Affixed” (Luke 16:26)
Man is not and was not afforded the capacity to travel beyond the
Gulf to Heaven, Earth, Hell or Paradise as they pleased. Therefore, it
was impossible for Samuel to appear at all to the witch or to Saul.

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God’s view on Familiar spirits is that they are abominations to Him
(Deuteronomy 18:10-12). The Hebrew word for abomination is “Ebah”
meaning, something disgusting. In (Leviticus 20:27) God commanded
those with Familiar Spirits to be put to death.
God in no way condoned what Saul was doing in speaking with a
witch or a familiar spirit. Would God break His own law to allow
Samuel to transcend His law or to permit Samuel to talk with Saul?
Saul, who was out of favor with God and in sin by doing this in the
ﬁrst place.
Comparing the scriptural evidence of the account in (1 Samuel 28), we
should consider some other points as well:
1. The Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. Saul was rejected by
God, because Saul did not destroy the Amalek’s as God commanded
(1 Samuel 15:1-28).
2. Samuel was to anoint David to be King of Israel (1 Samuel 16:11-14).

3. Saul’s Kingdom had been stripped from him and given to David (1
Samuel 15:28, 16:1-3).
God refused to speak to Saul, so Saul seeks out a witch (1 Samuel
28:6-7). This witch was working through Familiar Spirits. Demons can
imitate the dead.
They use known information involving a person, place or thing. They
use this knowledge to deceive the living. This account with Saul and
the witch was a modern day séance.
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The witch states that she saw gods ascending out of the earth (1
Samuel 28:13). These gods were evil spirits, demons. Saul himself
never “saw” these spirits, but asked the witch for a description of
what she saw (1 Samuel 28:14).

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When the witch gave Saul the description of an old man covered in a
mantle, Saul “perceived” that the witch was describing Samuel. The
word “Mantle” in Hebrew is “Melyl” meaning coat, robe or cloak. The
word “perceived” in Hebrew is the word “Yada” meaning to
acknowledge, familiar friend. In other words, Saul guessed that the
witch was describing Samuel, particularly because Saul had put his
face on the ground, he could not see anything in this position.
The information that Saul received from the witch was relayed to Saul
by the witches own mouth. This is sacrosanct to séances, where one is
supposedly consulting with the dead through a medium or
soothsayer. The medium relays information from the dead to the
living. The dead never actually audibly speak through the air with a
voice in a séance.

Demons can speak through a medium because they are servants of
demons. They can be possessed and often are in order to share the
things the demons say through them. For those with the theological
view that Samuel actually made an appearance from the dead, it
comes from the accuracy of a prediction the witch tells Samuel.
That Samuel and his sons would die the next day in battle (1 Samuel
31:2-7). The details of the prediction by the Demonic Spirit speaking
through the witch to Saul, was information that was predominately
known in Israel already. Long before this encounter with the witch,
the Lord’s anointing had departed from Saul, so it was no stretch to
predict that Saul and his sons would lose the battle and be killed the
next day.
The witch told Saul that he and his sons would be with Samuel the
next day. Mind you, the witch and the demon were “pretending” to be
Samuel, and Samuel was supposed to be in Paradise. The real Samuel
“was” in Paradise. The reality is that Saul was going to join the demon
who was pretending to be Samuel. The demon was actually telling
Samuel he was going to be in Hell the next day.

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Angels and demons have access to certain information about the
future. Throughout history God has used Angels to relay information
to men. When an Angel has information it is “Not” prophetic to the
Angel, only to us.
When an Angel tells us about something in the future, to us that is
prophesy, to the Angel its simple knowledge. God and Angels exist in
the eternal now as do demons.
Angels don’t forget anything they see, have heard or experienced,
from the time of their creation before the foundations of the world to
now. They know what has been revealed to man in every aspect, albeit
demons do not understand the spiritual context of scripture, to them
they are just words, hollow of spiritual ramiﬁcations. Scriptures are
inspired words of God to man by the Holy Spirit.

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Angels and Demons alike know what has been revealed on Earth,
they also know what has been revealed to them in Heaven. Angels do
not have the veil of this life’s existence as the veil applies to mankind,
meaning they can see both realities seamlessly, this life and the
Heavens, carnally and spiritually.

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In the fullness of Gods character and His word, it would not be
possible for the living to be able to commune with the dead, with the
exception of the transﬁguration, which of the three only Moses had
died and was a special accommodation of God for Christ.
All those who operate with Familiar Spirits, are those who were given
a gift that approximates the gifts of prophesy and other gifts of the
Holy Spirit, as in the gift of wisdom and knowledge.

But they are operating in a counterfeit manner, as did Balaam, and as
such they do not see clearly. Often these type of prophesies are
intended to deceive a person, to create a doorway so demons can
work through and in these people’s lives unbeknownst to them.
In the end, the dead have nothing to do with the living, nor do they
care about the living anymore. Solomon said it plainly..
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“For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything,
neither have they anymore reward for the memory of them is forgotten”
“Also their love and the hatred and their envy is now perished, neither have
they anymore a por- tion forever in anything that is done under the
sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6).
Under the sun is where living men dwell, which is Earth.
“For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave,
wither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

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The dead have no more relationships with the living. All of their life
issues cease at death. They also know nothing of the future.
Their knowledge of this life stops at death. In other words, Moses,
Abraham, and Adam, don’t know what television, cell phones, cars or
the internet is. They never saw it.
They cannot even relate to it outside of a conversation they may have
in Heaven with one who died more recently who interfaced with such
things.

What Christianity teaches about life after death

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