Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.
John 11:26 (NLT)
Each of us has known someone who believed in Jesus and has died. This seems to contradict what Jesus said in John 11:26.
The problem is, the term “death” can refer to two very different events.
The First Death
The first type of death is the death that we as humans experience right now. We call it death, but God refers to it as “sleep.” We say someone is dead, but God says they are sleeping.
Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.”
John 11:11 (NLT)
Lazarus had died. He was buried in his tomb. His loved ones were mourning his passing. Jesus, however, says Lazarus had fallen asleep. That is because this first type of death is not the final end of a human being.
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2 (NIV)
Every person who has suffered this first death will live again. Each one will be resurrected in one of two resurrection events.
Therefore, to God, these people are not dead, but merely sleeping. They will be woken up to live again.
This sleep of death is not like when living human beings sleep. We still have brain and body functions. The dead, however, know nothing and feel nothing.
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing…
Ecclesiastes 9:5
The common teaching that the dead go to heaven or hell immediately after death is a lie of the Enemy. It is not Biblical. It is an important part of the Enemy’s end-time deception, which we will explore in other articles.
Your dead friends and relatives are not watching you. They are not conscious. They are not experiencing thoughts or emotions, nor do they dream. They are not aware of anything happening around them. They are waiting to be called forth from their graves, just like Jesus called Lazarus from his grave.
The Second Death
The first death is called sleep because those who have died this way will wake up again. The second death is an eternal state of non-existence.
Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6
There is no resurrection from the second death. It is the final end to a human being. They cease to exist.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
Revelation 20:14 (NIV)
It is called the second death because everyone who experiences it will have experienced the first death of sleep. They will die again, and, this time, remain dead forever.