Solomon in Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 reflects on the somber reality of death, suggesting that the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth, under ideal conditions. This perspective hinges on the understanding that death marks a permanent cessation of life, influencing human attitudes and conduct through an inherent fear. This fear, though not always intense, carries a vague influence of hopelessness due to a lack of full belief in God-given truths about death. Most people do not connect their personal sins directly to their own mortality, thus remaining in a state of ignorance that affects their behavior. As long as death seems distant, it garners little attention, yet its shadow persists in the mind, subtly shaping actions due to unbelief in God's truth.

Death is a permanent cessation of life, where the dead no longer possess any physical or mental activity. Each person who dies sleeps in their grave in unconsciousness until the resurrection. The soul itself can die, and the human spirit returns to God, not to a place of punishment. God preserves the spirit until He can return it in the resurrection, when eternal judgment to either eternal life or eternal death is determined. In the future, God will resurrect to physical life billions from all of earth's history who have not had their minds opened to the truth of His way of life, offering them the chance to accept or reject His gift of eternal life.

God declares that the wages of sin is death, not an eternal existence in torment. The Bible reveals that the dead know nothing, their thoughts perish, and all mental and physical processes cease at death, aligning with the definition of death as a permanent cessation of all vital functions. Both the righteous and the wicked, along with animals, return to dust at death, with no capacity to feel joy or pain, indicating that no one goes to heaven or hell immediately upon dying. The ultimate fate of the wicked is total annihilation, where body, mind, and spirit are utterly destroyed, leaving only ashes after being consumed by the Lake of Fire.

The Bible presents death as a complete cessation of existence, contrary to popular beliefs about an immortal soul continuing after death. Scripture asserts that the soul who sins will die, emphasizing that death is not a transition or freeing of the soul but an end to life. Man does not possess immortality inherently, as only God holds immortality, and humans must seek it, for the wages of sin is death. In the grave, there is no thought or consciousness, and without God resurrecting someone by placing their spirit into a living body, that marks the end of their existence.