Death is not permanent for anyone, because God gives life to the dead through resurrection (John 5:21; Romans 4:17; Revelation 20:12). Dictionary definitions that call death a permanent cessation of bodily functions deny God's power, and the superstitious image of a hooded, scythe-wielding Grim Reaper reflects only the fear of the unknown. Solomon and Job, two of history's wisest men, wrote of man without God in bleak terms. Apart from Him, a dead person simply lies in the grave, and unlike a tree, which sprouts again after being cut down, a man does not rise on his own. Job, enduring severe trial, saw life as so brief and turbulent that a tree seemed to have better prospects. Yet Job also held a fervent hope, not merely a wish, that he would rest in the grave until God called him back to life. He expected God to judge him righteous and raise him, changed from dust into something far better, because God would desire a close relationship with him again. Both Solomon and Job conclude that death is not the end for those who fear God and have a relationship with Him. Even those who now live apart from God will have the opportunity to live again.

Life after death comes through the resurrection of the dead. Solomon and Job both knew that the spirit returns to God and that God will call the dead from the grave (Ecclesiastes 12:7; Job 14:15), and the New Testament teaches the same, most fully in I Corinthians 15. Those God converts in this life rise at Christ's return in the first resurrection to enjoy eternal rewards. But all humanity will live again. After the Millennium and Satan's final rebellion, the rest of the dead, "small and great," rise in a second resurrection, a general resurrection of unsaved mankind, for judgment at the Great White Throne. This judgment evaluates each person's manner of life, and only those not found in the Book of Life suffer the second death in the Lake of Fire. God does not desire to condemn anyone, for He wants all to repent (II Peter 3:9). These billions will be judged as the church is now (I Peter 4:17), and it will be their first opportunity to accept His calling and receive eternal life. They awake to a prosperous earth, not heaven, since the meek inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones pictures this resurrection: God gives breath and restores flesh, raising people to physical life on earth, not to an ethereal existence. They will then recognize that their former ideas of the afterlife were mistaken and that the God of Israel is the one true God.

Humans do not go to heaven when they die, and the popular picture of the afterlife is only earthly pleasure transferred to a spiritual setting, an idea inherited from paganism. No one who lacks God's Spirit can know what God has prepared for those who love Him (I Corinthians 2:9-10). The soul is not immortal. A person is a living soul, and the first lie was Satan's claim that Adam and Eve would not die. God had said that the soul who sins shall die (Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23), while eternal life is a gift. At death the body returns to dust, and Sheol is simply the pit or the grave, not a shadowy abode of spirits. The dead have no consciousness, no work, and no praise (Psalm 6:5; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10). Scripture calls death sleep, but this is only a metaphor for real death, not a sleeping immortal soul. The way to eternal life is resurrection, as Christ Himself had to die and be raised by the Father. God has set times for the resurrections. The first is at Christ's return, when the saints rise to reign with Him for a thousand years. The second follows the thousand years, a resurrection to physical life and judgment. The third is the resurrection of condemnation, ending in the Lake of Fire. The saints' inheritance is the earth, where they will reign (Revelation 5:10; Matthew 5:5), and God will finally dwell with them on a new earth (Revelation 21:3). Jesus' promise to the thief is an emphatic judgment spoken "today," with the comma placed after "today." The thief asked to be remembered when Jesus came into His Kingdom, which is still future, and Jesus Himself spent that day in the tomb, not in paradise.