T is argued from the above passages that somehow the dead are not really dead, but maintain conscious existence between death and the resurrection.  It is important as we consider these passages that we confine ourselves to what the scriptures say and do not say.  But more importantly that we consider everything these passages say and not only those parts of them which seem to bolster our position. 

This is important because many times when I hear these passages quoted as proof of the immortality of the soul, they appear as follows: 

… have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err. Mark 12:26-27 

...Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.  Luke 20:37-38 

…have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matt 22:31-32

If you ever hear someone quoting these passages to you in this way you should immediately be suspicious.  The problem is that they are all quotations out of context which omit the very plain reference to the resurrection given in each one.  

The task we have before us is to determine precisely what Jesus meant when he said that the faithful patriarchs and indeed all live unto God.  We cannot simply apply our own arbitrary theories and beliefs about life after death to these passages and believe we have proved something.  Those who believe that man is in some way immortal in spite of death resort to this tactic over and over again.  

In attempting to determine the correct meaning of this passage, the first question we will ask is to whom it was addressed, and why?

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him...
Matt 22:33

Let us never draw any conclusions from this passage without considering the question it was advanced to answer, and the audience to whom these words were spoken.  The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, or life after death at all.  They believed that death was the end.  They proposed a question in order to try and trick Jesus and thus prove that there was indeed no resurrection. 

Jesus’ answer therefore was given in order to establish the fact and the necessity of the resurrection.  Those who use these passages in order to try and establish that man has continued conscious existence after death destroy the very force of Jesus’ answer.  If Jesus really meant that the dead are still alive, then in what way does this establish the fact or necessity of the resurrection at all?  Why would the living need a resurrection anyway?   

This is a serious problem for the traditional position of man’s inherent immortality.  You cannot maintain that the dead are really more alive than ever in some way without destroying or downplaying the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection.

William Tyndale who first translated the Bible into English wrote:

"And ye, in putting them (the dead) in heaven, hell and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection....if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of a resurrection.... The true faith puteth forth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ and the fleshy doctrine of philosophers together: things so contrary that they cannot agree....And because the fleshy-minded pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the Scripture to establish it."

William Tyndale was able to see what most in our day cannot. A resurrection of those who are still alive is no resurrection at all but an empty show.

Let us consider what the Apostle Paul had to say concerning the necessity of the resurrection:

But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 1 Cor 15:13-18

 To Paul, if there was no resurrection, then those which had died in Christ were perished.  That is, they were gone forever never to return. We are given no hint that these have any hope beyond this life whatsoever, save the resurrection of the dead.  The apostle goes on to convey this very thought.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor 15:19

If there is no resurrection, then we have no hope at all for any future life beyond the one we already have. 

MAKING A MOCKERY OF GOD? 

The Greeks had very clear conceptions of life after death.  They unquestionably believed in the immortality of the soul.  It is interesting to note the reaction of those who heard Paul preach on Mars Hill: 

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. Acts 17:32

To the Greeks, the idea of a resurrection was ridiculous. They reasoned that the body was only a shell that housed the real individual, the ‘I am’.  They believed the soul was immortal and therefore there was no need for such a resurrection. 

Unwittingly, many in our day make a mockery of God and the resurrection the same way as those on Mars Hill.  By reasoning that the soul is immortal, and that the souls of the dead are already in heaven or hell they make a mockery of the resurrection which is simply unnecessary in such a context.

While most evangelical or fundamental denominations today would deny this, their literature, preaching, and style of evangelism betrays them.  The emphasis is almost always laid upon where one will go immediately upon death, and never upon the resurrection.

At funerals we hear that the real person has simply moved out of their earthly shell and gone on to heaven usually with no mention of the resurrection whatsoever.  A familiar question asked by fundamentalist 'soul-winners' is 'If you die today are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven?'  That which the Bible calls 'the first resurrection' has been dubbed 'the rapture' with the emphasis laid upon the living being caught up to God, rather than the raising of the dead at that same time.

The hard facts are that our traditional conceptions concerning the immortality of the soul have destroyed the Biblical doctrine of the resurrection.  While Jesus and Paul seem intent on establishing the fact of the resurrection out of absolute necessity, our teachers today seem just as intent on burying it and downplaying its role in God's plan for mankind.

Returning to our passages above, the entire force of Jesus’ and Paul’s argument is to establish the fact of a resurrection by its absolute necessity.  Paul reasons that if the dead are not raised, then we have no hope whatsoever for a future life, therefore the dead must be raised.  We know of a surety the dead will be raised because Christ himself has been raised. 

The reasoning of Jesus is exactly the same.  If God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet not the God of the dead, but of the living, then he must purpose to give life back to these in the resurrection as all these passages clearly state:

And as touching the dead, that they rise... Mark 12:26

 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush... Luke 20:37 

But as touching the resurrection of the dead... Matt 22:31

The entire point was to prove the necessity of the resurrection, not to teach doctrine on the state of the dead before the resurrection. 

 Luke 20:38 states:

For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him

In what way do all live unto God?  In the way that Jesus had just explained.  Because God purposes to give life back to all in the resurrection not because the dead are currently more alive than ever in either heaven or hell.

Some advocates of the traditional theory of the soul's immortality will still insist that for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to still be 'living' to God, they must have conscious existence in some way presently.  But is this what the Bible says, or is this simply what they assume must be true? We will let the apostle Paul answer:

...your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Col 3:3-4

As the scriptures clearly state, the reason why all can be said to live unto God is because their life is hidden with Christ in God.  Christ IS our life, not an immortal soul. The scripture also brings out once again exactly when we will all be with Christ -  when he appears, and thus at the resurrection, not immediately at death

The scriptures are consistent and unambiguous that the only hope for the dead is the resurrection. Why does it seem that as though our modern theology is bent on removing this great truth from the position it rightfully holds?

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