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The dead are asleep until the resurrection. Jesus said, "No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven: the Son of Man" (John 3.13). No one is floating on a cloud, haunting old houses, burning under the earth, or beholding the face of God in heaven. At death the whole person ceases from life as God ordained it from the begining: "By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3.19). Resurrection is the only escape from death, which is why it is so often mentioned in the Bible. In contrast, the heaven-at-death concept is totally foreign and was the unfortunate result of the Church Fathers reading Plato into the Bible. The Hebrew concept of death is nicely encapsulated in the words of Solomon, "the dead do not know anything...there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going" (Ecclesiastes 9.5, 10).
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