Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Life, Death, Eternity
    Life, Death, Eternity
    Life, Death, Eternity
    Ebook252 pages3 hours

    Life, Death, Eternity

    By James D. Quiggle

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Life, Death, Eternity is a path through the thicket of opposing opinions, explaining biblical answers to the most important questions about life and the afterlife: what makes us alive, where do we go after physical death, and how do we get there. Life, Death, Eternity is a thorough Bible study of Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, Heaven, resurrection, the Bema Seat judgment, the Great White Throne judgment, the Lake of Fire, and the Eternal state.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames D. Quiggle
    Release dateJan 31, 2019
    ISBN9780463490181
    Life, Death, Eternity
    Author

    James D. Quiggle

    James D. Quiggle was born in 1952 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He grew up in Kansas and the Texas Panhandle. In the early 1970s he joined the United States Air Force. At his first permanent assignment in Indian Springs, Nevada in a small Baptist church, the pastor introduced him to Jesus and soon after he was saved. Over the next ten years those he met in churches from the East Coast to the West Coast, mature Christian men, poured themselves into mentoring him. In the 1970s he was gifted with the Scofield Bible Course from Moody Bible Institute. As he completed his studies his spiritual gift of teaching became even more apparent. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Bethany Bible College during the 1980s while still in the Air Force. Between 2006–2008, after his career in the Air Force and with his children grown up, he decided to continue his education. He enrolled in Bethany Divinity College and Seminary and earned a Master of Arts in Religion and a Master of Theological Studies.As an extension of his spiritual gift of teaching, he was prompted by the Holy Spirit to begin writing books. James Quiggle is now a Christian author with over fifty commentaries on Bible books and doctrines. He is an editor for the Evangelical Dispensational Quarterly Journal published by Scofield Biblical Institute and Theological Seminary.He continues to write and has a vibrant teaching ministry through social media.

    Read more from James D. Quiggle

    Related to Life, Death, Eternity

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Getting to Know God Jesus is God

      Nov 27, 2020

      The doctrine of the Trinity is what makes Christianity’s monotheism unique. Last month we began a three-part series on the Trinity. We noted how the Bible’s monotheism differs from the monotheism of Islam and Judaism. This month, as we continue to ex

      3 min read

    • Article

      Spirit World Revival Ministries

      Oct 2, 2020

      Spirit World Revival Ministries is a healing, deliverance, and prophetic ministry under the leadership of Apostle O’neil and his wife Pastor Samantha Muthien. This is a moving ministry, taking the Gospel to the nations, reviving souls, and restoring

      3 min read

    • Article

      Crosses Across Asia

      Apr 8, 2022

      Crosses Across Asia
      3 min read

    • Article

      HE IS Alive!

      Mar 8, 2024

      HE IS Alive!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Radiance

      Dec 30, 2022

      Radiance
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Great Shaking

      Nov 27, 2020

      Way back in the last millennium when I was still a teenager there was a popular song made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis, “There’s been a whole lotta shakin goin’ on.”This is certainly true of today’s world. One major difference between the current global

      5 min read

    • Article

      WHERE WAS JESUS BETWEEN HIS DEATH & RESURRECTION?

      Mar 10, 2023

      After Jesus said, “It is finished,” on the Cross, “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). His dead body remained on the Cross until it was taken down and placed in a nearby tomb (John 19:40–42). His spirit, however, was elsewhere. Th

      3 min read

    • Article

      What The New Testament Doesn’t Say

      May 20, 2019

      When professing Christians deny Biblical creation, we often point them to the Words of Jesus and the New Testament authors, which clearly affirm their own belief in Biblical creation. Because Christians are, by definition, people who believe what Jes

      5 min read

    • Article

      Getting to Know God The Personhood & Deity of the Holy Spirit

      Jan 1, 2021

      In examining the biblical revelation concerning God, we come upon an apparent contradiction. The Bible teaches that there is only one God, but it also teaches that Jesus is God. And what do we make of situations where God the Son is speaking to God t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Sep 24, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost Part VI

      May 19, 2023

      The scripture above records the final words of Jesus Christ to His disciples before He was taken up into a cloud. One of His last promises was that the Father would send the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of the Spirit would enable the disciples to acc

      2 min read

    • Article

      How to Spread the Gospel Like Wildfire

      Aug 19, 2019

      The Gospel spread like wildfire in the early church. For example, a single speech from Peter converted 3000 people (Acts 2:41), and after he gave a second speech, the number of believers totalled 5000 (Acts 4:4). In only a few decades, the Good News

      5 min read

    • Article

      Did You Know?

      Dec 31, 2021

      How many books are in the Bible? The Bible contains 66 books, divided among the Old and New Testaments. How many books are in the Old Testament? There are 39 books in the Old Testament. How many books are in the New Testament? There are 27 books

      3 min read

    • Article

      The River Of Life

      Mar 8, 2024

      I love standing on a bridge, staring into the fast-moving waters of a river, on their way to the sea from their source in distant hills. The length of a river is like the span of a human life. Some lives are long, but others, sadly, can be much short

      5 min read

    • Article

      Young Evangelists Are Answering The Call

      Jul 22, 2022

      Many years ago, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke spoke of a vision that the Lord had given him of young people preaching the Gospel on the streets of Europe. That vision has taken another step forward with the introduction of Fire Camps – retreats for youn

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Life, Death, Eternity

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Life, Death, Eternity - James D. Quiggle

      Life, Death, Eternity

      BOOKS BY JAMES D. QUIGGLE

      DOCTRINAL SERIES

      A Biblical Response to Same-gender Marriage

      Adam and Eve, a Biography and Theology

      Angelology, a True History of Angels

      Antichrist, His Genealogy, Kingdom, and Religion

      Biblical Homosexuality

      Christian Living and Doctrine

      Dictionary of Doctrinal Words

      Dispensational Eschatology

      First Steps, Becoming a Follower of Jesus Christ

      God Became Incarnate

      God’s Choices

      Life, Death, Eternity

      Marriage and Family: A Biblical Perspective

      Spiritual Gifts

      The Literal Hermeneutic

      Why Christians Should Not Tithe

      A PRIVATE COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE SERIES

      Ruth, Esther, Song of Solomon, Daniel, Jonah, Haggai

      Matthew’s Gospel, John’s Gospel

      (Also available in 2 vols. John 1–12, John 13–21)

      Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon

      Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter

      John’s Epistles, Jude

      The Epistle of Jesus to the Church (Revelation)

      TRANSLATION of Select Bible Books

      WITH DAVID R. HOLLINGSWORTH

      Old and New Testament Chronology

      (Also available in two volumes: Old Testament Chronology and New Testament Chronology)

      Visit me at https://www.facebook.com/BooksOfQ

      Life, Death, Eternity

      James D. Quiggle

      Copyright Page

      Life, Death, Eternity

      Copyright © 2019 James D. Quiggle. All rights reserved.

      Published by James D. Quiggle, January 2019.

      Revised February 2019, corrected typographical errors, added appendix on cloning, added an explanatory word, sentence, or paragraph here and there.

      Smashwords Edition

      Bible versions ASV, KJV, NKJV, NIV, HCSB, ASV, ESV, YLT, NLT were sourced from PC Study Bible®, version 5, release 5.2. Copyright© 1988–2008, by BibleSoft, Inc.

      American Standard Version (ASV). Public Domain.

      Authorized (King James) Version (KJV). Public Domain.

      Easy-to-Read Version (ERV). Scriptures labeled ERV were taken from the HOLY BIBLE: EASY-TO-READ VERSION © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center, Inc. and used by permission.

      Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Scripture quotations marked HCSB are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

      Lexham English Bible (LEB). Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.

      New King James Version® (NKJV). Copyright © 1982, 1983 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

      The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, A Division of Good News Publishers, 1300 Crescent Street, Wheaton, Illinois 60187, USA. All rights reserved.

      The Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV), Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

      Holy Bible, New Living TRANSLATION (NLT) ® Copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

      Young's Literal TRANSLATION of the Holy Bible (YLT), by Robert Young, Originally Published In 1862, Edinburgh. Revised Edition 1887. Public Domain.

      The contents of this Epub version are the same as the print version.

      Table of Contents

      Abbreviations

      Introduction

      What is Life? What is Death? What is Eternity?

      The Doctrine of She’ôl

      The Doctrine of Hádēs

      The Doctrine of Géenna

      The Doctrine of Heaven

      The Doctrine of Resurrection

      The Bēma Seat of Christ

      The Great White Throne Judgment

      The Bēma and GWT: Comparisons and Contrasts

      The Doctrine of Endless Punishment

      How Do We Get There From Here?

      Appendix One: Two Compartment Theory of She’ôl

      Appendix Two: Cloning

      Appendix Three: Occurrences of She’ôl

      Appendix Four: Occurrences of Hádēs

      Appendix Five: Occurrences of Géenna

      Appendix Six: Occurrences of Immaterial Heaven

      Appendix Six: Definitions

      Sources

      Abbreviations

      AD Anno Domini (In the year of the Lord [since Christ was born])

      aka Also known as

      ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers

      Ant. Antiquities of the Jews

      BC Bello Christo (Before Christ [was born])

      ca. about (an approximate date) (Latin: circa)

      CE Current Era (year since Christ was born).

      cf. compare (Latin: confer)

      e.g. for example (Latin: exempli gratia)

      etc. and so forth, and so on (Latin: et cetera)

      GWT Great White Throne judgment (Revelation 20:11–15)

      HCSB Holman Christian Standard Bible

      Ibid in the same place (referring to the source cited in the previous entry) (Latin: ibidem)

      i.e. that is (Latin: id est)

      ISBE International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

      JDQT Translation by James D. Quiggle

      KJV King James Version

      NASB95 New American Standard Bible 1995 edition.

      NEB New English Bible

      NICNT New International Commentary New Testament

      NIV New International Version

      NKJV New King James Version

      NPNF Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers

      LXX Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament completed ca. 130 BC)

      n. note (referring to a footnote or endnote in the work cited)

      m. Mishnah (followed by tractate name, e.g., m. Baba Metzia)

      Song Song of Solomon

      s. v. under the word (Latin: sub verbo)

      TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

      TNTC Tyndale New Testament Commentary

      TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament

      v. verse

      vv. verses

      WSDNT Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament

      Introduction

      When we [believers in Christ as Savior] close our eyes in death, we do not cease to be alive; rather, we experience a continuation of personal consciousness. No person is more conscious, more aware, and more alert than when he passes through the veil from this world into the next. Far from falling asleep, we are awakened to glory in all of its significance. For the believer, death does not have the last word. Death has surrendered to the conquering power of the One who was resurrected as the firstborn of many brethren [Sproul, article, Death].

      Human life begins at conception, and never ends. The body experiences a temporary cessation of life, known as physical death, but the person continues, to be reunited to his or her body in that act of God known as resurrection, to experience endless life in body and soul. Where a person continues after physical life and in the afterlife has always been the most important question of this mortal life.

      Many persons who believe in an afterlife believe that after death their works will be judged to determine where they will spend the next phase of their life. Many Christians believe in a general judgment where saved and unsaved are judged at the same time. Some Christianized cults believe in some sort of punishment after death which cleanses the soul of unconfessed sin to prepare the person for an afterlife in heaven, or on a paradise-like earth. The Bible doesn’t support any of these views. God does not judge the righteous with the wicked, Genesis 18:23, 25; Psalm 28:2–6 and physical death seals the soul in its spiritual state of saved or unsaved, Luke 16:26; Hebrews 9:27.

      The biblical view of life, death, and eternity is more complex than the simplistic views of some Christians. The saved and unsaved go to different places after physical death, and have different destinies in that span of endless life that follows physical death.

      This book will examine the Old Testament doctrine of she’ôl [Harris, 2303c], and the New Testament doctrines of hádēs [Zodhiates, 86], géenna (pronounced gé·en·na, aka gehenna, aka hell, aka Lake of Fire) [Zodhiates, 1067], heaven, the bēma (judgment seat) of Christ, the Great White Throne Judgment (aka, final judgment), and why the punishment of the lost and blessedness of the saved is endless. Because resurrection of the body is an essential part of these doctrines, the resurrection of the body will also be discussed. In the last chapter, the importance of this life to the afterlife will be discussed under the heading How Do We Get There From Here?

      What is Life? What is Death? What is Eternity?

      What is Physical and Spiritual Life?

      No one really knows what gives otherwise inert substances that quality of existence we call animation or life. We define physical life by what it does. But the actual nature of what we call life, its essential properties as an immaterial thing-substance-essence, is unknown. God alone has life-in-himself (John 5:26)—he is increate, he exists because he exists (Exodus 3:14)—and he alone gives to the creatures he created the animating principle we know as life (Genesis 2:7).

      How did life originate? Life is an immaterial substance God created ex nihilo (from nothing) to animate otherwise non-living substances. We see God creating human life at Genesis 2:7,

      YHWH God breathed the breath of life into the nose of the man he had formed from the dust of the ground, and the man became a living being. (JDQT)

      The man God had formed was dirt rearranged (formed, the Hebrew yāsar, to form or fashion from existing materials) into a material human body. The breath God breathed indicates God performed a spiritual creative act (God does not literally breath atmosphere. Compare the spiritual act at John 20:21) whereby the animating principle life was placed into the inert physical form, thereby making man a living being. God, by a divine act of ex nihilo creation, breathed a soul into the non-living form of the first man, giving the man life. The man’s life was communicated to the Woman when God fashioned her from Adam. The man and woman propagated that life to others through their procreation, and life has continued to be propagated in the same manner.

      What is the soul? The soul is an immaterial spirit substance that gives life and governs behavior in all living things. The soul is composed of the animating principle life compounded with fundamental laws governing the biological and instinctual processes of life. In human beings there are additional fundamental laws, the principles of sentient life, which with the biological and instinctual processes make up human nature. (Sentience is a quality of self-perception/self-awareness that only God, humankind, and angels possess.)

      The principle of life in the soul is what animates otherwise non-living substances. Life is a necessary component of the soul, which all living beings possess. (It may seem strange to think of the immaterial as a substance, but there are no other suitable words, except essence, which in context means the same thing.)

      The soul is an immaterial substance containing the animating principle life and that complex of attributes which synergistically determine the nature and personality of living beings. The soul in humankind acts in three ways: the soul has the vital principle life that animates the physical part of man’s being; the soul is the person (the personality); the soul communes with God (through its faculty of spiritual perception).

      I visualize a soul as composed of three immaterial substances in vital union.

      The animating principle life.

      The essence of the being. In human beings it is the human essence: the spiritual substance that makes a being human rather than some other kind of being, e.g., an angel.

      The attributes of the being that together determine the nature and personality of the being.

      In human beings, the soul is an immaterial substance composed of the animating principle life, the human essence, and the nature or attributes of a human being. Let me clarify using a comparison. In angels, the soul is an immaterial substance composed of the animating principle life, the angel essence, and the nature or attributes of the angelic being.

      The same composition is true in all other kinds of living beings: a soul containing the animating principle life, the essence that makes that living being a certain kind of being (e.g., dog, horse, dolphin, cricket, frog), and the attributes of that define that living being. The complexity of the soul depends on the complexity of the organism.

      The human soul, then, may be defined by three characteristics.

      The human soul is life. A human soul is a living immaterial substance joined to a material body. The living soul in the body is what makes the body alive. Therefore, the soul is the principle of animation compounded with other fundamental principles that make man a living being in both the immaterial and material domains. Man’s soul contains all the fundamental principles that are necessary to govern biological life, instinctual actions, and sentient behavior.

      The human soul is the person. A person is humanity individualized. A person is Adam reproduced and individualized. A person is that complex of attributes which synergistically determine the nature and personality of living beings.

      The human soul communes with God. The soul has the faculty of spiritual perception by which the person can commune with God. (In the unsaved person this faculty is grossly dulled by sin, 1 Corinthians 2:14.)

      Only the souls of human beings and angels are immortal: the individual human soul or the individual angel, having once come into existence, continues without end: immortal endless life. The biblical record speaks of the death of the material body of human beings (and subsequent resurrection), but never speaks of the dissolution of the souls of human beings; or angels. The Bible speaks of the immortality of human beings and angels, but never speaks of the immortality of other kinds of living beings. The souls of humans and angels continue forever from their creation (angels, Adam, Eve) or their conception (all other human beings).

      Excursus: Do Angels and the Souls of Human Beings have an Immaterial Body?

      Do angels have a body? To answer that question, we may create an analogy with human beings. Human beings are finite beings composed of the union of physical body and immaterial soul. The concept finite means limited.

      God is infinite: he is unlimited. God is not infinite in the sense of space-time, but in that he is beyond any limitation of essence; he is immeasurable because he has no material dimension; he is incomprehensible because he has no all-encompassing boundary; he is everywhere because there is no place from which he is excluded and no place to which he is limited [Ames, 86].

      Human beings are limited in many ways. In relation to body and soul, human beings are limited to one particular place in space at any one particular moment in time. The immaterial human soul, like the immaterial angels, is limited. Human souls and angels have a defined location in time and space. They can be in only one place at any one time. When the human soul is disembodied, it remains finite: located in only one place at any one moment time.

      The composite material body and immaterial soul of a human being thus has a defined, which is to say limited or finite, location in space at any one moment in time. When the human body dies (because the soul, which has the animating principle life, has separated from the body) the immaterial human soul, being by nature finite, continues to have a defined location in space and time. Therefore the human soul separated from its material body has a defined form of some kind—defined in space and time—that is suited for life in the spirit domain while separated from the material body.

      An angel, like a human being, is a finite being. Therefore angels have a defined location in space at any one moment in time. We may identify the defined location of the disembodied immaterial human soul or the immaterial substance of an angel as a defined form suited for life in the spirit domain. What shall we name that finite defined form? The word body seems a suitable term.

      What is the spirit domain? When God created the universe, he created in the universe a distinct material domain and a distinct immaterial spirit domain, each suited to the material and spirit creatures he would create. Genesis, 1:1, God created the heavens, plural, and the earth, indicating a material heaven for material beings (the atmosphere and starry sky) and an immaterial heaven for immaterial beings: the spirit domain.

      Angels live in the spirit domain full-time. The immaterial souls of human beings live in the material body in the material domain until the death of the material body, at which time the immaterial soul separates from material body and continues in the spirit domain—in heaven or hádēs—between physical death and resurrection. At resurrection the immaterial human soul is reunited with the resurrected body.

      God (YHWH ’Ĕl1ōhîm) formed ’ādām out of the dust of the ground. The word ‘ādām, as determined by context, is used generically to represent the human race, or to represent a male or female member of the human race, or to represent a male human being, or to refer to the person Adam. Dust, ‘āpār, means fine crumbs (particles) of the earth or loose earth [Harris, 1664]. Not a solid mass but the finest part of the material of the earth [Keil and Delitzsch, 1:49]. The physical form of the human race, Adam, was formed from pre-existing materials, which were certain of the various elements that compose the planet earth.

      (The elements that compose the average human body are predominantly (listing only elements of a gram (.035 oz.) or more in a 70kg (154 pound) human being, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, iron, fluorine, zinc, silicon and traces (less than a gram) of forty-four other elements. Man’s physical being is truly formed from the dust of the earth. The function of a few of the trace elements is still unknown [Uthman, Elemental].)

      The word formed is the Hebrew yāsar, to form or fashion, and may be used to describe the activity of God or man, e.g., the potter fashions, yāsar, the clay. To form, in this context, means compounding elements from the earth into various chemical substances to create Adam’s physical body.

      When speaking of the act of creation, one must distinguish between the primary creation of the universe out of nothing and God’s use of materials he previously created to fashion a new substance or form. For example, God created subatomic particles ex nihilo, formed those particles into the elements hydrogen and oxygen and then used these elements to fashion a new substance, water. The primary creation was that free act of God whereby He, according to His sovereign will and for His own glory, in the beginning brought forth the whole visible and invisible universe, without the use of preexistent material, and thus gave it an existence, distinct from His own and yet always dependent on Him [Berkhoff, 129].

      Man’s material body was created from existing materials. The habitable earth, the human body, and the physical form of all material creatures were formed using materials created at Genesis 1:1. The human rational

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1