- Death

(maweth; thanatos):
Death the end of life; the total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of
an organism.
Synonymous with extinction; destruction: may be simply defined as the termination
of life. It is represented under a variety of aspects in Scripture
"The dust shall return to the earth as it was" (Eccl 12:7 ).
"Thou takest away their breath, they die" ( Psalms 104:29 ).
It is the dissolution of "our earthly house of this tabernacle" ( 2 Corinthians 5:1 );
the "putting off this tabernacle" ( 2 Peter 1:13 2 Peter 1:14 ).
Being "unclothed" ( 2 Corinthians 5:3 2 Corinthians 5:4 ).
"Falling on sleep" ( Psalms 76:5 ; Jeremiah 51:39 ; Acts 13:36 ; 2 Pet 3:9 .
"I go whence I shall not return" ( Job 10:21 );
"Make me to know mine end" ( Psalms 39:4 );
"to depart" (Phil 1:23 ).
The grave is represented as "the gates of death" ( Job 38:17 ; Psalms 9:13 ;
107:18 ). The gloomy silence of the grave is spoken of under the figure of the
"shadow of death" ( Jeremiah 2:6 ).
Death is the effect of sin ( Hebrews 2:14 ), and not a "debt of nature." It is but once
( 9:27 ), uersal ( Genesis 3:19 ), necessary ( Luke 2:28-30 ). Jesus has by his own
death taken away its sting for all his followers ( 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ).
There is a spiritual death in trespasses and sins, i.e., the death of the soul under the
power of sin ( Romans 8:6 ; Ephesians 2:1 Ephesians 2:3 ; Colossians 2:13 ).
The "second death" ( Revelation 2:11 ) is the everlasting perdition of the wicked
( Revelation 21:8 ), and "second" in respect to natural or temporal death.
You cannot speak of resurrection and not talk about death. For one is the condition
for the other.
THE DEATH OF CHRIST is the procuring cause incidentally of all the blessings men
enjoy on earth. But specially it is the procuring cause of the actual salvation of all
his people, together with all the means that lead thereto. It does not make their
salvation merely possible, but certain ( Matthew 18:11 ; Romans 5:10 ; 2 co 5:21 ;
Galatians 1:4 ; 3:13 ; Ephesians 1:7 ; 2:16 ; Romans 8:32-35 ).

$PHYSIOLOGICAL AND FIGURATIVE VIEW$

The word "Death" is used in the sense of

(1) the process of dying (Genesis 21:16);

(2) the period of decease (Genesis 27:7);
(3) as a possible synonym for poison (2 Kings 4:40);
(4) as descriptive of person in danger of perishing (Judges 15:18; "in deaths oft" 2
Corinthians 11:23). In this sense the shadow of death is a familiar expression in Job,
the Psalms and the Prophets;
(5) death is personified in 1 Corinthians 15:55 and Revelation 20:14. Deliverance
from this catastrophe is called the "issues from death" (Psalms 68:20 the King James
Version; translated "escape" in the Revised Version (British and American)). Judicial
execution, "putting to death," is mentioned 39 times in the Levitical Law.
Figuratively:

Death is the loss of spiritual life as in Romans 8:6; and the final state of the
unregenerate is called the "second death" in Revelation 20:14.
wider sense, or the delay of death must be attributed to the entering-in of mercy
(Genesis 3:15).
However this may be, Genesis 2:17 places a close connection between man's death
and his transgression of God's commandment, thereby attaching to death a
religious and ethical significance, and on the other hand makes the life of man
dependent on his obedience to God. This religious-ethical nature of life and death is
not only decidedly and clearly expressed in Genesis 2, but it is the fundamental
thought of the whole of Scripture and forms an essential element in the revelations
of salvation. It is true that death in Holy Scripture is often measured by the
weakness and frailty of human nature (Genesis 3:19; Job 14:1,12; Psalms 39:5,6;
90:5; 103:14,15; Ecclesiastes 3:20, etc.).

2. The Meaning of Death:

This death of man is not annihilation, however, but a deprivation of all that makes
for life on earth. The Sheol (she'ol) is in contrast with the land of the living in every
respect (Job 28:13; Proverbs 15:24; Ezekiel 26:20; 32:23); it is an abode of darkness
and the shadow of death (Job 10:21,22; Psalms 88:12; 143:3), a place of
destruction, yea destruction itself (Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Psalms 88:11; Proverbs
27:20), without any order (Job 10:22), a land of rest, of silence, of oblivion (Job
3:13,17,18; Psalms 94:17; 115:17), where God and man are no longer to be seen
(Isaiah 38:11), God no longer praised or thanked (Psalms 6:5; 115:17), His
perfections no more acknowledged (Psalms 88:10-13; Isaiah 38:18,19), His wonders

not contemplated (Psalms 88:12), where the dead are unconscious, do no more
work, take no account of anything, possess no knowledge nor wisdom, neither have
any more a portion in anything that is done under the sun (Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,
The dread of death was felt much more deeply therefore by the Israelites than by
ourselves. Death to them was separation from all that they loved, from God, from
His service, from His law, from His people, from His land, from all the rich
companionship in which they lived. But now in this darkness appears the light of the
revelation of salvation from on high. The God of Israel is the living God and the
fountain of all life (Deuteronomy 5:26; Joshua 3:10; Psalms 36:9). He is the Creator
of heaven and earth, whose power knows no bounds and whose dominion extends
over life and death (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; Psalms 90:3). He gave life
to man (Genesis 1:26; 2:7), and creates and sustains every man still (Job 32:8; 33:4;
34:14; Psalms 104:29; Ecclesiastes 12:7). He connects life with the keeping of His
law and appoints death for the transgression of it (Genesis 2:17; Leviticus 18:5;
Deuteronomy 30:20; 32:47). He lives in heaven, but is present also by His spirit in
Sheol (Psalms 139:7,8). Sheol and Abaddon are open to Him even as the hearts of
the children of men (Job 26:6; 38:17; Proverbs 15:11). He kills and makes alive,
brings down into Sheol and raises from thence again (Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel
2:6; 2 Kings 5:7). He lengthens life for those who keep His commandments (Exodus
20:12; Job 5:26), gives escape from death, can deliver when death menaces (Psalms
68:20; Isaiah 38:5; Jeremiah 15:20; Daniel 3:26), can take Enoch and Elijah to
Himself without dying (Genesis 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11), can restore the dead to life (1
Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:34; 13:21). He can even bring death wholly to nothing and
completely triumph over its power by rising from the dead (Job 14:13-15; 19:25-27;
Hosea 6:2; 13:14; Isaiah 25:8; 26:19; Ezekiel 37:11,12; Daniel 12:2).

4. Spiritual Significance:
The physical contrast between life and death gradually makes way for the moral
and spiritual difference between a life spent in the fear of the Lord, and a life in the
service of sin. The man who serves God is alive (Genesis 2:17); life is involved in the
keeping of His commandments (Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 30:20); His word is life
(Deuteronomy 8:3; 32:47). Life is still for the most part understood to mean length
of days (Proverbs 2:18; 3:16; 10:30; Isaiah 65:20). The godless on the contrary,
although enjoying for a time much prosperity, perish and come to an end (Psalms
1:4-6; 73:18-20; Isaiah 48:22; Malachi 4:3, etc. ).

The righteous of the Old Testament truly are continually occupied with the problem
that the lot of man on earth often corresponds so little to his spiritual worth, but he
strengthens himself with the conviction that for the righteous it will be well, and for
the wicked, ill (Ecclesiastes 8:12,13; Isaiah 3:10,11). If they do not realize it in the
present, they look forward to the future and hope for the day in which God's justice
will extend salvation to the righteous, and His anger will be visited on the wicked in
judgment. So in the Old Testament the revelation of the new covenant is prepared

wherein Christ by His appearance hath abolished death and hath brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). This everlasting life is
already here on earth presented to man by faith, and it is his portion also in the
hour of death (John 3:36; 11:25,26). On the other hand, he who lives in sin and is
disobedient to the Son of God, is in his living dead (Matthew 8:22; Luke 15:32; John
3:36; 8:24; Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13); he shall never see life, but shall pass by
bodily death into the second death (Revelation 2:11; 20:6,14; 21:8).

5. Death in Non-Christian Religions and in Science:

Misery and death are not absolutely always consequences and punishment of a
great personal transgression (Luke 13:2; John 9:3); but that they are connected with
sin, we learn from the experience of every day. Who can number the victims of
mammonism, alcoholism and licentiousness? Even spiritual sins exercise their
influence on corporal life; envy is a rottenness of the bones (Proverbs 14:30). This
connection is taught us in a great measure by Scripture, when it placed the not yet
fallen man in a Paradise, where death had not yet entered, and eternal life was not
yet possessed and enjoyed; when it sends fallen man, who, however, is destined for
redemption, into a world full of misery and death; and at last assigns to the wholly
renewed man a new heaven and a new earth, where death, sorrow, crying or pain
shall no longer exist (Revelation 21:4). Finally, Scripture is not the book of death,
but of life, of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It tells us, in oft-repeated
and unmistakable terms, of the dreaded reality of death, but it proclaims to us still
more loudly the wonderful power of the life which is in Christ Jesus.
Resurrection of Christ
one of the cardinal facts and doctrines of the gospel. If Christ be not risen, our faith
is vain ( 1 Corinthians 15:14 ). The whole of the New Testament revelation rests on
this as an historical fact. On the day of Pentecost Peter argued the necessity of
Christ's resurrection from the prediction in Psalms 16 ( Acts 2:24-28 ). In his own
discourses, also, our Lord clearly intimates his resurrection ( Matthew 20:19 ; Mark
9:9 ; 14:28 ; Luke 18:33 ; John 2:19-22 ).
The resurrection is a public testimony of Christ's release from his undertaking as
surety, and an evidence of the Father's acceptance of his work of redemption. It is a
victory over death and the grave for all his followers.

The importance of Christ's resurrection will be seen when we consider that if he rose
the gospel is true, and if he rose not it is false. His resurrection from the dead makes
it manifest that his sacrifice was accepted. Our justification was secured by his

obedience to the death, and therefore he was raised from the dead ( Romans 4:25 ).
His resurrection is a proof that he made a full atonement for our sins, that his
sacrifice was accepted as a satisfaction to divine justice, and his blood a ransom for
sinners. It is also a pledge and an earnest of the resurrection of all believers
( Romans 8:11 ; 1 Corinthians 6:14 ; 15:47-49 ; Phil 3:21 ; 1 John 3:2 ). As he lives,
they shall live also.

It proved him to be the Son of God, inasmuch as it authenticated all his claims
( John 2:19 ; 10:17 ). "If Christ did not rise, the whole scheme of redemption is a
failure, and all the predictions and anticipations of its glorious results for time and
for eternity, for men and for angels of every rank and order, are proved to be
chimeras. 'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them
that slept.' Therefore the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of
darkness has been overthrown, Satan has fallen as lightning from heaven, and the
triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery is for ever
secured."

Synonyms Expand
1. decease, demise, passing, departure.
2. Antonyms Expand
3. 1. birth, life.