Are The Dead In Heaven With Angels Praising God?

Psalms 6:5 – Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave? (NIV)

In the world of the dead you are not remembered; no one can praise you there. (Good News Translation)

The state of the dead is an all time concern for humanity. All cultures and all religions have a belief on the state of the dead. What is the state of the dead? Are the dead in a state in which they are able to interact with us? Are the dead unable to think reason and act? What is the state of the dead?

When people die, do they cease to exist in this life but exist in another life? In what state are the dead? Are the dead in a state where they interact with divine and celestial beings? Are the dead able or unable to interact in this life and other lives?

Majority of religious beliefs including African religion, believe that dead people are not really dead. Majority of world religions and cultures, speak about death and the dead in a manner to suggest continuity of life in another form.

What does the Bible say about the state of the dead? Our text today contradicts all cultures and religions including majority of Christians who believe the dead can praise God. Majority of Christians talk of the dead being in heaven with angels praising God. Our Bible text today is opposed to that belief.

Our text today is very clear that the dead cannot praise God. According to today’s Bible text, no dead person is dancing with angels. The Bible text today demonstrates that if you believe that the dead are praising God, you are on your own and having beliefs opposed to scripture.

If your beliefs contradicted scripture would you change them and believe scriptures? Is the simple direct interpretation of the Bible important to you, or you prefer unclear explanations that confirm your long held beliefs. The Bible says the dead can’t praise God, while many Christians claim their dead are praising God. Do we follow the Bible or majority of Christians?

Isaiah 38:18 – For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise;

those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

Isaiah 38:19 – The living, the living—they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness.

Same message. The dead can’t praise God. Only the living can praise God.

Psalms 115:17 – It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to the place of silence;

Psalms 115:18 – it is we who extol the LORD, both now and forevermore. Praise the LORD.

Same message repeated right here. The dead cannot praise God. Only the living can praise God.

The Bible teaches that the dead are dead and not alive anywhere else. The Bible teaches that the dead are not in heaven dancing with angels. The dead are not promoted to glory. What is the fate of the dead, will they ever live?

John 5:28 – “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice

John 5:29

and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

These are the words of Jesus. The dead are not in heaven or hell. The dead are not in glory. Jesus says the dead are in their graves waiting for resurrection at the end of time.

No dead person has received a reward or punishment. According to Jesus, they will get rewards or punishment after resurrection. Jesus talks of resurrection from the grave, not from hell or heaven.

Luke 16:22 – “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.

Luke 16:23 – In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

This is a parable Jesus gave. It was a parable to show that the rich should help the poor. It was not a parable to explain what happens to dead people. Parables are used for only one purpose. Parables illustrate a point, in this case the need to help the poor. Parables cannot be the basis of a doctrine. This parable cannot and should not be used to explain what happens to people when they die.

Revelation 6:9 – When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

Does this passage suggest that when people die they exist in heaven as souls? No. The book of Revelation is full of symbols and figures that have a meaning beyond what they ordinarily mean. Seven churches. Seven trumpets. Beasts. Angels flying with the gospel. All these do not mean what they ordinarily refer to, they have a deeper meaning. Therefore to treat souls in Revelation from their ordinary meaning is to lose consistency in interpretation. Everything can’t be symbolic except souls. If everything is symbolic then the souls are also symbolic. Souls symbolize life. In this passage the seals show the anxiety saints have towards the end of time. It also assures us that the dead will be rewarded.

The parable in the book of Luke and the symbolic souls in Revelation are the only two passages in scripture that seem unclear on the state of the dead. We do not build doctrine on few verses that are unclear. Interpretation of scripture requires taking of all clear texts and building doctrine on them. Interpretation of scripture requires setting aside of all contentious texts and not using them as basis of doctrine.

Daniel 12:2 – Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

The rest of Bible verses like this one refer to the dead as being in their graves sleeping and not in heaven. The rest of many more clear Bible verses like this one, refer to the dead resurrecting from their graves and not coming from hell or heaven. The rest of Bible verses like this one tell us that the dead will be rewarded after resurrection and not during death. Eternal life is after resurrection. Eternal contempt in hell is after resurrection. The dead are not in hell or heaven.

It is therefore wrong and unbiblical to suggest that the dead are in heaven or hell. It is therefore wrong and unbiblical to tell the dead to rest in peace. Peace is only experienced by the living. The dead know nothing. It is wrong to write eulogy messages addressing the dead as if they will read. It is wrong to make speeches in funerals as if the dead are listening. The dead know nothing and don’t participate in life until resurrection day.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 – For the living know that they will die, but THE DEAD KNOW NOTHING; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten.

Ecclesiastes 9:6 – Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

The dead know nothing. When people die, we comfort the bereaved. We don’t address the dead. We address the mourners. The dead know nothing!

May God help us to follow what the Bible teaches and not what others tell us. Our faith is not built on opinions of the majority but on the Bible. Majority refused to get into the Ark and died. Majority are on the wide road to hell. Our faith is not built on what the majority believe. May God help us to follow the Bible even when the majority don’t. In Jesus’s name, Amen!

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