A paragraph selected from: Ministering to the Mourning A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR PASTORS
Chapter 2 Death in the Old Testament
“What the culture says about death is one thing, and we need to be aware of how our people are influenced. But where we must begin, of course, in our thinking and in our ministering is with Scripture. We who are in Christ know that if He returns before our time comes to die, we shall be privileged to follow Him home (John 11:25). God’s people are always encouraged by that blessed hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). Yet we must still live each day soberly, realizing that we are mortal and that death may come to us at any time. We pray, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). To begin, the biblical definition of death is “the body without the spirit is dead . . .” (James 2:26). We each have a body made of dust and inhabited by a spirit given to us by almighty God (Genesis 2:7). At death, the spirit leaves the body (Genesis 35:18 NASB; Psalm 146:4), and with the life gone, the body begins to decay and return to dust (Genesis 3:19). The spirit of the believer goes to be with Christ in heaven (Philippians 1:23), while the spirit of the unbeliever goes into the “world of the dead” called sheol in the Old Testament and hades in the New Testament.”
WARREN and DAVID WIERSBE Ministering to the Mourning A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR PASTORS,
CHURCH LEADERS, AND OTHER CAREGIVERS MOODY PUBLISHERS
CHICAGO © 2006 by
Warren W. Wiersbe
David W. Wiersbe
Cross Mission Media 