A Covenant with Death
You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.” Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. (Isa 28:15,18)

Can it be that people really have “a covenant with death?”
For the last two weeks we have been discussing from the Bible about what happens when we die? In Living Lies About Death #1, and Living Lies About Death #2 we discovered that “a living soul” is the whole person, not a separate entity, and that the only one who has immortality is God. No one else will be immortal until the second coming. (see 1 Thes 4:13-18)
Some of today’s preachers have gotten really carried away with the subject of death and what happens when we die. I have heard several preachers who have said things like
“The believer’s death day is really their best birthday – the time of their greatest triumph.”
“Of all the happy days, the death day will be the happiest of all. The day of our new birth. The day of our coming of age. The day of our conversion. The day of our entire sanctification. The day of our marriage. The day of honor. And all other days are nothing compared to the delightful death day which shall usher us into our Father’s House on high.”
Why is death such a happy event? Because, as Pastor Heslop who wrote the above tries to assure us, dead people are not dead. Even though the Bible says they are dead, he and many others keep saying “no they are not. “
Heslop further states:
“Death to the believer in Jesus Christ is but a doorway to a house not made with hands.” “Death is only the hand that snaps the fetters and emancipates the soul. Death is only the bridal peal calling the sanctified soul to its everlasting espousals. Death is the door opener into a city without sin, sorrow or suffering, A sunrise without a sunset.”
There Is No Death
There is no death. There are no dead. These words were found on the stone marker that identified the site of the original Fox Sister’s cottage in Hydesville, New York, in 1948. The obelisk at the later spiritualistic church in Rochester New York also contained the same falsehood: There is no death. There are no dead.
The Yearbook of Spiritualism for 1871 states:
“In strictness there is no death.”
What Are Modern Christians saying Now?
Jesus taught that death was simply a sleep. Jesus taught that death was a rest. There was an occasion where Jesus’ friend Lazarus had died. And Lazarus had become very, very sick before that. And Jesus got word that Lazarus was sick. Jesus waited before going. He waited a couple days, and by the time he got there, since there was a journey, he was in Galilee, and Lazarus was in Bethany. It was four days. This is a time that Jesus was four days late, and yet, as we now know, Jesus was right on time.
Why did Jesus wait like that? Why didn’t Jesus just go to Lazarus right away? Because he wanted to work a miracle that was greater than merely healing an illness. Jesus was going to work a miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead! After he had said this, he went on to tell them
Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
His disciples replied
“Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
Jesus had of course been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So, then Jesus told them plainly
“Lazarus is dead, (John 11:11-14) Here, in John 11, they come to Jesus, and they say, Jesus, your friend Lazarus is sick. And Jesus says, our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I’m going to wake him up. Well, they thought, wait a minute. If Lazarus is sleeping, he’s going to get well. This is not to death. Our friend Lazarus is sleeping. They thought, this is good news, because if you’re sick and you sleep, maybe the fever breaks. Maybe the sickness is over. And then the Bible says
“However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that he was speaking about taking rest in sleep.”
And then Jesus makes it plain.
“Jesus said to them, plainly, Lazarus is dead. So, they clearly understood.”
Now, how did Jesus treat death? What did Jesus say to his closest followers? Did he say to them, now, don’t worry at all about Lazarus, because, sure, he’s dead, but he has this immortal soul, and it’s gone up to heaven. Not at all. No such teaching in the Bible. And Jesus certainly didn’t believe that anyway. Jesus simply said, Lazarus is sleeping. And then Jesus said, Lazarus is what? Lazarus is dead.
So, Christ then went to the home of Mary and Martha. And as he talked to the sister of Lazarus, Jesus said to her, your brother’s going to rise again. And she said, oh, Lord, if you would have been here, he wouldn’t have died. And I know he’s going to rise again in the last day. This sister of Lazarus, who got her religion directly from Jesus, Mary said, I know he’s going to rise the last day in the resurrection. (the last day). Jesus looks at her and recognizes that she understands the truth about death. What did Martha believe about death? She believed that her faithful brother would rise in the resurrection. She did not believe that he was up in heaven looking down upon her. Mary learned her religion directly from Jesus. And she believed in the resurrection when? At the last day. All the great men and women of faith in the Old and New Testament believe that.
Remember what Paul said there writing to Timothy? He said, my life is being poured out and I wait the righteous judge who will have the crown of life for me in the last day. Paul believed that Christ was going to come again and that he, if he died in that Roman prison, that he would be resurrected in the last day. All believers know that. John believed it, exiled on the island of Patmos. Paul believed it. Mary believed it. Martha believed it. Jesus taught it.
Mary and Martha were crying, not because they thought Lazarus was up in heaven, but because of the pain and the agony of separation from him until the resurrection at the last day. Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. In other words, even though that person dies, though they go into the grave, they are going to live again. They will be resurrected from the dead. That first death will not hold its victims. The grave will not keep its victims. That death is not a long night without a morning. The tomb is not simply a dark hole in the ground. So, Jesus said, if you believe, your brother is going to live again to demonstrate his power over death, to demonstrate his power over the grave, to demonstrate his ability over death. Jesus comes to that grave, and Jesus says, Lazarus, come forth.
And Lazarus comes out of the grave, rises to new life. He had been in that grave four days. Lazarus comes out of the tomb. New life, Jesus says to those who see him. Loose him and let him go. He was all bandaged up with the grave clothes. Life is pulsating through his body. There’s a new smile on his face. There’s a new sparkle in his eyes. There’s a new spring in his step. I can just imagine how he comes, and I can picture him as he embraces Christ.
If what some people believe is true, Jesus didn’t say, Lazarus, come down. Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. If I were up in heaven for four days, rejoicing in glory, if I were fellowshipping with the angels, if I were eating from the tree of life, and Jesus said, come down, I would have yelled back from heaven if I were Lazarus. Nothing doing, Lord. I’m not coming. You just called the wrong name, Lord. You just called the wrong person. I’m already up here in glory. I’m rejoicing in the kingdom of God. I am not coming back. Why would I?
If anybody could have given a testimony about life after death, it would have been Lazarus. If he were up in glory, think of the books he could have written that would have been sold throughout the Middle East, throughout Jerusalem, on life after death. But Lazarus had nothing to say. Why not? Because he wasn’t in glory. He wasn’t in glory. He was resting, sleeping there in the tomb, resting like every believer will rest until the coming of Jesus, with no pain, no suffering, no heartache, no sorrow, no death, resting. The Bible says
“His sons come to honor, and he does not know it. They are brought low, and he does not perceive it.” (Job 14:21
Somebody says, I like to think of my mother up in heaven. I like to think of her looking down at me. It just gives me comfort. Would it be comfort for a mother up in heaven if her son was drafted off to war and the enemy captured him and tortured him and gouged out his eyes and gouged out his tongue and tortured him mercilessly? Could that mother be happy in heaven? But what about a mother up in heaven looking down and here’s her little five-year-old and he’s kicking a ball, and he kicks it on the street and the car screeches, doesn’t see the boy, crushes him and the boy’s a quadriplegic for the rest of his life? Would that mother up in heaven be happy? Or think of fathers in heaven seeing their daughters beaten brutally by some angry man?
Isn’t God’s plan so much better?
Our loved ones are not in heaven They don’t see children that have gone astray, gotten involved in drugs and alcohol. Our mothers and fathers are not up there in heaven looking down upon the conflicts and families and the wars on earth. How could they possibly be happy in heaven if they could look down on us and see all the horrible things happening? Even Jesus did not go to Heaven right away. When Jesus died, he was just keeping the Sabbath.
Our fathers and mothers are not up in heaven. Death is a state of perfect rest or sleep until the resurrection when Christ wakes you up and speaks saying now all the sorrow is over, now all the heartache is over, now all the disappointments are over. You see, my friend, God’s way is so much better. We are sheltered in his arms in that perfect sleep. Our true life, the record of our life is hidden with Christ in God. Others cannot always see it because only God can read the heart. Our all-powerful, infinite God knows our identity. It is in his hands. (Isa 49:16)
When we die, we don’t live. How can we live and die at the same time? THAT would just make the Bible out to be an idiotic lie because it says, “when you die you live.” How absurd is that? Are we bound to believing that kind of contradiction? Does God really contradict Himself like that?
The Scripture says that our bodies go to the earth. The life, the breath goes back to God. There is no conscious existence after death until the resurrection. We rest until the Christ comes. In the next moment, we see him coming down from the sky. The Bible says, Psalm 115:7
the dead do not what? The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any that go down into silence. If you went up to heaven when you died, you’d at least praise the Lord, right? Wouldn’t that be what you would be doing? But the Bible says, the dead praise not the Lord. Fifty-three times, death is called a sleep in the Bible. Sixteen hundred times, the Bible uses the word soul, never uses the phrase immortal soul. The Bible says, in that very day that a person dies, even their thoughts perish, Psalm 6:5
Psalm 115:17 the Bible says, the dead praise not the Lord.
Ecclesiastes 9: 5-6, the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything.
God’s plan is so much better than human tradition. The immortality of the soul comes in through Greek philosophy, and according to Revelation, will be preparing the world for an overwhelming deception. The Bible says that the works of the dead follow them. It says that those that die in Christ have works which follow them.
When a father or mother dies, and they’ve taught their children about the things of Jesus, those children have that inclination for Christ in their hearts, that inclination for Christ in their lives, and they have that desire to follow Christ. And the works of the parents still follow them, and one day, that child will, making choices to follow Christ, because of an influence of their parents, will be in heaven with Jesus and their parents to rejoice forever and ever. (Prov 26:3, Acts 16:31) God’s word is so clear about this subject of death.
But somebody says, wasn’t there the story of Jesus and the story of the thief on the cross who died, and didn’t the Bible indicate that he would be in heaven with Christ? Well, look, when you have text after text after text that talks about the second coming of Christ, when you have passage after passage in Scripture that talks about the return of Christ, you cannot take one Bible text out of context regarding the thief on the cross and throw out these many other clear texts on the coming of Christ that talk about the resurrection of the body.
Didn’t Jesus say, you will be with me in paradise today? Remember, Jesus is hanging on the cross. There’s a thief on the left, thief on the right. Then the thief says, if you’re the Son of God, come down from the cross. Jesus, hanging there with nails through his hands, with blood running down his wrists, with a crown of thorns upon his head, looks like he cannot save anybody. The other thief turns to Christ, and he says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Thankfully, nobody has asked that question. Nobody has made that request. Nobody has made that appeal genuinely and sincerely and been turned away by Jesus. (John 6:37)
You’ll recall that Christ died on the cross on Friday. He rested in the tomb on Sabbath. He was resurrected from the dead-on Sunday. And you will also remember that Mary comes to him on Sunday morning, after the resurrection, falls at his feet. And what does Jesus say? John 20:15, Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She thinks he’s the gardener and says to him, Sir, if you’ve carried him away, if you’ve taken my Lord away, please tell me where he is. Tell me where you’ve laid him. And I’m going to take him away and give him a proper burial. And what does Jesus say to her?
Jesus says, Mary, Rabboni, which is to say teacher, don’t cling to me for I have not ascended to the Father. But go to my brethren saying, I am ascending, present tense right now, to your Father and my Father and your Father and my God and your God. What does Jesus say to Mary on Sunday? I have not yet ascended to the Father. How could Jesus have said to the thief on Friday that they would be together in paradise on that Friday if Christ had not ascended yet to the Father on the following Sunday morning? Certainly, Jesus did not ascend to Heaven on Friday. So, what was really going on there? Jesus is hanging on the cross. And what does he say? He says, I say unto you today, you will be with me in paradise. It all depends on where you put the comma in that passage. The comma or other punctuations are not inspired. If we put the comma after the word today, it’s clear. If we put it before, it’s a little fuzzy. It becomes a contradiction. If you quote the text this way “I say to you, today you’ll be with me in paradise,” then it appears that Jesus would be in paradise with the thief that day. On the Friday. But if we say, “I say to you today, comma, you will in the future be with me in paradise,” it makes so much more sense. You say, how do you know where to put the comma? Well, first, there were no commas in the original text. That did not come until the 1300s, much later. You don’t take a misplaced comma and throw out 53 texts that say the death is but a sleep, throw out all the texts that talk about the resurrection, and you don’t deny scripture when Jesus himself says that he did not ascend to the Father on that Sunday.
What did Jesus mean when he said that to the thief?
He said, I say to you today, this day that I’m dying on the cross, this day that there’s nails in my hands, this day that there’s a crown of thorns upon my head, this day that it doesn’t look like I can save anybody, I say to you this day, I make that declaration that I will be resurrected from the dead. I will ascend to the father. I will remember you. I will remember you when I come into heaven and paradise. And Jesus says that to you. When you say, Lord, remember me. Remember me in all my guilt. Remember me in all my shame. Remember me, Father. Remember me, dear Jesus. Touch my heart, O Holy Spirit. I feel convicted I must come to you.
Remember me, Jesus says. I accept you, my child. I’ll forgive you, my child. I’ll change your life, my child. You will be with me in paradise. You need not fear death because I have conquered the grave. 1 Corinthians 15:55
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus gives us victory over sin. Jesus gives us victory over the grave. Jesus gives us victory over death. 1 Thessalonians 4:16
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Have you lost some loved one by death? Some father, some mother. You still miss your dad and your mom? My father has passed away. My wife has died. Many others that I have loved are now dead. I long for that day that Jesus will come. Have you lost some husband or wife? Some father or mother? Some sisters or brother? Some sons or daughter? They’re not lost. If they’re a believer in Christ, they are resting where they can never be lost. Their true life, the record of that life, their identity, is hid with Christ in God. They are resting from the pain, the heartache, the sorrow, the tears of life. They know no passage of time. Like that all day surgery I had years ago, the next thing they will know is the coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven. (Rev 1:7) And as Jesus comes, that little baby will be put in Mom’s arms again. Mom will reach up and hug your face again. You can look into the eyes of that child one day once again. That son or daughter, lost by death, will be reunited with you. One day that father or mother will embrace you again. One day Jesus Christ will come. And one day the sorrow and heartache of earth will be over.
Would you like to connect with Jesus right now? Will you consider asking Jesus to be both your Savior and your Lord? I’d like to say, Jesus, pass me not, O gentle Savior. Lord, I’m coming to you. Lord, I want to see my father again. I want to see my mother again. I want to see my son again, my daughter again. I want to see my spouse again. I want to be caught up in that glorious joy when Jesus comes and live forever with them through all eternity. Lord, I want to be in that resurrection so that I can see them again.
Here is the incredibly good news. Jesus will not pass you by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. The thief on the cross, in his dying breath, said, Lord, remember me. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus gave the thief on that very day the assurance of eternal life. When the thief woke up that morning, he had no idea that his whole life would be changed that day. When he trudged up Golgotha’s hill with Christ, he had no idea that his life would be changed that day. When they drove nails through his hands and he writhed in agony, he had no idea that his life would be changed that day. But in that moment, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, God spoke to him, and he accepted the gift of eternal life.
Right now, God is speaking to you. Right now, God is talking to your life. Maybe you had no idea that you would be reading this article now, but God’s Holy Educating Spirit is speaking to you just now. You can accept Christ right now. Through an act of your will, you can say “Jesus, I am yours.”
That choice changed the thief’s life. That choice will change your life right now as we pray.