CHAPTER SEVEN
A STRANGE AND UNEXPLAINABLE SILENCE
THE SILENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
ON PUNISHMENT AND LIFE AFTER DEATH
In the Old Testament the penalty for disobedience is always in this lifetime; there is no allusion made to any punishment or rewards after this lifetime. The punishments were temporal, not endless but limited punishments, not punishments in the hereafter, but were always in this lifetime.
FROM ADAM TO MOSES
(1) Adam: God told Adam in the day he ate he would die. The day he ate was the beginning of the dying process, "Dying you shall die." The death that came into the world by Adam's sin is the same death that he died for eating, a physical death. His punishment was that he had to work to live with the earth bringing forth thorns, and dying, all the things he suffered was earthly sorrows and punishments with not a word about punishment of any kind after his death. It was not the death of Adam's "soul," an inward immortal never dying part of Adam that could not die, but this deathless soul would die anyway if Adam did eat. He was not told that after his death he would be subjected to endless torment in Hell, but endless torment is almost always read into this. The complete silence of any punishment after death would be unthinkable if the doctrine of Hell were true.
(2) Cain: His sin was the first murder, which by most is believed to be the greatest of all sins. What was his punishment? Today he would be told that he would go to Hell if he did not repent, but his punishment was that he was to be a fugitive and a vagabond in his lifetime on the earth. Not one word about any punishment after his death. The punishment for anyone who killed Cain would be seven times greater than the punishment of Cain. How could anything be seven times greater than today's Hell?
(3) The flood: The people had become so evil that God destroyed them. Only eight were saved. What was their punishment? Read the Bible. It was death. There is no mention of any punishment after their death. They were not told they had lost their souls, or that they would go to Hell. Their punishment was not something that would be after the flood; it was the flood and their death. "And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land'" (Genesis 6:6-7 New American Standard). "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both birds, and cattle, and beasts, and every creeping thing that creeping that creeps upon the earth, and every man: all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land died. And every living thing was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; and they were destroyed from the earth" (Genesis 7:21-23). The same thing happened to "every man" also happened to every beast; they died, they were not eternal torment. If the punishment of Hell awaited all those who drown in the flood, the punishment of drowning that was given to them utterly pales into insignificance when it compared to an eternal life of torment in Hell, yet absolutely nothing is said to them about eternal punishment after death.
"I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature (soul-nehphesh) that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that go out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:9-11). All the souls, both of beast and man were destroyed, not forever tormented.
"For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amid water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (apollumi)" (2 Peter 3:5-6 American Standard Version). "Was destroyed" New American Standard Bible. Nothing was said to them about endless torment, or any torment after death.
(4) The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: Genesis 13 and 14: These cities were literally burnt up (Psalm 11:6; Isaiah 34:9), not still burning with the people walking around in torment. Their end was complete total destruction, and is an example of the total destruction that is coming to the ungodly at the judgment. Sodom did not just suffer a lost of “will being,” but was completely and forever totally destroyed “by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). Peter adds in the next chapter that the earth will be “burned up.” The earth has been stored up for fire “being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7-13).
(5) Abraham: God’s promise to Abraham was, “And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age” (Genesis 15:15). “And Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people. Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him” (Genesis 25:8-9). In no place was he promised eternal life in Heaven, or any kind of life after death.
(6) From Adam to Moses: For about twenty-five centuries, from Adam to Moses, Lot's wife, Pharaoh, building of Babel, etc., punishment was always in this life, not in life after death.
THE LAW OF MOSES
ALL THESE BLESSING, ALL THESE CURSING
"Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord our God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessing shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). "Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians" (Acts 7:22); therefore, he knew of their teaching of some kind of life after death, but he did not put a word of it in the Law.
All these blessings of the Law were in this lifetime, not after death (Deuteronomy 28:11). Not one word about a blessing after death.
All these curses of the Law if they did not keep it were in this lifetime (Deuteronomy 28:18-19). Not one word about a curse after this lifetime. "But it shall come about, if you will not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you" (Deuteronomy 28:15).
"I declare unto you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land…I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers" (Deuteronomy 30:18-20). This is a promise to them of a long life in the land the Lord had given to them, or a short life and death if they did not keep His word, not of any thing after death. "So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the assembly" (Numbers 16:33). "And whatsoever soul it be that does any manner of work in that same day, that soul (“person” New American Standard Version) will I destroy from among his people" (Leviticus 23:30). Throughout the Old Testament perish and destroy means dying, and has nothing to do with any kind of torment after death. It would be past comprehension that God would give them such detail of what would happen to then in their lifetime and say nothing of the unending pain He was going to forever heap on them if Hell awaited them.
Edward White: "One of the first phenomena which draws attention in the Pentateuch is the omission, both in the historical and perceptive portions of it, of any mention of the immortality of the soul. If this view of man's nature were true in our time, it was true from the beginning, and true in the time of Moses. And if it were as important as it is supposed to be now, it was equally important then. Yet no single indication of it is discoverable in the writings of Moses...There is but one tolerable explanation of this silence. Moses was withheld by divine control from teaching what was not true; a doctrine which was radically opposed to the fundamental facts of man's sin and mortality, on which redemption proceeds" Life In Christ, Third Edition, page 148, 1878.
The fifth commandment is the "first commandment with promise" (Ephesians 6:2). What was the promise? Was it that one would be rewarded in Heaven? No, it had nothing to do with life after death, but life on earth before death, "That your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you" (Deuteronomy 5:16).
UNDER THE JUDGES AND KINGS
Both under the Judges and later under the Kings, the history of the Jews is one of rebellion against God followed by defeat and captivity. When they repented and turned back to God, they came out of exile and prospered.
Thomas Thayer: "The entire history of the Jewish people as a nation, and as individuals, from generation to generation, shows with what exactness the threatening of the law was fulfilled in judgment. When they were obedient, the Lord prospered them, and rewarded them with fruitful seasons, with increasing wealth and power, and made them superior to their enemies. But, when they were rebellious and wicked, then followed adversity, defeat, captivity, and all the physical calamities threatened in the Law. But, all this while we have not one syllable of an endless woe, which is to be added to all the other woes. In no instance of rebellion against God, not when their corruption and idolatry were at the highest reaches of crime and blasphemy, do we find them threatened with the torments of a hell beyond the present life." "Origin And History Of The Doctrine Of Endless Punishment"
All the blessings and all the punishments of the Law were physical in their lifetime. Punishment or reward after death is not promised. For thousands of years throughout the Old Testament, God warned of punishments in this lifetime if anyone did not keep the Law, but not one warning that anyone would "go to Hell." Death (mooth) is used hundreds of times, and except the few times it is used in a symbolic passage, it always means an actual physical death. The concept of Heaven is in the Old Testament, but only as the dwelling place of God (Psalm 11:4; 33:13-14), and of angels (Genesis 21:17; 22:11; 28:12). Heaven in the Old Testament was not a place where any person would ever expect to be, not a place where they would live forever; there is no description or promise of a resurrection to life in Heaven after death as there is in the New Testament, no promise of immortality to any individual. The God of Israel was a God who would protect them, give them blessings in this lifetime, and give them a long lifetime if they were faithful to Him, and punish them only in this lifetime if they were not. “The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence; but as for us (the living), we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever” (Psalm 115:17-18); today’s belief of many that the dead goes to Heaven at dead cannot be read back into their beliefs; death was the end of both blessing from the Lord and praising the Lord.
The savior they looked for was a human person like David (not the Son of God) who would restore Israel as a nation as David did, and make Israel again be superior to other nations. When the multitudes saw Jesus make bread as Moses did (John 5:14-66) they said, “This is of truth the Prophet who is to come into the world,” and “were intending to come and take Him by force, to make Him king.” When Jesus made known unto them that He had not come to set up a political kingdom of Israel, but His kingdom was an entirely different kind of kingdom, “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore” (John 6:66). He was not the earthly king they were looking for that they thought would restore the earthly kingdom of Israel. Even after His death and resurrection, His apostles still thought the Christ they and all Israel looked for would restore the nation of Israel to their land and rule national Israel in his lifetime, that He would be a human king only of Israel only in his lifetime as David was (Acts 1:6). A resurrection to immortality and life in Heaven was a new teaching by Christ (2 Timothy 1:10), and was unknown in the Old Testament. The word resurrection is used forty-one times in the New Testament but not once in the Old Testament.
One of the great difficulties with the eternal torment view is the profound silence of the Old Testament about it. How could God have warned Israel in detail about punishments in this life, droughts, plagues, and other punishments, and not say one word about an eternal Hell which would be the worst of all punishments? The total silence of the Old Testament for thousands of years about this endless torment is proof that it does not exist.
"IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD" Job 19:25-27
In "Reason and Revelation" May 2000, Dr. Bert Thompson used this question that Job asked to prove a person has a part in him or her that will live after the death of the body. If I understand Dr. Thompson right, he is saying a Job said without his body he would see God. Job said, "Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another." He is reading into this passage that Job is saying he has a immaterial something living in him that cannot die, and reading in that it is not Job, but only this immaterial no substance part of Job that will see God without the resurrection.
What was Job really saying? Job and his three friends were unaware of the decisions made between God and Satan to let Satan tempt Job as we do now when we read this book. Job had much but lost everything, and his friends and wife was telling him it was because he had sinned and was then in his life time being punished for God punished those that sinned and rewarded those that keep His word. Much of Job’s book is made up of speeches by his threes friends accusing Job of sin because of what had happened to him and he was at that time being punished for it, and Job's response to them. They had no revelation of punishment after death and said nothing to him about any punishment after his death; the only punishment they said anything about was they punishment they thought Job was receiving at that time. Earlier in Job's third response he had said, "For there is hope for a tree, when it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and its shoots will not fail. Though its roots grow old in the ground, and its stump dies in the dry soil, at the scent of water it will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant." For a tree that has been cut down Job sees hope that it will live again. "But man dies and lies prostate. Man expires, and where is he? As water evaporates from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dried up, so man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens be no more, he will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep." He sees hope of life for a tree cut down, but for a person he sees no hope of life (Job 14:7-12). In Job's time, what would be understood by "until the heavens be no more"? In the Old Testament the heavens were thought to be forever, their end was not known about. See Psalm 89:29, 148:6. In his hopelessness he could see hope for a tree cut down, but for person after death he could see no hope "until the heavens be no more," which he may have thought would never be. This is one of the many expressions of hopelessness that are throughout his speeches. He sees a person as dead, asleep, not as being alive.
In his fifth speech in chapter 19, Job seems to be at his lowest level of hope, but in his hopelessness he may see a ray of hope. "And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth." His Redeemer shall manifest Himself as Job’s vindicator; there is nothing said about any resurrection. Many see Christ as being the redeemer Job was speaking of, but there is no revelation that had been given at this time from which Job could know about Christ being the redeemer, or that God his redeemer would ever leave Heaven and come down to this earth as Christ did. God was seen as the redeemer and deliverer of those that kept His law, Christ and the Holy Spirit being God had not been revealed to them. See Psalm 19:14; 78:35; Proverbs 23:11; Jeremiah 50:34. Over and over Israel sinned, and went into bondage and God their Redeemer delivered them when they repented. Even in the time of Christ, the Jews thought their Christ would be a man like David, a redeemer of their nation from Rome, not a redeemer of individuals from eternal death.
R. L. Harris, as quoted by Homer Hailey said, “The primary meaning of the root [ga’al, to redeem; go’el, redeemer] is to do the part of a kinsman and thus to redeem his kin from difficulty or danger…There is the very common usage prominent in the Psalms and the prophets that God is Israel’s Redeemer who will stand up for His people and vindicate them.” “A Commentary On Job,” Religious Supply, Inc. page176.
"Even after my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God," the translators had difficulties with understanding what the Hebrew says in this passage, the King James says, "in my flesh," the Revised Standard says, “from my flesh.” “This is a stupid error in our version, which fortunately, is rare enough in the ASV; but there is no doubt of it here. The proper rendition here is, ‘In my flesh, I shall see God,’ as properly rendered in the AV, the new RSV, and in the Douay.” James Burton Coffman, “Job” page 175, Abilene Christian University Press. The Revised English Bible translates this passage, "But I know that vindicator lives and that he will rise last to speak in court: I shall discern my witness standing at my side and see my defending counsel, even God himself, whom I shall see with my own eyes, I myself and no other." Is the fulfillment of this after God his redeemer had delivered and vindicated Job? (Job 42:5), "I know of you only by report, but now I see you with my own eyes, therefore I yield, repenting in dust and ashes" The Revised English Bible. His three friends and his wife accused Job of sin, but he knows he had not sinned, and God, his redeemer, lived and in the end he would be vindicated. In the end of the book of Job God his redeemer vindicated him, and Job saw God standing at his side”; “day” in the King James Version is not in the Hebrew, it was added by the translators. “And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than beginning, he had 14,000 sheep, and 6,000 camels, and 1,000 female yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. And he had seven sons and three daughters. And he named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, and old man and full of days” (Job 42:12-17). God his defending counsel and redeemer had vindicated him.
“O Lord, You did plead my soul’s (nehphesh) case; You have redeemed my life” (Lamentations 3:58). This was said while the writer was living. Just as with Job, God was his defending counsel and delivered him.
It is difficult to read Job and the Old Testament and not read into it things that were not made known unto the New Testament or things that we have been taught by the theologies of today that are not in the Bible. The concept of Heaven is in the Old Testament, but only as a place where God and angels are, not as a place where the just would ever be and where they would live forever. Job would never have said he or any person would be in Heaven; the resurrection and immortal life in Heaven was not made known before Christ made it known. All the rewards and punishments in the Old Testament were in this lifetime, not after death. The teaching of Christ cannot be read into the words of Job, Daniel, or anyone in the Old Testament.
Job or no one will literally see God while they are in the flesh; the nearest anyone has came to seeing God was Moses when he saw God’s backside, but not His face (Exodus 33:20-23; see Exodus 3:6). The dead are sown with a natural body and raised with a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44) in a moment (1 Corinthians 15:52). Immortality was brought to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10), Job did not have the gospel; Job could not have known anything about life without end after death.
“Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:26). In the light that no person has ever seen God, this seems to be saying after his afflicted skin that was covered with boils will have been destroyed by being replaced with an un-afflicted skin without boils as it later was, yet in his flesh he would see God as his redeemer and vindicator standing by his side.
ALBERT BARNES: His notes on this are many pages; I have taken excerpts from what he says, read all he says if you have his book. “For I know that my Redeemer liveth - There are few passages in the Bible which have excited more attention than this, or in respect to which the opinions of expositors have been more divided. ...The Hebrew word, גאל g o'al, is from גאל ga'al, ‘to redeem, to ransom.’ It is applied to the redemption of a farm sold, by paying back the price, Lev 25:25; Rut 4:4; Rut 4:6 to anything consecrated to God that is redeemed by paying its value, Lev 27:13 and to a slave that is ransomed, Lev 25:48-49. The word גאל go'el, is applied to one who redeems a field, Lev 25:26; and is often applied to God, who had redeemed his people from bondage, Exo 6:6; Isa 43:1...The meaning of this word would be met, should it be understood as referring to God, coming forth in a public manner to vindicate the cause of Job against all the charges and accusations of his professed friends; or to God...’I know that my Redeemer live's,’ he will have peace. And that he shall stand - He will stand up, as one does who undertakes the cause of another…There is clearly no necessary reference in this word to the resurrection. The simple meaning is, "he shall appear, or manifest himself, as the vindicator of my cause"…At the latter day - The word "day" here is supplied by the translators... The meaning is, that however long he was to suffer, however protracted his calamities were, and were likely to be, he had the utmost confidence that God would at length, or at some future time, come forth to vindicate him. The phrase, ‘the latter day,’ has now acquired a kind of technical meaning, by which we naturally refer it to the day of judgment. But there is no evidence that it has any such reference here...The words does not necessarily imply any visible manifestation - though such a manifestation would not be forbidden by the fair construction of the passage. I say they do not necessarily imply it” Job, pages 324-328, Baker Book House, 1955.
A COMMON DESTINY FOR ALL
“For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him. It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with all the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Indeed their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun. Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:1-10).
The revelation given in the Old Testament was that those who kept God’s word would have a long life without any of the curses given by Moses for those who did not keep His word. As there was no revelation given of a resurrection of the dead to immortality in Heaven, the writer of Ecclesiastes is telling it as it was revealed to them, after death it was the same for all, all go to the grave.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible: “The idea of a life to come is in many portions of the OT conspicuous by its absence. There is nothing anywhere that will compare with the NT conception of ‘eternal life’” page 546.
Jewish Encyclopedia: “The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosophical or theological speculation rather than of simple faith, and is accordingly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture” “Immortality of the Soul,” Kaufmann Kohler, Volume 6, page 566.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: “We are influenced always more or less by the Greek, Platonic idea that the body dies, yet the soul is immortal. Such an idea is…now