Do Disciples Pass Away?

Job compares his brethren who have not comforted him to the brooks of water that disappear and perish or cease to exist when the heat comes. Again, in (ESV) Elihu speaks about the righteousness of God and how the wicked shall pass away or perish.

“Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him. Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.1Who gave him charge over the earth, and who laid on him the whole world? If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust. ”If you have understanding, hear this; listen to what I say. Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty, who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’ who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands? In a moment they die; at midnight the people are shaken and pass away, and the mighty are taken away by no human hand” (Job 34:10-20).

In Psa 58:8 the psalmist requests that the wicked should pass away or perish as a snail that melts or a stillborn baby.

In the NT with reference to man the phrase occurs in Luke: “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place” Luke 21:32). Jerusalem was indeed surrounded and destroyed in A.D. 70. The temple worship ceased and the nation ceased or perished.

In Paul’s writing the phrase becomes passed away: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17).

Finally:

“Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humilia­tion, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:10-12).

Bro. Neville Smart wrote:

“As the grass is withered by the scorching wind, so also,” writes James, “shall the rich man fade away in his going”; the last word is a specific allusion to the ‘journeyings’ of the rich man (the same word is used of the ‘journey­ing’ of Jesus towards Jerusalem, (Luke 13:22); James envisages the wealthy merchant cut off in the very midst of the journeys and voyages he under­takes in pursuit of his business enterprises. It is a sobering thought: and it recurs later on in a slightly different form (4:13ff). Let the rich brother have before his gaze some more worthwhile treasure than that which is so uncertain and fleeting! ²

For those who have been baptized into Christ when we die we are not as the wicked that perish but instead sleep awaiting the resurrection.

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” (1Cor 15:51-52).

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the com­ing of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1Thess. 4:13-18).

The religions of this world have strayed so far from Scriptural teaching that things which should be understood are given new meanings for those with itching ears to make them more palatable. Even the Jews, who are God’s people and should know what the Old Testament teaches with regards to death, have become apostate in their beliefs.

Quoting from the website askmoses.com:

“In Judaism we avoid the word ‘death’ since the person’s soul does not ever ‘die’. Instead, it ‘passes away’ or ‘passes on’ to a different plane of reality, a spiritual realm. ‘Death’ suggests a final stage in a person’s life cycle. How­ever, Judaism says that not only does the soul continue after the body ceases to be alive, but that even the body will live once again during the era of the redemption when the resurrection of past generations will take place.”

Now that we have seen the way Scripture teaches us what passed away means and the connotation that not only false religions but even the Jews themselves have given to this phrase. So let us not use the phrase in speaking of our brother or sister who has died. Instead may we speak of them as Christ spoke of Lazarus “he is not dead but sleepeth” and do as instructed by the apostle Paul by comforting one another with the hope which we share — that those who have fallen asleep in Christ will rise again at the trump of God.