God made us from dust in the beginning.

The body turns to dust again, and the spirit goes back to God, who gave it. The spirit of every person who dies — whether saved or unsaved — returns to God at death.

The spirit that returns to God at death is the breath of life. Nowhere in all of God’s book does the spirit have any life, wisdom, or feeling after a person dies. It is the breath of life and nothing more.

A soul is a living being. A soul is always a combination of two things: body plus breath. A soul cannot exist unless body and breath are combined. God’s Word teaches that we are souls — not that we have souls.

According to God’s Word, souls do die! We are souls, and souls die. Man is mortal (Job 4:17). Only God is immortal (1 Timothy 6:15,16). The concept of an undying, immortal soul is not found in the Bible, which teaches that souls are subject to death.

No. People do not go to heaven or to hell at death. They don’t go anywhere — they wait in their graves for the resurrection. Even King David is said to be dead and buried, and he did not ascend into the heavens (Acts 2:29,34).

God says that the dead know absolutely nothing! Their love, hatred, and envy have now perished, and they no longer have a share in anything done under the sun. There is no work, device, knowledge, or wisdom in the grave where we are going.

No. The dead cannot contact the living, nor do they know what the living are doing. They are dead. Their sons come to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and they do not perceive it. Their thoughts have perished (Psalm 146:4).

The dead will sleep until the great day of the Lord at the end of the world. In death humans are totally unconscious, with no activity or knowledge of any kind.

They will be rewarded. They will be raised, given immortal bodies, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air. There would be no purpose in a resurrection if people were taken to heaven at death.

“You will not die.” The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). That serpent of old is the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9).

The devil’s lie that we will not die is one of the pillars of his teachings. For thousands of years he has worked powerful, deceptive miracles to trick people into thinking they are receiving messages from the spirits of the dead (examples: the magicians of Egypt — Exodus 7:11; the woman of Endor — 1 Samuel 28:3–25; sorcerers — Daniel 2:2; a slave girl — Acts 16:16–18). A solemn warning: in the near future, Satan will again use sorcery as he did in the prophet Daniel’s day to deceive the world (Revelation 18:23). Posing as godly loved ones who have died, saintly clergymen, Bible prophets, or even the apostles of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:13), Satan and his angels will deceive billions. Those who believe the dead are alive, in any form, will likely be deceived.

Yes indeed! Devils work incredibly convincing miracles (Revelation 13:13,14). Satan will appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) and, even more shocking, as Christ Himself (Matthew 24:23,24). The universal feeling will be that Christ and His angels are leading out in a fantastic worldwide revival. The entire emphasis will seem so spiritual and be so supernatural that only God’s elect will not be deceived.

God’s people will know from their study of His book that the dead are dead, not alive. They will know that a spirit claiming to be a deceased loved one is really a devil! God’s people will reject all teachers and miracle workers who claim to receive special light or work miracles by contacting the spirits of the dead. And they will likewise reject as dangerous and false all teachings that claim the dead are alive in any form, anywhere.

God insisted that mediums and others with familiar spirits (who claimed to be able to contact the dead) should be stoned to death. This shows how God regards the false teaching that the dead are alive.

No! Death, sorrow, crying, and tragedy will never enter into God’s new kingdom. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain (Revelation 21:4). When this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

Almost half the people on earth believe in reincarnation — a teaching that the soul never dies but is instead continually reborn in a different kind of body with each succeeding generation. This teaching, however, is contrary to Scripture. The Bible says that after death a person: returns to dust (Psalm 104:29), knows nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5), possesses no mental powers (Psalm 146:4), has nothing to do with anything on earth (Ecclesiastes 9:6), does not live (2 Kings 20:1), waits in the grave (Job 17:13), and continues not (Job 14:1,2). As we learned in questions 11 and 12, Satan invented the teaching that the dead are alive. Reincarnation, channeling, communication with spirits, spirit worship, and the “undying soul” are all inventions of Satan, with one aim — to convince people that when you die you are not really dead. When people believe the dead are alive, “spirits of devils, working miracles” (Revelation 16:14), posing as spirits of the dead, will be able to deceive and lead them astray virtually 100 percent of the time (Matthew 24:24).