Most will agree that the opposite of life is death. In the Book of Genesis 2:17 when The Most High God told the man Adam that in the day he eats from the Tree of the Knowledge of God and Bad, he will certainly die. He was telling Adam that he would lose his life.
But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.
When the Prophet Ezekiel says at Ezekiel 18:4:
The soul that is sinning—it itself will die
Yet, if we look at what is called everlasting or eternal life, it is something quite different from life. Just as life has an opposite called death, everlasting life has an opposite as well.
What is Everlasting Life?
Everlasting life – as the name implies – is life without end. Death is not associated with everlasting life. Those granted with everlasting life need not worry about ever dying. Those who have life – the life we all have at present – have standing in front of us an assured death. That is, we are growing old and getting sick and we will expire in death. This is the sentence The Most High God placed upon our first human parents Adam and Eve and it is the sentence that we inherited from them.
What Is The Opposite of Everlasting Life?
If life has death as its opposite, then everlasting life has an opposite to. What is it? Notice what Revelation 20:14 says:
And death and Ha′des were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire.
The Second Death (Lake of Fire) is the opposite of Everlasting Life.
I have written an extensive article explaining What The Lake of Fire Is and in that article I show that the Lake of Fire is a symbol of nonexistence. That is, anything cast into the Lake of Fire ceases to exist. Like paper thrown into a literal fire, it is burned up and ceases to be. Revelation 20:14 shows that Death along with Hell will be cast into The Lake of Fire so these two things will one day cease to exist; that is, go into nonexistence.
Since death – the opposite of life – will one day cease to exist, what will remain for all humans ever born will be Everlasting Life or The Second Death (The Lake of Fire or No Longer Existing).
At John 3:16 Jesus makes this statement:
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.
Notice that Jesus did not say that God loved the world so much that those exercising faith in him would not die (see death). He said that they might not be destroyed but have everlasting life. Other Bible translations use the expression shall not perish but have eternal life.
The thing I want you to notice about John 3:16 is that Jesus contrasts being destroyed (perishing) with everlasting (eternal) life. Jesus’ words are not talking about the life we enjoy now and the eventual death we all face. It is speaking of something much much different.
Has Popular Religious Organization Been Wrong In It’s Teaching About Life, Death, Eternal Life, and The Second Death?
Without sounding arrogant, yes they have.
Most have not seen in John 3:16 that Jesus was not referring to simply losing their lives in death. They have not seen that Jesus was referring to something much more permanent: A perishing or being destroyed for all eternity (eternal destruction, not eternal torment)
At present each and every human ever born and given life since Adam will live and die. Billions to this day since Adam lie in their graves in death. Billions living today are growing old and getting sick and will also die. Nothing will change God’s pronouncement of death upon Adam and his offspring. We all will face death as assuredly as we experience life.
Yet, at John 3:16, Jesus spoke of something much greater than the death and life we all know today. He spoke of everlasting life contrasted by being destroyed for all eternity – a perishing, Second Death, or Lake of Fire.
The question arises: “If all persons born since Adam will die, how can any have everlasting life or face a perishing?
The answer to this question is where religious organization teaching – primarily what is called by men Christianity – have been in error. They have failed to recognize the true and all-encompassing reason why The Most High God sent His Son into the world of mankind: To die for all persons born since Adam so that they will not face a perishing. Please bear with me.
The popular teaching among Christendom is that only persons who believe in Jesus today will have everlasting life and those who do not will be tormented forever in hellfire (which is not a perishing). The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Jehovahs Witnesses, for example, teach that if persons not associated with its organization, those persons will lose their lives forever. In both cases, there is an error. In both cases – Christendom and the Watch Tower – Jesus is usurped. Neither teaches that Jesus died for all of mankind. Both place conditions upon God’s free gift. Both have not realized that what Adam did not just impact those who would accept Jesus, but all of mankind. Neither really address and take into account the billions of persons who have ever been born and died since Adam and who never heard of Jesus and who lived in different parts of the world and in different time periods when Jesus did not exist. So, how can all persons ever born since Adam be placed in a position to believe in The Son of God so as to not perish but have eternal life?
The Promised Resurrection of All of Mankind
The only possible way that all of mankind – for whom Jesus gave up his precious life for – can be placed in a position to believe in The Son of God so as to not perish and have eternal life is that ALL are resurrected from the dead. That is what Jesus promised would occur and it is something we are not to marvel at. The promise resurrection of all of the dead mankind is given at John 5:28-29 and notice the word ALL and notice that Jesus is not specifying that it is only those who believe in him are the ones who will receive this promise. Notice, too, the contrast Jesus makes between “resurrection to life” and “resurrection of judgment.” Jesus is here referring to “everlasting life” and “everlasting destruction.”
He is not saying that all persons resurrected (all of mankind), upon being resurrected, will either be granted with eternal life or eternal destruction. No! No! He is teaching that once all of mankind is called out of their graves that they will have standing before them the prospect of – not the life and death they had when they first lived – but the prospect of either everlasting life or everlasting destruction.
Just as all humans were allowed to be born and live and then die, all humans – because of Jesus’ sacrificial death – will be reborn (resurrected) from the dead and allowed to live again with the prospect of either living forever or dying again forever (The Second Death)
Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.
It is selfish religious organization that specifies that only those who believe in Jesus will. The mistake they have made is that they marry John 3:16 with John 5:28-29. The mistake they have made is that all of mankind ever born since Adam are all in the same status; none greater, none lesser, all with inherited sin. Accepting Jesus as one’s Lord and Savior gives one no special status over a person who does not. Such a teaching is man-made and goes against the examples of Jesus’ treatment of the persons he dealt with in Scripture when he was alive.
Jesus resurrected persons who were not his followers. He did not condemn an adulterous woman who was sentenced to death by the Scribes and Pharisees. He promised a condemned man who was his follower paradise. He asked forgiveness for those persons who beat him, spat on him, pierced him, plotted his death, and who executed him. The selfish and condemnatory actions of the so-called Church systems that claim to follow him are just the opposite. They are condemning and threatening people with eternal torment or loss of one’s life if some action is not taken by them. This not what Jesus taught.
We live in a time period were unlimited forgiveness is required on the part of those claiming to be followers of Christ. There should be no threat of loss of life or eternal torment passing our lips to anyone. Yet, this is exactly what bulk Christianity does. It acts oppositely of the one that they claim is their owner.
As John 5:28-29 shows, judgment to everlasting life or everlasting destruction comes after the resurrection, not at present. At present, we are to forgive the trespasses of others just as Jesus did. Even those of our enemies, just as Jesus did.
Where We Stand Today
All of us whether we like it or not, have standing in front of us one assured thing: Death. No human will escape this. Jesus, as the Son of man (born of a flesh and blood woman), did not escape death. If he had not died from execution, he would have grown old and died. The Son of God would have lived on as he does today in heaven.
Nothing will stop the pronouncement of death because of the inherited sin upon us. We all will and must die.
What also stands before us all is the resurrection Jesus promised to all persons.
When that resurrection occurs, death and life we know it today will no longer exist; it will be old and a thing of the past. What will stand before us after we are called out of our graves is a new and different kind of life and death: Everlasting Life and a Second Death.
We all will live again as a result of being resurrected from the dead. That resurrection is what is called a Second Birth or a Second Life. Many do not realize that when Jesus was conversing with the Pharisee Nicodemus about being Born Again, it was this Second Life or resurrection that Jesus was referring to. All of mankind born since Adam had a First Birth and will have a First Death and will have a Second Life (a resurrection).
To Occur At The Beginning The Son of God’s Definite 1000 Year Kingdom
What proponents of accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and go to heaven or not accept him and suffer an eternity in a hellfire have not taken into account is that Jesus promises a resurrection to all (John 5:28-29) and that he himself will have a 1000 year kingdom over the earth. So if they are in heaven and all who did not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior in an eternal hellfire, what is this definite 1000 year kingdom of The Son of God on earth? They shoot themselves in the foot.
That the Christ died for all of mankind can also be seen in who he is the Head over. 1 Cor 11:3 shows the Christ is Head over every man, not just those who accept him:
But I want YOU to know that the head of every man is the Christ; in turn the head of a woman is the man; in turn the head of the Christ is God.
So when The Son of God begins his 1000 year definite kingdom, he resurrects all of dead mankind into it. It is there – within that 1000 year kingdom – that mankind stands up again with the prospect of a new life prospect – everlasting life – and a new type of death – a Second Death – or no longer existing.
How Will It Work?
All of mankind is dead. The earth itself will be devoid of human life. For how long, the Scriptures do not say. How all of mankind will die, is unknown. I do not know. However, there will be a time span over the earth where there will be no human voices heard.
Satan and his horde are imprisoned for the 1000 years and will not be able to interfere with the administering of The Son of Gods 1000 year kingdom.
All of the dead mankind hears an awakening voice. Mankind stands up again alive with a Second Life. (John 5:28-29)
All of mankind – because is Jesus’ sacrificial death – are resurrected into his 1000 year kingdom on earth. His administration of his kingdom will be out of heaven. Jesus never physically returns to the earth. He will have appointed human kings or administrators over his kingdom for the duration of 1000 years. (Rev 20:6; Rev 5:10; Rev 1:5)
These Kings of the Earth will be directly responsible to their ruler or King, The Son of God.
All existing kingdoms and governments will be gone; destroyed and no longer in existence.
One thousand years pass by uninterrupted and interfered with by Satan.
At the end of the 1000 years, The Son of God is no longer king. The reason being is that mankind at that time will not need a king over them because The Son of God will have taught and restored all of mankind to their Creator, perfect and in direct communication with their Creator – without an intermediary – just as Adam was in the beginning. (Rev 20:7-8)
What remains on the earth will be a perfect human society and those persons who were charged as kings or administrators over it for the 1000 years. Someone else remains to, Satan the Devil. He is now released and goes out to this new and restored mankind (Gog of Magog) just as he did Adam and Eve, to mislead them away from what is yet to come.
It is at this point in the history of mankind (At the end of Jesus’ 1000 year kingdom and the releasing of The Serpent) that Scriptures like John 3:16 take on meaning. Let’s review that Scripture with a view of it having application to this future time period.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The giving of His Son to the world of mankind lovingly will produce a 1000 year kingdom through which all of mankind will be lovingly resurrected into and by the end of it, be restored to its Creator. At that time, mankind has standing in front of it continued life – everlasting life – but something will stand in the way and attempt to remove that prospect as it did in the beginning with Adam and Eve. What will stand in the way is the released Serpent upon that future world. He will go out to mislead it.
Now as soon as the thousand years have been ended, Satan will be let loose out of his prison, and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Ma′gog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea.
If there is to be a misleading, then that misleading will be with a view to taking away the prospect of everlasting life. It will be at that time – when mankind is without excuse and knowing Good and Bad – that the Serpent will incite rebellion (disobedience) from a knowledgeable world of mankind.
Did Adam know God’s command given to him about what trees he could and could not eat from? Yes, he did. Adam was not misled, his wife was. Adam took from his wife what he knew was wrong to take and eat. Likewise, in those future days, there will be elements from within man that will be misled by the Serpent and those elements will go to those other elements within mankind and they will deliberately disobey God.
At his ascension out of the Abyss, the Serpent will establish a system of rule over the earth. It will be within that beastly system that he will mislead. We do not know how long it will take for the Serpent to establish his beneficial system over the earth and we do not know how long it will be allowed to exist on the earth, but it will be for quite some time.
It is during the time after The Son of God’s kingdom ends and the ascension out of the Abyss of the Serpent, that John 3:16 and John 10:22 has application. Concerning John 3:16, we must remember and believe in what Jesus taught us during that 1000 year time span because the Serpent will come at us with something different what Jesus taught us that will cause us to lose our prospect of everlasting life.
Is this not how it happened with Adam and Eve? Did not God lay His command upon the man concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad? Did not the Serpent come with a lying message that caused them to lose their lives?
So when John 3:16 says whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life is referring to us believing in what Jesus will have taught is during that future 1000 year kingdom of his. Not what we know now. What we know and believe at present does not arm us enough to withstand what the Serpent will bring at us in those future days after he is released from the Abyss.
It will take strong faith – built upon the knowledge Jesus’ 1000 year kingdom will provide – and endurance after the releasing of the Serpent to endure to the end of it (the Serpents beastly rule). Jesus has already told us at Matthew 10:22:
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
The being saved Jesus is referring to in the above Scripture is being saved to entering into everlasting life. Those not standing firm after the releasing of the Serpent will go into nonexistence – The Second Death. (Rev 2:11)
John 10:22 actually confirms that the time period is not at present. How so? Ask yourself, “Are all of Christs followers hated by everyone today?” Not at all. A large portion of the world today is of Christendom and many within them hate each other. So the time period of the fulfillment of John 3:16 and Matthew 10:22 has to be at a time when all of the earth is united and then mislead and separated. That time period could only be under one kingdom, that future 1000 year kingdom of The Christ. The Serpent is released to mislead that world and cause a separation within it.
So what stands before us still is death and a resurrection back to life. Afterwards, the prospect of everlasting life or it’s opposite – everlasting destruction – if we fail to believe and apply what Jesus will have taught us during his future 1000 year kingdom.
