Death: the act of dying; the end of life; the total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an animal or plant. -- Random House College Dictionary
All physical bodies will die. Every tick of the clock you get closer to the maximum limit of one hundred and twenty years of human life. Most of us will not even get close to the upper age limit. The key to the word death is its finality; the end of life, the total and permanent cessation of all vital functions. Death is the absence of life. The scriptures state:
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing... (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
Life and death are mutually exclusive. Everyone is either alive or dead. You can approach very near to death, but you are not dead. Once you cross over to the dead there is no way any man can bring you back to life! Doctors do not bring people back from the dead. Consider a drowning victim who has been under water for twenty minutes with no pulse or signs of life. If he is shocked, given an injection of adrenaline, and CPR, and is "brought back to life," then he was never dead. All of his vital functions had not yet ceased.
The Bible describes physical and spiritual forms of life. Spiritual beings consist of the Trinity of God and the angels. Satan and his subordinates are included as angels. The physical life forms consist of every life form which is not spiritual. This includes plants, insects, germs, viruses, fish, birds, animals, and others. Man is an animal. All physical life forms share one very important characteristic. All die! Spiritual life forms live for eternity. This is the characteristic which distinguishes man from spiritual beings.
Since death only applies to the physical world, let's examine what the Bible states regarding the death of the animal which we are concerned about most. That is, man.
According to the Bible, two separate and distinct deaths can befall man. The first and most obvious death ends our short one hundred and twenty year maximum life which we are presently living on the earth. After man sinned, God placed an upper limit on the life of the physical human body:
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3)
Our second possible physical death is described in the book of Revelation:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14-15)
Individuals whose names are not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire and suffer their second death. They die because they are physical bodies which can die. They are physical bodies because they have never believed in Jesus and been born again as a spirit which cannot die. It is very important to notice that this death is actually labeled as a death! That is, it is final and eternal.
There is no recovery or return from the second death! This truly fits our definition of the word death. It is the permanent cessation of all vital life functions.
Let's examine how the Bible considers man's first death. When the first death of any man is discussed in the Bible, the words used to describe that event are sleep or rest. Only man, among all the animals is said to sleep, slumber, or rest when he dies. In fact, when Jesus raised people from the dead, He often stated they were not dead, but simply asleep:
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. (John 11:11)
And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn... (Mark 5:39-40)
If true death is final, then our first death is not death at all. It does not meet the definition of death. That is, it is not final or permanent. As doctors and medical technicians "restore life" to someone after their heart has stopped for twenty minutes, God is going to restore the physical life of nonbelievers many years after their first "death" at the second resurrection. In many cases after having been "dead" for thousands of years. Therefore, their first death is not actually a death because it is not final and permanent. They will live again. It is final to us here on the earth. That is, man cannot restore another man's life after his first death, only God can. So Jesus was correct when He stated that Lazarus' stinking body which had been lying in the grave for four days was only sleeping:
Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. (John 11:39)
When pressed, Jesus spoke plainly and stated that Lazarus was indeed dead. Plainly indicates that Jesus spoke in terms of how man understands death:
Then Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. (John 11:14)
In neither case, when Jesus said Lazarus was asleep nor when He said Lazarus was dead, was He incorrect. Both statements are true! One was from God's point of view and the other was from man's point of view. From God's perspective there is one true death, the second death.
Once one understands the two deaths described in the Bible, it becomes easier to understand the scriptures. However, one needs to distinguish which "death" is being referred to in the context of each verse. Words such as sleep, slumber, and rest are used to refer to man's first death. Words such as die, death, and perish are used to refer to man's permanent second death. For example:
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4)
Since die is used, this scripture refers to the second death. Otherwise, the word sleep or rest would have been used. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, we are all headed for the second death. The good news is that God intervenes:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Once again, a key word denoting permanence indicates that Jesus is saving us from the second death. That word is perish. If believing in Jesus kept Christians from perishing in the first death, then certainly people like Peter and Paul and millions of other dead Christians would still be alive today! This would invalidate the one hundred and twenty-year limit placed on the human body. Since we are only sleeping or resting in our graves, this word perish indicates the second death.
Perish means to disappear forever, which is what happens to those who suffer the second death. Everyone who dies the first death will be resurrected, whether Christian or not. Therefore, when we die the first death, we do not perish. Since God gave His only Son so that those who believe in Him should not perish, this promise protects us from the second death. From God's prospective, we do not perish due to our first death, we simply rest:
For we which have believed do enter into rest... (Hebrews 4:3)
The "rest" used in this context indicates what happens to Christians after our first physical death. We are said to "Rest in Peace," indicating exactly what the Bible confirms:
For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing... (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
The dead are at total rest. They know and are aware of absolutely nothing! They do not even know they are dead. They are not in heaven with God or burning in hellfire or in purgatory. There are not spirits or ghosts of dead humans running around the earth spooking people. That fact should ruin many bad movie and book plots for you, but it is a fact! The only spirits and ghosts around are God and the angels.
God has existed from the beginning, and He created the angels.
The only way any human can gain everlasting life is to be born a second time of the Spirit (God) -- as a spiritual bodied being. This will occur at and after the Second Coming.
To date, no human has been born again.
Christians are presently heirs to everlasting life under the New Testament Covenant.
Their names are written in the Book of Life as heirs of everlasting spiritual life.
They will receive their inheritance when the covenant is probated at the Second Coming.
That is when they will be born again.