Dead do not live
The Bible’s statements about life, death and resurrection are quite clear and consistent: dead people do not live. They are dead. This is the opposite of life.
Those who do not see it this way fall back on a rather limited selection of “differently worded” biblical passages, with which the rest of the testimony of Scripture is then supposed to be invalidated. These biblical passages require special attention. This is about such a biblical passage. What does it really say?
Bible passage
Jn 11:25 “he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”.
Jn 11:26 “he who lives and believes in me shall not die for ever.”
Jesus is talking to Martha about her deceased brother Lazarus.
Traditional interpretation
“Eternal life means that we do not die. Eternal life I already have now, I was taught, so I don’t die anymore. Believers have been made incorruptible just because they have put their trust in God…”. Or in other words: Those who believe this live in contradiction with the reality in which people die every day. Dying is denied. Death is denied.
Counterargument
Jesus and Martha speak of resurrection, not of life in death. Here it says something else, namely:
“Jesus replied to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in Me will live [für den Äon] even if he dies. And everyone who lives then and believes in Me will by no means die for the eon! Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26
Therefore, whoever lives during the future Messianic age will not then die for that age. However, life itself is regained only through resurrection.
Justification
Each text must make sense in its own context. The theme here is the resurrection. Jesus said he was “the resurrection and the life”. So the two go together. Even if someone dies, he will live again through resurrection.
With the prospect of the messianic kingdom in mind, when all these wonderful things happen, Jesus says that people who believe in Him will live again for the eon (for the coming messianic age) even if they die now. The promise is that those who then enter the kingdom through resurrection will also live during this kingdom and will by no means die anymore.
This Bible passage cannot be used to establish a life “in death.” The outlook for those who have died is in the resurrection, which marks the transition from the state of death to a new life.
