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 passages
Matthew 22:32, Mark 12:27 Luke 20:38
Jesus talking to the Sadducees about the resurrection.
Traditional interpretation
“But here it says: All live in death. God is God of the living, to Him they all live!”.
Counterargument
The theme here is the resurrection. It is not about the state of death, but about the resurrection. “To Him you all live” is said in view of the resurrection.
Justification
Jesus is in conversation with the Sadducees. Sadducees were a Jewish group who taught that there was no resurrection (Mt 22:23, Mk 12:18 Lk 20:27). Furthermore, they have recognized only the 5 books of Moses. So they meant that there is no reference to the resurrection in the 5 books of Moses (the Torah).
The Sadducees now came to Jesus and wanted to corner Him with a trick question. After Jesus debunks this question, He speaks directly about the Sadducees’ denial of the resurrection:
“But that the dead awake was already opened by Moses in the account of the thorn bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Lk 20,37
This is a quote from the Torah. Jesus cites this as a reference to the resurrection, which is not mentioned directly in the Torah, but can be inferred here. “Yet He is not a God of the dead, but the God of the living; for to Him all live” (Luke 20:38). If God calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and these three have all died, they must have a future by virtue of God’s statement. God, in fact, they are all alive, which is therefore proof of the resurrection.
This biblical passage cannot be used to establish a life “in” death. God is indeed not a God of the dead, but of the living – in view of the resurrection.
