"Then shall the dust return to earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7
There are two main questions that I would like us to reason out in regard to the text above.
- What does this verse teach?
- Does it prove that the dead are ushered into the presence of God when they die?
Please consider those questions carefully before you give an answer.
The first question seems so plain, the verse is talking about death. But what is death? It is the opposite of life. For an elaborate explanation of death, we need to know how life came into existence. The Bible teaches us in Genesis 2:7:
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrls the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
That which God performed in creating, death undoes it by dissolving. The two texts are exact counterparts.
Man is a composition of dust and the breath of life. For man to exist the two must be present. At death there is a separation of the two, and each returns from where it was taken. "The dust returns to the dust" "for out of it wast thou taken" Gen 3:19. And then the breath goes back to God since it is His. "The breath of the almighty hath given me life" Job 33:4. The breath is simply the air we breathe, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in nostrils." Isaiah 2:22. The breath(air) that we have in our nostrils, proceeds from God. Thus at death He takes back His breath. Following the "scripture upon scripture" principle, it can easily be seen that the spirit refers to the breath that we have. Let us put it in a mathematical format.
At creation; DUST + BREATH = A LIVING PERSON (Genesis 2:7)
At death; Dust (returns to dust), Breath/Spirit (returns to God). Ecclesiastes 12:7.
The answer to question two, lies in our understanding of question one. I want you to realize that the verse is not speaking only of the righteous, but of the common lot of humanity. Both the righteous and the unrighteous, die. And from what the Bible teaches only the righteous will enter heaven.
"Know ye not, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" 1 Cor 6:9. "There shall in no wise enter into anything that defiles" Rev 21:27.
And the entrance into heaven will only take place at the second advent. So it does not in any way tell us that the dead enter heaven.
To state it more emphatically, the spirit referred to is the LIFE that we have, the BREATH in us, the AIR that we breathe (James 4:14, Psalm 146:4). It is not a separate entity, that dwells in us and departs when we die. And it is only logical that the life-giver should have it, when we die and at resurrection He imparts it unto us. The righteous unto life eternal and the wicked unto eternal damnation.
It is really essential that we understand this, for in this "latter days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils"1 Tim 4:1 and the demons will come under the guise of "the spirit of our departed loved ones" 2 Cor 11:13-15. But we who have been taught from the scriptures, should be able to meet them (the devil and his angels) with a plain "Thus saith the LORD…the dead know nothing." Ecclesiastes 9:5. Behold I have told you beforehand!
The Bible Sabbath