How Should We Consider the Dead?

It seems to me that although we are not immortal spirits having a physical experience, but rather physical beings having a spiritual experience, nonetheless it seems God treats mankind as if we are spirits having a physical experience, as Matthew 25:41 Christ said of humans, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

If everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, then if most humans (the non-elect) end up in this everlasting lake of fire after death, then don’t most humans fit the definition of the devil and his angels, since God gives them the same punishment and treats humans and evil angels the same?  If everyone will be salted with fire (Mark 9:49–the elect face this fire now as flesh and blood) then really isn’t all humanity really “the devil and his angels?”

Whether humans pre-existed or not is irrelevant, as God treats humans “as if” they pre-existed as the devil and his angels in the end anyway, as the non-elect are raised in spirit bodies and cast into the lake of fire.  What difference will there be between evil humans and evil spirits in the end, since they go to the same place and endure the same fiery redemptive fire?  Do evil spirits get more intense fire perhaps and for longer time, since they have sinned for thousands of years versus a human can only sin for about max 120 years?  Just trying to understand what real difference there is in the end in light of Matthew 25:41.  Hope you understand what I am saying and can shed some more scriptural light on the subject.

Thanks,

B____

Hi, B____​

Luke 20 deals with your thoughts:

Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. 

From God’s all-sovereign perspective, His plan for the salvation of all men through Christ and His Christ is an already accomplished fact, even though it may yet be thousands of years before it is completed. This scripture guides us in how we should speak of the dead. “Now that the dead are raised…” acknowledges the truth which is taught from Genesis to Revelation, which is:

Gen 2:17  and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it–dying thou dost die.’ (YLT)

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [Hebrew: rûach – wind, breath, spirit]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Act 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Act 2:30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
Act 2:31  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Act 2:32  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Act 2:33  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Act 2:34  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

The best way to think and speak is in Biblical terms, and in Biblical terms David is not in heaven, and “God is not the God of the dead but of the living” is to be understood as speaking of the fact that “the dead are raised”.

Yes, we are by birth of our father, the devil (Joh 8:44)​, by virtue of being born into earthy, physical bodies. From God’s perspective, no, there is no difference in the treatment of humans and spirits in the lake of fire. At that time, they will all be spirits. Based on the scripture saying that the last shall be first and the first shall be last, the former humans will exit from their lake of fire condition before those who were already created as spirits (Job 38:4-7).

I hope this gives you a clearer perspective on how we are to refer to the dead.

YbiC, Mike