sleep or new life after death

[Guest]

I have a questions regarding when a saved person dies.

My questions is ( and others have asked me also) When a Christian dies do they enter into a death/sleep? awaiting Christs return to raise them or at their time of death do they rise up to the heavens , immediatly into paradise with Christ as he told the man who was crusified next to him on his cross ? luke 23 :43

Thanks

[Guest]

The dead in Christ immediately go into the presence of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Philippians 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. 24 Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

[Guest]

Dear Sean

Thankyou for these scriptures. They are familiar. But I do not see how they answer my question to tell you the truth. I know we will be absent from our bodies and be with him after physical death. But when?

The bible speaks of the dead being raised. Will we be in a state of sleep awaiting the return of Christ to be fully united with him ?

When the scriptures talk about the dead being a sleep and being raised in his return , are they only reffering to the non saved ? Thanks again

[Guest]

Dear Sean

Thankyou for these scriptures. They are familiar. But I do not see how they answer my question to tell you the truth. I know we will be absent from our bodies and be with him after physical death. But when?

The bible speaks of the dead being raised. Will we be in a state of sleep awaiting the return of Christ to be fully united with him ?

When the scriptures talk about the dead being a sleep and being raised in his return , are they only reffering to the non saved ? Thanks again

The body sleeps but the soul lives on after death. The way I read the scriptures I posted are like this:

"absent from the body and to be present with the Lord"

We can only be absent from the body when our physical body is "sleeping" and our soul is living on. Once the resurrection occurs then "the dead will be raised"

The way I see it, once the dead are raised we no longer fit the description of: "absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" because we will be in the body again. So we will be at home in our glorified bodies and present with the Lord, not absent anymore.

Just as Jesus said to the theif on the cross "today you will be with me in Paradise". How could the man be with Jesus and Jesus Himself be in Paradise if they didn't live on consciously while their bodies were "sleeping"?

Does that help?

[Guest]

Thanks again Sean

Are you saying "all" lose their bodies but their souls live on either with Christ or without at death and we are either with Christ or we are seperate from him. It is only the body on earth that remains. And then when he returns we are "all" united again with our bodies? Meaning Christian and non are reunited with their bodies.

I thought we were to get new bodies (believers) , why would we need the old And when the scriptures talk of Christs return doesn't it say Christ , those in heaven "with" him and the dead with be raised and caught up. (paraphrasing here). It just seems to me there is another seperation and uniting going on here, whether belivers or non..

I don't know for sure obviously, but I am enjoying the insight.

Thank you Glow

[Guest]

Thanks again Sean

Are you saying "all" lose their bodies but their souls live on either with Christ or without at death and we are either with Christ or we are seperate from him. It is only the body on earth that remains. And then when he returns we are "all" united again with our bodies? Meaning Christian and non are reunited with their bodies.

I thought we were to get new bodies (believers) , why would we need the old And when the scriptures talk of Christs return doesn't it say Christ , those in heaven "with" him and the dead with be raised and caught up. (paraphrasing here). It just seems to me there is another seperation and uniting going on here, whether belivers or non..

I don't know for sure obviously, but I am enjoying the insight.

Thank you Glow

I'm not exactly sure what you are saying but I'll give it a shot.

Are you saying "all" lose their bodies but their souls live on either with Christ or without at death and we are either with Christ or we are seperate from him. It is only the body on earth that remains.

Yes. I get this from scattered texts but the main one is Luke 16. Both dead men, the rich man and Lazarus went immediately into different places. The rich man went to Hades and I believe Lazarus to Paradise. These two places have a gulf fixed between them. Both are dead yet conscious. They await final judgement, just as the angels do:

2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell [tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

And then when he returns we are "all" united again with our bodies? Meaning Christian and non are reunited with their bodies.

Yes, I believe all are raised:
John 5:28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

I thought we were to get new bodies (believers) , why would we need the old And when the scriptures talk of Christs return doesn't it say Christ , those in heaven "with" him and the dead with be raised and caught up. (paraphrasing here). It just seems to me there is another seperation and uniting going on here, whether belivers or non..

When the body is rasied it is raised as a glorified body. So the old body is changed to the new, but the old still rises (and is changed), just as Jesus's old body body rose up and was changed. I hope that makes sense.

When Jesus comes with this the Saints they are the souls only, when the dead bodies rise, they reunite with the souls coming from heaven and become one again (in a glorified body).

[Guest]

The body sleeps but the soul lives on after death.

1 Timothy 6:16 [God] alone has immortality...

[Guest]

According to my understanding of the scriptures, we are made alive because God breathed into us.

As our flesh return to dust, our spirits, or breaths of God, shall return to God. Will we be conscious? I don't see why not as we spiritually return to the living God.

[Guest]

The body sleeps but the soul lives on after death.

1 Timothy 6:16 [God] alone has immortality...

True, but those who belong to Christ share in His eternal life.

1Jo 5:11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1Jo 5:12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1Jo 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.


Mat 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna).

Rev 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Mat 22:32 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not God of the dead, but of the living."

Joh 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Joh 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

[Guest]

BTW I know of folks that will not be cremated because they are suppose to reunited with their bodies later, so feel they need to be buried in tack, so to speak. What do you think of this? Thanks Glow