Last Sunday, I preached a message on, “What Happens When a Believer Dies?”  It was based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, an excellent and encouraging passage.  I want to further explain my thoughts from Sunday which are based on both the passage in Thessalonians and others.

There are a few passages in the Bible that can confuse people until you put them all together.  On the Cross, Jesus told the repentant sinner before he died (in Luke 23:43) that He would be with Him that day.  Paul said (in 2 Corinthians 5:8) that to be absent from the body–or dead–is to be with the Lord.  (The implication in the verse is that we immediately go to be with the Lord.)  The passage I read on Sunday in 1 Thessalonians appears (before deeper study) to say that we will sleep in the grave until Jesus returns.

I believe that the Bible is perfectly consistent with itself, and so there must be a logical way for all of those verses are true.  Different Bible students, have come up with different theories to explain the apparent contradiction.  Some have theorized that our souls “sleep” after death until the resurrection.  Others believe that our spirits go to be with the Lord immediately and our bodies are resurrected at a future date.  In the meantime, we exist in some form of disembodied spirit.

I do not believe that either is the case.  I believe that as soon as we die, we go immediately to be with the Lord, leaving this universe and it’s system of time.  We are no longer bound by time and space and physical limitations.  Instead, like Jesus, we have our resurrected bodies, we join Jesus in the air, and we return with Him at His second coming.  From earth’s perspective it may appear that we have “slept,” but we are no longer bound by earth time, so there is no need for that explanation.  There is also no need for a theory of  “disembodied” spirits.  And there is no need for a “waiting time” in heaven.  When we die, we leave this system of time and we all get to Jesus together.  We are not bound by earth’s perspective on time.

It makes sense biblically, since the “today” of Luke and the apparent “future” opening of the graves mentioned by Paul are both completely true.  And it makes sense scientifically, as scientists now recognize that time is relative.  (Time is no longer seen as a constant, even within the universe.  It is impacted by speed, gravity, and other unknowns.)  So “time” for those who have left this universe and its system of time is not the same as “time” for those who are still on Earth.

So, my understanding is that when we die, we go to be immediately with Jesus.  Our loved ones arrive at the same time with us.  We all have our resurrected bodies, and we join Jesus in his triumphant second coming.  It’s a simple and straightforward way of looking at our deaths that meets all of the Biblical explanations without any complicated theories.

And it is a great thing to look forward to.  This life is a great adventure.  And an even greater adventure awaits us when we die!