Jul 3, 2022
What happens when we die?
We live in crazy times. The Bible says it will get worse and you don’t have to be a prophet to see that is true.
One of the things I would like to do is to make sure you don’t stay a babe in Christ. There a lot of church people that are still in "Sunday school." They never graduated.
This is unfortunate because they teach and speak with authority to others and even mislead their children. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.
Today, I want to give you some food for thought about what happens when we die, from the biblical standpoint. It’s not as popular as thinking we will become angels or that our parents are up there looking down on us. That is a beautiful picture but not true Scripturally. Oh and how about the thought and thinking that grandma spirit is in her room? Also dangerous because any spirit in there is not your loved one. If there is a spirit there, you might want to cast it out.
The Bible often compares death to sleep. (Psalm 13:3; John 11:11-14; Acts 7:60) A person who is fast asleep is unaware of what is happening around him. Likewise, the dead are not conscious of anything. Yet, the Bible teaches that God can awaken the dead as if from sleep and give them life again. (Job 14:13-15) For those whom God resurrects, death is not the end of everything.
People who have died do not go to heaven. They are “sleeping” or resting in their graves. That “sleep” isn’t permanent. The Bible contains the good news that God will wake them up—in a resurrection from death! For true Christians, that will occur at the return of Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul makes this clear in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep [are dead]. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”
When Jesus Christ returns, as the apostle Paul stated it, “the dead in Christ will rise first” (verse 16). For one to “rise,” one would have to come up from somewhere. If one had died and gone to heaven already, then the individual wouldn’t be rising from the grave when Christ returns. He or she would be descending from heaven. Paul is clear that the dead wake up from their sleep and rise.
Jesus Christ speaking: “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29).
The apostle Paul writing: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
What happens after death depends on a single choice that you make during your life. Are you saved?
We do not become angels when we die. Humans are one kind of God’s creation, and angels are another. To say we become angels is to say we stop being humans.
I know this is heavy but I'm not trying to entertain you here but save your soul.
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