The Bible does not offer specific details about what happens to the soul after death
The Bible does not offer specific details about what happens to the soul after death. We know:
1. the body corrupts, decomposes, etc.
2. that there will be a resurrection of the body at the Second Coming of our Lord
3. that the soul or spirit, at the death of the body, returns to God
Is the soul conscious or unconscious while with God, awaiting the resurrection of the body? This specific “time” is called the intermediate state. We don’t know if the soul is conscious or unconscious. The majority of Christians believe that the soul is conscious, while those who believe it to be unconscious believe in “soul sleep”—a term which is taken from the Bible when those who die are said to be sleeping. The use of the term in the Bible is not a specific definition of the state of the soul but as a word picture of those who have ceased to be physically alive/active.
2. Some of this contradicts what Ecclesiates 9:5 says
Yes, the Bible says that we all die. Yes, Jesus says that those who believe in him will never die—within the context he means that we will not cease to exist for eternity. He also means that we will be given eternal life NOW, so that we will, in some way that we don’t completely understand, taste of the life of the age to come. So, when we die that part of us, the eternal life that we have been given, does not die—therefore, those of us who believe in Jesus will never die.
Death—no activity? Well, for the body that is true. We can observe and see that. We bury or cremate the dead body. We have seen dead bodies and we know that there is no activity. But this is not the issue that people debate. They debate about what happens to the soul or spirit after the death of the body in what is called “the intermediate state”. Generally speaking, without a huge theological discussion and biblical study, the terms soul and spirit are biblically interchangeable.
The question is, when we die and when we are “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) do we go “to heaven” and are we conscious there, or do we to “to heaven” and does our soul “sleep”? I put quotes around “to heaven” because heaven is not a geographical location. God is not someplace while he is not somewhere else. Heaven is where God is, which is everywhere. We are with God “at home with the Lord” when we die, according to the Bible, rather than in some specific geographical destination in the universe.
We of course don’t know whether we are conscious when we are at home with the Lord or whether our soul is “sleeping”. But we should consider that the idea of soul sleep is built upon an exact and clinical definition of the biblical use of the word “sleep” when the Bible, specifically the King James version, uses the term in reference to death as a euphemism. The Bible uses the word sleep to specifically refer to natural sleep, to refer to laziness and slothfulness of someone who is fully alive and conscious, as well as to refer to someone whose body has died.
But the Bible uses the term figuratively of death, so it is not an accurate interpretation of the Bible to say that since the Bible speaks of the dead sleeping therefore we are unconscious when we are home with the Lord “in heaven”. We might ask ourselves logically—if God has the option (and we can safely conclude that he has this “option” since as God he has all options!) and can choose whether those who have died will be conscious with him or unconscious, wouldn’t it be safer to assume (based upon what the Bible tells us about God), that we will be conscious in some way? Would, for example, God simply want everyone to sleep because he is too busy with other things? We grossly underestimate God and eternity if we come to any kind of conclusion like that. God is not “too busy” for us, ever. “Too busy” is what we are, not what God is.
But, at the end of the day, there are two ways to argue and understand what is called the “intermediate state”—what happens to us after we die and while we await the resurrection of our bodies.
3. Question: Dear Greg,
I am a Christian, and hope you will answer this question for me. I have researched and asked people, but cannot get a good answer.
In the Bible it states that when Christ returns, he will raise up the dead in Christ and then the rest will be raised up to meet him (raptured). Who are these people who were “dead in Christ”? It makes it sound like people, up to this point, who are believers in Christ as their Savior and who have died have just gone to the grave until his Second Coming. I always believed that when you die as a Christian, you immediately go to Heaven.
Hope this question makes sense and that you can answer it for me.
God bless,
Rayma
Answer: Dear Rayma,
The answer lies in an explanation of what is called the “intermediate state”. The Bible tells us that when we die our body is buried and decomposes, or is cremated, and obviously ceases to exist. But the Bible also says that the non-material part of us, our soul or spirit, returns to God. We go “to heaven”. That is, we go to be with God— for heaven is not a geographical destination, it is the state of being in God’s presence, and God is not confined to any one “place”. But for our human minds to fathom eternity, we often speak of heaven as a place. In any case, heaven is a reality for those who have died— but the grave is a reality for their bodies.
The Second Coming of Jesus will be the moment when the graves are opened, and at that time the bodies of the dead in Christ will rise from the grave, and their bodies will be made immortal (see 1 Corinthians 15).
Of course there will be some who are physically alive at the time Jesus returns, and Paul says that they too will die, “in the twinkling of an eye”— only to have their physical body die and then be transformed to an immortal body. They will also “go to heaven” for their destiny to be with God, in his presence, forever.
Hope this helps Rayma. God bless you.
In Christ,
Greg Albrecht
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