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Transcript 338A
Where Does a Believer Go When He Dies?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum
CALLER: Yes. My question is, when a Christian dies, does he go directly to Heaven, or is there some place in the Bible where it says that after Christ comes back the dead in Christ shall raise from the dead? Do you know what I'm talking about? I know that Christ said to one of the thieves on the cross, "Today you shalt be with Me in Paradise." So that made me think that when a Christian dies he will go directly to Heaven. But then I heard that there's something else in the Bible that says that after the second coming of Christ the dead in Christ will raise.
HC: You are correct in both cases. Let's see if we can reconcile this. The question is, where does the believer go when he dies, one who is a true Child of God? How can we reconcile the idea that he might go to Heaven directly with the fact that on the last day, when Christ returns, he will be resurrected from the grave?
The Bible very clearly teaches that when we die we go to Heaven. But in Heaven we are there not with our bodies. Our bodies obviously are in the grave. But we are there in our souls. We never see a person alive today as a disintegrated being, with their body separate from their soul. We see a unified personality, a totally integrated personality.
But at death something leaves the body, so that at one moment there's life, there's vitality, there's a person. And a moment later there's a corpse. There's just a dead body. The soul of that person, the inner essence, the spirit essence of that body, or of that person, has left the body. And that spirit essence, or that soul, is as real a part of him as the body. In his soul he has gone to be with the Lord, to live and reign with Christ, as we read in Revelation 20:4.
Now on the last day, when Christ comes again, we read in I Thessalonians 4:14, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." Now Mr. Jones died last week. He's a believer. He fell asleep in Christ. Now what does that mean? According to the Bible, it means that his body was put in the grave. In his soul he went to live and reign with Christ in Heaven.
Now on the last day he comes with Christ. He in his soul has been living and reigning with Christ in Heaven, and in his soul he comes with Christ. This will be true of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and David and Noah, and of Peter and James and John, and Mary Magdalene, and all of the believers who are in Heaven in their souls. They will come with Him. And then their bodies will be resurrected, and caught up in the air. And obviously their bodies will be reunited with their souls, and now they will be a complete personality again.
CALLER: So I guess this will be their glorified bodies, because obviously the body is no longer there, after thousands of years, in some cases.
HC: Yes. They will be resurrected with their glorified spiritual body, whatever that is. The language of I Corinthians 15 describes this, and it just indicates that it will be a wonderful glorified body, a spiritual body, in which we will live and reign with Christ forever and ever in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
CALLER: When an infant dies, do you think that he will be an infant in Heaven?
HC: The question is, when an infant dies—and it's a believing infant, that is, an infant who is a child of God—will it be eternally an infant? I don't think there's any possibility at all that it will remain a baby forever and ever, or even be a baby in Heaven.
You see, on earth here we think in terms of time. God has designed men to procreate. And in this way the various people who are to be born come into existence. Same live out their lives so that they die very aged and crippled, and their body is really wasted away. Some die as infants. Some die in the prime of life.
But in Heaven, and in the New Heaven and the New Earth, we're outside of time. We're all sons of God. The age at which we die really is immaterial. We will be there as sons of God. There is neither male nor female, and I'm sure there are neither children or adults, because children and adults implies time. It implies that one is older than another. And in eternity we're outside of time. This could not be.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much.