The year is 4023. For centuries, humans have been exploring and colonizing the cosmos, reaching far beyond our galaxy and settling on planets with suitable living conditions lightyears away from earth. Technology has reached a point that allows us to travel extremely close to the speed of light, making travel across the cosmos a rather simple endeavor. Billions of trillions of humans are scattered across various parts of the universe. It is in this year, 4023, that the humans living on earth experience a miraculous event. The creator of the universe, Jesus, cracks open the sky, glowing as bright as the sun, and gathers together those who believe in him.
I begin this post with an introduction to this hypothetical setting of Christ’s return to address the question, “Where do believers go when we die?” Particularly, I am going to be addressing the debated question, “Do believers immediately arrive in heaven with Christ, or do we “sleep” until the Lord returns at the day of the rapture and become gathered unto Him?” This latter viewpoint is commonly known as “soul sleep”. The debate begins with a very common passage in scripture regarding the rapture of believers. Paul states in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”
Who are the dead in Christ that Paul speaks of here? If believers in Christ immediately pop up into heaven when we die, then who’s left to rise at this call? There are two primary understandings of this passage. One view is that the dead in Christ refer only to the Old Testament saints. This is how some people try to handle the problem this creates if believers immediately go to heaven when we die. It would be understood that all those who were saved through faith before Christ came in the flesh remain asleep until the coming of the Lord, while Christians who became saved after Christ’s resurrection immediately go up into heaven to be with the Lord. This, however, causes contextual problems, as we will get into more in a moment. The other view on this would be that everyone, from all time who has died a believer in Christ “sleep” until Christ comes. They, collectively, are the dead in Christ. This view subscribes to an understanding of “soul sleep”, as opposed to immediately beaming up into heaven when we die.
The first point of evidence that suggests believers in Christ will “sleep” until Christ returns is found right in the context of the passage in 1 Thessalonians. In chapter 4, verses 13-14 says,
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Unquestionably, the context of this passage is referring to those who Paul’s immediate audience knew, who died as believers in Christ. Objectively, this is not talking about Old Testament saints. These are people who lived and died well after Christ. Paul states that these people who died knowing Christ are asleep. There is nothing contextually to suggest that Paul believes they are currently in heaven. On this day, however – the Day of the Lord – Christ will return for his people, both the dead and the living. God will bring the dead to be with him as well.
Another passage suggesting “soul sleep” is found in Daniel 12:13, which says,
“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
Daniel was told, after receiving visions of the end of days, to rest or sleep until after these things take place in the distant future. This is very telling; however, this is an Old Testament reference and would still be accounted for in the view that the dead in Christ are merely the OT saints. A more recent example of this concept of soul sleep is also found in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, which says,
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
The implication behind this passage very clearly is that those who are in Christ will not all “remain” asleep. Our sleep will be cut short on the day Christ returns and gathers together those who believe in him, both the dead and the living. There are two points we must take notice of in Paul’s words. First, Paul says that “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed”. Paul uses inclusive language here and considers the idea that he will be among those who are raised from the dead and changed on this day. Paul is obviously not an Old Testament saint. If he believed immediately he would be beamed up into heaven when he died, why would he suggest that he will be asleep until this day, when the dead are raised? Secondly, he very plainly notes that this resurrection of the dead in Christ will take place at the last trumpet. He does not say they will be raised before this day. This, once again, greatly adds support to the viewpoint of “soul sleep” until Christ returns.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does give you a decent sense of the practical biblical basis for the view. The problem for this view comes when, for example, Jesus is nailed to the cross talking with the criminal nailed to a cross next to him, and Jesus says,
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Another passage where we get the idea that when we die, we are immediately with the Lord is found in 2 Corinthians 5:8, which says,
“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
Paul describes two states, or conditions believers in Christ can be in:
1) If we are present with our bodies, then we are absent from the Lord’s presence.
2) If you leave your body, by way of death, it means you are to be present with the Lord.
Paul doesn’t allude to a third option where we could be absent from both the body and the Lord until Christ comes. So, which is it? Paul very clearly describes those who are dead as “asleep”. Yet he states at another point that when we die, we are immediately with the Lord. And Jesus himself told the criminal on the cross that “today” he would be with him in paradise. If this isn’t true it would make God a liar.
I would like to propose somewhat of a hybrid between the two views. I believe that a generic comprehension of time is the only reason we see these different passages at odds. I believe that the words Jesus spoke to the criminal on the cross is just as true as the words Paul told the Thessalonians, in describing their loved ones as currently asleep.
To show this point, let’s go back to the hypothetical return of Christ in 4023 I began this post with. Imagine mankind so advanced that we can traverse the universe with ease. There are cities and settlements scattered thousands of lightyears away in distant galaxies. The question I want to ask you is, when Christ returns, do you believe that all believers throughout the universe would simultaneously be gathered unto Christ? Or do you believe that because time is relative, and since even light wouldn’t reach these distant galaxies for thousands of years, the impact of Christ’s calling at the rapture wouldn’t reach them until much later? I would assume that most people will say immediately. Why though?
In other galaxies, potentially where gravity is at a much higher level, according to Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, time moves much slower.
If you have ever watched the movie, Interstellar, you may be familiar with how this concept works, as it demonstrates the relativity of time very well. Some of the characters in the movie found themselves on a planet near a black hole where gravity was exponentially higher than it is on earth. Simply by being on this planet under these immense gravitational forces was risking their very lives as they know it. Every minute they spent on the planet, when observed from the outside, was another year ticking by on earth. In other words, from their perspective, time was moving as usual, but back on earth, under much less gravitational forces, time was flying by at a much faster rate. Gravity greatly affected the apparent time when perceived from the outside. Time is flexible in God’s creation.
And so, my point is that if we know that time is malleable within God’s creation, why would we assume that outside of creation, time is rigid and along the same lines as how we feel it on earth? We are so egotistical to assume that God works on our time. God is timeless. He is not confined by the same laws we are. If a minute can pass by on our planet on this side of the universe all while years and years go by in that amount of time in a different part of the universe, what makes us think that God’s time outside the universe will be felt as we feel it now? Bear with me. This is an extremely hard subject to elaborate on.
I believe that God is outside of his creation, not confined by the laws of time he designed for His creation. I believe that when he comes back at the rapture, it is a supernatural event. Meaning, that it will break the rules of how this universe naturally works. God can hold the past, present, and future all in the palm of his hand. But when Christ comes back, it’s as if God stuck his finger into our timeline to get us all on his page; on His timelessness.
When we die, we feel no time. Our spirit separates from our body. Time has an effect only on the material world. That of the spirit it has no effect. Therefore, the moment we die, and our spirit leaves our body, we become timeless entities. We could die 10,000 years before Christ returns, but for us, that would be timeless. It would be immediate. We would die, and immediately open our eyes to hearing the trumpet call, when God’s time and our time become one. Time is met by timelessness. Man is met by God. The two views we see in scripture, to die and immediately be with Christ and to soul sleep, are brought together. It is merely a matter of perspective. To man, it would appear that the dead in Christ sleep until Christ returns. To those who die, “today” they shall be with Christ. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. Just like if we were to go hang out on a planet near a black hole for a few minutes and then return to earth. To us, it would appear as but a few minutes, but to our families, it would have been years since they saw us last. Time is relative. And from inside creation in the physical realm compared to outside the physical world in the spirit realm, the contrast is infinite: time vs timelessness. That’s why the gap in time between our death and the day Christ returns and calls us to be with Him would feel instantaneous, while seeming like years from the living world’s perspective.
I admit this is complicated and that it may not make sense to everyone. But the major takeaway here is that the interference of the creator, inserting himself into His creation is no natural thing. The coming of the Lord is a supernatural event. I think we can all agree on that. When Christ came into our world the first time, he played by our rules, relatively speaking. Obviously, he demonstrated his divinity by demonstrating his miraculous power, but it was pretty contained. However, when he comes a second time, he’s going to shake things up a lot more. He’s literally going to strip away that which he likes, destroy that which he doesn’t, create an entirely new creation, and insert what he liked from the old into it. Time is going to be wrecked completely. There’s no way we can hold to this idea that time is on one stationary plane. We must at least consider, based on our knowledge of how time works throughout the universe, that time outside of our little bubble is not the same.
Under this veil, I don’t see a contradiction between soul sleeping and being immediately with the Lord when we die. I think it is very plausible and harmonizes a lot of scripture, both in the Old Testament and the New. When we die in Christ, Immediately we will be with Him. I simply believe we will immediately open our eyes and ears to seeing him in the sky and hearing His voice calling our name at the rapture.
As we finish up, we must remember that this topic, or getting this wrong, is not something that jeopardizes the Gospel. We don’t have to get up in arms on a topic like this. If you are like me, then you just like to think about the things of God and try to understand him more because he amazes you. Don’t let anyone put out that flame by saying, “you are just arguing over things that don’t really matter or aren’t essential doctrines.” No. If you have joy in studying the Word of God and enjoy trying to unravel His mysterious ways in which he works, then go for it! Pray for wisdom. Pray for reason and self-control. Do so with a strong foundation first on the essentials to the faith. Do so with respect for your fellow brethren who may or may not approve. Seek for peace and not division when division is not necessary. But most importantly, do so to give glory to God the father and Jesus Christ, His son.
Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Softly Spoken Truth 