Do we go straight to heaven when we die or sleep until Jesus comes again?

quoting said:

Jesus speaks of death as sleep

These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. John 11:11-14.

Look at Paul's assurance to the Christians in Thessalonica. He also describes the dead as sleeping, and that they will rise again

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14.

Death is referred to as a sleep 66 times in the Bible. Here are some

1. Thou (Moses) shall sleep with thy fathers. Deuteronomy 31:16.
   Thou (David) shalt sleep with thy fathers. 2 Samuel 7:12.
   The king shall sleep with his fathers. 1 Kings 1:21.
   So David slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 2:10.
   David slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 11:21.
   He (Jeroboam) slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 14:20.
   Rehoboam slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 14:31.
   Abijam slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 15:8.
   Asa slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 15:24.
   Baasha slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 16:6.
   Omri slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 16:28.
   Ahab slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 22:40.
   Jehosaphat slept with his fathers. 1 Kings 22:50.
   Joram slept with his fathers. 2 Kings 8:24
   Jehu slept with his fathers. 2 Kings 10:35.
   Jehoahaz slept with his fathers. 2 Kings 13:9.
   I should have slept. Job 3:13.
   Now shall I sleep. Job 7:21.
   They have slept their sleep. Psalm 76:5.
   And sleep a perpetual sleep. Jeremiah 51:39.
   Them that sleep in the dust. Daniel 12:2.
   Is not dead, but sleepeth. Matthew 9:24.
   Lazarus sleepeth. John 11:11.
   Some are fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:6.
   Concerning them which are asleep. 1 Thessalonians 4:13.
   Since the fathers fell asleep. 2 Peter 3:4.

The Bible says the dead know nothing

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:5-6,10.


His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Psalms 146:4.

But when Jesus comes he will bring us back to life


But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

When Jesus comes, He will descend from heaven and shout, and all those who have died (fallen asleep in Christ) will rise. Then those who are still alive when Jesus comes will be caught up together with those who have died. From that time on, we will always be with the Lord

So when we die are we a sleep in the ground. There is no consciousness at all. There is no soul that goes to heaven. Instead, we wait until Jesus comes again to take us up with Him?

what do yall think?

Click to expand...

Born again Christians are what the bible calls "Asleep in Christ.' That means that once we receive the Holy Spirit, we die with the holy Spirit. Only after the 2nd resurrection (the great white throne judgment) do we go to the New Jerusalem which will be our final resting place.

I believe the dead are asleep until Jesus comes back to take us to heaven.

From Finland.

So much about "soul-sleep"....it is time to look at the living Christ. There is thought that what happened to Yeshua between the time of his death and resurection and ascension...will happen to the believer. Something to thing about.

In Him, david.

Bible Verses

The thief went with Jesus on the day he died. Therefore I think we go immediately.

Greetings quoting,

It is significant that when Peter taught the resurrection of Jesus, he also taught that David had not ascended to heaven. If the faithful go to heaven when they die, or even in the case of OT worthies after Christ's resurrection, then Peter would not say "David is not ascended into the heavens".
Acts 2:29,34-36 (KJV): "29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Kind regards
Trevor

There is no such thing as "soul sleep."

Since they are incorporeal, souls cannot sleep as that requires a physical trait which souls lack.

"Sleep" is a oft-used metaphore in Scripture that means a descent into sheol, the abode of the dead. Both the Old and New Testaments describe sheol (or hades) as the place where the souls of the living go. There, they wait until the Resurrection, when they will rejoin the soul's reconstituted and whole body to be Judged and then experience heaven or hell, depending on how we are judged.

So the saved and the not saved just sit around together waiting? Or is it something like "LOST"?

When we die, our spirit leaves the decaying body and resides in the abode of the departed, sheol.

There, they are given particular judgement to determine where in sheol they will reside based on their lives. Souls that are judged to have lived a Christ-like life dwell in paradise, often called "Abraham's Bosom;" a foretaste of the experience of heaven. Those who are judged to have lived a wicked life dwell in hades; a foretaste of the experience of hell.

The only real activity of any merit is prayer. Pray for their continued healing, or prayer that God be merciful to them, halting their decay and beginning regeneration. Pray for the healing of others in sheol and on Earth. Pray for the Second Coming of Christ. Pray for them to be found worthy by Christ in the coming Judgment.

While we cannot do anything physically ourselves to help them, we can pray to God they He be merciful to those in hades and that God hasten the healing of those in paradise.

We are, after all, still In Communion with those Christians there, for God does not forsake those who pass on; they are still members of the Church of Christ: the Church Expectant. Through the Holy Spirit, we pray and for each other, just as the whole Church does, on Earth (Church Militant) and in Heaven (Church Triumphant). It is a great Mystery that is little understood, but part of our Christian Way.

May God be merciful to those in hades; may He forgive those there who may be contrite and penitent, and bestow His Spirit unto them.

May God continue to watch over those in paradise; may those there be committed through their final trials, with God's help, and come into their Eternal Life Everlasting.

Church Expectant, I petition you all, as a brother in Christ, to pray to God for me and for all on Earth, asking that you remember my union with you all just as I remember your union with me in the Mystical Church. Pray to God, as I do always, that I may continue to walk in His Ways now and forever.

PaladinValer said:

There is no such thing as "soul sleep."

Since they are incorporeal, souls cannot sleep as that requires a physical trait which souls lack.

Click to expand...

What about conciousness? If conciousness is considered a physical quality, then by this logic, we lose our conciousness when we die and lose our physical being. So what then is the nature of this "soul" if it does not embody consciousness? If we do not have consciousness, we woundn't be aware of where'd we'd end up after death and in which case, it wouldn't really matter then.

Is consciousness part of one's physical quality?

Since it isn't, but a part of our incorporeal quality, then I must disagree.

It is not what we think. Period!
It is what the Bible says plainly.Period.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD.
There is no soul sleep.
That is cultic.Period.

I wouldn't say it is cultic. Erronous, yes, but not cultic.

I don't equate people who believe in soul sleep/death with the Branch Davidians or the Heaven's Gate. They are actually cults.

I believe in soul sleep when you define soul in the same way as the Bible:
Genesis 2:7 (KJV): "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Man is made of dust and apart from the resurrection he disintegrates into dust:
Genesis 3:19 (KJV): "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Daniel 12:2 (KJV): "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Kind regards
Trevor

Matthew 27:50-52


50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,



Doesn't this show that what you guys are talking about already happened?

PeterAV said:

It is not what we think. Period!
It is what the Bible says plainly.Period.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD.
There is no soul sleep.
That is cultic.Period.

Click to expand...

The bible doesn't say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

2Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
2Co 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2Co 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight
2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Notice Paul mentions three different states here:

1. clothed in our earthly house= our mortal body vs1
2. clothed in our house in heaven= our glorified body vs2
3. bieng naked= in the grave vs3

Paul is talking about his desire to be of the living generation that is translated without tasting (the first)death. Notice in verse 4 he states his desire not to be found naked. He states his desire to be absent from his earthly body and be clothed with his heavenly (glorified) body. He isn't saying that at death you are immediately clothed with your glorified body, or that your soul goes immediately to heaven (or anywhere else).

Paul tells us when we go to heaven. It is at the second coming of Christ.

1Th 4:16 Because the Lord Himself shall come down from Heaven with a commanding shout of an archangel's voice, and with God's trumpet. And the dead in Christ will rise again first.
1Th 4:17 Then we who remain alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to a meeting with the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

quoting said:

When Jesus comes, He will descend from heaven and shout, and all those who have died (fallen asleep in Christ) will rise. Then those who are still alive when Jesus comes will be caught up together with those who have died. From that time on, we will always be with the Lord

So when we die are we a sleep in the ground. There is no consciousness at all. There is no soul that goes to heaven. Instead, we wait until Jesus comes again to take us up with Him?

what do yall think?

Click to expand...

I believe what you have stated here to be the Biblical interpretation and understanding.

Another text you may be interested in is John 14:1-3

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God trust also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.


First of all this rapture concept needs to be searched out much closer; I do not believe it is scriptural and its origins are really messed up. It wasn't until the early or mid 1800's that there was any significant group of believers around the world that looked for a "rapture" of the Church prior to a seven-year tribulation period. The "rapture" teaching was NOT taught by the early Church, it was NOT taught by the Church of the first centuries, it was NOT taught by the Reformers, IT WAS NOT TAUGHT BY ANYONE (except a couple Roman Catholic theologians) UNTIL ABOUT THE YEAR 1830!

Plymouth Brethren movement had its beginning in Dublin in 1825 when a small group of earnest men, dissatisfied with the spiritually lethargic condition that prevailed in the Protestant Church in Ireland, met for prayer and fellowship. Soon others joined the fellowship and associated groups sprang up in various places one was Darby.

The Secret Rapture teaching was introduced into the United States and Canada in the 1860's and 1870's, though there is some indication that it may have been taught as early as the 1840's. Darby himself visited the United States six times. The "new" teaching was spreading.

A Congregationalist preacher by the name of C. I. Scofield came under the influence of Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. Scofield became a strong promoter of the teaching that had been promulgated by Darby, whom he considered "the most profound Bible student of modern times." He incorporated this teaching into his SCOFIELD REFERENCE BIBLE. The Scofield Reference Bible was destined to have a tremendous impact upon the beliefs of many, when, three million copies were published in the first 50 years! Through this Bible Scofield shrewdly carried the teaching of the Secret Rapture into the very heart of Evangelicalism. Some ignorant souls look on the "notes" in this Bible as the Word of God itself! I do not doubt for one instant that many who read these lines have been influenced somewhere in their spiritual lives by the "footnotes" in the Scofield Bible!

There is one final link in the chain of the development and spread of the rapture theory. I would draw your attention again to the SOURCE, the ORIGIN of the rapture doctrine and the chain of contact by which it has been brought down to us today. It began as a Roman Catholic invention! The Jesuit priest Ribera's writings influenced the Jesuit priest Lacunza, Lacunza influenced Irving, Irving influenced Darby, Darby influenced Scofield, Scofield and Darby influenced D. L. Moody, and Moody influenced the early PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT.

As far as I can tell there is no such thing as “Soul Sleep” for these reasons:

1. Jesus taught that those who believed in him would never die.

Joh 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

In what sense would they never die? Obviously he was not talking about never dying “physically” because many believers have physically died. It could be that he was speaking of the second death, which no believer will taste; but, it could also mean that there would be a continuation of life for the believer “after” his or her physically death.

2. Paul appears to consider that his physical death will cause him to “gain” something.

Php 1:21 For to me to live [is] Christ, and to die [is] gain.

3. Paul also believed that when he “departed” this life he would “be” with Christ. He believed that to depart would be “far better” for him (gain). He didn’t seem to think that his soul would somehow go to sleep.

Php 1:23-24 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh [is] more needful for you.

4. The scripture seems to teach that “we” inhabit a body. The body is a container, or vessel, or house, or clothing for something. Personally I think that that “something” is my spirit. I am more than just a body.

Paul seems to indicate that there is a distinction between “the one that inhabits the body” and “the body itself”.
The body can be dissolved, but “we” are not (2Co 5:1).
While “we” are at home in the body, “we” are absent from the Lord (2Co 5:6).
Paul implies that he could be “absent” from the body (2Co 5:8):
Paul seemed willing, to be “absent” from the body and to “be” present with the Lord (2 Co 5:8).

2Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of [this] tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2Co 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
2Co 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
2Co 5:4 For we that are in [this] tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
2Co 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2Co 5:6 Therefore [we are] always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight
2Co 5:8 We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

**************************

I believe that the Bible talks about believers “sleeping” because they never really die, as Jesus said. They continue to experience life in the presence of Christ after they are separated from their physical bodies. But while the spirit lives on, the physical body “awaits” the resurrection. It is therefore the body of each believer that is considered to be “sleeping” and it is the body that will “awake” when Christ returns.


Just some thoughts - kirkmouse