When Christ decends back on earth...

Here's the way it was explained to me - and I haven't been a Christian even a year yet so if it's not accurate I hope someone corrects me.

My pastor said that when a Christian person dies, their body stays here (obviously) and their soul goes to heaven. When Jesus returns, their body is restored - perfectly - and rejoins their soul. So that would be the dead in Christ rising first. The rest of us who are alive will already have our bodies so after the dead are restored with their bodies, we come up to join them.

That's pretty much it. There's no Biblical holding place for God's saints, only the condemned (now that Jesus rose).

snoochface is absolutely correct, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 we have another view of this blessed event which is commonly called the rapture of the church.

51 But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I'll probably never fully understand. We're not all going to die--but we are all going to be changed.
52 You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes--it's over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we'll all be changed.
53 In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal.
54 Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life!

55 Who got the last word, oh, Death?

Oh, Death, who's afraid of you now?

Our earthly bodies will be replaced by glorified bodies, bodies that will never see corruption or disease or death again. These new bodies will be the ones that we will continue to live in for eternity. If you read the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 you will see the description of this change and why it takes place.

That will indeed be a glorious day for all those who are Christ's at His appearing.

Love,

A Sheep in Wolves Clothing


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To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
Ps.30:12

newbeliever02072005 said:

... I want to know where the soul is at during this waiting period...

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In heaven:

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6:9-10)

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Oh, and that's {QUOTE=newbeliever02072005}... {/QUOTE} but use SQUARE brackets.

-- Radagast

Abrahams Bosom

Read Luke 16:20
THe Rich man was in hell and Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham..

I could be wrong about this, but I thought the bosom of Abraham was for those souls who died before Jesus' crucifixion. After that event, I thought all souls went to heaven right away.