The Two Most-Asked Questions about Life after Death

What can we learn about the meaning of “life everlasting” from the Bible? Researchers discovered that often even Scripture readers struggle to understand what to expect in life after death. Here are answers to the two most asked questions on the topic.

What Happens to a Christian Between Death and the Day of Judgment?

The period between death and judgment, called the intermediate state, is not clearly explained in the Bible. However, Christians can find comfort from Jesus’ statement to the repentant thief on the cross — Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43) — and from Paul’s confident assertion that to be away from the body [is to be] at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). 

The bodies of God’s children may sleep, but their souls do not. What this likely means is that even though our bodies and souls still exist in parallel tracks, our souls are united with God in a conscious state of constant communion and fellowship.

Jesus’ promise of paradise (Luke 23:43) suggests that the believer who dies is immediately in a place of delight and beauty reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. Paul had a vision in which he was caught up to paradise, where he heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell (2 Corinthians 12:4). Jesus’ parable in Luke 16:19 – 31 portrays a poor man who died and was immediately carried to heaven — to Abraham’s side — where he was comforted (Luke 16:22, 25).

The Bible does not explain what kind of body or external form believers will have during this intermediate state. We do know, however, that believers will not receive their new and final resurrected bodies until Christ returns (1 Corinthians 15:50 – 54).

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