There are several views among Christians regarding what happens to the soul when a person dies.
Some believe the soul immediately enters the final, glorious heaven where Jehovah sits on the throne.
Some believe the soul immediately enters a “green room” setting known as Paradise where the Lord’s presence and only perfection and peace abide, yet the final heaven will not be gained until Christ’s second coming.
Some believe the soul enters a spiritual state of suspended animation — almost like a holy hibernation — perhaps even lingering in or near the dust of a decayed body. When the trumpet blast comes from heaven and Jesus rides in on a white stallion, the souls will be raised from hibernation and float off into heaven.
Of course, there are variations within each of these general views.
The Bible doesn’t offer a detailed, step-by-step sequence of the ethereal journey from death to dancing in heaven, although there are a number of passages that give us a plausible path to anticipate.
You can ask your pastor to talk with you about these things.
This morning, I don’t want to pontificate on what I believe the official path is for getting from here to there.
I simply want to celebrate that anybody who gets to heaven is gonna love it and that we should do all we can to make sure that God sees us as Christians.
Why?
Because I want you and I to share in the promise of I Thessalonians 4:17.
“Then we will be with the Lord forever.”
Yes, we have some really good moments in this life.
And we have a lot of acceptable moments in this life.
Unfortunately, we also have a number of difficult moments in this life.
The former provide a faint glimpse of why it’s so important to have a relationship with Christ in order to avoid a difficult “forever.”
Read I Thessalonians 4 and you’ll receive part of the information you’ll need to understand what happens to the soul at physical death.
But, more than anything else, cling to the promise of verse 17.
That’s what I want. I pray that you want the same.
As always, I love you
Martin
