When the Bible speaks of death, or the dead, it uses but two terms only, saying the one who has died is “dead” or “asleep.” No other terminology is ever used, not by any prophet, not by Jesus Christ, nor by any apostle. Such terms as “gone to be with the Lord,” or “now with the Lord,” or “safe in the arms of Jesus,” or “passed on to their reward,” etc. are never used in the scriptures – never! Does that surprise you? Even the apostle Paul uses the terms sleep and death interchangeably over and over again when speaking of believers who have died, saying, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep that you 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 the dead in Christ rise first). For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain (living) unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede 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.” Rise from what? From the dead! No scripture says they come down from heaven and are reunited with their physical bodies that have long before turned to dust or have totally disintegrated. (See I Thessalonians 4:13-16). “Then we which are alive and remain (living) shall be caught up together with them (these resurrected believers) 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”(verse 17-18).
Notice, believers are to comfort one another “with these words,” the words of the apostle Paul, not words totally unsupported by scripture. We comfort one another by assuring our bereaved brethren that the dead believer is only asleep and will be resurrected to immortal life when our Lord returns.
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (I Corinthians 15:22-23). When are the dead brought back to life? Paul clearly says this occurs at the time of Christ’s return. Believers who die are not made alive at the moment they die. How absurd! They are brought back to life by being resurrected at the time of Christ’s return. Paul asks, “What advantages it me if the dead rise not?” (See I Corinthians 15:32). Paul knew nothing of a believer going to heaven at the moment they die. His only advantage of being a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ when fighting with beasts at Ephesus was that if they killed him he knew he would someday be resurrected from the dead. (Again, verse 17).
Read the entirety of I Corinthians 15. Paul clearly knew nothing of any intermediate state of life between the moment we die and the time of the resurrection. The dead are dead period. Paul never said “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,” although that is what multitudes of misinformed believers think he said. He said he was “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (See 2 Corinthians 5:8). Look at the context of 2 Corinthians 5 to see exactly what Paul was saying. He was assuring these formerly pagan Greek believers that they need not fear death and the eventual annihilation of their physical bodies as upon being resurrected they would be clothed with immortal incorruptible spirit bodies. I am willing to be absent from my home in Louisville, Kentucky and present in Honolulu, Hawaii, but if absent from Louisville does not mean I am in Hawaii. I might be in Texas, or New York, or France. Paul was willing to be freed from the limitations and afflictions suffered in his physical body, but that didn’t mean he was then present with the Lord. He, like all other believers, was then asleep, the profound sleep of death, awaiting the resurrection of the redeemed.
Peter, speaking of King David, said, “David is not ascended into the heavens” (See Acts 2:34). The thief on the cross did not precede King David in that regard. Jesus said, “No man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man” (Swe John 3:13). Elijah did not do so. Enoch did not do so. NO MAN did so! Brethren need to cry out to the Lord to lead them when reading the scriptures mentioning Elijah and Enoch if they think those righteous men are now in heaven. God help you to understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley