Questions Answered?

 "We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." 2Cor.5:8

"...and the dead in Christ will rise first." 1Thes.4:16b

The question came up as to the state of those who die in Christ between the time of their death and the rapture of the church. Are they in heaven? Are they in limbo? How can the dead rise first if they are already in Heaven with Christ? These are questions that wiser men than me have pondered over and wrestled with.

Here is one way of answering this apparent contradiction.

The rapture is the transformation of our old bodies, in this case now long dead and returned to dust, into the bodies that we will have for all of eternity. Like the angels. Those who have died still live, but in a disembodied state. They are waiting to be clothed with our new bodies which will happen in the rapture. Jesus had a resurrected new body that was not subject to the laws of physics like we are now.

While the Christ-rejecting world is being judged, we will be in Heaven with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Until that moment when we accompany Him back to earth to defeat the antichrist and to set up the millennial kingdom.

One other question arose. Will we recognize those we knew on earth and will we be able to communicate with them? I think the answer is yes on both counts. I do not know what my relationship with Kathy will be in Heaven, but she is there and I will know her. All of the Bible characters will be there. Those we knew in this life who are saved will be there. Remember, it is all about Christ, not grandma.

When you have been saved as long as I have, you have already picked all of the low hanging fruit of the Bible. There are other questions and other revelations to be had, but they take a little more work to find answers and to understand.