“Present with the Lord”

In response to the article about the everlasting arms, we can indeed rest in Christ as our shelter in the time of storm.

The problem is that the plain statements in the Bible clarify that no one goes to heaven before the righteous do. In Hebrews 11, for example, Abraham looked for a city with foundations, a celestial city (verses 8-10). In verses 39 and 40, we read that none will go before all have been made perfect (having put on immortality — 1 Corinthians 15:51-55). The Hebrew Christians were discouraged; they wanted to return to the old Jewish system. Paul’s advice was: “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” What promise? The Second Coming of Christ in glory as we see in the context in Chapter 10: “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry (Hebrews 10:36-37). Abraham was listed in Chapter 11 who, “receive not the promise.”

The righteous living when the Lord comes meet Him in the air along with those who are resurrected (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The Bible simply does not teach that people go to heaven or hell alone or when they die. Paul realized that he was getting old. He spoke of going home (where he was on earth) to be with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). This is clarified in the Greek.

http://www.bibleexplained.com/epistles-p/2-Cor/2co05.htm

The story of the rich man and Lazarus has a good explanation, too, but I’ll not test your good patience more. Just notice that it is a parable drawn from Greek mythology, which the Jewish leaders apparently believed and that the destiny of both righteous and wicked is seen as being in the underworld, not in heaven.

Ted Wade, Berrien Springs, MI

Answer : The fact that you do not believe a Christian is instantly in the presence of the Lord at the moment of his death is due to your failure to distinguish between the physical and the spiritual person . At the Rapture, the physical body — whether dead or alive — will be translated, thus it requires the resurrection of those who have passed on be fo re us. Passages such as Ephesians 2:6 and Philippians 3:20 make the clear distinction between the physical and spiritual. We are still physically on this earth; we have not been resurrected, nor are we in heaven waiting for Jesus, but spiritually it is a reality. Perhaps 1 John 3:9 will help: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, be cause he is born of God.” That doesn’t mean we don’t sin, but the new spiritual person that has been
born within you is perfect; he cannot sin. Th at is the person who appears in the presence of the Lord at the time of his or her death : “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). The Spirit comes from God and it also returns to Him. At the Rapture, that person receives his glorified body and will be like Him.