“From The Grave”

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

     I was wondering; when the rapture takes place, why would Jesus put His saints that have already gone on to be with Him after death back in the grave, only to come back out to be with Him?  Is it because we don't have a glorified body yet?  Thank you.  God bless.

Sincerely,
Rapt Attention

Dear Rapt Attention,

There is quite a bit of misunderstanding regarding what happens at the end of the world because there is so much sensationalism surrounding words like ‘Rapture’ and ‘Apocalypse’.  The short version is that there is no such thing as the Rapture or some millennial kingdom after it.  That is all made up.  For the longer version, we recommend you read our post, “Life Without Rapture”.

However, when Jesus returns, there will be bodies coming out of the graves… but the souls will be coming from the spiritual realm to meet those bodies.  When a Christian dies, they go immediately to Paradise and await the Day of Judgment, the day when our eternal heaven is created.  Jesus said that angels immediately carry faithful souls off to Paradise (Lk 16:22, Lk 23:43), and the wicked are immediately sent to torments (Lk 16:23).  Both Paradise and torments are part of Hades (‘Hades’ means ‘the unseen place’).  When you die, your spirit is separated from your body and goes to Hades (Jas 2:26).  On the Day of Judgment, all the souls will be emptied out of Hades (1 Thess 4:14), and all the bodies will be removed from the graves (1 Thess 4:16).  On that great Day of Judgment, every soul shall be judged (Heb 9:27).  If you are interested, we recently preached a series of sermons on the topic of what happens when you die; you can find those sermons here.

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