What happens to our souls after we die?

What happens to our soul when we die? If God loves us as much as I know He does, would He just shut it down until His return or does He take it up to heaven to be with Him until He returns? ​

This past Sunday, we looked at 3 truths that every believer can focus on, regardless of their view of the “End Times”. Those truths are Christ rose from the dead (and we will too), Christ reigns at this present moment, and Christ will returnto bring us into eternity with God. Yet this posed a question, what happens when we die, and the world is still waiting for the return of Jesus?

We are told in Scripture what happens when Christ returns, those who belong to the Lord will receive new resurrected bodies, and He will usher in a new heaven and a new earth.
​

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. 52 For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. — 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word form the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. — 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16
​

Here, Paul uses a word for death, sleep. He is not speaking of soul sleep, which is a view that some hold, where the body and the soul cease to be conscious until the return of Jesus, but rather about the body being asleep. For there will be a resurrected body on the Day of the Lord. And notice what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:14, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. If their souls are still at rest with their bodies, then why would Jesus bring them back with Him? Even Jesus, when His body was in the tomb, was not in a “soul sleep” state, yet His body remained there for three days until it was raised from the dead. We are told in 1 Peter 3:19-20, 19 He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey…. Then, when Jesus rose from the dead, He received a new glorified body, not some floating orb, but real flesh. When Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples after His resurrection, He asked them “have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them. — Luke 24:41-43 (revealing He was not a ghost), and then He told Thomas “put your finger here, and see My hands; and put your hand, and place it in My side….” (John 20:27). This reveals to us that we will have resurrected bodies. This still leaves the question of what happens between the moment that we die until Jesus returns and we receive our resurrected bodies?

There are three predominant views on this, which we will look at briefly.

The first view is the Soul Sleep view, in which they read into 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as meaning that both the body and the soul are unconscious, waiting for the return of Jesus. This is different than the view of purgatory, in which the soul is conscious and in a state of being cleansed before being able to enter into the presence of God. Those who believe in soul sleep hold that everyone who has passed away and will pass away enter into a state of unconsciousness until Jesus returns, in which they will all be raised again.

The second view is that the body is at rest, but the soul is in the presence of the Lord in an intermediate body, not our physical earthly bodies, but also not our eternal resurrected bodies. There are two forms that this view can take:

1. believers (with conscious souls) are without a body while awaiting their resurrection bodies (more like floating orbs in the presence of God)
2. believers (with conscious souls) receive an intermediate body that somehow differs from their upcoming resurrection bodies

This view receives its support through the interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, which states:
​

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened — not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

The intermediate body view reads into this passage that to not be found naked would mean that we are not just floating spirits, but that we also don’t have the resurrected bodies, so therefore there must be an intermediate body. They also hold to Revelation 6:9-11 as well as 1 Thessalonians 4:16 to support the intermediate body view.

Revelation 6:9-11 — 9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 — 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
​

The third view is that upon our final breath on this earth, we immediately receive our eternal bodies because of the nature of eternity, they are currently in their resurrected bodies because they are living in eternity “now”. God is not bound by time, He transcends time, and therefore when a person dies, they immediately are entering into eternity with everyone else. For us it may appear to be time, but for them it is immediate. There is no unconsciousness, there is no lull, it is just immediately in the presence of Christ with their new resurrected bodies.

Those views are all based on interpretation of the Scripture, and some of them leave us with reading into God’s Word what God never put there. What is the condition of our souls between the moment we die and the return of Christ? We don’t know. Charles Spurgeon once said,

If after that you desire to know more concerning this house, I can but give you the advice which was given by John Bunyan in a similar case. One asked of honest John a question which he could not answer, for the matter was not opened up in God’s Word; therefore honest John bade his friend live a godly life, and go to heaven, and see for himself.

But Scripture doesn’t leave us without answers still. Back to the original question, what happens to our souls after we die? Paul answers this question for us in his second letter to the Corinthians. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body (on this earth) we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). Paul leaves us with only two options, here on this earth and away from the presence of the Lord, or away from this earth and in the presence of the Lord. He doesn’t leave room for a third option. In Philippians 1:21-23, Paul says 21 for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Again, Paul sees that to be away from the body is to be in the presence of Christ. And in 1 Thessalonians 5:10, Paul says 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Paul says that even if we are asleep (dead), we are with Him. Based on these passages, we can have confidence that those who have gone before us are in the presence of God, and we will be too after our final breath in this life, immediately before the One who loves us so much that He gave His life so that we can be with God for eternity.

Two last points that we can find confidence in this view that we are immediately with God. In Luke 16, Jesus shares about what happened to a rich man when he died, and Lazarus (not Mary & Martha’s brother) when he died. We are told that when the rich man died, he was buried and was in Hades (Hebrew is Sheol, the place of the dead), and was in torment. Lazarus also died, and was taken to Abraham’s side (aka Paradise). The Old Testament Jews viewed Sheol as a place where all the dead went, for the perfect sacrifice had not been paid yet. In Sheol, the place where all the dead went (for even David mentions Sheol in his psalms), there were two “locations”, Hades (Greek, but what many people consider hell to be at this moment, where the unrighteous went) and Paradise (by Abraham’s side, where the righteous went, those who had faith in the promises of God). When Jesus was on the cross, He turned to the thief who asked Him to remember him when Jesus entered His kingdom, and Jesus replies today you will be with Me in Paradise (Luke 23:43). When Jesus died, He went and proclaimed His victory to all the saints who had died before His sacrifice, the patriarchs, the remnant that held to the promises of God, all those who were in Paradise. He proclaimed His victory, and then opened the access for them to be in the presence of God forever, because their sins were perfectly covered by the perfect blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The thief on the cross was immediately in the presence of the Lord after his death. It is my confidence and belief that since the thief was with Him, why would I have to wait to be with Him after my death?
​
Last point, look at the history and character of God. What has God desired throughout all time? He has desired to be with His people. He created Adam and Eve and walked with them. When man rebelled, He picked Abraham to create a covenant with, saying He will be his God. God then told man to build the tabernacle system, so that He could dwell among them. The Temple was built as a permanent (although insufficient) dwelling place for God to be with His people. God sent His Son to live among us, and ultimately die for us, so that we can have a hope to be with God for eternity. Upon the ascension of Jesus, God sent His Spirit to dwell in us, being a guarantee of the eternity we have where we will one day get to look upon the face of God with unveiled eyes, seeing Him in His glory! God’s desire has always been to be with His people. It is my belief and confidence that based on the character of God, and His desire to be with us, that upon my final breath on this earth, I will look upon the face of my Savior, and dwell with Him forever. What form I will be in until my resurrected body, I honestly don’t think I’ll care, my focus will be on Him.