A7. To Be Absent from the Body
To be absent from the body is to be with the Lord. Yes, your spirit is your thoughts. God knows all our thoughts because everyting about us and our universe is literally in the mind of God. Hence, when we die, our body goes back into the ground from where it came, but God still knows us. Our spirit (His breathe of life in us) goes back to God (ie it continues to reside in His mind), as clearly stated in Ecc 9:5. This Breathe of Life is the electricity that animates us giving us the ability to think. Remove the electricity and we are physically dead - unable to think. Yet, God still has us in His mind (on His hard drive for computer geeks). He knows all our thoughts and all about our history etc.
God always knows us and at any time He can "resurrect" us in any
form He wishes.
He has told us that the "first Death", when humans die a physical
death, is really a sleep. He is not finished with us yet, at that point in our
lives. His plan involves bringing everyone who has chosen to have a
relationship with Him back to life on the Last Day, when Christ Glorified
returns to Earth in power and majesty. It is at that point that God will call
forth from the grave those who chose Life. Reread 1 Cor 15: 50-55 and 1 Thes 4:
13-17 to see how this plan is to unfold. The key to understanding the text is
that the dead are raised first and then those of us who are still alive; but we
are all changed at that time. We are changed from Corruptible to Incorruptible,
Mortal to Immortal. We become like the Glorified Christ, ie angelic. Prior to
that point we are not in this form.
Those who have been taught that the "spirits" of the dead go directly to Heaven or Hell, Purgatory or Limbo have a few real problems explaining how that works. When some of those spirits are absent from their bodies, are they still with the Lord in Hell, Purgatory or Limbo? Are they in the same form as Christ when He resurrected or not? If He is flesh and blood yet can walk through walls (Jn 20: 19-20 ), He is angelic. He does not need to be reunited with His old human body. That body would never survive eternity anyway. In our model we can see how God merely stops thinking of Himself in human form and starts thinking of Himself in angelic form. His human form disappears and the body cannot be found anywhere. As such this new form could take on any appearance God chooses – eg “perfect”, “fully mature”, and/or “something His friends would not recognize”. In truth, the body The Glorified Christ has now is the one He will have for ever after in Heaven with the angels. He was "changed" upon His resurrection, not upon His physical death. Hence, if we follow Him we won't be changed upon our physical death either. That will only happen on the Last Day when He resurrects His followers. This is exactly what the Biblical texts say.
Consider beliefs that the dead have some physical presence with God immediately after they die. Where did such an idea come from? It came from the erroneous idea that we have an ephemeral soul, which is already immortal. After physical death it needs to have a place to reside. If it were with the Glorified Christ, it would be in a significantly different form than He has now. As on Earth the two forms are incompatible. One has physical angelic form and the other has no physical form at all. They could not relate to each other. Some folks say that therefore the human souls go to a place of rest apart from God. It's easier to understand it all if we realize that the term "soul" means "a living being". It is what we have when the physical body is animated by God's Breathe of Life (Gen 2:7). This soul is not a separate entity itself that was always in existence. Hence this soul is no longer in existence when the body or the Breathe of Life are removed.
Another justification for believing that the dead are still around somewhere, is found in ancestor worship. People long to remain in touch with their respected loved ones even after they have died. Most eulogies are all about comforting those who remain alive, with thoughts that they will see their dead again. While this may be true - we may see them if we are all in heaven together after the Last Day here on Earth - the timing is off. Visions of the dead are now a cornerstone of the Occult. Many unsuspecting, hopeful people think that the demons impersonating the dead are actually their long-lost relatives or friends. If they do not believe the truth they can be sent a strong delusion so they will believe a lie.
Doctrines such as Purgatory and Limbo are even more far fetched. When do those bodies finally get changed into the form that will live with the Glorified Christ forever? How much pain do they need to endure to compensate for their bad deeds? These doctrines carry over from the Dark Ages when Guilt Trips were the order of the day and when salvation was a matter of works not faith. These ideas are spawned from believing that we can control our destiny by our own good deeds, when actually we are dependent of the all atoning sacrifice of Christ. It is sufficient for us to accept that sacrifice made on our behalf, once and for all. We make our decision whether or not to have a relationship with God and He does the rest. How He implements the result is His choice not ours. His Word is sure when it tells us what we need to know about the state of the dead and life ever after.
26 July 2001, Updated on 2 December 2001
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