Today we’re going to talk about what happens when we die. We had a question some weeks ago. Hebrews 9:27 says it has been appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment. From that Wednesday evening discussion about death there was also a question about paradise, where our spirits go at death, resurrection, soul sleep, and other related topics. So we wanted to start today by addressing this. I have four points; if I spent ten minutes on each point, that’s forty minutes. It will be less in-depth than we’d like, but I did want to respond to the question with these points.

First, we must decide to accept what Scripture says. The authority on these matters comes from the Word of God.

Why stress this today? We live in a culture where millions—some claiming to be Christians—say they’ve had after‑death or near‑death experiences. All of us are familiar with books written by people who say, “I went to heaven and was there for a week, a month, many days, many hours, and this is what I saw.” Some years ago, five, six, seven, eight years back, there was a book called 30 Minutes in Hell, where the author says he died and went to hell and was tortured by demons. All of these books are extra‑biblical; they do not follow Scripture. The Bible teaches that demons are afraid of hell, do not reign it, nor control it. Hell is a place of torment and punishment for both demons and everyone else.

The problem is that people hear these stories, read the books, buy them, and begin to take those accounts as authoritative instead of the Word of God. That’s why we must start our discussion today by asking what the Bible says and whether we accept its teaching. No one questions that Scripture has areas where clarity is lacking; everyone acknowledges that mystery as part of the Word of God. But where there is clarity, we must affirm it and abide by it.

Listen to this statement from God’s Word Alone, the Authority of Scripture, a book in Matthew Barrett’s Five Solas series. He says, “While many Christians pay lip service to the Bible as their authority, functionally, experience steers the ship.” Spiritual or religious feelings become the grid through which Scripture is interpreted rather than the other way around. Rarely do such individuals admit this; yet when they live out the Christian life, the way they make decisions or discern God’s will shows that a mystical experience or spiritual feeling takes priority over the Bible and governs its interpretation. It isn’t what the Bible actually says—it’s how I feel.

We must decide on that. When we discuss death—just as with everything else—we have to be willing to bring Scripture to the forefront, let it speak, instruct, guide, and direct us. Today we’ll cover four areas: defining and locating paradise; offering a biblical refutation of soul sleep; examining the intermediate state; and affirming the resurrection body and the joy experienced therein.

The intermediate state is something most Christians today have no concept of—between death and resurrection. Finally, we will affirm the resurrection body and the full joy that accompanies it.

Let’s begin with paradise. Almost all of us are familiar with the word because Jesus says this to a thief on the cross (Luke 23:43): “Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.” The question arises: what is paradise? It is a metaphor—a synonym for heaven.

Listen to the Greek Septuagint. Remember that the Septuagint is the Old Testament Greek translation, produced about two hundred years before Christ’s life by seventy scholars—hence its name. When they translated Genesis 2:8 (“The Lord God planted a garden in Eden”), the Greek word parádeisos meant garden and symbolized Eden—the paradise of God, the perfect place where His unhindered presence was felt and known originally and will again be felt in heaven.

Thus, “you will be with me in paradise” is simply another way of saying you will be with Me in heaven. This idea appears elsewhere. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:2–3 that a man in Christ was caught up to the third heaven, and he adds that this man was caught up into parádeisos. The word occurs only three times in the New Testament: Jesus to the thief (Luke 23:43), Paul’s description (2 Corinthians 12:2–3), and Revelation 2:7. In that verse, “To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.” The tree of life once lay in Eden; when Adam and Eve were expelled they could no longer partake of it. Jesus promises that you’ll have access to the tree again because it remains in God’s paradise.

Revelation 22:1–2 shows this vividly: “The angel showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the city. On either side of the river stood the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit.” The tree lies in the midst of God’s paradise—heaven itself—and heaven is essentially the restoration of Eden, a place of perfect sinlessness where we dwell forever.

So when Jesus tells the young man he will be with Him in paradise, He means He will be with Him in the immediate presence of God. Heaven carries connotations beyond its geographic location; it is the wonder of God’s unhindered presence with His people—present at death and enduring after resurrection for all eternity.

The second question we must address is whether our souls sleep until the resurrection—that when you die, do you simply become unconscious until morning? There are two things. If someone asks me a question, I have to answer it; it’s not about deflecting or ignoring. We shouldn’t say “don’t worry” because of uncertainty. Some truths remain unknown, but we should still seek the truth.

To do that, we sometimes must examine other groups’ beliefs and show why theirs is incorrect. The book The Kingdom of the Cults, a recognized standard by Walter Martin and Hank Hanegraaff, discusses this matter (it starts on page 516). In it, the author closes with the point that the question of soul sleep should cause no serious division among Christians since it does not affect foundational doctrines or salvation. It is a theological debate without direct bearing on any great doctrine of Scripture.

The ground of fellowship is not the condition of man and death, but faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His love.
He commanded us to have for one another.
Seventh-day Adventists are welcome to hold the doctrine of soul sleep.

But when one is faced with such concrete Old Testament instances as Samuel’s appearance to Saul and such New Testament accounts of those given by the Apostle Paul to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord or to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, it is difficult to see how our Adventist brethren can sufficiently substantiate their claim for the sleep of the soul.
He’s very clear that they got a lot of other beliefs that are right.

But when you look at the whole of Scripture, and this is the important point, you can’t pretend and go to the Scripture and say, these passages aren’t there or they don’t.
The point is that you are undermining hundreds of Scriptures by saying the soul sleeps. Now, it’s not quite correct that they say that, and I’ll come back just to stay with me.

Where do people get the idea of sleep, of death as sleep? Well, it comes from a spattering of Old Testament passages.
Deuteronomy 31:16, in the King James, the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.
The ESV says rest, or lie down, and the CSB says rest.
Sleep there is a metaphor for death. And by the way, it’s also applied in 2 Samuel 7:12, 1 Kings 12:1, talking about David, shall sleep with your fathers.

Psalm 13:3, Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
Daniel 12:2, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And that metaphor, of course, is carried over into the New Testament in such passages as Jesus going to raise Lazarus’ daughter, or Jairus’ daughter. He says what? She’s not dead. She’s sleeping. When Lazarus is sick, Jesus says our friend Lazarus is asleep.
And they say that’s good. If he’s asleep, he’ll recover.
Jesus said plainly, he is dead.

Sleep is a metaphor for death for the Christian. Also, by the way, Stephen, listen to Acts 7:59-60. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And when he said this, he fell asleep.

Now notice all these metaphors in the Bible that relate sleep and death. But the question is, not that the metaphor isn’t there, but does it mean we are unconscious from the time of death until the resurrection?

Now, the problem here isn’t the metaphor. It is the denial of the soul as separate from the body. You see, soul sleep is really a misnomer because they don’t believe the soul is sleeping. They believe the soul and body are one in the same. There is no difference between them. And then when you die, your body ceases to function. Therefore, you are, quote unquote, asleep.

Now, this comes from again, Martin, Walter Martin. He quotes from the Seventh-day Adventists themselves who say we believe that in general, the scriptures teach that the soul of man represents the whole man and not a particular part independent of the other component parts of man’s nature. And further, that the soul cannot exist apart from the body for man is a unit. Man rests in the tomb until the resurrection.

Now, the problem with that is that there are a host of scriptures describing the body and the soul. Sometimes it’s very explicit. Sometimes it’s implicit. But there’s always this connection, the soul separate from the body. Let me give you some that are not on my outline.

Matthew 10: Do not fear him who can destroy the body, but fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, there’s Moses and Elijah. But if the soul was not separate from the body, they would have been resurrected to stand there with Jesus at that point in time. And then what happens to them? We’re not told. And this is the complexity you get into.

But we just saw this and the problem should really be satisfied with the passage from Luke 23. Today, you will be with me in paradise.

Now, at the end of that day, the bodies, the physical bodies of both Christ and the theme were dead. They were laying in a grave somewhere. Different grave, but in a grave. And Jesus says, today, you will be with me in paradise, with me in heaven, if you will, according to my earlier argument.

Listen, he does not mean that he will be with him eventually at some future point. This is how the Adventist, Joyce Meyer, some of the Word of Faith people try to say the same thing. They change the place where the comma is. And they say that what Jesus is saying is, I’m telling you today that eventually we’ll be together in paradise.

They have to change the thing. They have to change the thing. But it makes no sense. Do I need to tell you that I’m saying this to you on Sunday? I know that we use points of emphasis and say, this is a red letter day. Mark this day down. I’m telling you today is important. I know we understand and understand we use it that way.

But that’s not what Jesus is doing. He’s not saying, I’m telling you this today. You don’t have enough sense to know when I’m saying this. He’s saying, you will be with me in paradise today.

Another hint for that to help you if you’re hesitant to see that is what the thief says specifically. Do you remember? He says, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. When you come into your kingdom, remember me. And there are some complexities about that. But Jesus came into his kingdom with the resurrection. It’s not some far off distant point that Jesus comes into his kingdom.

And that’s when the thief says, remember me, when you come into your kingdom, and Jesus came into his kingdom at least at the very minimum at the resurrection he came into his kingdom because he then sends his disciples out with what? All power and authority is given to me in heaven and earth. Go and preach the kingdom.

So this idea that Jesus is saying eventually we will be together in heaven just doesn’t fit when you look at all of it. But we don’t have to rest on that alone because in addition to Jesus’ words to the thief, there are other New Testament scriptures that complicate the idea that when we die, our bodies just, and we just go into a state of unconsciousness.

For example, now we’ll read this passage, we’ll come back to verse 1-5 of 2 Corinthians 5 in a moment. But listen to what Paul says. We are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Now stop. If the body and the soul are one and the same, you could not be away from the body. There would be no going away from the body. No matter how you try to parse this, there’s no going away from the body if the body is only all there is. Only if there is a body and a soul can you go away from the body.

And this is what we have traditionally with Christian churches believed throughout its history. You have a soul when you die. If you’re a Christian, your soul goes to be with God. If you’re an unbeliever, your soul goes to a place of separation and torment. But that’s impossible if there’s only the body and the soul are one unit. Whenever Paul says we would rather be away from the body, you couldn’t be? That’s not possible. The body is all there is.

Now notice, the same thing is in Philippians 1:21 and 23. And these are familiar passages, aren’t they? I mean, you don’t need to look up here and think, I’ve got to have some kind of degree to come to an understanding about this. It’s just as plain as it can possibly be.

You cannot go away from your body if the body is all there is. Philippians 1:22 and 23. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, well you can only live in the flesh if the body is all there is. If I am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.

I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. My desire is to depart. Well, you can’t depart if the body is all there is. You can’t go anywhere. Only if the soul and the body can be separated at death can you go somewhere else.

Now note the other connotation, please. my desire is to depart and be with Christ. Now if Paul knows when he dies he’s going to go in the tomb and lay there for however long, it seems pointless to say I want to go and be with Christ. He’s not going to be with Christ. But now there’s another wrinkle, children. My desire is to depart and be with Christ. If at death you cease to exist and I hope this is not too abstract. If at death you cease you don’t cease to exist. If at death you cease to be conscious then Paul loses the fellowship he already has with Christ.

Do you see that? While he is alive he is fellowshipping with Christ on this level. It’s not the perfect fellowship that we have in heaven but he is fellowshipping with Christ. And if he falls into a state of unconsciousness he loses that fellowship. So here he is saying I want to go and be with Christ and yet if he just dies and that’s it and you’re unconscious in the grave he loses the fellowship he has with the Spirit through the Spirit with Christ already.

It isn’t just eventually I will get it but he’s losing what he has as well. And it just doesn’t make any sense. I’m sorry for someone to say and we don’t answer them if you suggest that I’m saying these people are lost. I didn’t say that I said these people have 90 pages in this book about the difficulties of reconciling the Seventh-day Adventist faith with the Bible. Talk to them.

But if we say that the soul dies the soul doesn’t die you just stop you stop being conscious of your surroundings you’re in the grave that’s it then all these passages about going somewhere make no sense. And Paul is helplessly confused. What about the passage in Hebrews that says the Bible is a sword that is able to separate the soul and the spirit.

How do we talk about these things if we say that there is no soul and spirit—soul body are one—and when you die you’re dead and you just sleep so to speak? Paul cannot desire a departure from the flesh if the flesh is all there is.

By the way, if the soul and body are one, why are we presented with images in the Book of Revelation, like Chapter 6? I looked, and under the altar were the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus. Why do you see those kinds of images? The Bible is misleading us drastically if it says there are all these souls and yet there are no souls because the soul and the body are the same.

Well, I’ve got to move on, and I’m sorry if I’ve confused some of you more than I’ve helped you. Thirdly, we need to talk about the intermediate state. The intermediate state is probably the most misunderstood of all these concepts. That is, when you and I die and we go to heaven, if you’re a Christian we believe that you, as a Christian, when you die based on these passages of Scripture, go to be with God.

You’re in God’s presence. You’re there—in the place you might call heaven or paradise. It is not the last step; it is an intermediate step between death and the Resurrection.

Now listen to Paul from 2 Corinthians. I read verses 1–6, 6–8, earlier, coming back to Chapter 5, 1–5, and I’m going to read it from the New Living. I’m not intending to hold one version up as better than another, but in some of these more abstract passages, reading it in a more updated version makes it easier and brings out some earlier points as well.

So Paul says that we know when this earthly tent we live in is taken down—that is, when we die and leave this earthly body once again. You can’t leave an earthly body if the body is all there is.

If there is no separation between the body and the soul, who’s going? Where are you going? Only if the soul and the body are separate can you leave the earthly body. When we die and leave this earthly body we will have a house in heaven—a new eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.

We grow weary in our present bodies and we long to put on our heavenly bodies, like new clothing, because we will put on heavenly bodies. We will not be spirits without bodies. If we are not spirits without bodies, then the implication is that we are spirits without bodies now. But that couldn’t be if the soul and the body are the same. Only if there is a division between the body and the soul could we ever exist as spirits without bodies.

While we live in these earthly bodies we groan and sigh. It’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us; rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these bodies will be swallowed up by life. God Himself has prepared us for this—a new body—and He has given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of that new body. We will get a new body until then we are unclothed. We are spirits. We are souls in the presence of God as His people.

We do not want to be in this unclothed state, using the language of Paul. And again there is no such thing if the body and soul are one and there’s no division. Paradise is a metaphor and synonym for heaven.

When we die, according to these passages of Luke and Paul and his two different passages, we go from here to there—to be with the Lord. Our spirits, our souls go to be with God; our bodies remain in the grave waiting for the Resurrection, and it is awaiting that even in heaven we’re restless because we’re not completely what God wants us to be yet.

Now that leads us to the Resurrection body and the fullness of the joy experienced in that body. I want to read 1 Corinthians 15:50–58. Paul is here making almost the same statements he makes in 1 Thessalonians about the trumpet sounding and the bodies being changed—us going to meet the Lord in the air—but he says something very important.

Listen, I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the corruptible inherit the incorruptible. Behold, I tell you a mystery—we shall not all sleep; not all are going to die, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised, incorruptible, and we shall be changed. The corruptible body must put on the incorruptible, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the corruptible puts on the incorruptible and the mortal puts on immor…—when is that? The Resurrection.

It is a subtle little statement that we just kind of slip over; we don’t see it when the corruptible puts on the incorruptible and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying: “Death, where is your victory?” Oh death! Where is your sting?

There’s another passage. And then we’ll close this one, which is a bit involved. I’m trying to get away from saying tricky sounds like deceptive; this is involved at the end of the Book of Hebrews, Chapter 11. Rather, the end of Chapter 11—you know the story by faith. So and so, by faith, so and so, by faith—did not just win victories? Some of them endured suffering; it wasn’t everything I wanted, and then some did not get anything except the glory of suffering for Christ. But all of them through faith.

Now listen to what it says: through their faith they did not receive what was promised. The King James version says they did not receive the promise, but in the original it’s singular; it’s the only passage in the whole Book of Hebrews where the word promise is singular. It is not plural. They did not receive the promises.

Since God had provided something better for us that apart from them… we should not be made perfect. What is the perfection? In mind, they’re already in heaven. Go back to read Chapter 12: it talks about them being in heaven or rather the next thing in Chapter 12—this is Chapter 11 in Chapter 12. He talks about you having come to the city of God and to the assembly of the angels, and now that I’ve confused myself—I’ve got to jump back over there—you have come to Mount Zion, chapter 12 verse 22: “You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels and festal gathering to the assembly of the firstborn who are in heaven.”

The judge of all. And to the spirits of the righteous made perfect—and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant right after that he’s talking about Heaven after Chapter 11. What does he mean? They haven’t been made perfect without us because they don’t get their Resurrection body till the exact same moment you and I get ours. The trumpet of God will sound; the dead in Christ will be raised, the living will be changed, and we will all have that body which God has ordained from eternity past to be what His people are.

Amen. Paradise is another word for Heaven. Soul sleep is not a damnable doctrine but denying the separation of the body and the soul is problematic. That Paul says we will not be spirits wandering around floating on a cloud, playing harps; we’re longing even in that place, we’re in a place of perfection, but there’s a longing yet for something else, and that something else is the Resurrection body that God has guaranteed will come to us because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Father, thank you for this day.