Question of the week: What happens when we die? I’ve met people who argue that we will be present with the Lord once we pass, then others say we will be asleep; that is, unconscious until the Lord Jesus returns. Does the Bible give us a definitive answer?
My answer: I believe that we who are disciples of Jesus Christ will go to be present with the Lord when we die. We will be aware of what is happening around us in heaven and at least to some degree what is happening on Earth (see, for example, Revelation 6:9–11). However, we will be “asleep” in that we will have no capacity to influence events either in heaven or on Earth. We will be spectators. We will cheer. We will grieve. A time will come, though—after the full number of humans that God intends to redeem have in fact been redeemed—when we will be awakened from our sleep (Revelation 7:9-10).
Historic Christianity contains numerous beliefs that are theologically and philosophically volatile (in the best sense of the term). These powerful truth-claims have transformed the...
