The World and the Word

                               The Results of the Fall

All through the Bible (KJB), God speaks of the physical deaths of His saints in a positive way. Psalm 116:15. When the Old Testament saints died, they were "gathered to his people." Genesis 25:8. The Old Testament speaks of the physical deaths of the wicked in a negative way. They become "consumed with terrors," which means God must continue their temporary suffering for their unrepentant sins by casting their sinful souls and spirits into one of the regions of the dead. Psalm 73:19; Revelation 20:13; Hebrews 9:27.

Jesus often spoke about the physical deaths of His believers as if it did not exist at all. John 8:51; John 11:26. Jesus spoke about the little girl He raised from the dead as being asleep, not dead. Luke 8:52. Jesus spoke of Lazarus as being asleep, not dead. John 11:11. Jesus only admitted that Lazarus was physically dead because His disciples displayed confusion about what Jesus meant by saying he was asleep. John 11:14. The Apostle Paul spoke about the Church in their graves as being asleep, not dead. The recreated, spiritual bodies of the Church believers are asleep in heaven, but God will awaken them at the graves of His saints in the Rapture of the Church. I Thessalonians 4:13-14; II Corinthians 5:1-4. Even though recreated, the resurrected, spiritual bodies of His Church believers will retain the same identities that their physical bodies had on earth. John 12:25. All of this means that God does not regard the physical deaths of His saints as being any form of permanent separation from Him, but rather, as the means by which He can restore their fellowship with Him in body, soul, and spirit forever in heaven. In other words, God considers the physical deaths of His believers as not being death at all, but merely a transition from a lower form of existence to a higher eternal life.