How do you deal with the death of a loved one? Where does your comfort come from? If you are an unbeliever of Jesus and the Bible, your comfort is likely to come from within yourself, earthly philosophies, prescribed medication, empathy from close friends and family, or self-medication (illegal drugs or alcohol). Your worldview is likely: you die, return to dust, and that is the end forever. So the lifestyle motto is, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” 1 Corinthians 15:32
However, if you are a follower of Christ and a student of the Bible, you will not “grieve as do others who have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13. Did you know the Bible is extremely clear on where we are to find our comfort? In fact, regarding death, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4: 18 we are “to comfort one another with these words.” What words? Words like: “They are in a better place.” “They are finally reunited with their spouse.” “They are with Jesus and the angels now.” ”That they are in heaven hunting with their favorite dog.”
No! Those words are not to be given as comfort and should never be used. They are not Biblical! These are words made up by the imagination only. They are false words of comfort. As someone once said, “The Bible may make you uncomfortable with the truth, but it will never comfort you with lies.”
Here are the words from the Bible that tells the follower of Jesus how they are to obtain peace of mind and comfort for someone close who has died “in Christ”:
“For the Lord, himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. WHEREFORE COMFORT ONE ANOTHER WITH THESE WORDS!”
Did you catch that? Our comfort comes from knowing and believing two things:
1.) When the Lord returns (“descend(s) from heaven”), it will be a loud event (“Trumpet of God” and the “voice from the archangel”)
2.) When the Lord returns, there will be a lot of activity on earth, particularly at graveyards or wherever the followers of Christ were buried/cremated. Those that “died in Christ” will be resurrected. And if we are alive to escape death, we will all meet up in the air to meet Jesus and eternity will begin (“so shall we ever be with the Lord.”)
These are the words that are to bring comfort: not our imaginations or made up stories of the dead “looking down on us.”
Over and over, God’s word points us to the return of Christ and the resurrection, not the death bed as the point where we meet Jesus.
Here is a well-known verse. Jesus’ own words:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”. John 14: 1-3
Please note: Our comfort is in the fact that when He comes again, He will then receive us and we will go to “where He is now”. We will be there with Him! Where is Jesus now? He is with the Father! “…I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” John 20:17
What joy! Christ can resurrect a body that has turned to dust. He will then breathe into the newly formed nostrils and create a living, immortal soul. Then the “dead in Christ” along with those alive in Christ will return with Him to the Father in heaven! Even Job understood this. Listen to the hope of Job about his own death:
“\For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Job 19: 25-26
Job had the confidence that his Redeemer lives and even though his skin will be destroyed, he will see God when He stands on the earth! How clear is that? Does he see God at death? No! When the Redeemer comes to the earth!
Daniel also understood the same thing!
“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2
Did you know that the Bible never says we have an immortal soul? But, we receive immortality when we are changed at Christ’s return. Hear the words of Paul who wants to clear up the mystery about death:
“Behold, I shew 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 trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this Mortal must put on IMMORTALITY.So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this MORTAL shall have put on IMMORTALITY, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15: 51-55
When the Lord returns, some will not sleep (die). They are alive in Christ. Both the alive in Christ and those who “died in Christ,” will be “changed” immediately (“twinkling of an eye”) at the sound of “the last loud trumpet”. It is then, and only then, that “the mortal will put on immortality.” It is at the return of Christ we become immortal, not at death!
Note the last question in 1 Corinthians 15: 55.
Please read in the context. This rhetorical question cannot be asked until the Lord returns.
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
I have heard it asked at funerals about the deceased without mention of the second coming. To do so is to take it out of its beautiful context of Jesus’ return.
All of these clear passages plus many more are overruled and explained away by a few unclear and out of context verses like:“Absent from the body and present from the Lord.”
How beautiful is God’s words about the death of those who die! “He gives His beloved, sleep.” Psalm 127:2 It is like a sweet, dreamless, unconscious sleep where a long time is reduced to a microsecond. The Christian falls asleep like they would in surgery where the passage of time is not felt. They awake to the sights and sounds of the return of Jesus with all the holy angels. They come from the graves with new bodies and are made immortal. The families of the earth are reunited in the air and then taken to heaven by Jesus and the multitude of angels. Jesus then takes us to where he is now…the home of the Father…New Jerusalem.
One day (after 1,000 years), the New Jerusalem comes back to earth with the redeemed. God will make a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells and where there is no more pain or death! All tears will be wiped away! Earth will be the home of the redeemed where we will enjoy the works of our hands by building houses and planting vineyards. “From one Sabbath to another and from one new moon to another we shall come to worship.”
See: Revelation 21:2, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:4, Revelation 7:17, Isaiah 65:21, Isaiah 66:23.
These are the words that give me comfort! They are Biblical and make sense to those who know Jesus. God’s own words are much better than our imagination!
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
1 Corinthians 2:9