Question:  Dear Greg,

            My daughter attended a funeral today.  We were discussing it and are confused about why the first thing the dead do is go to heaven.  Does the preacher mean that literally or what?  Does he mean that the person is actually in heaven?  Most of them say that, but then why should I believe in the Resurrection?

            In am so confused about this.  What does the Bible say about all of this?

            Confused,

            June

Answer:  Dear June,

            Where—in terms of “geography”—the dead are is not precisely revealed in the Bible because the dead are said to be “with God”.  We do not know where God is, exactly, because he is everywhere—he is omni-present.  That is, he is not somewhere while he is not present at some other place.

            When we die the Bible says we are “present” with God.  The Bible speaks of God being “in” heaven—but since God exists eternally outside time and space, there is no humanly determined location of heaven.  Time and space define our reality—but not God’s. 

            There is no question about where our body is when we die—that can be observed.  It doesn’t go anywhere.  It rots in the ground, decomposes in a casket or it is cremated.  That part of us does not go to be with God.  Our soul (or our spirit) goes to be with God.

            Being with God after death and before the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior is called the intermediate state.  The Bible teaches that the resurrection of the bodies of those who are dead in Christ takes place at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  Dead bodies will be restored to life, given eternal life and reunited with their soul/spirit.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht