We are humbled by the death of a loved one. Near death experiences have been recorded which describe the well known scenario of the soul floating out of the body and seeing people and doctors gathered around the bed. Many people are actually revived and describe being in Paradise and not wanting to return.

Our brain is an interface with our conscious entity (soul). It in and of it’s self is no more conscious than a calculator or computer. The brain is an apparatus for decoding, analyzing, and sampling the three dimensional world that we live in. It’s circuits are composed of complex arrays of neural networks being continuously modified like bits in computer memory by the sampling of our environment.

The soul or spirit which connects it’s self to the interface of the brain was created before the foundations of the Earth and was with God.

Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Ecclesiastes12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. 7Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

This silver cord is our soul’s interface cable to our flesh body. The bowl, pitcher or wheel is the flesh body. The silver cord has been described as being smooth, like an elastic cable made of light. During the dying process, as the soul leaves the flesh body and moves farther away, the silver cord becomes thinner as it is stretched to its limit and becomes severed.

God’s has a plan for us to complete while we are here on Earth. His plan allows us to learn vital lessons and pass tests which will determine how we will spend eternity. We see evidence of this in the scripture:

Jeremiah 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

5Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jeremiah was with God before he was sent to Earth as a prophet.

The article on the Katabole describes why we are here on Earth and why everyone must come and be born of woman.

Where are the Dead

Jesus provides some insight in the story of “Lazarus and the Rich Man” Luke 16:19 which confirms that we do not remain in the grave but go to a place which is called Paradise.

Any scripture in the Bible that talks about sleeping in the grave is referring to your flesh body. After the death of a loved one, some confused Christian ministers console grieving families, telling them the dead will pop out of the ground like some horror film when Jesus comes. This is not the case:

1 Corinthians 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

The flesh which you planted in the ground is not made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

You have a flesh body on Earth but a spiritual body awaiting you when you die.

2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

We are instantly with God and not in a hole in the ground.

However the body given is not immortal -We are to be Judged

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

We are required to be born of woman and tested here on earth to determine where our soul will reside for eternity.

Resurrection of the Body

When a person dies their soul separates from their flesh body, and goes to Paradise. That person then continues on with a temporary spirit body, having neither a flesh body, nor an angelic spiritual body. The Resurrection of the Dead is best characterized as a “raising up” from this state of temporary spirit body, to one of completeness and incorruption, by the changing of a soul into an angelic spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In 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. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So 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. 55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Translated “by the last trumpet” Strong’s 1722, as the Greek version renders it. The apostle speaks in the first person, because of the uncertainty of Christ’s coming, and of the blowing of the last trumpet.

Great Cloud Of Witnesses Watching Over Us

Loved ones that have departed may be looking down and watching you.

Hebrews 12:1 Cloud of Witnesses. The figure here is one of a race arena with a great crowd of witnesses in the stands surrounding the runners. No doubt, each one of us has some of these witnesses (our departed friends and loved-ones) who are especially watching us personally. They are not omnipresent, of course, and being in heaven with the Lord, cannot observe us directly.

Perhaps our ministering angels (Matthew 18:10)(Acts 12:15)(Psalms 91:11) report to them about us from time to time.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

Conclusion

Since Jesus died on the cross he is the only way souls cross to Heaven. Before Jesus all souls were held in Shoel or Hades. It is only since the time that Jesus died for us on the cross that anyone can enter Heaven. It is only through Jesus that anyone can be saved. Shoel and Hades are closed if you are in Christ.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.