Becky Bereans discussions based on Dr. Lehman Strauss’ booklet Death and Afterward, October 2022 – January 2023
One of the piercing questions in the heart of every believer is whether we and our loved ones will recognize each other in Heaven. It is a perturbing question, but we mustn’t allow it to disrupt the joy we have in our salvation and the sure knowledge that regardless of whether we know each other in Heaven, we ourselves will be dwelling forever there in the glorious presence of Jesus our beloved Savior.
Paul makes it clear that earth is not the true home of Christian believers, but merely our dwelling place while we complete the work for which God has placed us here. We dream of and long for our eternal home in the glorious presence of Jesus our Savior. In this session, we discuss some particulars about Heaven in the light of what God’s Word tells us about our true home.
We discuss the various theories about the state of man’s eternal soul between the time of bodily death, and the time of God’s final judgments and the bodily resurrection we spoke of in previous sessions. In particular, we consider the controversial idea of so-called “soul sleep.”
Having looked at the rewards to be received by Jesus followers at His bema judgment, we now turn our attention to the judgment of eternal condemnation apart from Him which God will mete out to unbelievers at His Great White Throne.
The Bible makes it clear that God will one day judge all mankind – even those who believe and profess the Gospel of Jesus. In fact, God’s Word tells us of several different judgments God will pronounce. We consider first the judgment of true believers at the so-called Judgment Seat of Christ.
We consider the detailed possibilities concerning bodily resurrection taking Jesus’ own resurrection as our model.
Assuming that man is eternal and that bodily death is really the temporary separation of the body from the soul, the question then becomes when and where the body and soul are reunited. The answer to this question is inextricably tied to God’s judgment at the end of time. Therefore, we find there are two distinct resurrections – one unto eternal life in the presence of God and one unto eternal condemnation apart from God – based solely on whether a person believes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and confesses Him as LORD.
Having examined the concept of mankind as a trinity – body, soul, and spirit, and knowing that the body is subject to death, we now need to seek an answer to the question whether the soul of man is mortal as well – dying with the body – or whether the soul has an immortal existence apart from the body.
In this second part of our series of studies on Death and Resurrection, we consider the concept of mankind as a trinity of body, soul, and spirit.