What Happens to Our Believing Loved Ones When They Die?

Are our saved believing loved ones who have died up in heaven right now running, dancing, and jumping with Jesus? Have they become angels or earned their wings? How many times do we hear it said at a funeral something to the effect, “God must have another angel now” or “They have been given their wings”? Do our departed believing loved ones sometimes send us messages or appear to us as a butterfly or a specific bird? I’ve been with people when a butterfly started flying around them and they concluded that it must be so and so from heaven who either sent that or appeared as such. Or they see a cardinal or another bird that their loved one had liked show up so it has to be somehow connected to the person. As is the case with a lot of things, several superstitious and unbiblical ideas have developed with this issue. Many of these are in an attempt to provide comfort to those who are grieving and we certainly can understand that. However, we always want to make sure that our thoughts on these things line up with Scripture. The truth of God’s Word always brings us the greatest comfort. (Of course, if something is not true, it really can’t give us any real comfort much at all because it is no more than wishful thinking that will never be the reality.) My goal in this article is to look at what the Bible actually says about our unbelieving loved ones who have died and gone to heaven. The condition they are in now and whether or not we should ever interpret things or occurrences as being signs or visits from them.  

It is absolutely true that our believing loved ones will indeed one day be running, dancing, skipping, and jumping with Jesus in ways they had not been able to during their time on this earth for a while. However, that day has not yet come. The Bible tells us at death the spirit or soul of a believer departs from their body to be with the Lord. (If you do a study of the words “spirit” and “soul” in the Bible, you will discover that they are used interchangeably to refer to the inner part of who we are in contrast to our outer body. Our inner man or inner woman we could say.)  When Jacob’s wife, Rachel, is dying, we are told in that process that “her soul was departing” (Genesis 35:18). Some of Stephen’s last words, following those of His Savior, were “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (Acts 7:59). There is a separation that takes place at death between the spirit and the body. This is why the corpse in the casket is so lifeless and just an empty shell. The person’s spirit or soul has already departed or left it.

Right now, the spirits or souls of our departed believing loved ones are with Jesus in heaven while their bodies have been laid to rest in the ground. Paul is clear that for the believer, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). Obviously, he must be talking about our souls or spirits here. Likewise, Paul tells the Philippians that he desires to “depart and be with Christ” in death but recognizes that his remaining “in the flesh” or body would be more beneficial to them (Philippians 1:23-24).  The author of Hebrews describes those who are presently in the heavenly Jerusalem as being “the SPIRITS of the righteous made perfect” (12:23). And I believe we very well may have a present picture of our believing loved ones in heaven now in Revelation 20:4-6. There John is given another glimpse into heaven. (Every time the word “thrones” are used in the book, it indicates that God has pulled back the curtain for the apostle to gaze into a heavenly scene instead of an earthly one.) We are told that he saw the “SOULS” there of those who had given their life for Jesus and refused to worship the beast and be marked as belonging to him, not their bodies (v. 4). And they are doing exactly what both Jesus and Paul promised believers would be; reigning with Christ (v. 6; 2 Timothy 2:12).

The blessed hope for the Christian is that such a separation of body and soul/spirit is only temporary. There will be a glorious reunion of the two when the Lord returns. Daniel spoke of the day when “many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to reproach and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). And to comfort believers who were concerned about their believing loved ones who had died, Paul informs the Thessalonians that Jesus will bring their souls with Him at His return and their bodies will be resurrected with their soul reentering them and enduing them with life again (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). It will be a body the same in substance but new in nature (1 Corinthians 15:35-53). One that has been transformed and glorified from the decaying or decayed state their body had been left in over the years to be like Christ’s glorified body (Philippians 3:21). Then, they will literally be running, dancing, and jumping with Jesus in that new transformed resurrected body which they currently do not have. One of the church’s earlier catechisms or teaching tools summarizes this well. The Westminster Shorter Catechism states, “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.”

There is no indication anywhere at all in Scripture that believers ever become angels in heaven when they die. That’s more from the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” than it is the Word of God. Angels are a distinct creation of God who did not originate from man. In fact, they were created before man and the creation of the world (Job 38:7). Now, Scripture says we will be “like” the angels in heaven at the resurrection in the sense of not being married, but only in that sense. Not that we will be like the angels in appearance or form. In the Hebrews passage I mentioned earlier, we see that there is a distinction in the heavenly Jerusalem between the “myriads of angels” and “the spirits of the righteous” (12:22-24). The two are not one and the same.

And, as for the supposed signs from our departed believing loved ones, we are never told in Scripture that we should expect or interpret a butterfly fluttering around us or a bird swooping down in front of us to be some sort of communication to us from them. In fact, Jesus tells a parable in Luke 16:19-31 which reveals to us the opposite. In the story, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to his family to warn them of the punishment he is presently experiencing (v. 27-28). The answer he gets is that basically such is not necessary since they have the Word of God itself and that is enough to tell them about it (v. 29). Such a sign or wonder will persuade someone about the truth no more than a resurrection from the dead (v. 31). While this more likely was a story made up to communicate a point, there is no reason to think that Jesus would not have had the details in the description of it accurately correspond to the true spiritual reality of the state of the deceased. There is actually only one case recorded for us in the Bible where someone who had died did send a message to someone still living and it is an extraordinary one granted by God only for the purpose of judgment. It happened when King Saul went to the medium in En-dor to ask her to conjure up Samuel’s departed spirit for advice (I Samuel 28:8-11). Interestingly enough, the woman herself screams apparently in shock when she actually sees Samuel’s spirit show up (v. 12). This leads us to believe that she really didn’t expect it to be him. Some translations describe mediums as “those with a familiar spirit.” The idea is that there is a specific demon who must appear to impersonate the person who had been conjured up. That is who the witch or medium thought would be there speaking instead. Not the actual spirit of Samuel or any one else she had been asked to bring back with a message.

So, the comfort we have for our loved ones who have went to the grave holding fast to Jesus and His work as their only hope of salvation is not found in them having a physical body at the moment being able to do things they were not able to while on this earth, serving as an angel in God’s presence, or communicating to us through some sort of sign of a butterfly or bird. The real comfort is that their souls are ultimately with Jesus right now, experiencing the unimaginable bliss of being in His wonderful glorious presence, awaiting the day of their resurrection when they will have that physical body yet again but so much better in a new and more improved edition. They are doing just fine right now. In fact, better than fine and much better than us at the moment. And, if we have trusted in Christ as well, we will have that great reunion with them when it is our time to join them as we await our resurrections together or to with our resurrected bodies should the Lord return beforehand. We don’t need to create any other kind of comfort. The truth of our departed believing loved ones revealed to us in Scripture is enough. Let’s hold fast to that as we long for our being with Christ one day and our future resurrection as well.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee

The Real Lost Son

        One of Jesus’ best known and most loved parables He told is often referred to as “The Prodigal Son” found in Luke 15. The story of the younger of two brothers who demanded his inheritance from his father early and went off into a far country to waste it all (vv. 11-13). Then, after being brought to his lowest where even what the pigs were eating looked appetizing to him, he “came to his senses” and goes home back to his father where he is welcomed enthusiastically by him (vv. 14-21). A celebration is had as the lost boy has returned (vv. 22-24). This actually is the third of three scenes in the parable, each dealing with something that is lost, found, and results in rejoicing. A picture of the rejoicing in heaven every time a sinner repents and is saved (vv. 7, 10). In the first scene, it is one lost sheep (vv. 3-7). A lost coin in the second one (vv. 8-10). And here a lost son in this third and final one (vv. 11-32).

Now, normally, when someone teaches or preaches on this parable, the focus is on the prodigal who ran away or the father and his extravagant love to readily receive him back. But really neither one of them is the point. The one Jesus draws our attention to is the one He ends with. The angry grumbling older brother who refuses to celebrate the lost son’s return (vv. 25-32). We must remember that these three pictures were given in response to the Pharisees grumbling over the fact that Jesus welcomed and ate with sinners which was taking place just before He teaches this (vv. 1-2). He clearly wants the Pharisees to see themselves in this older brother. They are doing the same thing as him. When they should be celebrating the prodigal tax collectors and other sinners coming home, they are complaining. Thinking they deserve Jesus to eat with them instead because of how righteous and faithful they had been. How much they have “slaved” Him and never neglected any of His commands (v. 29).

 

What is often missed in this story is that there are actually two lost sons in it. One who was lost in a far country and the other who was lost at home. And the most dangerous is to be lost at home because you don’t realize you are lost and need to be found. This older brother thought himself to be okay, not recognizing the alienation or separation brought about by his pride and self-righteousness. He is the moral rule keeper just as lost as the wayward brother. It is evident the younger brother is lost due to his lifestyle. The upright and outwardly obedient lifestyle of the older one masks his lostness but cannot take it away. Not to be crude, it is just like putting lipstick on a pig. Or lipstick on a sinner in this case. The ground is always level at the cross as Jesus died for both younger brothers who show their sin through immoral living and older brothers who wrongly attempt to earn God’s favor through their righteous living. Both are just as in need of God’s grace and Jesus’ righteousness. But only the younger brother comes to see such. The older brother remains lost.

 

There are a number of older brothers out there today. They go to church every Sunday and do everything they are supposed to do. Who live an exemplary moral life but are spiritually lost because they think that will earn them favor with God. In essence, they are saying to God, “I have been serving You for so many years and never neglected a command of Yours. What are You going to do for Me?”

 

We like to identify ourselves with the prodigal in this story, but even as believers, we can still resemble the older brother at times. We do so whenever we begin to look at ourselves and our obedience to be justified before God instead of Jesus and His righteousness. Or when something bad happens to us and we want to say to God, “Why would You bring this upon me when I have been so faithful to You? I don’t deserve this. But I can think of someone who does that isn’t experiencing it.” Is that not the attitude of the older brother? What if a known prostitute or promiscuous woman or a homosexual would walk in the building on a Sunday morning? Would you celebrate that they are in a place where they can hear the gospel and get saved or shoo them away, saying that they don’t belong here because they are not like us? That’s kind of like what the older brother was saying in refusing to join the party for his brother’s return. “He doesn’t belong here anymore. We shouldn’t be celebrating him because of what he has done regardless of God’s grace shown to him and the repentance demonstrated by him.” Like so many of Jesus’ parables, this hits all of us somehow. The Spirit can use it to reveal the little older brother in each of our hearts.

 

We actually are left with a cliffhanger at the end of the parable. In the last two verses, the father points out to this older son how he was always with the father and everything the father has is already his. The reason to celebrate and rejoice over the brother is because he was in a sense dead but now alive and lost but now found. That’s it! There is nothing more said. We do not know if the brother decides to remain outside continuing to grumble or whether he will see his father’s perspective and join the celebration. The reason for the open-endedness is because it all depends on what the Pharisees who are listening will do. The real older brother in this story. It depends on what we will do with it. Will we welcome and rejoice over the repentant prodigals like ourselves who come to Jesus as our Father does? Or stay outside grumbling over the amazing extravagant grace God continues to show to other sinners? Let’s pray that God would give us more of the heart of the father in the parable rather than that of the older brother which we probably already too much reflect at times.

 

Love in Christ,

Pastor Lee