We get our new or glorified body at Christ's second coming. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Here is my understanding of how this all works.
When we die as believers, our soul, or spirit, departs our body and immediately goes into the presence of Christ. Our physical body remains in the grave until Christ comes back. And by the way, we come back with Him.
1 Thess. 4:13-18 gives us the details about the rapture of the church. When Christ returns at His second coming, and again we come back with Him, unless of course, we are still alive when He comes back.
But, we are told that the dead in Christ will rise from the grave first, and then the believers who are alive on the earth, they will be snatched up, or raptured. So when Christ calls the bodies out of the grave, the body comes up, and in the twinkling of an eye, the body is changed into a spiritual body for our spirit to inhabit forever.
Jessie&Chris,While believers indeed have a certain future in Christ to be with him in heaven,don't overlook the 1000yr. reign of Christ on Earth, which will happen after the rapture.God made promises to Israel to be yet fulfilled,to Israel,God's earthly nation
among nations.As resurrected,unblemished servants of Christ,we will be with him here as he rules the Kingdom of God on Earth,and Satan bound in hell.While I have no details of our daily lives then, I do know the supernatural powers Christ demonstrated in the gospels, will be commonplace at that time, according to his will.Mankind fails seven dispensations of time, given by God,then God,by his grace,takes us into eternity.Innocence,conscience,government,promise,law,grace and the kingdom,all revealed by scripture.
Thank you so much for bringing this out. The 1,000 year reign is another beautiful example of how gracious God is. Out of His grace and mercy, He gives so many opportunities for people to come to Him, and yet some will continue to have hearts of stone. Satan will be bound up in the bottomless pit for the entire 1,000 years and no longer have any influence on the lives of people. But then he is loosed after the 1,000 years for a short season to deceive, and some will go right back to following him.
After the thousand years, we leave with Christ. And the people on the earth who are left over from the tribulation, who still are not saved, but they've been given this one thousand year opportunity to live under the rule of Christ with Satan bound, when Satan is let loose, they will go back to Serving Satan again.
I think it's a tragedy, but we have to understand that when a person is a rejecter of Christ, you could send him to heaven for a thousand years and say "Look how nice it is here," and when he comes back he's going to reject it. Nothing's going to impress him to be saved.
Again, thank you so much for bringing this out. God's grace is so powerful and unending!
James, it is wonderful to read that Jesus Christ is your blessed possession & considering the life to come is on all our minds, for sure. Philippians 3:20,21 tells us that our conversation (our citizenship/our life from now to eternity), is already in Heaven. When Jesus comes for us (in the Rapture), our frail, sinful bodies will be cast off & changed to become like His Glorious Body (i.e. we will be as He is in Heaven: 1 Jn 3:2). And for those who have already died, their bodies will arise from the grave (1 Thes 4:15-17) & together (both the dead & alive believers) will have their bodies restored to spend eternity with the Lord (whether on Earth or in Heaven). So for those who have died & their Spirits have already gone to be with the Lord in that instant ( 2 Cor 5:6-8), they will return with the Lord at His Coming & receive their new bodies. We have a glorious certain future ahead of us as we wait anxiously to see the One Whom we love but He Who first loved us in giving of Himself.
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When we die as believers, our soul, or spirit, departs our body and immediately goes into the presence of Christ. Our physical body remains in the grave until Christ comes back. And by the way, we come back with Him.
1 Thess. 4:13-18 gives us the details about the rapture of the church. When Christ returns at His second coming, and again we come back with Him, unless of course, we are still alive when He comes back.
But, we are told that the dead in Christ will rise from the grave first, and then the believers who are alive on the earth, they will be snatched up, or raptured. So when Christ calls the bodies out of the grave, the body comes up, and in the twinkling of an eye, the body is changed into a spiritual body for our spirit to inhabit forever.
among nations.As resurrected,unblemished servants of Christ,we will be with him here as he rules the Kingdom of God on Earth,and Satan bound in hell.While I have no details of our daily lives then, I do know the supernatural powers Christ demonstrated in the gospels, will be commonplace at that time, according to his will.Mankind fails seven dispensations of time, given by God,then God,by his grace,takes us into eternity.Innocence,conscience,government,promise,law,grace and the kingdom,all revealed by scripture.
Thank you so much for bringing this out. The 1,000 year reign is another beautiful example of how gracious God is. Out of His grace and mercy, He gives so many opportunities for people to come to Him, and yet some will continue to have hearts of stone. Satan will be bound up in the bottomless pit for the entire 1,000 years and no longer have any influence on the lives of people. But then he is loosed after the 1,000 years for a short season to deceive, and some will go right back to following him.
After the thousand years, we leave with Christ. And the people on the earth who are left over from the tribulation, who still are not saved, but they've been given this one thousand year opportunity to live under the rule of Christ with Satan bound, when Satan is let loose, they will go back to Serving Satan again.
I think it's a tragedy, but we have to understand that when a person is a rejecter of Christ, you could send him to heaven for a thousand years and say "Look how nice it is here," and when he comes back he's going to reject it. Nothing's going to impress him to be saved.
Again, thank you so much for bringing this out. God's grace is so powerful and unending!
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