The Destiny of Believers

by: Bishop Marthy C. Austria

After Christ’s coming/arrival/parousia, what happens to believers that die?

I. Physical death will continue. It is appointed unto all men to die (physically).

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

Gen 3: 19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Ecclesiastes 12: 7 “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

A. The wages of sin is death – this death is not physical death but spiritual death.

B. Since man’s problem is sin and spiritual death, which are spiritual, the resurrection is spiritual and not physical.

C. Physical death is a normal part of our being and part of God’s design. The problem is not the physical death, but spiritual death.

D. Therefore God gave solution to it through Christ’s finished work of redemption from the cross to the crown.

II. At the time of death, the saints do no more go to hell (hades or grave) but go directly to Christ in heaven.

Philippians 1: 23 “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”

A. When Christ came at 70 A.D. the dead in Christ rose again from the dead, not from the physical grave, but from spiritual death and they were clothed with spiritual, immortal and incorruptible body.

1 Thes 4: 16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:”

What happened to living believers during that time when Christ came? Were they “raptured” as commonly taught, which means “disappeared and went to the Lord with their living physical bodies”? No! They were not.

Paul continued in 1 Thes 4:17 “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

B. Those who were alive during that time were changed/ transformed. (1 Cor 15:51,52).

1. They were given a spiritual, immortal, incorruptible body, even while still living in their corruptible, physical and mortal bodies.

2. So they had “two bodies” – mortal and immortal at the same time. Because Christ was already present with, among and in them.

3. Because they still had mortal bodies, they also died physically. When they died, 1 Thes 4:17 happened to them. They were “caught up” in the clouds (in God’s presence) and met the Lord in heaven and they are now with the Lord and it will be for eternity.

C. The same with us. We as believers/ saints in Christ have these “two bodies” – mortal and immortal.

1. When we die, we put off the mortal body and put on forever the immortal body and we will be “caught up” to be with the Lord forever in heaven.

2. Dispensationalists call it “rapture” based from the Latin word for “being caught up”. If there is really “rapture”, this is it! It is the rapture of the believers. They are raptured at their death to be with Christ in the world of immortality, eternity and glory.

3. We put off the mortal body and puts on the immortal body only forever.

2 Cor 5: 1-4,8 “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. ..We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

III. The believer’s composition:

DUST (Physical Body) + SPIRIT (Quickened/ Regenerate/ Spiritual Body) = LIVING SOUL and LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT.

The believer has TWO BODIES: (1) The physical body [natural, soulish, psuchikos] – from the earth, that belongs to the physical world and (2) The spiritual body [immortal, spiritual, pneumatikos] – from heaven, that belongs to the spiritual world. (1 Cor 15:44).

IV. The believer’s destiny: heaven

When he dies physically:

DUST (Physical Body) – SPIRIT (Spiritual Body) = LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT

What remains is THE SPIRITUAL BODY. Life without a physical body, but continues to exist forever as a spiritual and immortal body. His physical body (dust) returns to dust, but his spirit man returns to God (now not just a spirit, but a SPIRITUAL BODY). He is caught up to be with the Lord Christ forever in heaven.