God’s Time, Man’s Time

Many people have asked the question, “What happens when a person dies?” “What happens to their soul?” “To their body?” What does it mean that the body goes into the ground and where does the soul go?” “What does it mean that they fall asleep and await the resurrection?” In order to answer that question we do well to seek an answer from God and His Word. However, as we read God’s Word and what He says about death and dying and about the end times, sometimes it does not make sense to us and we get even more confused and ask more questions. The problem is not with God and His Word, as usual. The problem is with us, with the language of translation, with our understanding or misunderstanding.
 

So, in order to better understand what God says concerning death, dying and the end times we would do well to make sure we understand the context of what God is saying each time He is speaking about death and dying. At times God is speaking from His own point of view, and at other times He is speaking from our earthly, human point of view. Thus, when and if we attempt to put the statements from these two points of view together, we get confused and lost which brings more questions. It is only when we see these two perspectives and hear His Word from each perspective that we then get a better understanding of what He is saying.
 

God is I AM. I am is the present. God is not “I was” nor “I will be,” but I AM. Thus, God is the eternal present. For God there is no time, thus He is eternal without beginning and without end. God created time for us human beings. You may remember that it was not until the fourth day of creation that God created the Sun, Moon, Stars, Planets, the Solar System and the Galaxies. On the first day of creation God created the light and the dark, and He called the light “day” and the dark “night,” and He put the light and the dark into a 24-hour period of transition, evening and morning. When He created the Sun, He put it in the correct proximity with the earth which He rotated in order to give humanity a 24-hour day, a seven-day week, a twelve-month year.
 

From God’s perspective (point of view) when Jesus is on the cross speaking to the thief who defended Him and professed his faith in Jesus, we hear this exchange: “42And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ 43And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:42-43). God does not live in time as we live in time. God is the eternal I AM, the eternal present. For God there is not yesterday, no tomorrow, only the eternal now, which helps us to understand how He can be all knowing with all foreknowledge, and yet not predestining, that is not predetermining what will happen even though He already knows what will happen. Thus, from God’s perspective He can say to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
 

As we said, God created time for humans. We live in time one second, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, one year at a time. We do not move back and forth through time. We cannot go back and recover lost time nor can we go forward and see what is in the future. We are simply moving through time in a linear fashion from one moment to the next. While God is outside of time and those who have passed on from this world are outside of our time, we live in time. This understanding of time means that when someone passes away, we continue to live in this world and in the time frame set for us, living from one moment until the next. So from our point of view the body remains in the ground, and the soul is taken to heaven.
 

From man’s perspective (point of view) when the Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians he is writing from the human point of view. He says, “13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Thus, from man’s perspective we will remain in this world on this earth until either we pass on or the Lord returns. At our passing on, we move from earthly time, fixed time, to the eternal presence of God’s time, or when the Lord returns we move into the eternal presence of God’s time. At that time for those living in this world, they will once again see their loved ones who have passed on after what may have been days, weeks or years here on earth, but for those who have already passed on it will be simply a twinkling of the eye since they have been in the eternal presence with their loved ones.
 

Because of this time perspective difference and because heaven is a place of complete joy and perfection, please know that those in heaven do not see or hear, what is happening to their loved ones on earth. If they did, then heaven would not be a place of complete joy and perfection, and besides, as was just stated, from the time they enter into heaven until they are joined by their loved ones, it is just a twinkling of the eye anyway. Also, for those who remain in this world, the closest we can get to our loved ones who are in heaven is at the Lord’s Table. It is at the Lord’s Supper wherein we gather with all the saints as God promises. No, we do not see them and they do not see us, but we know they are there because Christ is there as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and they are there with Him in His heavenly kingdom. We are there with all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven lauding and magnifying His glorious name ever more praising Him and saying, “Hosanna!”
 

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). Paul’s words of encouragement might remind us of our words in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” wherein we pray that God’s Kingdom on earth might be extended through the sharing of the Gospel and that God would indeed return to gather us and all the saints and take us to be with Himself in heaven for eternity, which is a far better thing than the sufferings of this present time. And as John says at the end of his Revelation, “Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.”