What happens at death?

Q: When we die as a faithful Christian, does our spirit go right to heaven? When Jesus comes back, the dead in Christ will rise first so then our earthly body is lifted up?

A: When a follower of Jesus Christ dies, his or her spirit immediately goes to heaven. Paul said, "absent in body, present with the Lord." Jesus promised the thief on the cross who trusted in him, "Today you will be with me in paradise." You are correct in noting that the reference to "the dead in Christ rising first" (found in I Thessalonians 4) is to the resurrection of the body; when the spirits of those in Christ who have died will be clothed with their new bodies, like the body Jesus had after the resurrection. "Soul sleep," the belief that we sleep in the grave until the Day of Judgment, is not a biblical idea and is held by only a small minority of Christians.

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Is Christianity true?

Q: What do you say when your children ask you, “How do you know that Christianity is real or right?”

A: There is only one way to know if anything is true or not. If it aligns with reality, it is true. If I say, “The Rams are playing the Patriots in the Super Bowl in a couple weeks,” I would not be right. I would be delusional! (Or perhaps prone to wishful thinking!) The statement, “The Giants are facing the Patriots in the Super Bowl” is right because it aligns with reality. My dislike of both teams matter little. It is what it is.

The Apostle Paul tells us Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection. If Christ is raised from the dead, Christianity is true. If not, then our faith is futile and in vain. There is no greater miracle and no greater proof. But, is our belief in the resurrection true? If it aligns with reality, then yes. How do we know if it does or not? After all, that was 2000 years ago. There is only one way to know if something happened in history and that is eyewitness testimony. We have many eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. They believed it so strongly that when they were confronted with the option of Caesar and live or Christ and die, they chose Christ. Can we prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt? No, but the eyewitness accounts mean we can prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the standard for any event in human history. It is the standard for trials in court, too. On the basis of reliable eyewitness testimony, we can tell our kids, with confidence, that Christianity is true.

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