I would rather say that in the Old Testament, people went to sheol, a dreamy, maybe unconscious state. After Christ, we continue to live in the afterlife.
The death of the body as such was never an issue, as it seems to me. Even all over the world. Physical body is actually quite limiting and fragile, compared to spirit. Most cultures hoped in the spiritual existence, not in some eternal physical one.
Jesus said in Matthew 22:32,
“I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Saints never die.
Jesus said in Mark 12:27 records,
“He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.”
Jesus said in Luke 20:38 records,
“For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.”
The Bible says they are alive.
Philippians 2:9-11 says,
“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Here are the three places that men can currently be found – heaven, earth, and hell. Whilst saved and lost can both be found on earth, only the redeemed are in heaven and only the wicked are in hell. Revelation 5:3 repeats that, saying,
“And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”
Ephesians 3:14-15 alludes to the only two places where
God's people can be found today, saying,
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.”
Family or 'patria' represents paternal descent lineage, family kindred. It is also found in Luke 2:4, Acts 3:25 denoting house[hold] or family.
Ephesians 1:10 records:
“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”
Colossians 1:20:
“having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”
When Christ comes He will bring the dead in Christ with Him. Jesus said in Matthew 24:31, of His Coming,
“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Mark 13:27 enlarges slightly, saying,
“And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.”
I Thessalonians 3:13 says,
“To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
1 Thessalonians 4:14 says,
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
Jude 14 similarly says,
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints. To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Luke 9:28-31 says of Christ,
“he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.”
Moses and Elijah were still very much alive and kicking!!!
Jesus said to the dying thief, in Luke 23:43,
"Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Acts 7:59-60 records,
“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
Jesus was prepared to welcome Stephen home. His spirit was separating from his body and went to be with God. However, his body was going to the grave.
Once a person gets saved they are made spiritually alive through spiritual resurrection. This involves a spiritual birth. As a result, they enter into eternal life and consequently never die.
Death for the believer, is not the end. It is the beginning of the eternal state! There, the elect is liberated from all the physical bodily afflictions that blight our earthly sojourn. Our body may die and go into the grave, awaiting the resurrection, but our spirit goes immediately into the presence of God.
Repeated Scripture proves that bodily death cannot separate the believer from Christ. Whether it is in life or whether it is in death, nothing can separate God’s people from their Lord. Where He is we will be also.
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
When Jesus comes on the day of redemption, on the last day, the bodies of all believers will be resurrected in the resurrection of the just and changed from mortal to immortal and corruptible to incorruptible.
2 Corinthians 5:8 says,
"We are confident, I say, and willing rather ‘to be absent’ from the body, and ‘to be present’ with the Lord."
‘ekdeemeesai’ – ‘be absent’
‘endeemeesai’ – ‘be present’
Paul said in Philippians 1:21-24 says,
“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”
Death was a promotion for Paul!!!
1 Thessalonians 5:10 tells us that Christ
“died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
The writer to the Hebrews censures your beliefs in Hebrews 12:18, 22-23, saying,
“For ye are not come (plural perfect active indicative)unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest … But ye are come (plural perfect active indicative)
unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
Here, currently, we see where the dead in Christ are right now. They are not hovering about aimlessly upon death as you would suggest. These highlighted references in the original relate to the present, and are active, meaning the subject continues to exist in the state indicated by the verb. They relate to the here-and-now and are ongoing. They speak of our immediate entry into the kingdom of God and our current spiritual standing in the New Jerusalem. The heavenly Jerusalem is more than a future hope (even though it most assuredly is that), it is a present reality.
We have access to the holy of holies through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We now have an open heaven. Hebrews 10:19-20 confirms:
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”
