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1 Thessalonians 4:13
DailyBibleStudy.Org
13 But [de] I would [thelo] not [ou] have [thelo] you [humas] to be ignorant, [agnoeo] brethren, [adelphos] concerning [peri] them which are asleep, [koimao] that [hina me] ye sorrow [lupeo] not, [hina me] even [kai] as [kathos] others [loipoy] which [ho] have [echo] no [me] hope. [elpis] KJV-Interlinear
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. NASB
From this text, it was obvious that there were those who had died and Christ had not yet returned. Therefore, a worry of sorts that they had missed out on the coming Kingdom of Christ here on the earth. The common expectation in Pauls time, was that the return of Christ in order to establish His Kingdom on Earth, was to happen at any time. That was the general understanding from the Old Testament scriptures.
However, Paul is aware that there is now a new dispensation, and that the coming of Christ to establish His Kingdom, would not occur until three events had occurred first. The first of these three events was the dispensation of the Church Age, and the second event was the Rapture of the believers who will live during this dispensation, and the third event would be the seven year period of the Tribulation.
However, folks who lose their loved ones, would naturally grieve for the loss of their loved ones. And that grief was and is a normal response to ones loss.
However, our loss of today, is not a permanent loss, because we will see our loved ones again. And we will see our loved ones because we are the saved through faith in Christ.
Those who will not see their loved ones, are those who have refused to believe in Christ. Without salvation, they have no hope, no confidence, nothing to look forward to, for all of eternity.
When a person, a believer, dies, he leaves his body behind and his soul and spirit go to be with the Lord in heaven.
When an unbeliever dies, he too leaves his body behind and his soul only (unbelievers have no human spirit), go into the realm known as Torments. There they await their calling before Christ at the Great White Throne, which will occur at the end of the Millennium. From that judgment they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire and remain there separated from everyone and everything, in extreme torment, forever.
Believers will remain in heaven until the moment of the Rapture, and then when that event occurs, they will return into a new resurrection body, and then reunited with family and friends, etc. and return to heaven while the events of the Tribulation play out back here on the earth.
So, while we grieve our loss when we lose someone close to us, we have a confidence within us that we need to understand, and that is that even through death, we will not lose our loved ones forever, but only for a short time. We will see them again at the Rapture.
