1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. (14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”
As revealed in the above passage of scripture, when Christians die physically the bible calls it falling asleep. The bible however, never refers to unbelievers falling asleep when they die. So why is that? The reason is because when the saints die, their bodies are laid to rest in the earth waiting to be wakened again at the resurrection of the dead. In other words, it is our bodies that sleep while we are with the Lord Jesus in heaven. And so when our physical bodies die, our life on the earth is interrupted for a brief period. Abel died thousands of years ago, but in the context of eternity that period of several thousand years is very brief indeed. There is coming a day when all the Lord’s saints will return to the earth with Him. On that day our earthly bodies which will have been sown into the earth, will be raised in immortality and power, never to die again, and we will put on those eternal dwellings, never to be put off again. And so the interruption to our lives on the earth would have been as if our bodies had lain down to sleep when one goes to bed at night and then waking up again in the morning. Therefore the bible refers to the physical death of the saints, as falling asleep. On the other hand when the unbelievers die, their bodies are buried never to be raised up again, for at their resurrection they will be raised in spirit only and they will never dwell in a physical body ever again.
Michael E.B. Maher
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