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Life is a gift
Genesis describes a person formed from dust and brought to life by God’s breath. Humanity depends on God for life; immortality is not an independent possession. Ecclesiastes describes the absence of knowledge and activity in the grave, and Jesus speaks of Lazarus’s death as sleep before calling him back to life.
The apostles point to an awakening
When Paul comforts grieving believers, he directs them to Christ’s return and the raising of the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15, resurrection is indispensable: without it, the dead in Christ have perished. Mortality puts on immortality at the promised transformation. These passages belong together: death interrupts life, resurrection restores the person, and everlasting life comes through Christ.
Read the whole argument
Many Christians who believe in a conscious soul also believe in bodily resurrection. The question is whether consciousness continues between death and resurrection. Our understanding is that the dead await awakening without experiencing the intervening time.
A soul is a living person
In Genesis 2:7, the man becomes a living soul when God gives life to the body formed from dust. The description begins with the whole living person. Ezekiel 18:4 speaks of the soul that sins dying; the word soul does not, by itself, mean an indestructible part of us. Ecclesiastes 12:7 describes the return of dust to the earth and spirit to God who gave it. We understand this as the withdrawal of God’s life-giving breath, rather than an account of a conscious person travelling to heaven.
Read Paul’s sequence in 1 Corinthians 15
Paul begins with Christ raised from the dead, then describes those who belong to him being raised at his coming. Later he explains that the dead are raised incorruptible and the living are changed. Immortality is something mortality must put on. The chapter therefore gives both a basis for hope and its appointed occasion: the risen Christ gives life when he returns. For the bereaved, the promise is reunion through resurrection, grounded in what God has already done for Jesus.
The rich man and Lazarus
Luke 16 places a rich man’s failure to care for a poor man within a story of reversed fortunes. Its conclusion directs the hearers to Moses and the prophets, even when they demand a messenger from the dead. We read it as a warning about wealth, unbelief and accountability, using dramatic imagery rather than a literal map of the afterlife. Calling it a parable does not settle every feature; the interpretation must explain why its main lesson concerns hearing God’s word now.
Read and consider
Read John 11:21–27 beside 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Martha speaks of resurrection at the last day; Jesus locates that hope in himself. Then ask where Paul places the reunion of the living and the dead. These passages make resurrection central to Christian comfort. Our hope is not that death has no power, but that the Lord who conquered it will awaken his people and give them a life it can never take away.
Questions & responses
What about Paul’s desire to depart and be with Christ?
Philippians 1:21–23 expresses Paul’s desire to be with the Lord. We understand it as naming the next experienced state without describing the interval of death. This is an inference read alongside Paul’s explicit teaching about resurrection; the passage itself does not describe an unconscious interval.
What about the thief’s promise of paradise?
Luke 23:42–43 must be read in the setting of the thief’s request about Christ’s kingdom. The punctuation is editorial, but moving the comma is not proof by itself. Our case rests on the wider teaching about Christ’s return, resurrection and the kingdom.
Adapted from An Apostolic Faith, reference edition revised 20 September 2026, pp. 10–12.
Further reading: Robert Roberts, Christendom Astray, lecture 3. This article is a modern summary, not a quotation from Roberts.
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