death: will we pass over it or pass through it

[I_love_Springtime]

I have a question concerning Christians passing from death to life, as Jesus put it. Will it be an event we pass immediately over, or is it an event we pass through, as Psalm 23 puts it "The valley of the shadow of death?" Just because Paul said "to be out of the body is to be at home with the Lord," it doesn't say what getting out the body will be like, whether it is an instantaneous change or whether it will be a valley we walk through with the Lord. I tend to think it's the latter. I think the Christian meets Jesus at the Bemis seat during the death process and it is analogous to walking through the valley of death with Christ. Christ reviews our life, some stuff burns up, some of it stays pure as gold as our faith. And then when we finally gasp our last breath, we are at home in Paradise at the bosom of Christ.

I hear a lot of sermons on how God doesn't remove suffering, he helps us get through it. This is the same idea as what I am saying about death. The sting of death is gone, because Christ died for our sins. But the suffering, loss and "fire" we go through for our last trial on earth is from leaving the body and the world behind. Is God trying to prepare us for the last trial we go through by teaching us suffering and guiding us through the storms of life?

What do you guys think?

 

[for_his_glory]

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

John 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

 

[I_love_Springtime]

I found my answer in John 5:24. "Already" is the key word in the NLT.

 

[for_his_glory]

I found my answer in John 5:24. "Already" is the key word in the NLT.

Hearing and believing is the "already" as we hear Christ calling us to Him and we believe by faith that is Christ Jesus as the moment we were Spiritually born again and indwelled with the Holy Spirit we passed from death unto eternal life with Him.
John 3:5-7; Romans 10:9, 10.