Objection 75: The apostle Paul says that at the second coming of Christ, God will bring with Him from heaven those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. (1 Thess. 4:14.) This proves that the righteous go to heaven at death instead of lying unconscious in the grave until the Second Advent.
The full reads as follows:
“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.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:13-18
Paul is discussing two groups: (1) “those which are asleep” in Jesus, i.e. those righteous ones who have died, and (2) "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." i.e., we who are still living at the Second Coming of our Lord. In his discussion of these two groups, Paul is trying to accomplish five things:
1. Assure the believers in Thessalonika that they need not sorrow at the death of other believers, as do the pagans who have no hope of a resurrection. (Verse 15)
2. Inform the believers that the living saints would not be taken up to glory without those who had already fallen asleep in Jesus; in other words, those who had already fallen asleep in Jesus will not be left behind. Verse 15.
3. Inform the believers how “they which are asleep” will be awakened; namely, “the trump of God” shall cause them to "rise." The dead in Christ are going to be awakened by a trumpet blast. Verse 16. “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible,” as Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:52.
4. Inform the brethren what happens immediately following the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Jesus: The still-living saints are “caught up together with them [the resurrected saints] in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Verse 17.
5. Inform the brethren as to what the living and resurrected saints will do after meeting their Lord in the air: “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We are all going to be with the Lord forever in heaven, but we will go to be with Him after the resurrection of the dead, not before. Verse 17.
If the righteous dead are to be blasted awake by celestial trumpets and "rise," and then, together with the living saints, ascend to the clouds to dwell forever with the Lord, how can Paul possibly mean, in verse 14, that the righteous dead come down from heaven on the resurrection day?
And in what condition are these righteous dead that God “brings [them] with him” in verse 14? They are asleep: “those who sleep in Jesus.” Why would God be bringing sleeping saints from heaven back to earth to be awakened? If they are sleeping, they are in the grave, not in heaven.
The obvious meaning of “God will bring with Jesus” those who sleep in Jesus is that God will wake up the righteous dead with a trumpet blast, resurrect them in glorified bodies, and “bring them” back to heaven (along with “we who are alive and remain” at the Second Coming).
We must again emphasize that the righteous dead are uniformly described as being asleep:
Verse 13: "Them which are asleep." Verse 14: "Them also which sleep in Jesus." Verse 16: "The dead in Christ."
The dead are asleep! And not just their bodies; rather, they are asleep. Again, why would the saints be sleeping in heaven, and why would God bring sleeping saints back to earth, stick them in the grave, blast them awake with a trumpet blast and then resurrect them from the grave and cause them to rise to the clouds??
This is obviously a wrong interpretation. The idea that God is bringing disembodied conscious spirits or souls back from heaven to earth to then inhabit glorified resurrected bodies is not in the text. It does not arise from the text; to the contrary, those with an already existing belief in non-conditional immortality bring that belief to the text, and eisegete it into the text.
The state of the dead—that they sleep in the grave—is not at all in dispute in this passage. Paul assumes it to be true. The point of the passage is to assure the believers that the resurrection is a certainty, and that both groups of believers, the living and the dead, all go to heaven at the same time.
The certainty of the resurrection was the key point that the apostles stressed in their preaching. Christ was raised from the dead, and because of that we also can be freed from the prison house of death. Listen to Paul argue the case:
"And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Cor. 15:14-20.
His reasoning sums up thus: Unless we believe that Christ rose from the grave we have no hope of being resurrected. Christ rose as the first fruits from the grave, and "afterward they that are Christ's" will be raised "at his coming." There will be a resurrection because Christ rose from the grave! It is a certainty!
In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul thus describes God:
"Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.The God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus." Heb. 13:20.
In the light of these and related passages, it becomes plain that Paul does not teach the immortal-soul doctrine, which was alien to the Jews and is more an invention of the pagan Greeks; Paul teaches, clearly and thunderously, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.