I saw the above poster about a day after I gave an eulogy at my wife’s funeral, an essay whose last line was “Be at peace and never stop smiling down on us.”
Put charitably, I think the poster is primarily rejecting the idea of the departed “floating around” and monitoring us.
Images from Sixth Sense and Ghost-Busters come to mind.
I suspect the core idea is a form of disembodied ghostly ‘autonomy’ wandering in a form of no man’s land either seeking to complete some unfulfilled ‘mission’ or being lost in some sense (although I feel that phrases like “lies from the Father of lies” are somewhat unnecessary).
If this is the case then, yes, this is NOT the Biblical idea of “what happens when Christians die”.
So, uh, what does happen to the Christian departed?
My (brief) reading of the topic (see Biblio below) suggests there are two main ideas:
A) The (Disembodied) Intermediate State
B) Immediate Experience of Resurrection
1. For #A, the idea is that, upon death, the soul is ‘brought’ to Christ and remains with him (in a non-physical state) whilst awaiting the final resurrection.
2 Cor 5:8 has Paul saying he wants to be “absent in the body but present with the Lord” and, of course, on the cross Jesus told the thief that “today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Based on verses like this (and there are like 1/2 dozen of them), it does sound like there is a) non-physical communion with God after death and b) it happens sorta asap after death.
2. The major alternative is the idea that upon death the departed IMMEDIATELY experiences Resurrection (which is of course physical, duh) i.e. there is some eternal ‘fast-forward’ process such that if I banged down by a trailer at 4pm then as far as my consciousness is concerned by what feels like 4.01pm I would already be ‘at’ the Resurrection where/when God’s endgame plan would’ve kick-started.
This is also known as the “soul-sleep” perspective i.e. the departed “wait” for the rest of humanity to catch-up to the Resurrection but, of course, said individuals wouldn’t be aware of the waiting.
Note 1: #A is the more traditional viewpoint whilst #B seems to be gaining traction. In both cases, the NT is clear that the Christian departed is with God. That is not in exegetical doubt.
Note 2: There is a third major perspective in the form of the Roman Catholic understanding of purgatory. I believe that doctrine is perfectly harmonizable with either of the first two as its core is the idea that Christians are ‘cleansed’ prior to heavenly perfection.
3. So, back to the poster? Was it okay or not okay for me to say that my wife is smiling down on me?
Strictly speaking, if the soul-sleep theory is right then the answer is No. My wife is ‘sleeping’ now and awaiting the Resurrection.
What about the intermediate state theory? If that idea is true and my wife is presently enjoying a blissful existence in the presence of Christ whilst awaiting the Resurrection then it DOESN’T SEEM TOO FAR A STRETCH to believe that she is thinking of (and smiling about) me and the kids in such a state.
And if that’s so, then the poster would appear a tad bit harsh (smile).
Biblio (or, What Little I’ve read on this):
Feinberg, J. S., Middleton, J. R., Allen, M., Kreeft, P., & Gundry, S. N. (2022). Four Views on Heaven. Zondervan Academic. — good 4-way debate about almost everything related to eschatology (sexy-speak for ‘what happens at the end’)
Middleton, J. R. (2014). A new heaven and a new earth: Reclaiming biblical eschatology. Baker Academic. — major work arguing that there is no ‘heaven’ in the sense of disembodied bliss; God’s endgame is a new redeemed re-created Michelin 5-star earth
Moreland, J. P. (2014). The soul: How we know it’s real and why it matters. Moody Publishers. — as good as any traditional presentation of the Interim State (and other topics) you’ll get
Thiselton, A. C. (2011). Life after death: A new approach to the last things. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. — Thiselton is a hermenutics expert so I was interested to read his take on eschatological matters (note: he’s a soul-sleep proponent)
