"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose I wot not.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." Phil.1:21-24.
Q: WHAT did Paul mean by departing?
A: It is fair to answer this by his words to Timothy: "The time of my departure is at hand." 2Tim.4:6. It was his death.
Could he be with Christ by dying?
That depends upon the place to which the dead go.
Q: Where do the dead go?
A: To sheol or hades, the one of these names being the Hebrew, and the other the Greek, term to designate the place of the dead.
Q: How do you know that the dead go to sheol or hades?
A: The psalmist asks what man there is that can deliver his soul from death and sheol. Ps.89:48. Jacob, at death, entered sheol. Gen.38:35; 43:38; 44:29,31. Korah and his company went down into sheol. Num.16:30,33. Job was to be hid in sheol, and wait there till the resurrection. Job14:13; 17:13. All the wicked go into sheol. Ps.9:17; 31:17; 49:14. All mankind go there. Ps.89:48; Ecc.9:10. (N.B. These words in our English version are sometimes translated grave, and sometimes hell.)
Q: Have you any other proof that the dead are in hades?
A:Yes. When the resurrection occurs, all the righteous being rescued from death and the place of the dead, triumph over both in most exultant language. 1Cor.15:51-55. And at the second resurrection, both death and hades give up the wicked dead. Rev.20:11-15. Paul did, therefore, enter hades by departing this life.
Q: Did Paul find Christ in hades?
A: No, indeed. Christ had been there before Paul, but was not there when Paul entered the silent abode of the dead. We have express statements on this point. Peter says that David spoke of Christ’s resurrection when he said, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." (Greek, hades.)
There is no reason to believe that he expected to meet him in hades. In fact, there is excellent testimony to show that he looked to a very different occasion for the meeting with Christ. But there was no sadness, gloom, nor disappointment, to Paul in hades. It is a place where there is no knowledge. Ecc.9:10. Those who enter there have no thoughts. Ps.146:4.
All is silence, darkness, sleep, rest. The wicked therein are silent in death. Ps.31:17. The righteous in sheol do not praise God, and do not even remember him to whom they have given their lives to honor. Ps.6:5; Is.37:10-19; Ps.115:17.
---To the living the grave may be dark and cold, and the period of waiting may seem long and tedious. ---But not so to the silent sleeper in his quiet rest. There is no lapse of time to those whose thoughts have perished. There is no gloom to those who "know not anything." Ecc.9:5.
Q:Have you any evidence that Paul did not expect to be with Christ till the resurrection?
A: Judge for yourself in the light of such words as the following: "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me IF THE DEAD RISE NOT? let us eat and drink, for TO-MORROW WE DIE." 1Cor.15:32. If Paul entered Heaven by dying, and by that event was taken to be with Christ, where there is fullness of joy, was not this of some advantage to him?
There is a certain day which he has emphasized very remarkably. It bears the designation in his epistles of "THAT DAY." It is thus presented:
1Thess.5:2,4: "For yourselves know perfectly that THE DAY OF THE LORD so cometh as a thief in the night.... But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that THAT DAY should overtake you as a thief."
2Thess.1:10: "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in THAT DAY."
***The "Soul/Breath of Life" -- It exists in God’s presence after it has returned, with just as conscious an existence as it had before it came from him.
No more goes back than came.
It is no more exalted when it leaves man to go back to God than when it left God to come to man.
Did the spirits of the dead once live with God, then leave him and come and live with men, and then return to live again with God? It would be very absurd to affirm it.
There has been one grand act of the Creator in which he bestowed that upon man which at death he takes from him. God gave to Adam, when he formed him, the breath of life, and man, thus formed, became a living soul. It even says, God breathed this into man’s nostrils. This was what gave Adam life. -Adam had his life from God.
-We have ours from Adam.
-Adam forfeited his right to live or God would never have taken from him that breath of life by which he was made alive.
-That being taken from him, he had just as much life as he had before it was given him, which was none at all.
Paul rests in the silence of hades.
He is not yet with Christ.
But Christ has been in hades, and when he left it, took away the key. Acts2:31; Rev.1:18. If the dead should not rise, Paul would have no advantage from all his labor. But Christ shall call, and Paul shall answer."
J.N. Andrews