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bring me up ? (1 Samuel 28:15). He had evidently been in a restful state. The Lord said to Daniel: "Thou shalt rest" (Daniel 12:13). Further it is said: "He entereth into peace: they rest in their beds, [each one] that hath walked in his uprightness" (Isaiah 57:2). The state of Abraham and Lazarus appears to have been one of repose. Lazarus is described as being in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:23). The Lord's people today are said to go to be with Christ when they die, but this clearly could only apply after Christ had died and risen.

The two main passages of Scripture that tell us of the state of the Lord's people today who die are:-

2 Corinthians 5:8 "Absent from the body and present with the Lord".

Philippians 1:23 "Departure and being with Christ, [for] [it is] very much better".

There is also the passage in Luke 23:43 "And Jesus said to him, Verily I say to thee, To-day shalt thou

be with me in paradise". This is, however, special inasmuch as the thief apparently went to be

with Christ when Christ was still in Death.

The first two passages show that Paul expected to have a conscious existence after death. This is inferred by the use of the word with (pros) in the first quotation which implies activity of intercourse. Further he could hardly have said that unconscious existence was very much better than his present condition. Not just better, but very much so! However, it is dangerous to jump to the conclusion that because Christ is now in heaven (1 Peter 3:22) and that those who have died are with him that they are also in heaven. Heaven as a state maybe, but not the actual place, else why should we look for the Lord to come, raise his departed saints and with those still living catch them away from this earth (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18) ? Christ is great enough to make his presence felt to his departed saints wherever they are. David had such a thought in his day as we learn from Psalm 139:7-13. If we say categorically that because Christ is in heaven and his departed saints are with him they must be there also, we could similarly assert that because Christ is with his people all the days, unto the completion of the age (Matthew 28:20), that because his people are on earth Christ must also be now on earth. This would clearly be wrong. Further, Christ said: "For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). Does this mean that Christ comes to earth ? As to the the third quotation: being in paradise would be a poor thing if one were not conscious of being there. Again it is a matter of being with Christ not just in paradise.The question does arise as to whether this paradise is the same one to which the apostle Paul was caught up, as spoken of by him in 2 Corinthians 12:1-5. That paradise was the third heaven. Christ did not ascend up to his Father until after his resurrection as we learn from his statement in John 20:17. His actual ascension into heaven is described in Luke 24:51. The paradise in which Christ and the thief were after death was probably the same place in which Abraham and Lazarus were as described in Luke 16. God may be said to bring paradise into the place where the departed saints are. Old Testament saints are not in heaven, else why do we continually get statements about bringing up in 1 Samuel 28. Samuel himself said: "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up ?" Paul himself speaks of bringing Christ up from among the dead (Romans 10:7). Persons are said to rise from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:52). It is clear that the saints, whether Old Testament ones or New Testament ones, are in felicitous conditions after death, but they are not in heaven (the place). Lazarus was in the place of greatest privilege that an Old Testament saint could have aspired to - Abraham's bosom. New Testament saints go to be with Christ.

Apart from the testimony of Scripture some may ask: "What other evidence is there that the human race has an existence after death". Certainly the classical world, for what it may be worth, believed in an afterlife of a sort. We have the underworld spoken of, and Pluto the god of the underworld. Apart from this there are other evidences that man has a soul that does not die with his body. The ghostly apparitions that are seen from time to time show that something remains after a person has died. God does not leave us without a witness (Acts 14:17). Certainly there are hoaxers who fake ghosts. Then there are the effects of moonlight and also possibly the visions that the demented sometimes see. However, there still remains a substantial number of visitations that cannot be attributed to such causes. Christ's disciples on more than one occasion mistook Christ for an apparition or spirit (Matthew 14:26; Luke 24:37); so ghosts are not a modern phenomenon. Again, when Peter came out of prison, those who were praying for him did not believe it was him when he came to their door but thought it was his angel (ghost ?) (Acts 12:15).

Apart from the above evidence, there is the testimony of those who have died and have been resuscitated. In some cases their spirits appear to have left their bodies and have returned when medics or others have got their hearts started again. I knew a lady when I was young who told us that when she was at death's door through illness, and a prayer meeting was being held at which she was earnestly prayed for, she was transported in spirit to the meeting and afterwards began to recover from her illness. She was then able to tell those around her who had prayed for her at the meeting. Again, Scripture speaks of Paul being transported in spirit to another place whilst alive (1 Corinthians 5:3/4; Colossians 2:5 and maybe 2 Corinthians 12:1-5). Incidentally, it maybe that

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