Nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is found the statement that the righteous go to their reward or the wicked to their punishment at death . The patriarchs and prophets have left no such assurance . Christ and His apostles have given no hint of it . The Bible clearly teaches that the dead do not go immediately to heaven . They are represented as sleeping until the resurrection . I Thessalonians 4:14 ; Job 14:10-12 . In the very day when the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken ( Ecclesiastes 12:6 ), man ' s thoughts perish . They that go down to the grave are in silence . They know no more of anything that is done under the sun . Job 14:21 . Blessed rest for the weary righteous !
Time , be it long or short , is but a moment to them . They sleep ; they are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality . " For the trumpet shall sound , and the dead shall be raised incorruptible . . . . So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption , and this mortal shall have put on immortality , then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written , Death is swallowed up in victory ." I Corinthians 15:52-54 . As they are called forth from their deep slumber they begin to think just where they ceased . The last sensation was the pang of death ; the last thought , that they were falling beneath the power of the grave . When they arise from the tomb , their first glad thought will be echoed in the triumphal shout : " O death , where is thy sting ? O grave , where is thy victory ?" Verse 55 .
383