[Gary Petty] Hebrews 11 is one of the most fascinating chapters in the entire New Testament. In this chapter, the writer lists all these great men and women of the Bible, great men and women of faith, Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Moses. And here's what it says at one point, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

I want you to think for a minute what that means. A little before this, it says that they searched for a heavenly city they longed for, and they looked forward to a heavenly city. It says here, they didn't receive it. They died in the faith, but they didn't receive it.

When you look at places like 1 Corinthians 15, you look here in Hebrews, it's obvious that the great men and women of the Bible didn't die and go to heaven. In fact in 1 Corinthians 15, it says that those who are raised from the dead receive a spiritual body. So why? I mean, most people assume, right, a Christian dies, they go to heaven, they won't meet Abraham and Sarah, they won't meet Moses. What does this mean?

There's something here at the end of the Hebrews 11 that is very important to understand. It says this, "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise." The promise is a resurrection from the dead to eternal life with God. That's the promise. They did not receive the promise. To this day, they have not received the promise. Why? Listen.

He says, "God, having provided something better for us..." this was written to Corinthians, better for us? What do you mean, better for us? "...that they should not be made perfect, apart from us." Understand what that means, all the people of God going clear back to the book of Genesis, all the way through this Book, the Scripture, all the Christians who have lived who have followed God since the time of the end of this Book, all of them are perfected at the same time.

And when is that? It's when Jesus Christ returns. At that resurrection from the dead, when all the dead rise and meet Christ in the air, and when that happens, they are perfected, they receive the promise, the same promise that was given the Moses, to David, to Samuel, to Mary, the mother of Jesus, to James, to Paul. It's the same promise to us. And according to this, we're all perfected together. Think about how amazing that is.

You see, the idea of the immortal soul actually destroys this concept of a resurrection. The promise is a resurrection. Here's what most people believe, that you die, and your immortal soul leaves the body and goes to heaven. But think about it. If the promise, and in 1 Corinthians 15 it says this, the promise is a spiritual body, we're perfected at this resurrection, that means those in heaven aren't perfect, they're not perfected yet, and they haven't received their spiritual body.

So there are many Christians who say, well, what happens is you go to heaven, where you would be a ghost. And you would return with Jesus Christ, to be resurrected out of the ground with a spiritual body, no, not this physical body but a spiritual body. Think how bizarre that really is, to be in heaven, incomplete, unperfect, basically a ghost, and have to come back to be perfected.

You know, the truth is much more astounding than that. The truth is the dead go to sleep, it's called the state of sleep, it's a metaphor for what death is like, and wake up immediately. When they wake up, they're called out of the grave and they receive their spiritual body and their eternal life.

I hope you find this exciting and interesting. Read Hebrews 11, read 1 Corinthians 15, look at what the Scripture actually says. That's today's BT Daily.