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Question: Are my departed loved ones in heaven or just in a deep sleep?Answer: I certainly agree with you, that your loved ones are at present with Christ. (Philippians 1:23, and 2 Coritnhians 5:8).
In those passages when death is compared to sleep, such as Acts 7:60, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13, the language is figurative, and the sleep is of the body, and not of the soul.
We must not interpret the Scriptures in such a way that one Scripture contradicts another Scripture. If we believe in soul sleep, we cannot harmonize the clear verses in Philippians and 2 Corinthians with the verses that refer to death as falling asleep.
But if we accept the fact that Paul would rather be present with the Lord, whie absent from the body, and that the sleep referred to in connection with death is the sleep of the body and not of the soul, we remove the apparent contradiction.
The view that I have just presented is the generally held view of evangelicals. Be comforted in the fact that your loved ones are with the Lord, and are awaiting the resurrection day when their bodies shall be reunited with their souls, and at the same instant, their bodies shall be changed to incorruptible bodies, so that they can serve the Lord here on earth during the Millennium. (Philippians 3:21, 1 Corinthians 15:51-54).
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