My grandmother recently died and I’ve been searching for the truth about life after death. Usually a church says,”She went to heaven with the Lord” but then why would the dead in Christ rise first if they’re already in heaven with Jesus. I need some sort of Scriptural evidence of what really happens after death. Please help.
My condolences on your grandmother’s passing. I assume from your question that she was a believer. That being the case, when she died her spirit, the part of her that lives forever, departed from her dead body and went to be with the Lord (Phil. 1:21-23, 2 Cor. 5:7-8). But that’s not the end of the story.
At the Rapture of the church, all believers who have previously died will be given resurrection bodies, perfect heavenly versions of their previous earthly ones. When Paul talked about the dead in Christ rising first (1 Thes. 4:16-17) this is what he meant.
At the same time, we who are still alive will experience a sudden change and our physical bodies will be made perfect too (1 Cor. 15:51-52). The only difference is we won’t die first.
Then Jesus will take us all to heaven together to begin our eternal lives with Him in brand new perfect physical bodies that will never die.