Hello!
I agree that it is certainly acceptable to question such things.
This has been discussed here (and elsewhere) for many, many years. In fact, I was in a congregation a few weeks ago where the pastor made the same declaration -- and added a little doctrinal points about there being more than one Day of Judgment (you know, the ol' ideas about the "Great White Throne Judgment" and "Judgment Seat of Christ"). The preacher went on to describe the idea of a paradise known as "Abraham's Bosom" as a holding cell for the "righteous" from the Old Testament who died outside of the sacrifice of Christ (which begs the question about how they could be "righteous" in the first place -- and whether dying without the sacrifice of Christ was such a terrible thing in the first place).
At best, I think that making doctrines about such a subject that is so fuzzy from the Scriptures is a little hasty. Is it "[i]making doctrines out of molehills[/i]?" Who knows? But I would caution individuals from preaching anything as a TRUTH that isn't abundantly clear from Scripture (even if it seems quite clear -- but there is still a possibility for doubt). It would be terrible to preach a false doctrine simply because we perceived it to be true.
As far as my views on the matter: I think that we often look at this issue [i]through a glass darkly[/i]. We view death as the ultimate end. But is it? After removing a grave stone, Jesus spoke with a loud voice, "[i]Lazarus, come forth!" But where was Lazarus? After his death (four days earlier), did Lazarus (brother of Mary and Martha) immediately go to Judgment and then to Heaven or a place called Abraham's Bosom? Or was he merely [i]sleeping[/i]?
We know that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" (II Corinthians 5:8). But are we actually absent from the body...or are we merely sleeping?
Perhaps our flaw in this mystery comes from our limited perspective regarding eternal matters. We are confined to this little thing called TIME. Our physical lives, world and universe have a beginning and an end. Our perspective is skewed by such a notion of time. Yet God is not confined by time. He is EVERLASTING. For an eternity before our physical universe began -- God existed. As the omnipotent and omniscient God, there really isn't a past, present or future for Him. He sits in Eternity -- where He can see past, present and future all at once. This is how He "knew us" before we were born (Psalm 139, Jeremiah 1, etc...). This is how He already knows who belongs to Him and who does not (perhaps an explanation of Calvinist ideas about predestination?).
Consider this: What if we actually do sleep (spiritually) when we die? Perhaps time is no longer a focus for us -- and we sleep? Perhaps our passing from physical life to physical death (a vapor) and then into eternity would (from our perspective) seem just a moment -- even though our spirits sleep for the duration of human history and until the trumpet sounds? Perhaps we all sleep until that trumpet -- and then we all appear in the timeless place known as Eternity? We would all arrive at the same time -- small and great, rich and poor, free and slave. For each of us, it seemed like a twinkling of the eye. At that point, everyone from history would suddenly "awake" at the same place -- where they stand before God in Judgment?
In the Old Testament, there are many instances where it says that a king died and "rested" or with his fathers. Yet Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross that "today you will be with me in paradise." Did Jesus go to paradise? Did He go anywhere other than the grave?
Regardless of our attempt to create a timeline, it is skewed by the ultimate lack of final clarity in the Scriptures. We are left with facts regarding the end. Are we supposed to attempt a way to "figure out" such timelines about the end? If we thought that we did have it figured out, are we supposed to preach it as a truth? Or are we merely meant to understand the facts as presented in the Word of God (the end result of those who die in sin, etc...)?
To this, I would recommend to preachers to avoid making doctrines out of things that aren't entirely clear. How many cults and denominations are formed out of a particular interpretation over a single passage of Scripture? Yet the Bible talks about the importance of "two or more witnesses." If the Mormons had figured that out, perhaps they would never have turned to doctrines that preach everything from "other sheep" (they take to mean American Indians) and their doctrine regarding "baptism for the dead" (which they take from I Corinthians 15:29). Many charismatic churches preach about Jesus dying and then descending into Hell in order to take the keys from Satan (as if they keys were some sort of pseudo-physical object -- and there was a battle needed in addition to the cross). There is a danger in creating doctrines or mandates over something that isn't entirely clear -- or that isn't necessary in the scope of eternity.
The bottom line is that we should live for the purpose in which mankind was created -- to know and fellowship with the Living God who created all there is. Do we go straight to Judgment upon death? Do we sleep until a trumpet sound? Do we [u]ALL[/u] stand in the same Judgment (as Revelation chapter 20 seems to indicate) -- or is there more than one Judgment? Or should we not worry about the exact nature of the future -- since such things are really too wonderful for us to understand completely?
Forgive me for mumbling. I guess that one thing is abundantly clear: Those who die without Christ are doomed. For those who die in Christ, it is "gain" (Philippians 1:21).
:-)
