What Happens After Death

What Happens, After Death?
Within the Christian faith, there is a significant amount of confusion
regarding what happens after death. Some hold that after death everyone
“sleeps” until the final judgment, after which everyone will be sent to
heaven or hell. Others believe that at the moment of death people are
instantly judged and sent to their eternal destinations. Still others claim
that, when people die, their souls/spirits are sent to a “temporary” heaven
or hell to await the final resurrection, the final judgment, and the finality
of their eternal destination. So, what exactly does the Bible say happens
after death?
First, for the believer in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that after death
believers’ souls/spirits are taken to heaven, because their sins were
forgiven when they received Christ as Savior (John 3:16, 18, 36). For
believers, death means being “away from the body and at home with the
Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6–8; Philippians 1:23). However, passages such
as 1 Corinthians 15:50–54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17 describe
believers being resurrected and given glorified bodies. If believers go to
be with Christ immediately after death, what is the purpose of this
resurrection? It seems that, while the souls/spirits of believers go to be
with Christ immediately at death, the physical body remains in the grave
“sleeping.” At the resurrection of believers, the physical body is
resurrected, glorified, and reunited with the soul/spirit. This reunited and
glorified body-soul-spirit will be the state of existence for believers for
eternity in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21—22).
Second, for those who do not receive Jesus Christ as Savior, death means
everlasting punishment. However, similar to the destiny of believers, it
seems that unbelievers also go to a temporary holding place to await their
final resurrection, judgment, and eternal destiny. Luke 16:22–
23 describes a rich man being tormented immediately after
death. Revelation 20:11–15 describes all the unbelieving dead being
resurrected, judged at the great white throne, and cast into the lake of fire.
Unbelievers, then, are not sent to hell (the lake of fire) immediately after
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death, but they are rather sent to a temporary realm of judgment and
anguish. The rich man cried out, “I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24).
After death, a person resides in either a place of comfort or in a place of
torment. These realms act as a temporary “heaven” and a temporary “hell”
until the resurrection. At that point, the soul is reunited with the body, but
no one’s eternal destiny will change. The first resurrection is for the
“blessed and holy” (Revelation 20:6)—everyone who is in Christ—and
those who are part of the first resurrection will enter the millennial
kingdom and, ultimately, the new heavens and new earth (Revelation
21:1). The other resurrection happens after Christ’s millennial kingdom,
and it involves a judgment on the wicked and unbelieving “according to
what they had done” (Revelation 20:13). These, whose names are not in
the book of life, will be sent to the lake of fire to experience the “second
death” (Revelation 20:14–15). The new earth and the lake of fire—these
two destinations are final and eternal. People go to one or the other, based
entirely on whether they have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation (Matthew
25:46; John 3:36). GQ.Org
What is your final destination? An important consideration for sure!
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