There are several theories that people have about what happens when we die. Spiritualists maintain that there are many different levels of spirituality after death. Some believe that we make several trips to this earth to be perfected; this is called Reincarnation. Many religions believe many different things. Among Christians, there are several lines of thought. That is what we will focus on here.
Do we:
We sleep until judgement day, then go to our final resting place at the resurrection.
Enter a temporary place and await the resurrection, judgement, and then are sent to our final destination: heaven or hell
At the moment of death, our bodies are instantly judged and sent to their final destination: heaven or hell.
Everyone's soul is eternal.
Our soul existed prior to our birth and will continue long after our death. It just changes positions. For a period of time, it is housed by a tent of flesh and placed on earth. That is our life as we know it now. When we die, it merely means that this tent we are wearing is shed, because it is flesh which is physical and is subject to all the laws of entropy regarding physical things. Everyone will be resurrected from the dead and live in Eternity, whether resurrected to eternal life with God or away from God. (
John 5:29;
Regardless of the path from Life to Eternity, those who accepted the Gift of God, travel the path to Heaven to be with God (Salvation). Those who rejected or ignored the Gift of God, travel the path to the Lake of Fire to be away from God (Damnation -
Matt 25:46;
2 Thess 1:9;
Reincarnation and sitting in a grave of nothingness are not possible. The reasons will be explained following the next section. So now, we need only investigate the final two options: Do we go straight to heaven, or a transitionary place.
My position
Given my research, this is my conclusion, and I will back it up with biblical documentation and references. If I have anything wrong during this study, I will openly state it because I am only human and certainly not all knowing. Please know, that regardless of some details, what is important more than anything is our final eternal destination.
Things are different in this age than it was before Christ Died on the cross. Before Christ died, there was a transitionary place, but during the 3 days that Jesus was "in the grave" HE went to "center of the earth" and set them free. Recall that many people saw "ghosts" during that specific period of time. This is still a small grey area for many. But now, after Christ's substitutionary death, in this current age:
when we die our physical bodies go into the grave.
Our spirits immediately go to be with the Lord. But we are in a transitionary state; naked so to speak. We will not have our heavenly bodies until the resurrection.
At the time of the Trumpet Horn, Jesus will be in the clouds, and a few things happen:
those who died in Christ are resurrected (First the Jews, then the Gentiles)
those who are still alive and are in Christ are taken up to the clouds to meet Jesus and those who were just resurrected. (First the Jews, then the Gentiles)
all those resurrected get perfect resurrected bodies, unlike the tent we were wearing on earth that was subject to the physical laws of entropy.
The end comes, those who are alive and have not accepted God and those who died and never accepted God and his Gift, are resurrected and judged. (First the Jews, then the Gentiles)
Reincarnation and Sitting in a Grave
But, regarding Reincarnation, according to the writer of Hebrews (many think this is Paul, that is where I am inclined as well), We all only die once and then move on to judgement. If we are reincarnated, though, we would die over an over and over. There is no biblical precendence for this.
Heb. 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”
Regarding sitting in a grave, in nothingness, and just waiting, there is nothing biblical about this. Many point to the following verses for this:
Eccl. 9:5, For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten."
Eccl. 12:7, "then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it."
But according to
this CARM article, this misconception is due to not reading these verses in context. This is a mistake that many, many make. (I am certainly not exempt)
The first three verses of Ecclesiastes say,
"The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” 3 What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?"
Notice that he is writing about things from a human perspective, from that which is "under the sun." He is not providing doctrinal statements about life after death. From the human perspective, when you die the dead don't know anything in that the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Just to review: All of us sin, we know that. We know that all sin keeps us from heaven because all sin deserves the punishment of death. What we call sin is different than what God calls sin, because he is holy and HIS ways are much higher than ours. We know that because God HAS to be just and issue a punishment for our sin, He took the punishment off our shoulders and sent Jesus to tak that punishment instead of us. All through the bible describes substitutionary death for our sins. There was a long period of time that God had his chosen people use certain animals as sacrifices for their sins. But at a specific time, that was no longer necessary because the perfect sacrifice of Jesus took away all punishment for our sins. God, in heaven, is handing each of us a free ticket to heaven, we merely have to reach out our hand and take it. But most don't believe that, and won't even look in his direction while he is calling them.
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