The Last Things - 1 - What happens to people when they die?
72. What happens to people when they die?
Souls of believers live with God in heaven
Souls of unbelievers are kept in a spiritual prison, waiting for judgement.
When people die, their bodies become dust:
Genesis 3: 17 To Adam he said, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them--
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
When we die, our bodies are no more use. They are buried or cremated.
The spiritual part of us - the soul - does not die.
Matthew 10: 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
The souls of believers live with God in heaven:
Philippians 1: 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!
23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;
Notice Paul's hope : I desire to depart and be with Christ.
The souls of unbelievers are kept in a spiritual prison, waiting for judgement.
1 Peter 3: 18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,
19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison
20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
Note that this means that Jesus preached through Noah, to those living before the flood. He did not preach to the dead in hell. [Some teach that.]
1 Peter 4: 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.
Q 76 What is heaven?
Revelation 7: 13
Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?
14 I answered, Sir, you know. And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.