When We Die What Happens Next?

Introduction

Satan’s Deception

VPW – He is the author of death!  During seances and ESP experiences it is Satan’s power that counterfeits the conjured-up dead and makes them appear alive and enjoying the “Great Hereafter.”  Auditory and ectoplasmic phenomena of those who have died and now appear alive elsewhere cannot be sponsored by the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Word of God shows that new life to the dead comes with the return of Christ.

JWC –I have put together a previous Biblical study “The god of this World”

which covers Satan’s satanic powers in a Biblical study all of its own.

The Bible teaches, the dead will not live again until they are raised some time in the future, then it is axiomatic that the dead cannot be alive now.

KJV –  Ecclesiastes 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

  • Ecclesiastes 9:4,5,6,10 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
  • 5 For the living know that they shall die but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
  • 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
  • 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol = grave, to which you are going.
  • Ecclesiastes 12:7 And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
  • Psalm 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.


Bible Translations:

KJV – King James Version, unless otherwise noted.

VPW – Excerpts from: “Are the Dead Alive Now” – Book by Victor Paul Wierwille. A recommended read for further study.

JWC – John W Cadwallader

 

Study prepared by: John W Cadwallader

JWC –There are currently seven billion people alive today and the Population Reference Bureau estimates that about 107 billion people have ever lived. This means that we are nowhere near close to having more alive than dead. In fact, there are 15 dead people for every person living.

Death is a mystery that has puzzled humans since the dawn of time. While many turn to religion for answers about what happens after we die, atheists often seek alternative explanations. There are many people who don’t believe in a higher power or supernatural realm. Atheists have many perspectives on life after death, but do not line up with God’s Word.

The afterlife is one of those big, mysterious topics where people have a lot of different ideas—many of which are pretty far from what most traditions actually teach. From the belief that everyone automatically gets a free pass to heaven, to misconceptions about becoming an angel or being reincarnated, the range of misunderstandings is vast.

It’s a comforting thought to think everyone goes directly to heaven when they die, but the Bible tells a different story. Jesus mentioned that the road to life is narrow, meaning it takes effort and faith to get there. Not everyone automatically ends up in heaven—it’s something we need to strive for by living according to God’s ways.

Reincarnation, the belief that we come back to another life, sounds intriguing, but it’s not a biblical concept. The Bible teaches that we live once, and then we face judgment. We don’t keep coming back as different people; instead, we move on to the next stage, whether that’s eternal life with God or something else.

Many people find comfort in thinking they can talk to their deceased loved ones, but the Bible warns against trying to communicate with the dead. It’s seen as a dangerous practice that goes against God’s will. Instead, the Bible encourages us to trust that our loved ones are in God’s care and focus on our relationship with Him.

Purgatory, the idea of a temporary place for souls to be purified before heaven, is often misunderstood. While some traditions hold to this belief, it’s not a concept that’s directly supported in the Bible. Instead, the focus is on faith in Jesus and the assurance that through him, our sins are forgiven.t

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The belief that nothing happens after we die is common, especially among those who don’t follow a religion. But the Bible is clear that there is an afterlife. Jesus spoke often about eternal life and prepared a place for those who believe in Him. Death isn’t the end—it’s just the beginning of a new chapter.

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?

VPW – Most Christians hold the belief that upon death those who belong to Christ are immediately received up into glory, commonly called “heaven” or “paradise,” to appear before the Father.  There they are alive and conscious and have a joyous existence with God and their loved ones.  Such a belief is contrary to the teachings in the Word of God.  For if a person, immediately after expiring is taken to eternal bliss, why is the return of Christ and/or the resurrection necessary?  If after death the Christian is already alive and with God, why should Christ return to gather his Church?

If death is the entrance to eternal happiness with God, then death is not an enemy but a welcome friend.  If death brings us into the immediate presence of Christ, then the Scriptures are void and our believing vain.  But death is not a friend, as 1 Corinthians 15:26 pointedly states: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”  The enemy death will someday be destroyed but obviously it is not yet as witnessed by the fact that funeral directors are not lacking for business.

Since death has not been destroyed, and since those who have died are not already alive and in heaven, where are the dead? What is “death”?  The word death in the New Testament is the Greek word Thanatos which is defined as “the natural end of earthly human existence.” Thanatos is not merely an instantaneous occurrence when one expires, but a continuing state.  Release from this continuing state of death hinges upon the return of Christ.

         If release from death comes with the return of Christ, where are the dead until that time? The Bible says that they are in the “grave” (hades in Greek; sheol in Hebrew). These words are interchangeably translated “hell,” “grave” and “pit.” Hades or sheol is never the place of destruction; it is always the continuing state of the dead.  The most accurate translation of hades and sheol would be “gravedom.” Gravedom is the state in which all dead dwell; it is not a spot where the body is buried on land or sea.  The Biblical description of gravedom (the kingdom of all those in the grave-the dead), sheol or hades, is a place where there is no consciousness and thus no remembrance.

  •  Psalms 6:5: For in death there is no remembrance of thee…
  •  Psalms 146:4: His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

         Because there is no consciousness in death, there is no awareness of time for the dead person.  Thus, the moment of a man’s death becomes, for him the moment of the return of Christ. But within the dimension of actual time, the moment of a man’s death is neither his gathering together unto Christ nor his resurrection.  In actual time he does not go immediately to heaven, but descends in gravedom, sheol.

         Jesus Christ likewise descended into gravedom when he died.  If anyone should have gone to heaven immediately after death, surely it should have been Jesus. But he went to Sheol or hades for three days and three nights he had no consciousness, as is stated in Matthew 12

  • Matthew 12:40:  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
  • Genesis 3:19 …for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

As all who go the grave, Jesus too would have totally decayed if God had not raised him from the dead.  God raised Jesus Christ form hades and its corruption. If he had not been raised, Jesus Christ would not be coming back again; and without his coming back, there would never be a release for any of mankind-Christian or non-Christian, saved or unsaved-from gravedom and corruption therein.

“Salvation” is the deliverance from corruption which will occur when Christ returns for the gathering together and the first resurrection of mankind.  The dead are not alive to have wholeness now, for man does not have immorality now.  We are yet subject to die and corrupt in the grave.  When do we have immortality?  With the second coming of Christ.  Until that time, all who have died are not in heaven; they are in hades, gravedom.  Death is not a friend bringing us into the presence of Christ and our loved ones; it is a blatant enemy, for in death all go to gravedom.

Not now, but some day, death shall be destroyed.  Then the dead in Christ will have a new body-this time an incorruptible body, and the living believers will have an immortal body.

  • 1 Corinthians 15:51-57
  • Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [not all will be dead at Christ’s return], but we [the members of the Church] shall all be changed,
  • In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be revised incorruptible, and we [which are alive at his return] shall be changed.
  • For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [living at the time] must put on immortality.
  • So, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
  • O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 
  • But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death would end life forever for all humanity were it not for Christ’s resurrection and thus his return to gather and resurrect mankind.  It is then-with the return of Christ-that we have victory over death.  Then have immortality and incorruption.  Until that time, the dead remain in gravedom in corruption and unconsciousness.

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JWC – Since Christ did rise, when shall he return? Matthew 24:3 and 6 give the record of the disciples asking Jesus Christ about his personal return and the end of time.

         I have put together a previous Biblical study   “Matthew 24”             Matthew 24:3 While he (Jesus) was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things will happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

VPW – The events between and including Christ’s birth and his ascension are his first coming.  And just as Christ’s first coming spanned a period of time, so does his second coming, the Parousia.  The events of the end (sunteleia) include: 1) Christ’s coming for his saints, 2) the events of the Book of Revelation with Christ’s coming with his saints, 3) the first and second resurrections, and finally 4) the end (telos) when death is destroyed, and all things are subdued to God.

  1. Christ’s Return for His Church, the Body:
    The Gathering Together

         The part of the Parousia, return of Christ for his church is called in 2 The Thessalonians 2:1 “our gathering together unto him.”  First of all, one must note that the gathering together effects only those who are born again of God’s Spirit during the age of the Church of the Body, which age is the period between the day of Pentecost and the first part of the Parousia.  The unsaved of the Church of the Body period and all others before and after the Church Age will be resurrected when Christ comes with his saints.  No unbelievers are affected by the part of the Parousia of Christ for his Church, nor are the Old Testament saints of the Church of the Bride.

         Christ’s second coming has two basic phases.  The two parts of the Parousia must be clearly distinguished to avoid serious error.  With these two phases all the dead shall be made alive and the living believers made immortal revealed to Paul and is recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15.

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KJV – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

  • 13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
  • 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
  • 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
  • 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
  • 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so, shall we ever be with the Lord.
  • 18  Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

Our fleshly body is a natural body.  But with the gathering together, we shall have a new look, a new type of body-a spiritual body.  Until Christ comes, the dead remain in hades with corrupted physical bodies and unconsciousness.

         2. Christ’s Return with His Church:
The Resurrections

The coming of Christ with his saints to the earth is also part of the Parousia but is solely related to the “Lord’s Day.”  (the Lords’s Day is not a day of the week).  This part of the Parousia must definitely be distinguished from the first part of the Parousia when Christ comes for his Church.  The coming of Christ with his saints, called in Greek  apokalupsis, is the “appearing,”  “revelation,”  “advent,”  and the  “Day of the Lord.”  The Day of the Lord includes the period of God’s judgments.  The Church of the Body will never have to endure this experience for it shall already have been gathered together.  It would be no comfort if we had to pass through the tribulation of the revelation period.  Furthermore, if the gathering together is confused with the resurrection, then the whole Church of the Body would have to go through the tribulation.  Because the Church of the Body will not be on earth during the tribulation period, 1 Thessalonians says, “comfort one another with these words.”

That believers of the Church of the Body will be spared the tribulation in the Book of Revelation is disclosed several times in the Epistles.  2Thessalonians 2 is one example.

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KJV – 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

  • 1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,        and by our gathering together unto him,
  • 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,  nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
  • 3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.

The Church will be departed and with Christ before the wrath of the day of God’s judgment comes to pass. The following passages also substantiate this truth.

KJV – Romans 8:1

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ    Jesus…

  • 1 Thessalonians 1:10
  • And to wait for His son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
  • Romans 5:9
  • Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

This part of the Parousia of Christ, the Church will already have been judged, not for punishment but for rewards.  2 Corinthians 5:10, in reference to the Parousia for the Church, says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ…”  This judgment seat is the bema, the place from which prizes and rewards are given for “the things done.”

The Church of the Body appears before the bema of Christ to receive the “crown of righteousness,” rewards for deeds done and the faithfulness of our stewardship for him.  We appear before the bema of Christ not to receive Gods’ sentences of wrath of condemnation, but to “have praise of God.”  None of God’s born-again children in Christ will ever be judged as to their standing or anything else for they have already been judged in the person of their substitute and mediator, Christ Jesus.

In the day of the Lord’s judgment when all people have been resurrected, everyone (except the Church of the Body, who were part of the gathering together) will appear before the judgment seat, the bench from which God’s judgement sentences will be pronounced.

  • 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
  • And to you who are {were} troubled rest with us, when {at the time} the Lord Jesus shall be revealed {apokalupsis} from heaven with his mighty angels {angelon dunameos, meaning “messengers of his power”, both angels and Church saints.

These words could not be plainer.  They definitely do not deal with the Parousia of Christ for his church, appearing, apokalupsis, of himself on the earth.  If we read the scriptures relating to the coming of Christ for his Church and interpret them as referring to the coming of Christ with his Church to the earth, we remain ignorant of the blessed Hope and find ourselves fearful and frustrated.

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When Christ returns with his gathered saints, there will be two resurrections, one for the just and another for the unjust.

  • John 5:28, 29
  • Marvel not at this:  for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

KJV – Revelation 21:4

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

JWC – This was our son Adam’s most favored Scripture; he passed away on December 22, 2006, just 24 days prior to his 21st Birthday!  We will see Adam at the bema!

Death is an enemy!

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