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Where Do People Go When They Die

by Tony Warren



Since the Christian believes that death is not the end of a person's existence, the question is frequently asked is, "When a person dies, where does his or her spirit or soul go?" Moreover, there are many different aspects of this question. Namely, do we have conscious (knowing) existence, are we going to a better place, will we recognize our loved ones, can we sin there, etc. What happens to our souls after our bodies die is an age-old question that we will endeavor to answer here today.

First of all, our spiritual destination depends upon whether we were born of God in this life before we passed, or we died unsaved. As far as the Christian goes, the answer to life after death should be settled in their mind. Even as it was for our Christian forebearers. They understood that in death, the child of God goes to be with the Lord. For example, God's servant Job had no question about where he was going upon His death.

    Job 19:25-27

When Job says flesh, the Hebrew [basar], he is speaking in the sense of his body (Ezekiel 10:12), because we know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1st Corinthians 15:50). Job will see Him in his Spiritual bodies, this also being understood and confirmed by him declaring his physical fleshly body would be destroyed. Which necessarily means that He receives a new body. Job understood that even after he died physically, and the worms, larvae, or maggots had consumed his mortal flesh in the earth, he would still bodily see his redeemer. He knew there was no annihilation and had full assurance that His eyes would behold God even after his fleshly eyes were consumed. Job understood that He would see and be with the Lord, yet with different eyes and in another form or body because he would possess an incorruptible body. The only form where man can be in paradise and see God.

1st Corinthians 15:49-50

So though Job knew Christ was his living redeemer, he also knew that he would see Him not in his current flesh or body, but in a Spiritual body, the only body that can truly inherit the kingdom where God dwells.

 

Resurrected in Christ Means Christians Never Die

Christ is the firstborn from the dead, and every true believer who is born from above into new life has been raised or resurrected with Him. They were spiritually delivered from the power of death, which is sin. The physical death of the body for the Christian is but a change of dwelling place, where we are received into the Paradise of God.

Psalms 49:15

In the 1st death, we suffered in disobedience of our representative Adam, we have had that debt paid for in the resurrected body of the second Adam, which is Christ. For Adam means man.

1st Corinthians 15:21-22

When we are raised up in Christ, we cannot die again. Therefore the second death has no power over us. The physical destruction of our body is merely our moving from one place of existence to another. We then will see God and be with Him in our soul's existence. That is exactly what Job in these types of verses are talking about. Our souls leave the mortal flesh, which returns to the dust from which it sprung, and immediately live in a spiritual body that never dies. A soul needs a body, else what need is there for a body? Can a soul reign with Christ without a body?

    Ecclesiastes 12:7

The physical body shall return to dust, but the Spirit and soul of the believer return to God, who created us. As Christ had put off the body of His flesh to return to Heaven, even so the Apostle Peter implied to those who had come to faith through the provided atonement, this same transference. He understood that in dying on earth, he put off the body of flesh and followed Christ into heaven. Not die (as in not living again), but putting off the tabernacle of his flesh to be housed in a new tabernacle in a place called Paradise.

2nd Peter 1:13-14

Likewise, Paul declared that for Christians, to depart this life in leaving the flesh was to go to be in the presence of God in heaven. It was not to be dead, or to be annihilated, or to be destroyed, or sleeping in some form of limbo, it was to be with Christ. Not just positionally, but spiritually/physically present with Him in heaven.

Ephesians 2:5-6

When Christians are born from above by the Spirit, they are positionally reigning with Christ and spiritually seated together in heavenly places in Him. But they are not physically in heaven with Him as they will be when they take leave of their fleshly body to be present with Him. Again, 2nd Corinthians clearly illustrates this.

2nd Corinthians 5:6-8

The Biblical principle is that by the Death and resurrection of Christ, those who are present with the Lord, are absent from the physical body. This necessarily means they certainly are not in the grave (where the physical body is), nor do they possess physical bodies. When believers leave this body of death it returns to the dust, and our soul in its spirit form goes directly to be with the Lord. These verses contrast being absent from God by being in the body ([i]flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom, where God is[/i]), to being present with the Lord upon release from that body. I don't think that it is even debatable. Because clearly the Apostle Paul was torn between his desire to leave this earthly body in death to be with the lord, while also realizing that he was commissioned by God to do his duty as an evangelist while he is here.

Philippians 1:21-24

No question but that Paul understood that when he left his robe of flesh, he would go to live and reign with the Lord in His heavenly Kingdom. Having been resurrected with Christ, there can be no real death for him, there is only the transfer of his soul from a fleshly body to a spiritual one in God's paradise. We can also see this in the example Christ gave as He Saved the thief on the cross.

Luke 23:42-43

The only way Jesus could say that was if this man's soul would leave his body when it ceased to function, and go directly to be with God in heaven. Jesus and God are one. This thief that very day would be with the Lord in Paradise. Not sleep, not destroyed, not dead, but with the Lord in Heaven. Speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem where the saints dwell, we read.

Hebrews 12:22-23

The spirits of just men made perfect are in this Heaven that is from above. This is the church or assembly of the firstborn who have all had part in the first resurrected from death unto life. When the flesh worms consumed their body, they went in their spirits to be present with the Lord. Specifically, because Christ went to the cross to assure them all a place there.

John 14:2-3

Going to the Father's house to prepare a place for them (Hebrews 9:8) was by the efficacy of His death, resurrection, and ascension to the throne of the kingdom of heaven. All of which provided for the cleansing of sin, which would have otherwise kept them out. This promise of Christ was meant to be a great comfort to the Disciples, that though Christ was about to put off the flesh to leave them and enter heaven, they would still have assurance that one day they would also be absent from the body, and present with Him. He departed not to reign for Himself, but to go before them that they might have a place to reign in the Kingdom of Heaven with Him. It is in love that Christ goes before them to prepare their eternal home for them, for it was needful that He put off the flesh and enter heaven securing entrance to them to the kingdom of heaven when they also would put off their robe of flesh. This was their destination after they had left this world of flesh. It is not a vain hope, but a hope secured in the blood of Christ. We know that when we leave this body of death, which is our flesh, we have a place prepared of God waiting for us.

2nd Corinthians 5:1-2

It's not a vain hope, it is a faithful promise. When the believers leave this fleshly tabernacle, they do not die, they merely transfer to that building in heaven which will be the clothing for our souls. Spiritual bodies which cannot be understood on this side of the grave.

 

The Saved Who Die vs. The Rest of the Dead

    One verse which speaks about the destination and condition of all those who die (Saved and Unsaved is Revelation chapter twenty.

Revelation 20:4-5

Here John is in the Spirit and having this vision concerning the Kingdom of Heaven. Here He sees the souls of the Christians who were faithful, and were martyred are there. John prophesies that these souls 'lived and reigned' with Christ for a period of time designated as a thousand years. Note carefully that these were the souls 'of those martyred.' They were not souls in the sense of them being people on earth as Scripture sometimes uses the word, nor did John say that he saw people. On the contrary, he saw the 'souls of those who were martyred' because they withstood trial and served the Lord faithfully. We shouldn't self-consciously distort the clear text here, and so we need to be clear on exactly what is inspired to be written by God.

These are the souls of those who have died, having been martyred, and they are yet LIVING and REIGNING with Christ. All this is in perfect agreement with what the Bible teaches about the afterlife of Believers where in our souls we go to be with the Lord. This is confirmed as we next read God's word contrast these souls who have died against the souls of "the rest of the dead," meaning the unsaved who died. God says these "lived not again," until after this thousand-year period was over. In other words, it's talking about two groups of souls of people who have died. The souls of the true believers who were killed, yet continue to live and reign with Christ. But God says the rest of the dead (unsaved who died) did not live and reign with Christ. God says they did not live again until after the thousand years was over. From this, we see the two distinct and diverse destinations of the souls of people. The Christians don't die, they continue to live as their habitation is now in heaven with their Lord. While the rest of the dead do not continue to live after they died, but are only made alive at the time appointed after the thousand years. This would be the second resurrection when they are raised up to life again to stand before the white throne of God to be judged.

The point not to miss here is that the truly saved who have part in the first resurrection never die, they simply go to live and reign with Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven after they are martyred. And because they have a part in the First Resurrection where they never die, they have no art in the Second Resurrection where the books are opened and those unsaved dead are judged with the second death. These believers also have no part in the 2nd death.

    John 11:23-26

Christ was explaining to Martha that the First Resurrection unto Life was in Him! For anyone to see the resurrection unto life, they must be in Him as He is the first raised from death unto life (Acts 26:23). He that lives and believes in Christ, shall never die. In other words, when your body dies, you don't die with it if you are in Christ. You simply instantly go to live and reign with Christ in your soul's existence. Those not raised in Christ will not live again until the time of the end of the world (The second resurrection at the Last Day as Martha presumed all did). You see, the believer's judgment day took place in the body of Christ, and when He was raised from the dead all our judgments were paid for. After Christ told Martha about Himself, He then raised up Lazarus ([i]not at the last day, but right then and there[/i]) to illustrate this principle that Christ is the Resurrection in which we have Life. In fact, if Lazarus were to wait until the last day to be resurrected, it would be too late because that is the second resurrection. The First Resurrection is right here and now and without it, we are truly subject to the second resurrection and the second death that accompanies it. While with this first resurrection, the second death hath no power over us. The first death was spiritual as Adam didn't physically die, the first resurrection must also be spiritual. The first Adam (man) brought this death, the second Adam (the man Christ) brought resurrection from this death unto new life.

1st Corinthians 15:21

That man is Christ. He died in our stead, that we might live. Everything which the unbeliever receives at the last day, we received in Christ (Christ as our substitute) as he hung on the cross. The day that the wrath of God was poured upon Him for us. The First Resurrection was in Christ's first advent. The unsaved have their last day resurrection at His second advent.

So we understand how Revelation chapter twenty said about the First Resurrection was what these souls in heaven had to have in order to live and reign with Christ in His kingdom. For those who have part in it, the second death has no power over them because the wages of sin is death, and in Christ, they have no sin. Those who are part in this resurrection live and reign with Christ, while the rest of the souls of the dead could not live until the resurrection unto judgment at the last day. Those people who claim that the First Resurrection is not in Christ are not reading the scriptures carefully. God tells us 'point blank' that Christ "is" the First Resurrection.

Acts 26:23

Christ is the First resurrection. In the greek, those words are [protos anastasis], or "First Resurrection." There are those who will go to great lengths to rationalize these divinely inspired truths away so that they don't have to receive them. But these are the exact same Greek words used in Revelation chapter twenty translated "First Resurrection." Moreover, that Christ is the First Resurrection should be self-evident because clearly we are told that He was the firstborn from the dead that in all things He might have the preeminence. Of course, the resurrection is not the general scope of this article, so we won't really dwell upon it, but needless to say, any truth can be rationalized away given the proper motivation.

Comparing scripture with scripture there can be no mistaking the truth. Those in Christ are those who have part in the First Resurrection from death in Christ, and it is upon them that the second death has no power.

1st Peter 1:3

The souls of the martyrs who have died yesterday, today, and tomorrow live and reign with Christ, 'but' the rest of the dead (The unsaved who die), they live not again until the second resurrection. That is the resurrection of the rest of the dead, the unsaved dead. Those who weren't raised up from death to new life in the First Resurrection of Christ cannot go to live and reign with Him. They are in a state of existential silence where they have no conscience existence. This is what is meant by, "they lived not" again until after...

    1st Resurrection:
Every single believer who has been raised up in Christ to new life, hath part in this 1st resurrection. Remember the scriptures talk of Christ as the "FIRST BORN FROM THE DEAD." If that is not the First Resurrection from the dead, the new birth in Christ, then nothing is. He is the Resurrection as He told Martha and all those raised WITH HIM hath part in that First Resurrection. They are the Church of the Firstborn. On these, the second death hath no power (Philippians 3:10).

    2nd Resurrection:
The second coming, at the last trumpet, at the last day, when those that are alive will be raised up to meet Jesus in the air. This is Judgment Day when the rest of the dead (unsaved who have died before) are all raised up to stand for Judgment along with those unsaved who are left on earth (John 11:14).

    1st Death:
The death in which all mankind is born into, which is in our flesh by the fall of Adam. The death is the reason that man physically dies. "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come." -Romans 5:14.

    2nd Death:
The Judgment that is meted out By GOD upon the unsaved. It is HELL! There shall be weeping and grinding of teeth! This is the death that the wages of sin brings forth. It's punishment. Those Resurrected in Christ have no need to worry about this, as the power of the Cross of Christ (First Resurrection) has taken away the sting of death.

And so we see that when people die, their destinations are totally different. The saved go to live and reign with Christ (as they, resurrected in Christ, can never 'not live') and the unsaved go to existential silence or repose' where they can know nothing, having no consciousness. e.g.:

Ecclesiastes 9:4-5

Ecclesiastes 9:10 So for those who claim that there is hard labor for the wicked who die, or that they can still see us, or that they have knowledge of us, these passages speak clearly against such conclusions. The souls of the unsaved who die are in a state of unconsciousness where they do not live again (have living consciousness) until they are resurrected from that non-life to stand before God and be judged. Two destinations and two states of being. The souls of the saved go to reign and praise God forevermore, and the souls of the rest of the dead do not live because they have no conscious existence until after the thousand years are over.

Psalms 6:5

Again we see that those who die unsaved remember nothing, they know nothing, they say nothing, they wait in a silent, unconscious, sleep state for the second resurrection, and the voice heralding God's judgment upon them.

Psalms 115:17-18

Again, the contrast between one soul, and the other. We can only bless the Lord from now and forevermore because we never see this silence in death which verse seventeen declares the unsaved are in. Unlike them, we will bless the Lord and praise His name forevermore.

Psalms 88:10-12

As contrasted with the saved who die and cease not saying Holy, Holy, Holy. The souls of the unsaved who die know nothing, they are in darkness, in silence, saying, knowing, and remembering nothing until they are raised in the second resurrection to stand before God to be judged.

 

What about the Saved who died being resurrected?

    There are many people who are somewhat confused by the language of the dead in Christ being raised. This is understandable, but a careful evaluation of all pertinent scriptures will show this neither a contradiction nor a mystery.

1st Thessalonians 4:15

The word asleep in scripture is often used as a synonym for those who have left their body, because death from man's perspective appears as one being asleep. Keep in mind this is, 'from man's perspective.' We can see this demonstrated as Jesus spoke of Lazarus' death as him being asleep. Jesus equated sleep with physical death.

John 11:11-14

Jesus of course knew Lazarus wasn't asleep. But He is using the word because He is putting forth symbolism by it, that man might glean from his perspective some Spiritual truth. Being sleep is often a synonym for being dead, and is where the old adage, "Rest in Peace," comes from. In 1st Thessalonians chapter four where it says that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, refers to those who have died and gone to be with the Lord in their souls. The word translated prevent in the KJV is [phthano] meaning to come first or to precede. In other words, we Christians who are alive and here on earth at the time of the second coming, will not precede those who have already died. That's why in verse thirteen he is explaining that we (believers) should not feel sorrow that those who have died, as if they are ...just dead.

Matthew 22:31-32

Thus Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive and living with Christ. They already were living and reigning with Christ, they precede us and will come with Christ at His second advent. It's the same thing that 1st Thessalonians chapter four illustrated. Those who have died will precede us with Christ. And note, we say died from man's perspective, because spiritually speaking we know they never die. But God is speaking from man's perspective of death. That is to say, people have departed this earth to be with the Lord.

1st Thessalonians 4:16-17

Some are confused by this language, questioning if the saved will immediately go to be with the Lord when they die, who are the dead in Christ that will rise from the dead first--and it's a very good question.

There are basically two schools of thought on this issue in the church. One is that when we die, we go to be with the Lord in spirit, and at the Lord's second advent, all those spirits will 'then' receive their glorified resurrected bodies. However, I don't see the mandate in scripture for dead bodies coming to life for believers. The second resurrection is for the rest of the dead, not the Saved who have died (physically). They, having already had a part in the First Resurrection, have already gone to live and reign with the Lord in death. It's only the rest of the dead (unsaved who die) who go to the grave into silence and do not live again (not resurrected) until Christ returns. So I find that understanding to be lacking biblically, logically, exegetically, and inconsistent with the rest of what Scripture says.

My understanding is that when it says the dead in Christ shall be raised first, it speaks of those dead in Christ in heaven. i.e., from our earthly perspective (which is how God inspired the scriptures to be written), they are being raised from the dead. It's like when He says the Temple is opened in heaven. God uses earthly terms to illustrate spiritual truths. In the true sense, Christians never died at death (when they left their bodies), so what need is it for them to be raised from the dead in the future? And indeed, what death are they raised from? Because a resurrection requires a 'Death.' No, we already had our resurrection, and need not another. Indeed, it seems antithetical to presume a resurrection again of believers.

Such beliefs would contradict the truth that we were raised with Christ in that first resurrection where we can never die. Once we become Saved, there is no death in us, and most 'certainly' not after we have left the body of this death. When this life on earth is over, it is simply a transference from the body of death to live and reign in a spiritual body with Christ in heaven. The flesh dies, but we live on, never to die again, and never in need of a resurrection.

But speaking strictly from the reader's earthly perspective, when people on earth see those who have died coming again, they see them as the dead being raised to life again. That's how it is written, even though the Saved having part in the First Resurrection has no part of death again, and thus cannot be raised from the dead. It is written to illustrate to people on earth that these are those who have passed on before, coming again from the dead. i.e., in terms which man can understand, the dead being raised to life.

We have to keep in mind that God all through time has been writing a spiritual book, using earthly terms, from the perspective of man. There are mansions in heaven, rivers, streets paved with Gold, gates, etc. But these are spiritual pictures given us in an earthly (what man will understand) perspective. Likewise, when those on earth see those who have died before coming again (from their perspective), they naturally see this as Saints being raised from the dead. They wouldn't say these are the living coming back to earth, they logically declare these are the dead raised up again. Spiritually we understand that the dead in Christ (having died with Him and been risen with Him) actually never die. Therefore they cannot be resurrected again from death. But from the perspective of man, seeing those who have died previously come again, he is seeing the dead raised up. Nevertheless, we know that as Jesus told the thief on the cross, He would be with him in paradise upon death. Not in the ground to be raised up from death on another day. To suggest that this Paradise was not in Heaven because Jesus did not ascend to the Father that day is to neglect the most fundamental of Christian precepts. Which is that Jesus and the Father were one. He who had seen Jesus had seen the Father. This thief was that day in the paradise of God, with God. This could only be because upon death, those who are saved, go to live and reign with the Lord immediately. Moreover, other verses make it clear where the Paradise of God is.

2nd Corinthians 12:4

Revelation 2:7

Here, Paradise is used synonymously with the third 'heaven,' or the glorious Kingdom of God. And so anyone thinking this paradise was some sort of death, soul sleep, limbo, or hell is not considering all of scripture carefully. It is not being asleep, or knowing nothing, or being in silence, or darkness, it is part of the paradise of God. The place of the Lord's throne is Heaven is the paradise of God. And that is where that forgiven thief would be, that very day.

And that is where we will be also. And we shall not cease saying Holy, Holy, Holy, and praising the Lord forever. If we are of those who are on the earth upon the Lord's return, we know we'll be changed in an instant. We do not know exactly what we shall be, but we know we shall be like Him. We shall be spirits where we can dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven where flesh and blood cannot. It's all a matter of perspective, because the Bible was written to people thousands of years ago, and it is also written to us today. Therefore it must be a 'timeless' book written so that (by the grace of God) all people, cultures, and languages will understand.

Every Christian can be sure of where their souls go after leaving the body of this death. We should never have it said that we cannot know or cannot have any assurance of life after death experience. We will be conscious, living, and reigning with Christ, rejoicing in everything God is, and praising His wonderful name.

May the Lord who is Gracious above all guide us into the truth of His most Holy Word.

Amen!

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