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What happens after we die? (Part 1)
This study comes as a result of several people asking about what happens to people after death.
The short answer to the question of what happens to us after we die is: We continue to live. The Bible is clear that both the righteous and the unrighteous continue to exist after death. This survival will happen in two phases, (1) The Intermediate State, before the Day of Judgment and (2) The Eternal State, after the Day of Judgment. We will look at the first this week and the second next week:
1. The intermediate state
It refers to that time between our death and the final judgment, that day of the resurrection of our bodies. In this time, the Scriptures teach us, the experience of believers will look markedly different from that of the unbelievers.
a.The believers in the intermediate state
The moment the believer dies he immediately goes to where Christ is. In Philippians 1:23 Paul says that he desires to die so that he can be where Christ is. In 2 Corinthians 5:8 he shows that we should rather desire to live out of the body, because then we will live in Christ. To the thief on the cross Jesus also says 'today' you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43). Since Christ is at the right hand of the Father who is in heaven, we will go to heaven. While this is true, it is not important where we are going to be, but with whom we will be: With God, with Jesus, with the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes the Bible uses the word 'heaven' to refer to the sky above our heads. But the primarily theological meaning of heaven is a reference to where God lives. It refers to a real place in space and time. While God is Spirit and is therefore not limited to any place (not even heaven - 1 Kings 8:27), heaven is the place where God chooses to manifest Himself intensively. For example, we can think of Mount Sinai, or the Tabernacle or Temple. These were places on earth where God manifested Himself intensely, and yet we see in Hebrews 8:1-2 that the Tabernacle (and Temple) are simply pictures of what is in heaven. Just like the sacrificial systems and laws that looked forward to the more Glorious, Jesus Christ, so the earthly tabernacle (and Temple) is simply a picture (a weaker version) of the heavenly presence of God.
When Jesus went to heaven, 1 Peter 3:22 tells us He went to sit at the right hand of God. He sat down, because his atoning work as Priest was completed. He sits at God's right hand, the position of authority because He is Lord over everything and everyone. But John 14:2 also tells us that Jesus went to prepare a place for us, so that where He is, we will also be.
But what about Old Testament believers? To understand this we can look at Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11 & Matthew 17:3). These are two who did not die, but immediately entered into the presence of God. This same Elijah appeared with Moses and Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, which shows that both Elijah and Moses lived on in the presence of God in a life without end. Jesus tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man, in which Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22-23), while the rich man finds himself in a place of torment.
There are some Old Testament texts that seem to create the idea that immediately after death man is in an unconscious state (souls sleep). But even the Old Testament points to a conscious presence with God the moment after death. For example, we read in Psalm 115:17 “The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.”, but only the next verse says “But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!” It would appear from this that verse 17 refers to the body in the grave ‘who go down in silence’ and ‘do not praise the LORD’ while verse 18 clearly shows that from the moment of our death (from this time forth and forevermore) the Lord will praise.
The Old Testament also refers to the place we go to after death as 'Sheol' (the realm of the dead). This is the place where they would go in anticipation of Christ's coming. Hebrews 11:39-40 possibly refers to the occasion where Jesus went to this place (Sheol) after his death to take the inhabitants of there with Him to the presence of God. This is what the Apostles' Creed refers to when it speaks of 'descended into (realm of the dead)' (this is not hell).
The Roman Catholic view that while some believers go straight to heaven, most of them go to a temporary destination (Purgatory) is completely unbiblical and there is no biblical justification for this view. The Adventists' (and others') view of a soul's sleep is clearly also unbiblical because it arises from a misunderstanding that Jesus himself clarified in John 11:11-14 at the death of their friend Lazarus. First Jesus tells his Disciples that Lazarus is 'sleeping', but they misunderstand Him, after which Jesus clearly states 'Lazarus is dead'.
Will we have bodies in this intermediate state? While there are texts that seem to imply that we will have 'temporary bodies', the general flow of Scripture shows that we will have a spiritual existence awaiting the resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day. At that moment our bodies (then glorified) will be united with our souls and we will be in God's presence forever, body and spirit.
The Bible does not provide us with many details about this intermediate state of the believers, but there are a number of things we can know:
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It will be a cognitive conscious existence
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We will be with Christ and with God
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We will be perfectly happy and satisfied
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We will look forward with longing (and tears) to
the fulfilment of God's complete will (Revelation 6:10-10)
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We will remain there until the Day of
Resurrection when our bodies will be resurrected and united with our souls.
The Bible teaches us even less about the intermediate state of the unbelievers. But from the story of Lazarus and the rich man we learn a number of things. This story depicts Jesus' own understanding of the afterlife: While Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom (heaven) the rich man is in a place of miserable torment where he receives no mercy. There is also no possibility of transition from this place of torment to where Lazarus is or visa-versa. This clearly shows that there is no possibility of repentance after death. Also that while the final Day of Judgment lies in the future, our eternal destiny is determined on the day of our death and that it cannot change after that.
This is an attempt to think Scripturally about what happens after death, to the believer and to the unbeliever. It is certainly possible to understand certain texts differently than I understood them, as long as they are interpreted biblically. I myself do not understand everything and neither has God revealed everything to us. The human mind can also only understand what is possible for it to understand and thus this is not an attempt to speak fully and finally about the matter. Our excitement about eternity must be primarily driven by an unquenchable longing to be with Him.
ds. Leon Harmse
The pastor of Sunward Park Baptist Church