What Happens When I Die?

How did Jesus describe death?

Jesus described death as sleep because there is a resurrection from the first death for both the saved and the lost: the saved at His second coming and the lost after the heavenly millennium.

Will there be a resurrection?

The resurrection is possible because of Jesus, for He alone has conquered death.

Will there be a second resurrection?

John makes it clear there will be two resurrections for two different groups of people: those who, through the grace of Christ, reflected goodness in their life will be part of the resurrection of life, which takes place at the second coming of Jesus, while those who lived unrighteous lives will be part of the resurrection of damnation.

How did God create Adam?

God made Adam by forming him from the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life. In other words, dust (the body) plus the breath of God results in a living soul. The text does not say that man received a living soul, but that he became one. This distinction highlights an important implication: humans are souls, because a soul is simply a living being.

Ezekiel 18:20 confirms this by paralleling the soul with the son and the father, underscoring that, biblically, the soul refers to the whole person rather than a separable part. Matthew 16:25 also supports this, where the Greek word psychē is translated as life, even though it is translated as soul in other contexts. Put simply, a living person is a soul, not someone who has a soul.

What happens when a person dies?

When a person dies, the body returns to dust, and the spirit returns to God. Leviticus 17:11 provides another clue by stating that “the life of the flesh is in the blood,” thus equating life with blood—a physical, bodily reality—rather than with an immaterial essence or detachable consciousness. Furthermore, Psalm 146:4 and Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 both declare that all thought and consciousness cease at death, thus leaving no possibility for an ongoing conscious soul after death. Put simply, death is not a relocation but a total cessation of life—the loss of the whole person.

What is the spirit that returns to God?

According to the parallelism in Job 27:3, the spirit that returns to God is simply the breath of life, without which the body dies. In other words, the process described in Ecclesiastes 12:7 is the reverse of what occurred in Genesis 2:7. If a soul (a living human being) is the combination of two elements—the body and the breath of life (spirit)—then the soul ceases to exist when the body returns to dust and the breath returns to God who gave it. The soul does not go anywhere; it simply ceases to exist. James 2:26 affirms that neither the body nor the spirit (breath) constitutes a complete person on its own; both are required.

As an illustration, consider what is needed for light: there must be an electrical current and a bulb. When the electrical current is cut off, the light simply ceases to exist. The same is true of the soul.

What else does the Bible teach?

Because the soul ceases to exist at death, it cannot go to heaven or hell immediately after death, for Scripture plainly declares, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Why is this so? Because the wages of sin are death, and all have sinned. Ezekiel 18:4 is utterly incompatible with the popular belief that souls are inherently immortal. If the soul were immortal, Christ could not have died to pay the penalty for our sin—which is death—and the entire plan of salvation would collapse. Moreover, if the soul were immortal then God would be unable to destroy it in hell; yet Matthew 10:28 plainly teaches that He can.^[1]

Finally, before His ascension, Jesus assured His disciples, “I will come again and receive you unto Myself” (John 14:2-3). It is crucial to note that He did not say they would come to Him at death, but rather that He would come to them at His Second Coming.

What about the rich man and Lazarus?

It may seem that Jesus’ story teaches that the rich man went straight to hell after death, but several clues suggest that the story was simply a parable rather than a literal description of the afterlife.

1. After the beggar (Lazarus) died, he was carried to “Abraham’s bosom.” How could Abraham’s literal bosom be the dwelling place of the righteous dead?
2. Luke 16:26 says there is a great gulf between the two, yet the rich man and Lazarus are depicted as conversing. How could that be literally true?
3. How much relief would a single drop of water from Lazarus’ finger bring to rich man’s tongue?

Jesus told this parable as an illustration directed particularly to the Jews, who trusted in their privileged position as children of Abraham (John 8:39), while the beggar represents the Gentiles, whom many Jews considered spiritually unworthy. Compared to the Jews, who had been entrusted with great truths concerning the plan of salvation (Romans 3:1-2), the Gentiles were indeed like beggars ; yet it was often the Gentiles who were quicker to believe in Jesus (Matthew 8:8-12; 15:22).

What is the Christian’s hope?

The Christian looks forward to the resurrection, not to the soul’s escape at death. In fact, the resurrection loses meaning and purpose if the souls of the saved are already in heaven. There would be no reason for Jesus to return to resurrect His people if they had already been living with Him since their death.

The biblical worldview is grounded in a physical, bodily reality rather than a mystical one, and the resurrection is no exception. When discussing the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, Paul contrasts the perishable body with the imperishable body. He could have contrasted the body with the soul, but instead he describes the transformation of one body. His use of parallelism shows that a “spiritual body” is a transformed body, not a nonphysical essence. Likewise, Romans 8:11 speaks of the resurrection as bodily restoration. Jesus Himself rejected disembodied personhood in Luke 24:39 by showing His disciples that, after His resurrection, He had a physical body of flesh and bones. Thus, the Bible stands in strong contrast to soul-body dualism, which teaches that true life is essentially disembodied.

How did dualism enter Christianity?

It was Greek philosophy, not Scripture, that introduced the body-soul dichotomy into Christianity. Four hundred years before Christ, the Greek philosopher Plato promoted the idea that the soul is immortal, pre-existent, and separate from the body, which he viewed as a temporary prison for the soul. The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus, later incorporated this distinction into Jewish thought, becoming a harbinger of Alexandria’s future role as a center of Gnostic influence and a gateway for dualism’s entry into Christianity.

Two hundred years later, theologians Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) and Origen (c. 185-253) began integrating Plato’s ideas about the immortal soul into Christian theology, and Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430) effectively entrenched them. As a result, many Christians shifted from believing they would rise at the resurrection to believing they would never truly die.

What about Revelation 6:9?

It may appear that the souls of the martyrs are crying out to God, yet we must remember that Genesis describes the blood of Abel crying out as well (Genesis 4:10). This is simply a figure of speech, referring to God’s vindication.

Where is King David now?

Is consciousness possible after death?

Since the spirit is simply the breath then it is not possible for the spirit to exist after death. Here the psalmist describes the same process of death that was described in the previous verses: the breath leaving the body and returning to God who gave it, the body returning to dust (the earth), and when these two things happen all conscious thought ceases to exist.

Can the dead praise God?

Do dead people remember anything?

Who has immortality?

Man is fully mortal; only God is immortal. This idea that the soul is immortal stems from the Garden of Eden, where Satan told Eve she would surely not die (Genesis 3:4), even though God clearly said that sin brings death (Genesis 2:17).

The greatest evidence that man is mortal, however, is found in John 3:16, which teaches that the Father gave Jesus, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In other words, only those who have Jesus will have everlasting life—made immortal—while everyone else will perish. To deny this is to deny the cross, which teaches plainly that eternal life is available only through the sacrifice of Christ. To claim that humans are born naturally immortal is to suggest that the cross is not the only way to everlasting life—a dangerous and preposterous conclusion.

Who else will inherit immortality?

1 Corinthians 15 says that not all the righteous will experience death, but all the righteous will be changed when the trumpet of God sounds at the second coming. In other words, the righteous who are live to see the second coming, as well as those who died in Christ, who will at that moment be resurrected, will receive new, immortal bodies. From that point on death will never have power over them because Jesus defeated it, and by accepting His sacrifice on their behalf, they will inherit His victory over it!

What hope did Job have?

Because Jesus, His Redeemer, conquered death, Job will one day be able to see Him in a glorious, new, physical body.

How about 2 Corinthians 5:6?

Here, Paul differentiates between the earthly body and the glorified body, not conscious existence apart from the body. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5:4, Paul specifically rejects being “unclothed.” Put another way: while we are absent from the Lord, we still possess earthly bodies subject to sickness, disease, and death. At the resurrection, however, when the saved are present with the Lord, they will be absent from their earthly bodies because they will receive new, glorified bodies.

A similar idea is expressed in Philippians 1:23, where Paul describes how “departure” from life and the coming of Christ will feel almost instantaneous due to the unconscious state of death. The next conscious moment for the person who has died is the resurrection, even though the two events are separated by time. We know that Paul did not expect to ascend to heaven immediately after death because in 2 Timothy 4:6-8 he links receiving the eternal crown with “that day,” a future point in time associated with Christ’s appearing.

What about Luke 23:43?

Jesus could not have gone to heaven after His death because on Sunday morning He told Mary He hadn’t yet ascended to His Father. It’s a little know fact, but the original Bible text did not have any punctuation. It was added centuries later by translators who could have placed the comma before the word “today” due to their own beliefs about death. The better place for the comma would be after the word “today” because then it would be in harmony with all the other Bible texts regarding death. Jesus was promising the thief on the cross that day—when it did not look like He could save anyone—that he would be with Him in Paradise one day when He returns to take all of His children home to heaven.

Who did Saul see in Endor then?

It could not have been Samuel that Saul saw because the Bible is clear that the dead remain dead until the resurrection. In Revelation we learn that the devil has fallen angels whom he was able to persuade to join his rebellion in heaven, and after he was cast to earth, they were cast down with him (Revelation 12:4). In other places, they are called “lying spirits” and “spirits of devils” who have the power to work miracles, including masquerading as human beings. In fact, Satan Himself is able to appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Saul saw one of these spirits masquerading as Samuel.

Is it safe to communicate with spirits?

Communication with spirits is forbidden in the Bible because it’s an abomination to God. Paul also warns that this practice is one of the signs of the last days, and it will lead to deception and a departure from the faith, meaning it will be practiced by those who claim to be believers. Isaiah says that the only way to identify whether a spirit is from God or not is to compare what it says with the Word of God because every lying spirit will speak contrary to His Word.

How did Paul look back on his life?

May the grace of Jesus help us to live a life of unwavering commitment and faithfulness to Him.