Q: I’ve always believed that our
souls go to heaven when we die, but recently, I heard that our bodies will be
resurrected. What can we expect after
death?
There is often a lot of confusion
about what happens after we die, and many ideas, both true and false are
circulating in the world. There are some
things we simply don’t know about what awaits us after this life (such as what
we will look like, how old we will be, or when Jesus will come back), but there
are also several things that we can know with certainty because they have been
explained in the Bible.
God created people to have both a
body and a soul, but when Adam and Eve sinned, death became a reality, and at
death, the body and the soul of a person are separated. The body remains on earth and is buried or
cremated, and the soul goes either to be with Jesus or to eternal
punishment.
Much of what we know about what
awaits us after this life, comes from Jesus’ story about the rich man and
Lazarus in Luke 16. There, Jesus shows
us that we will maintain our individual identities after death, and not simply
cease to exist or be absorbed into the universe collectively.
Additionally, He reveals that our
condition is permanently and eternally determined at death. This is also explained in Hebrews 9:27, when
it says, “It is given man once to die, then to face judgment.” This also rules out the idea of
reincarnation, which proposes that we are brought back as another person or
animal to live life again, as well as the myth depicted in popular television
and literature that some souls roam the planet haunting the living or
attempting to reconcile unfinished business after death.
From the story of the rich man and
Lazarus, as well as from chapters 4-6 of Revelation, we find out that we will
most likely be aware of the events occurring on earth after our departure. At the same time, these events will not cause
us disappointment or sorrow, nor will they be the center of our attention. Instead, it will be the worship of God and
the experience of His presence that will occupy our time and thoughts.
We also know from what Jesus teaches
about marriage in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, that we will not be married
or have children after this life. This
is why people are free to remarry after the death of their spouse, and it is
reflected in the wedding vows used in most churches when they promise to be
faithful “until death parts us.”
When we talk about going to heaven,
what we mean is that our soul goes to be with Jesus after we die, and the things
mentioned above are all part of the state we typically think of when we talk
about going to heaven. Often people’s
understanding of death, and the existence that follows it, stops at this point,
but we don’t just “die and go to heaven.”
There is more to the story.
The third day after Jesus died, He
rose to life again, and 40 days later, He ascended into heaven. At that time, and previously throughout the
Gospels, Jesus had promised that He was going to come again. We are still waiting for this Second Coming
happen, and when it does, it will turn a new page in the existence of those who
have died.
When Jesus comes back, He will raise
all people who have died, and their bodies and souls will be reunited. Everyone who trusted in Him to forgive their
sins and save them from their well-deserved punishment will live forever in a
“new heavens and new earth.” (Isaiah 65-66, 2 Peter 3, Revelation 21) This new
heaven and earth will not be like the one we now know, with its sorrows,
difficulties, and pains. Instead, it
will be perfect, the way God intended when He first created the world before
Adam and Eve sinned.
In short, the
timeline of existence after death looks like this: A person’s body and soul are separated at
death. The souls of those who trust in
Jesus will go to be with Him in heaven, and the souls of those who reject Him
will go to eternal punishment. One day
in the future, Jesus will come back, raising all people from death and
reuniting their souls with perfected bodies.
Those who trust in Jesus will live forever in these resurrected bodies
in a new heaven and new earth.
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