So What Really Happens After Death?

I had promised in my previous blog that I will write today on the Biblical perspective on death and after life, in which I strongly believe.

Bible, in the Old Testament (OT), the scripture of the Jews/Israel, continued as the Scripture of the Christians as OT, does not clearly mention much about after life. Psalmist writes about not being left in the grave to rot (Psalm 16:10) and Job talks about seeing his Redeemer alive after death (Job 19: 25-26). There is a hint of resurrection and judgment in the life to come in these, but quite vague.

The main idea is that the dead go to the realm of the dead, called Sheol, a Hebrew word, may be a place deep down in the pit or just go to sleep in their graves, forgotten by everyone, including God (Psalm 88:3-4). When the Hebrew Bible (OT) was translated into Greek, called Septuagint, around 285 BC, during the reign of Ptolomy II Philadelphia, Egypt, the word Sheol was replaced by the Greek word Hades, which meant the underworld.

 It is only by the time of Prophet Daniel a clear idea of the dead coming to life again and facing judgment of God and being assigned specific places, emerges. “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt,” writes Daniel in Daniel 12:2. Daniel lived as an exile in Babylon, during the reign of Kings Nebuchadnezzar, Darius and Cyrus, around 530 BC.

After the return of Jews from exile to Jerusalem, around 538 BC, during the reign of the Persian Emperor, Cyrus the Great, Sheol was seen as a place of darkness below earth, where both the good and the bad souls go after death, but to separate compartments, the bad to torment and punishment and the good to comfort and solace, a sort of temporary abode for the dead.

This idea was reflected by Jesus himself when he narrated the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar, in Luke 16:19-31. In the afterlife, while the rich man was being tormented in a hell-like place, Lazarus was comforted in the bosom of Abraham, both separated by a great gulf.

During Jesus’ time, Pharisees, the most orthodox Jews, believed in resurrection, while the Sadducees, consisting of aristocratic Jews collaborating with the Roman rulers, did not believe in resurrection.

A human being, according to the Hebrew thought, prevailing at the time of Jesus, which has come into Christianity, consisted of three parts, the physical body, the soul or the inner person and the spirit. The physical body is meant mainly for life on earth and once we die, it decays and returns to dust from where man was originally taken during creation.

Genesis 2:7 narrates that “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” After the Fall, that happened due to the disobedience of the first couple, Adam and Eve, when God handed over their respective punishments, He told Adam, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19.

The soul, or the inner man or the real man, consists all that makes him/her a human being. His/her rational thinking power or the mind which analyses any situation, the will which takes the decision under any situation and the feelings or emotions associated with any and every situation. These make what we are in our daily human life.

This soul of a human being on death is lodged in a temporary abode, either in the hell-like place, if the person was bad and tormented or in a heaven-like place, where good persons go and are comforted. Jesus, while hanging on the cross, called this latter place Paradise, for imminent as his death was, he promised the thief who hung by his side and acknowledged him as Lord, that “…today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43.

The spirit of human beings is the part that communicates with his/her Maker, Creator. This is the spirit given to us during our creation and this is the part that got disconnected during the Fall. We have been asked to “worship God the Father in spirit and truth,” for “God is Spirit.” John 4:23-24.

To understand about the spirit of a human being, think of a car being driven by a driver. Men and women are the physical body with the soul, both being driven by the spirit. It is the spirit of human being that really maneuvers the human personality to make it take a certain course of action or path in life, just like a car is being driven by the driver, who decides where to go. So we say that the human spirit is indomitable.

In accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, we put our spirits under the control of God’s Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, who maneuvers our life to the right path according to the will of God. When our spirits rule, we are usually selfish, determined to go our way and do bring innumerable sufferings to ourselves and others.

On death our spirit returns to its Maker, God. Ecclesiastes 12:7, “and the spirit will return to God, who gave it.” 

Now, back to where we began. On death the body perishes, the soul goes to sleep as it were, but is conscious and is either suffering or comforted, as the case may be, and the spirit returns to God. Then what? For how long these remain so? What happens ultimately?

The death, burial and the resurrection of Jesus on the third day as prophesied by him brought in clarity to a subject shrouded in mystery till then. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, was resurrected by God and appeared to His disciples many times, during a period of 40 days, before He was take to the heavens. Eyewitnesses have written about this in the gospels, and in the historical documents called the Acts of the Apostles. Acts 1:3, 9.

The resurrection of Jesus showed us without doubt that at the end of the age, we all, both good and the bad, saved and unsaved, will be raised from the dead, that is, resurrected to face judgment of God. We will have glorious bodies, not our earthly physical bodies, which have decayed on our death, but will be clothed in a glorious, resurrection body, suitable for life in the spirit realm. I Corinthians 15:44.

Apostle Paul writes in detail about these matters in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15. The end of the age as we know will be marked by the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, who will come in power and glory. On His return to earth, the dead will rise again and those who believed in Him, but not yet dead, will be transformed in a trice and taken to heaven. Everyone will be transformed and face the judgment of God. 

Judgment scene itself is described in the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, in the New Testament. Revelation 20:11-15. All the dead will stand before God’s throne. Based on the deeds done on earth, recorded in books, God will judge the nations and the individuals.

Those who believed in Christ and the good will go to inherit heaven and live for eternity in glory and in the presence of God and Christ. No further death for them.

Those who denied Christ and the wicked will be cast into hell fire along with the enemies of God, Satan, his followers and death itself, to be tormented for eternity, in the darkness, without the glorious presence of God and Christ. Bible calls this the Second Death. Revelation 20:14.

So is the urgent call by the believers to others to repent and accept Christ as their Savior and inherit eternal life and not face that horrible Second Death. Those who accept this call will find eternal life. This experience is called the 'conversion,' and such persons become 'born again.' 

God help you to find the right path.