The New Testament Teaches Mans Endless Conscious Existence
The citation of a few New Testament verses make it clear that mans conscious existence is endless.
And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose .
Please notice how the Holy Spirit says that the bodies slept. Jesus said:
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep . . . Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead .
Death to our Lord was never anything more than sleep. It is a figure of speech that the Bible applies, for there is never a pause in our consciousness. It was the body of Lazarus that was dead. It was his body that Martha said stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. When Jesus said plainly that Lazarus was dead, He could mean only his body, for when He added: I go, that I may awake Him out of sleep, He did this by raising the body of Lazarus from death and the grave. We read in verse forty-four: And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes. The part of Lazarus that was dead was that part of him that was bound hand and foot, and his face.
The Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse into his inner life in an experience that appears only once in all of his writings.
In Christs account of the rich man and Lazarus we have the matter summed up and settled that the soul is conscious after death. Both men died and were buried. Though their bodies were in the graves, each of them was alive and conscious. The rich man in Hell could see, hear, speak, and feel .
Is There Life After Death
Though we may die, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live . We will receive immortality when Jesus comes again . The Bible says that all those who have diedboth righteous and wickedwill be raised to life in one of two resurrections. The righteous will be raised to life at Jesus second coming. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first . According to this verse, the righteous do not go to heaven when they die. They remain asleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raises them to immortal life .
The wicked are raised to life in a separate resurrectionthe resurrection of condemnation. Jesus said, Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forththose who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation .
When He returns, our loved ones asleep in Christ will awake from their tombs. No matter how long the time has passed, be it long or short, will seem but a moment to them. By the voice of Jesus, they are called forth from their deep slumber they will begin to think just where they ceased, awakening to a glorious immortality.
Death is swallowed up in victory .
O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? .
What Happens After The Resurrection
It is at the time of resurrection that each of us will be judged individually by Jesus, our Savior. This final judgment will be based on our desires, actions, and choices.
Only God and Jesus know our hearts and our life circumstances perfectly, so only they can judge us perfectly. This judgment will be one of mercy, healing, and love .
Gods ultimate goal is to help all His children return to live with Him in the celestial kingdom. Yet it is our choices here and now that will shape where we spend eternity. We must believe in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, be baptized in His name, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We also need to keep the commandments throughout the rest of our livesand repent when we fall short.
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Bible Verses About Life After Death And Heaven
Theres more to life after death or eternal life than you may know. In Christian eschatology, life continues as with God in Heaven. Conversely, Christians believe that lifes flame will perish in hell if God deems it a more suitable place for the person.
Jump ahead to these sections:
Other translations and versions of the Bible offer slight differences to the excerpt quotes below, which may alter the phrasing if not the entire meaning of the passage.
Where Do Bodies Go After Death
The redeemed are ushered into the eternal presence of the Lord, and those without an advocate are ushered into hell to await the New Heaven and New Earth.
The Bible teaches that the human spirit, upon departing the body, goes immediately into the presence of God for either His welcoming or His disapproval. Thus, our blessed Savior taught this truth when He gave the parable of the wicked in Hell crying out to Abraham for refreshment:
There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich mans table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abrahams side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish .
There is no more concise and thoroughly Biblical expression of faith about the soul going immediately to be with God until the resurrection than the 38th question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:
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What Does The Bible Say About Life After Death
What really happens after you die according to the Bible.
When our loved ones die, we mourn and wonder whats next for the people we cared for so deeply. Are they watching over us? Can we communicate with them? Will we ever see them again?
Next to God, the dead are the only group of people who really know what happens when you die. Since we cant hear directly from the dead, we often turn to explanations from scientists on what happens when we die.
Death, just like life is a process, scientists say. The first stage of the process is known as clinical death. It lasts from four to six minutes, beginning when a person stops breathing and the heart starts pumping blood. During this time, there may be enough oxygen in the brain that no permanent brain damage occurs. Other organs, like the kidneys and the eyes also remain alive throughout clinical death.
In the second stage of dying, known as biological death, the cells of the body begin to degenerate, and the bodys organs including the brain shut own. In this stage, doctors are sometimes able to stall it by inducing hypothermia cooling the body to below its normal temperature. This method can stop the degeneration of cells and has been used to revive cardiac-arrest patients.
The Bible says, The living are conscious that they will die, but as far as the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . Therefore, when we die, we cease to exist. The dead cant act, think, or feel anything.
Hades Is The Heart Of The Earth And The Lower Parts Of The Earth
In Matthew 12:40, the Lord, in comparing Himself to the prophet Jonah, said,
For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Footnote 1 on this verse explains what the heart of the earth is:
The heart of the earth is called the lower parts of the earth and Hades , where the Lord went after His death
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Dead Until The Resurrection
We have seen that the Bible teaches that a dead person remains dead until the resurrection. Both the Apostle Paul and Jesus referred to death as a sleep, and one who is dead has no consciousnessremaining in the grave until the resurrection. Note what Jesus said in John 5:28, “Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” . Other translations use the word “judgment” instead of “condemnation.” Yes, the hope for all of us is the resurrection. Faithful Christians are resurrected to immortality at the Second Coming of Christ!
Scripture shows that immortality is a gift from God! “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” . Notice that the scripture does not state “the wages of sin is immortal life in Hell-fire.” The wages of sin is death, the absence of life. If you already had an immortal soulif you already had eternal lifethen you would not need it as a gift from God. Eternal life is a wonderful gift through our living Savior, Jesus Christ!
We have learned that faithful Christians will be resurrected at the return of Jesus Christ to this earth, at the last trumpet. They will be transformed from mortal to immortal, from a natural body to a spiritual body. It will be a glorious time!
New Heavens New Earth
The resurrection of the body, then, shows us that a disembodied heaven was never meant by God to last forever. There must be a physical realm for the physically raised body to dwell in. This is the new creation, which, like the resurrection body, is a physical reality. The new creation is the earth transformed by the power of God into everything he originally intended for it when he made it in the beginning. It is heaven come down to earth .
The glories of the new creation far transcend the glories of the present creation, a creation that itself is staggering in its testimony to the goodness, beauty, and glory of God . The world as God originally made it was very good but incomplete. It had not yet been brought into the state God intended for it, a state that Adam, Eve, and their descendants would have entered into had Adam been faithful in the work God originally gave him. This truth is seen most clearly in Revelation 22:15, where Gods people, in the fullness of the new creation, eat from the tree of life and live forever, without the possibility that this blessed state could ever be lost.
Heaven, like God himself, is a world we understand truly, and yet fall far short of understanding fully.
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What Happens After We Die
Many of us wonder what happens after we die. We lived before we came to earth, and we will continue to live after we die. Knowing this plan can provide comfort and peace about death. While we mourn for those loved ones weve lost, there is hopedeath is not the end.
What Happens when I Die?
Is There Life After Death In The Holy Bible
Our lives do not end when we die physically, they continue to eternity. Life after death is the life one lives after they die and are buried. Physical death transitions us into a life where our souls live on. The Bible has verses to prove there is life after death. Ecclesiastes 12:7 says that our bodies return to the earth, and our spirits return to God. Our bodies were made from the dust of the earth, and that is where they go after we die. Our spirits live on after death.
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Bible Verses On The Future Resurrection Of The Dead
Here are other Bible verses that reiterate the truth that the dead will be resurrected at a future time. These can provide comfort when we are dealing with the death of a loved one.
- Jesus Christ speaking: This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day .
- Jesus Christ speaking: Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forththose who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation .
- The apostle Paul writing: Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changedin a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed .
- Samuels mother, Hannah, in one of her prayers: The LORD kills and makes alive He brings down to the grave and brings up .
- Isaiah prophesying: Your dead shall live together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead .
And later there will be another resurrection of those who in their lifetime had not been called to be followers of Jesus Christ.
Your Body And Soul Need Redeeming From The Fall
David wrote in Psalm 19 about the wonder of Gods world, His creation. But in verse seven David makes a turn. The general revelation gives evidence of Almighty God, but special revelation, Gods Word, is necessary to do this one thing: revive the human soul. Psalm 19:17 says The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul .
Indeed, we are to be born again, the soul undergoing a supernatural transition, making it fit for heaven. Our souls are lost without redemption.
The Bible teaches that there is no other redemption available except that way that Almighty God has provided through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ: And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved .
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The Punishment Of The Wicked
The Bible plainly tells us what the punishment of the wicked is. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 1:9, “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.” Quite plain and quite clear! The wicked will be punished with everlasting destruction, not hell for all eternity. Psalms 92:7 says “When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever!” Psalms 104:35 says, Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.” Quite clear again, the Bible is always clear when you allow it to explain itself.
The True Bible Sabbath
The Sabbath day was made at creation. In Gen. 2:2 it says that “and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the SEVENTH DAY from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” NOTE: Sanctify means to set apart as holy for a holy purpose consecrate. NOTE: God rested on the seventh day, not because he needed rest, but to set an example for us. God knew that we would need a day set aside from our hard work in which to rest, worship Him, and to gain spiritual strength. The Sabbath was created to be a blessing and a joy to man. “The Sabbath was created for man.” Mark 2:27.
The Sabbath is a memorial to creation. Ex. 20:8-11 says “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” NOTE: The Lord blessed and hallowed the seventh day Sabbath.
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