Over the month of May, I asked people to send in their tough Doctrine Questions that weren't answered during our Detox series at REVO Church. On May 29th, the three pastors at REVO fielded the questions that people had emailed, texted, and written on our facebook and twitter pages. The next few posts are the LIVE answers to the questions that were asked.
You can also listen to the podcast of this service my clicking HERE.
Q: What happens when you die?
A: Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8 that the body and soul separate. Your body stay here on earth and becomes fertilizer, and your soul goes on to the afterlife (heaven or hell, depending on how you answer the question "Who is Jesus?"
As far as the timeline goes, Luke 23:43 records that when Jesus was hanging on the cross and one of the criminals recognized for who he truly was, Jesus told him TODAY you will be with me in heaven. There are a few scenarios that people argue concerning this thought:
1. One popular misconception/thought is purgatory. Souls go to a “holding tank” to be purified by their sins. People on earth pray for their forgiveness and one day, if enough people pray for them they will reach the state of sanctification and be allowed into heaven. The Catholic faith get this from extra-biblical sources in the Apocrypha, so the main thrust behind the concept of purgatory doesn’t even come from the Bible. I'm not comfortable basing my concept of eternity on extra-biblical sources.
2. Some people believe in Soul-Sleep, or an unconscious, sleep state. When you die your soul just goes to sleep. You just kind of cease to exist; you really just turn into nothing. However, the word “sleep’ in Scripture is often used as a synonym for the temporary death that believers in Jesus experience, so people have gotten these concepts confused. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, death is not the end. It doesn’t just stop. Christ was victorious over death, so that we could have eternal life.
A book was recently published by Rob Bell called "Love Wins." The way he answers this question in the book is that when we die, the Love of God trumps all other rules and regulations, and in the end all will go to heaven regardless of what decisions were made on earth. It's a sketchy form of universalism I suppose. So I guess that brings about another question: Will people have another chance to choose Christ after they die?
The answer is no. Luke 16:24-26 tells the story of the rich man in hell that calls out for help, begs for another chance, and tries to bargain with God. The statement "none may cross" from hell to heaven or back to earth drives home this idea.
So what happens when you die? You don’t go to sleep, you don’t get put in a waiting room (a cosmic DMV of sorts), and you don’t have one more chance to do the right thing. You immediately enter the presence of God as a believer in Jesus or endure eternal punishment and separation from God in Hell.
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