” Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”
Some religions believe that a person’s soul goes to a place that is called “purgatory” (a place of spiritual cleansing) AFTER death. OTHERS believe that the souls of those who lived a holy life go to heaven AFTER death, that it roams the earth because it needs to convey a message to family OR friends, that souls can return to earth in dreams AFTER death, can appear to family and friends in HUMAN form AFTER death OR that it is REBORN after death, and return to earth to continue the cycle of life.
The question that needs to be answered however, is whether these believes are supported OR confirmed by the Word of God; the God who created the universe? As a spiritual descendant of the Abrahamic religions, my arguments and views are STRICTLY based on the Torah and the New Testament of the Bible.
I believe that life; whether earthly OR heavenly, started at given point in time out of NOTHING. Although the law of thermodynamics stipulates that NOTHING can be created from nothing, the Force that started life as WE know and perceive it here on earth, was SO awesome and omnipotent, that it overrode the chemical, biological AND physical laws of OUR reality. It is THIS unknown and unseen force that exists from the beginning of eternity…. BEFORE the creation of the universe; that WE call God.
AFTER God shaped an image of Himself out of the dust of the earth, He blew HIS life giving spirit into this lifeless and dead doll-like object. As soon as He did this, the doll became a LIVING soul (earthly dust + God’s immortal life-giving spirit = immortal soul) that was holy, perfect in EVERY way and immortal. (Genesis 2:7)The objective of THIS soul was to worship his Creator and to serve Him. THIS is HOW man’s soul arrived on earth….through the spirit of God.
God created man as an IMMORTAL being, who was supposed to live on THIS earth FOREVER to rule over it as a caretaker in his Creator’s service. Death was a perception that did NOT exist in our Lord’s spirit, and for THIS reason was NOT an ingredient of His creation. It was only AFTER Eve (the woman God created as a partner and soul-mate for Adam) disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of the tree of “good and evil,” that man lost his immortality and death entered the world.
Through the millennia since creation, man’s once immortal and perfect body grew weaker and became stained with genetic impurities and decease. The years of his life became shorter….from immortal, to 900 years, to 600 years, to 200 years, to a few seconds. Sin escalated from eating the forbidden fruit, to murder, to bigamy and polygamy, to prostitution, to homosexuality, to betrayal and deceit, to adultery, to idolatry…… an endless continuing spiral.
Because of the violent and brutal nature of sin, man was isolated and separated from God: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” (Isaiah59:1-2). Man’s soul became SO tainted with irreversible wickedness that God’s spirit departed from him. He was eventually born to be destined for the fires of hell. THIS was HIS eternal destiny, WITHOUT the option of redemption. From the beginning God declared that the soul who sinned SHALL die (Ezekiel 18:4).
The human race became prisoners of sin. The rate, at which sin was contaminating God’s creation, was SO alarming to Him, that He HAD to intervene to save man’s soul from eternal oblivion. The ONLY way the human race could be saved and be set free, was by the blood of a sinless person. In fact, this was the non-negotiable prerequisite of God. NOTHING else would satisfy OR please Him.
This EXTREME sacrifice required BY God, created a dilemma, because AFTER the fall of Adam and Eve, all men AND women were born from a sinful nature. Not even a newly born infant was exempted from sin. NO ONE on earth could comply with God’s criteria. To take the blood of a sin-filled person would just NOT meet our Creator’s requirement. Out of a human point of view the price God desired FOR the deliverance of man, would NOT be possible, because ALL have sinned and fell short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). THIS implied that man would NEVER be able to reconcile with his Creator. ALL his descendants would be destined for judgement and condemnation after the resurrection of the dead. “….. those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.“ (John 5:29).
The ONLY way THIS non-negotiable prerequisite of God could be met, was if God Himself was to become a man….so He did, in the person of Jesus, who died on the cross in OUR place. HE took OUR curse and sin upon Him, so that we could be set free from OUR sinful bondage and captivity (Isaiah 53:1-5). “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…..” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It is however VERY important to remember that NONE of ANY of our GOOD deeds will earn us God’s favour. WE cannot EARN God’s favour. It is GIVEN to us by God through grace. In Ephesians 2:8, the apostle Paul is exceedingly clear that salvation comes to us from God's grace, which we receive through faith (trust): "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (NIV).However, BEFORE we enter heaven OR hell, there’s STILL the question of the interim phase. What happens IMMEDIATELY after death?
When Lazarus died, Jesus said: “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” (John 11:11). The Bible compares death to sleep. AFTER death we are asleep, unconscious; NOT aware of the passing of time OR what is going on around us. That is what death is like. “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing… their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished” (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 146:4; 115:17). AFTER Lazarus was raised from the dead, he didn’t share what he saw or experienced, because he had NO recollection of ANYTHING. The ONLY thing he knew for sure was that once he was dead, and now he was alive again. He didn’t experience hell OR heaven. He was simply “sleeping” in his tomb. “ 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.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, NKJV). According to THIS verse, the righteous do NOT to go heaven when they die. They remain asleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raises them to immortal life ( 1 Corinthians 15:50-57).Peter on the Day of Pentecost said the SAME of King David: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day…For David did not ascend into the heavens…”(Acts 2:29, 34).
On the question: “What happens to a person’s soul AFTER death,” there could only be TWO answers: “eternal life” OR “eternal death” When the spirit of a person is returned to his body in the grave at resurrection day, the dead body becomes a living soul again. Only THIS time the soul is clothed with immortality, as it was BEFORE the fall of man, when God first created Adam. (1Corinthians 15:53-54)(ESV). Those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour and Redeemer, and believed that His blood has set them free, will rise from the grave to eternal life and spend eternity with God. But those who REFUSED to accept Him; and REJECTED Him….who died as sinners, will rise from the grave to eternal condemnation and death….the SECOND death, where they will spend eternity SEPERATED from God’s presence: “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth….” (Luke 13:28).
