WHERE DO WE GO WHEN WE DIE? In keeping with the website s theme of talking about Religion, Space and Random Thoughts, I have decided to write about one Scientifically Religious if you know what I mean topic. This is one burning question that s been bugging a lot of people, myself inclusive, and I ve decided to air my thoughts on this topic. Before we go on however, I want you to understand that everything discussed below are strictly my thoughts on the subject. They are not to be taken as doctrine or as completely infallible. They are just my own feeling about what happens to our spirit (or soul) when we die. Let me start with a passage from the Bible, taken from the book of Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10. 10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (King James Version) 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. (New International Version) 10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. (Holy Bible, New Living Translation)
10 Work hard at whatever you do. You will soon go to the world of the dead, where no one works or thinks or reasons or knows anything. (Contemporary English Version) 10 Every time you find work to do, do it the best you can. In the grave there is no work. There is no thinking, no knowledge, and there is no wisdom. And we are all going to the place of death. (Holy Bible: Easy-to- Read Version, Revised Edition) So, with this single verse of scripture, taken from different translations, I think one thing is pretty much obvious: that when we die, we go to the grave! But of course, you know that already. So what am I saying? Well, it s that after death, as I m pretty sure you ve been thought your whole life, we re supposed to go either to HEAVEN or to HELL, right? If you ve done good, you go to heaven immediately after you die, at the bosom of the savior, to be with the Lord forever and if you ve been bad, you go straight to hell where you will be tormented by demons in a never ending fire for all eternity. Well I m telling you that that s not a complete truth after all. But do remember, I said that this is simply my own thought on the matter, so I wouldn t want you to take this as a doctrine or anything, but hear me out and then try to think very well about what I am going to discuss, then you can decide for yourself what you believe in, after all, it all boils down to what each of us believe in. Now back to the above passage. The Bible says that we should work while we re still alive because when we die, there is no work, no thoughts, no knowledge, no feeling, no reason, nothing at all. It s all silent. Silent and dark. Does this sound like hell to you? I doubt it. In hell, there s supposed to be an eternal flame. It burns you, and if a person is burning, it s hard to imagine such a situation to be without feelings at all. I mean, how can you be burning in hell and not even feel it? And besides, it defeats the whole purpose of there being a hell in the first place. Hell is supposed to be a place of punishment to non-repentant sinners after death, where their souls are tormented for all eternity as punishment for the life of sin they lived while still alive.
So what happens when we die, if we do not go to hell? Well, since we don t go to hell (or heaven) when we die, where do we go? And I believe the answer to that is pretty simple. Nowhere! We go nowhere at all after death. We stay in the grave where we have been buried, or for the unlucky ones, in the place where they died, either by accident or any other forms of death (may their souls rest in peace!). At this stage of our life (or death, actually), we do not go anywhere at all. Not Heaven, not Hell. We simply are there in the grave. This is possible because at this stage, the spirit or soul technically is sleeping at that time. Everything is just dark, silent and unmoving. But of course, we do not know that. After all, there is no thinking or knowledge in the grave. So we simply stay there with absolutely no consciousness at all. We don t feel or think anything. We can t know fear or any other emotions because we do not exist anymore at this stage. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1 Thess 4:16, King James Version) As you can see from the passage, if the dead in Christ were already in Heaven, why would there be a need for them to rise first again. Because rising again will mean they will come to receive judgement to go back again to Heaven where they came from to receive their judgements. What s the point of that! 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each
person was judged according to what he had done. (Rev 20:12-13, New International Version) Here again you can see what the Bible says in verse 13 of the above passage. The sea have to presently give up the dead that were in it, whether they were good or bad. They had been staying in the sea ever since they died, they did not go to Heaven or to hell. Again, death and Hades the Hebrew word for place of the dead, or grave have to also give up the dead in them so they could come and receive judgment and then go either to Heaven or to hell. So at death, we stay in the grave with no consciousness at all. But that is not the end! The journey is far from over! That state is simply another phase of a much longer, eternal journey. The first phase is now that we re still alive. If you are reading this article right now, then you are probably not dead yet. Just kidding, of course you re still alive and well. After this we enter the next phase of our life, which is death, where there is nothing at all in the grave. Then after sometimes, may be a few months, or a few years or even thousands of years, depending on when we die, we WILL resurrect again at the resurrection of the dead. This is the Second Coming of Christ. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" e; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we f bear the likeness of the man from heaven. 50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:42-55, New International Version) 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1 Thess 4:16, King James Version) Jesus Christ will come back again and take the saints who are alive to himself in Heaven. But of course, they (or we) will not be the first ones to go. The dead people who are in the grave, silent
and unconscious will first rise up IF and only if they had lived holy life before they died. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thess 4:17, King James Version) But make no mistake. If you die as a sinner, no matter how long you stay in the grave, you will go to hell when you finally resurrect to receive judgement for what you have done. The only solution to prevent this is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today and invite Him into your life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23, New International Version) So now you know what happens at death. Please leave your comments below.