What Happens When You Die?

[Mark]

This may be a topic that has already been discussed, but I am curious about what happens when someone dies. Obviously, according to scripture, when a believer dies, he or she does not just go to Heaven, right? If that were so, scripture would not talk about when Christ returns how those who were dead in Christ will rise first. Am I understanding that correctly? So when we die, we all "sleep" until the rapture? Unless someone were taken directly to Heaven and did not "see" death, everyone who has died and was a Christian are still "sleeping" until He returns? Just curious if I am understanding that.

[sheep wrecked]

(12-11-2009 12:39 PM)Mark Wrote:  This may be a topic that has already been discussed, but I am curious about what happens when someone dies. Obviously, according to scripture, when a believer dies, he or she does not just go to Heaven, right? If that were so, scripture would not talk about when Christ returns how those who were dead in Christ will rise first. Am I understanding that correctly? So when we die, we all "sleep" until the rapture? Unless someone were taken directly to Heaven and did not "see" death, everyone who has died and was a Christian are still "sleeping" until He returns? Just curious if I am understanding that.

Mark, I think when one spends time in the Word, this stuff is basic, really, unless you are part of a cult like the SDA who believes in soul sleep. For them, it is more important to listen to their "prophet" Ellen White, than to search the scriptures for the truth.

Believers do not "sleep". Our bodies turn to dust and will be raised on the last day and be changed from corruptible [dust/flesh] to incorruptible [a spiritual or heavenly body] in the twinkling of an eye [1 Cor 15].

"Sleep" in the Bible is simply a term that means dead. Just as Jesus died in the flesh, He did not die in Spirit - He commended His Spirit to the Father. The Spirit returns to God who gave it. For unbelievers, they remain dead until judgment - they are not in "soul sleep" - their spirits just remain apart from God.

The greatest joy of the believer is that upon their death here, is that they are immediately in the presence of the Lord in Heaven. What happens on the return of Christ is that the spirit is reunited with the body. It is a miraculous event.

2Co 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
2Co 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2Co 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight: )
2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2Co 5:9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Ecc 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Ecc 12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

[YYZ Skinhead]

(12-11-2009 01:08 PM)sheep wrecked Wrote:  Mark, I think when one spends time in the Word, this stuff is basic, really, unless you are part of a cult like the SDA who believes in soul sleep. unless you are part of a cult like the SDA who believes in soul sleep. For them, it is more important to listen to their "prophet" Ellen White, than to search the scriptures for the truth.

Believers do not "sleep". Our bodies turn to dust and will be raised on the last day and be changed from corruptible [dust/flesh] to incorruptible [a spiritual or heavenly body] in the twinkling of an eye [1 Cor 15].

"Sleep" in the Bible is simply a term that means dead. Just as Jesus died in the flesh, He did not die in Spirit - He commended His Spirit to the Father. The Spirit returns to God who gave it. For unbelievers, they remain dead until judgment - they are not in "soul sleep" - their spirits just remain apart from God.

The greatest joy of the believer is that upon their death here, is that they are immediately in the presence of the Lord in Heaven. What happens on the return of Christ is that the spirit is reunited with the body. It is a miraculous event.

2Co 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
2Co 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
2Co 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight: )
2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2Co 5:9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Ecc 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Ecc 12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

I used to go to an SDA school. I believed in soul sleep for years. Only recently have I heard "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord", but I seem to remember hearing and/or seeing it previously. One of the few hopes I have after watching my family die was that they were Godly people, so I know where they went/will be going. They worshipped and obeyed the One True God of Israel, so they will end up in heaven if they aren't already there. There is time on earth and in space, because time is a created thing. I assume time doesn't exist in heaven since God is eternal.