Hello. I was reading a Facebook story about a woman who almost died and claims to have seen her father with wings saying he was always with her and waiting for her when it was time. Immediately I thought of my poor dead mother with wings watching my sinful life. I know the verse about all tears being wiped away but that is after the end of the world... right? I am a baby Christian and am confused and mortified.
This is a lesson on the state of the dead found at Amazingfacts.org state of the dead.
Hope it answers your question.
Do good people go to heaven when they die?
"All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth."
John 5:28,
29. "David ... is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day." "For David is not ascended into the heavens."
Acts 2:29,
34. "If I wait, the grave is mine house."
Job 17:13.
Answer: No, people do not go either to heaven or hell at death. They go to their graves to await the resurrection day.
7. How much does one know or comprehend after death?
"The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."
Ecclesiastes 9:5,
6,
10. "The dead praise not the Lord."
Psalms 115:17.
Answer: God says that the dead know absolutely nothing!
Though millions think it is possible, the dead cannot communicate with the living.
8. But can't the dead communicate with the living, and aren't they aware of what the living are doing?
"So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." "His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them."
Job 14:12,
21. "Neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun."
Ecclesiastes 9:6.
Answer: No, the dead cannot contact the living, nor do they know what the living are doing. They are dead. Their thoughts have perished (
Psalms 146:4).
Jesus calls death "sleep." It is a state of total unconsciousness.
9. Jesus called the unconscious state of the dead "sleep" in John 11:11-14. How long will they sleep?
"So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more."
Job 14:12. "The day of the Lord will come ... in the which the heavens shall pass away."
2 Peter 3:10.
Answer: The dead will sleep until the great day of the Lord at the end of the world. In death, humans are totally unconscious with no activity or knowledge of any kind.
The righteous will be raised to life and given immortality at Jesus' second coming.
Satan has the ability to impersonate the dead.