Question about where people go when they die

[honeyny22]

I have been wondering about this for some time now and have never really gotten a straight answer, My question is does Jesus judge us one by one when we die, if we go before He comes back for his people I mean or is he storing (that sounds weird) the ones that die before that time somewhere and judge us all together, to me that would make more sense. Can someone clarify that for me please.

 

[singpeace]

The Bible tells us that when a Christian dies, he or she goes to Heaven to be with Jesus. Then in my opinion, the Bible states we will all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ together, but He will judge each of us according to the works we have done.

2 Corinthians 5:8
“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

Luke 23:46
When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” And having said this, He breathed His last.

Acts 7:59
They stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”



Romans 14:10
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,(N) so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

Everyone, the bible says, will be resurrected, some to eternal life with a new resurrected body, others...well they will be cast into eternal darkness and damnation. This doctrine which is essential to Christian Orthodoxy is one I could do without and if it were up to me I would not include it in Christianity. But it is not up to me, since we are Christians and called by His name we are to live by and believe every word that our God and Saviour says. More than any other person in the bible the Lord Jesus spoke of a eternal place of suffering and because He said it, it must be true. Whatever kind of place it is, we know it will be most dreadful because of one main thing and that is that the presence of the Lord will not be there.

Christians will not be judged like the unbelievers will, when we appear before the judgement seat, Jesus Himself will tell the Father that we belong to Him, that we are covered in the blood of the Lamb and we are clean because of this. Unbelievers the bible says will be judged according to their works and according to what they did with what they knew about Christ and the rejection of that Light.

Where a person goes after death in the present and before the resurrection is really debatable. I believe that Christians go to Jesus, as Paul said: "Absent from the body, present with the Lord."

Where unbelievers go is more of a complex issue, although there is a story that Jesus tells about a man in hades trying to reach his friends to tell them not to come to this place, the parable shows that after the man died in the story he went to some place of torment.

The after life is a very mysterious thing and I don't think we have the capacity to comprehend the spiritual aspect of it in this life, it will be a new frontier and something that we never thought possible.

In the words of C.S. Lewis:

God is going to invade all right. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe, melting away like a dream, and something else, something it never entered your head to conceive comes crashing in. Something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. For this time it will be God without disguise. Something so overwhelming, that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you could choose to lie down when it is become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing. It will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen. Whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side.

 

[texastig]

Our salvation is not judged because we have passed from death into life. Our
works will be judged by fire.

 

[JudgeEden]

YouTube - State of the Dead part1

YouTube - State of the Dead part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAlqOkf3Gvs&feature=related

 

[CLM9999]

No one really knows how the Judgement will be. God gives us some clues, but we can barely understand what time itself is much less what God will do with it in the afterlife.

 

[heron]

Jesus told a story about deceased people under the earth, which was the Jewish tradition for many years. The poor and ailing Lazarus had asked a wealthy man for food, and was denied; after they died, the poor man was in a more favorable location.

Interlinear Study Bible on StudyLight.org

Later, at the cross, Jesus told the thief beside him that "today you will be with me in Paradise."

Jesus preached about eternal life with the Father, in heaven. This was a fairly new or at least controversial topic at the time. Heaven was a new invitation, an offer for a better afterlife than the original plan.

There are some statements that are unclear after that, where at times He says He's coming back for us, and at other times it implies we have eternal life "upon impact." Many near death experiences have shown a fairly immediate transition, if that helps.

I would suggest that you do a search and develop your doctrine from research though, instead of trusting what we tell you.

Search for 'eternal life' - NAS - Study Desk
Search for 'second death' - RSV - Study Desk
Search for 'paradise' - RSV - Study Desk
Search for 'redemption' - RSV - Study Desk
Search for 'salvation' - RSV - Study Desk

It's a great way to study the Bible, when you have a goal in mind.

 

[GhostKid]

Based on several pieces of scripture... which unfortunately I don't have the time to grab up and quote here....It is my belief that we do not know for a fact ALL the things that happen to Followers Of Christ after death. We do know that we are not going to be subject to death. All in all the care of His sheep after we pass from the temporary is His business. Just know that anything we come up will be a far cry from the true beauty and reality that awaits us.

 

[fm107]

I have been wondering about this for some time now and have never really gotten a straight answer, My question is does Jesus judge us one by one when we die, if we go before He comes back for his people I mean or is he storing (that sounds weird) the ones that die before that time somewhere and judge us all together, to me that would make more sense. Can someone clarify that for me please.

When a Christian dies he/she goes to Paradise (this isn't Heaven but more like a waiting place, it's a place of peace and rest, see Luke 16:25).

Luke 23:43
Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

It is important that we don't believe Paradise and Heaven to be the same place. We know it isn't because Jesus was in Paradise when he died but later when he rose from the dead, after 40 days he only then ascended into Heaven NOT BEFORE.

John 20:17
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.

ALL the believers (both dead at the time and alive) will go to Heaven together with Jesus:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

So those Christians who are dead and are in Paradise will be brought fourth from their graves in new heavenly bodies and caught up in the clouds with Jesus. Then those Christians who are still alive on the Earth will also be caught up on the cloud with Jesus. This will happen VERY quickly when it does happen:

1 Corinthians 15:52
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.

The part I refer to is our bodies, we will be given imperishable bodies. Of course, those who have been dead for hundreds of years will be dust etc. We are given incorruptible bodies, bodies which don't become sick etc, bodies of glory.

Now in answer to your question. After we are caught up in the clouds with Christ, we will be judged (but not condemned). God will go over with us (probably individually) all that we have done in our lives. We will be rewarded for what we have done.

Revelation 22:12
"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Either before this or after this, there will be a wedding in Heaven. I believe this will happen before we are judged.

Revelation 19:7
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.

The bride mentioned here is the church and the church is all the believers:

1 Corinthians 12:27
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Colossians 1:18
And he is the head of the body, the church

I think I should stop at this point because if not, I'll be writing too much!

Hope this helps anyway.

With love, your brother in Christ.

 

[SanctuaryoftheGnosis]

We are not saved by our deeds, but by our grace. It is distinctive.

Ephesians 2:4-5 "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."

Grace is something we do not possess unless we are within the spirit of God and his Son Yeshua the Christ. Our grace is the measure of our spirituality, and it can be seen through our words and actions in situations both dire and jubilant. Through this alone are we saved, for without his guidance we are as dust and hapless fools.

And yeah, I always talk like that. -.-

 

[SanctuaryoftheGnosis]

Ephesians 2:8-10

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."