What Happens to the Souls of Evil People When They Die

Benjamin Franklin said, "In this world zip can exist said to be certain, except decease and taxes." His words, though slightly humorous, remind u.s.a. of a very real truth: One of the things nosotros all accept in common is that everyone dies.

At one time or another, near people wonder what volition happen when they die. Death feels frightening and mysterious, and perspectives on what happens and what it means vary significantly.

To help you find some answers to this question, permit's explore some different views on this topic, including what the Bible has to say about it.

If you already know what you're looking for, yous can utilise these links to go direct to the topics that are most relevant for you:

Historical Beliefs About the Afterlife

When you ask, "What happens when you die?" you lot are joining generations of people who have asked that question throughout history.

The afterlife has historically had an important role in cultures all over the earth. Greek and Roman mythology described it as an underworld. Vikings talked about Valhalla, a paradise. Chinese mythology refers to the Diyu, or hell. Many of the Great Plains tribes saw it as a "happy hunting footing."

Fifty-fifty before recorded history, people buried the dead with food, weapons, valuables and other useful items. The living manifestly idea the dead would demand these things afterward expiry, implying a belief in an afterlife.

A Pick of Perspectives

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In that location are many means to approach the question, "What happens when you die?" People have looked for answers through scientific discipline, philosophy and religion. Even within those schools of thought, people accept a wide variety of beliefs about the afterlife.

Science and Medicine

People who study science and medicine take come up to very different conclusions near the afterlife. Some retrieve that to believe in science ways the supernatural, including life subsequently death, is not possible. Others believe that scientific discipline proves, or at least points to, the possibility of life later death.

Physicist Stephen Hawking compared death to a computer that stops working when information technology breaks. He thought of the afterlife equally a fairytale.

In contrast, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Max Planck believed physics shows that consciousness is not a product of physical matter (such every bit brain cells). Since it exists exterior of concrete matter, it could outlast physical death.

Others argue that the first law of thermodynamics, which states that free energy and matter cannot exist created or destroyed, ways life cannot end at decease.

Doctors and scientists accept also studied the experiences of people who have been declared clinically dead, only to be revived later. One large-scale scientific study, by a team from the Academy of Southampton in England, found prove of consciousness during a catamenia of cardiac arrest and no brain action.

Based on research and case studies like this, some scientists accept concluded there must be life after death.

Philosophy

Philosophy besides has a lot to say on this subject. Ancient philosophers similar Socrates and Plato believed that when the trunk died, the soul lived on. Years afterwards, Immanuel Kant concluded that morality requires life afterward death as well every bit the being of a only judge.

Atheist philosophers like Marx, Lenin and Nietzche did not believe in an afterlife. They viewed belief in an afterlife as in conflict with living life to its fullest.

Faith

Religion is 1 of the most common ways people answer the question of "what happens when yous die?" There are many unlike religions and almost as many behavior about the afterlife, even if it'southward that no afterlife exists.

Though the specifics differ, many religions have similar themes, such as reincarnation, heaven, hell, enlightenment or some combination of these. Some religions have very consequent beliefs across all followers. Other religious teachings exit more open to interpretation, which tin can event in a wide multifariousness of beliefs amidst members.

Christianity. Followers of Jesus believe that at that place is an afterlife and that Christ is non merely the key to life and love on this world, He is the key to what will happen when you die. The Bible teaches that when people die, their souls live on. People will spend eternity either with God (commonly chosen heaven) or separated from God (usually chosen hell).

People try to reach God through being very moral, doing good deeds, or behaving in means they retrieve of equally very religious. Just the Bible teaches that no i is actually worthy of spending eternity with God based on their own efforts. In fact, trying to get to heaven on the basis of our own endeavour is actually part of the problem the Bible refers to as sin. This is the trouble Jesus' death and resurrection solved for anyone who trusts in Jesus.

Merely why exercise we need Jesus to solve the trouble of sin?

Christians believe it's because nosotros've all called to go our own way, or insubordinate against God, so practice not deserve to be in heaven with Him forever. Trying to earn your way to heaven or make yourself good plenty for sky is essentially an attempt to be your own god. People remain imperfect, despite their best efforts.

Because God is perfect, imperfect people cannot spend eternity with Him in sky without ruining its perfection. Only a perfect God can make imperfect people perfect again. He did this by coming to globe in the person of Jesus Christ, living a perfect life and dying on behalf of all people so their wrongdoings and rebellion tin be forgiven.

When people have Jesus as their only fashion to God, they volition be given the righteousness of Christ so they can spend eternity with God (starting with a personal relationship with Him in this lifetime). Those who reject Jesus reject God. Since heaven is eternity with God, this ways they will be separated from God for eternity.

People who do not trust Jesus cannot go to sky because of what sky is.

Find out more than about what Christianity has to say.

Islam. Muslims believe people take immortal souls. After death, the destination of the soul depends on a person's skilful and bad deeds. Islam teaches that anybody will be resurrected (be raised to life once again) and face final judgment. People who are faithful and adept will enter paradise. People who are unfaithful and wicked will enter hell.

Judaism. In that location are different behavior about the afterlife inside Judaism. Most sacred Jewish texts describe some form of afterlife. The Hebrew Bible talks about "Sheol," and the Talmud describes "the World to Come up," though what exactly these are is not clear.

Some Jewish people believe simply the faithful and good will enter the afterlife but that the afterlife is open to good people of whatever worldview. Others believe in that location volition be a resurrection of everyone that will include a judgment of every person'south good and bad deeds to determine their eternal fate.

But many Jewish people do not believe in hell. Some do not believe in an afterlife at all, but place value on preserving culture and living on through futurity generations.

Baha'i. The Baha'i faith teaches that at death, the body dies, just the immortal, rational soul continues on in the spiritual realm and grows toward perfection. The prayers of people still on earth and practiced deeds done in the name of the person who died can help a soul brand progress in the side by side world.

Though Baha'i teaches of the truth of all religions, it does not promote the thought of a physical heaven and hell. Instead, references to heaven and hell are to be taken figuratively and symbolically. Baha'is do not believe in reincarnation.

Buddhism. At that place are several types of Buddhism with distinct teachings about the afterlife. In general, Buddhism teaches that eternal, individual souls practise not exist but that subsequently decease, people usually experience reincarnation based on their deportment and desires in this life. The ultimate goal is to finish the bike of reincarnation and reach an enlightened state called Nirvana. This is achieved through meditation, religious practice and the elimination of desire, hatred and ignorance.

Nirvana is characterized by liberty from suffering. It's not a physical location, merely a college state of being than the concrete world.

Hinduism. Hinduism includes a large variety of beliefs and practices and is both a organized religion and a civilization. The core Hindu belief about what happens afterward death focuses on reincarnation. Most Hindus believe in an eternal, immortal soul that is reincarnated at death based on its actions in life, known every bit its karma. The consequences of karma are automatic and cannot be avoided.

A person may suffer in 1 life for bad karma from the current life or a previous life. The ultimate goal in Hinduism is to achieve moksha, or freedom from reincarnation. This is achieved by eliminating bad karma through good deportment, meditation, spiritual devotion or freedom from ignorance and desire.

Once moksha is achieved, the soul becomes i with (or acknowledges that information technology and everything else is already 1 with) Brahman, the ultimate reality or universal God.

Sikhism. Sikhism emphasizes both living a skillful life in community and meditating on God. Sikhs believe a person experiences reincarnation until they resolve all of their karma and reach mukti, or liberation. This happens when 1 focuses their attention on God instead of self and attains a full understanding of God.

But God can cause someone to attain mukti, but people should strive to be close to God. When liberated, the individual becomes one with God.

Shinto. Shinto includes a number of dissimilar beliefs and practices simply does non emphasize the afterlife. Death is seen as impure in Shinto religion, and the focus is on this life, not the next.

Nigh Shintoists practice not necessarily believe in an eternal soul, but many exercise believe people can get kami, or sacred spirits who can protect their descendants. People oft worship their bequeathed kami and honor them through festivals.

Many Shintoists practice both Shinto and Buddhism and view death in a more Buddhist sense.

Taoism. Taoism, also known as Daoism, teaches near the Tao — the primal energy of life. There are a wide variety of beliefs and practices within Taoism. In general, Taoists seek to accomplish immortality through rituals and pursuing harmony and oneness with the universe.

Unitarian Universalism. Unitarianism does not accept a cadre ready of behavior and does not promote universal truth. Information technology emphasizes tolerance and rational thought. Unitarians may or may not believe in God or the supernatural, and its focus is on this life. Some Unitarians believe that people terminate to exist after death, while others believe at that place is some sort of afterlife or unification with God or the universe.

Unitarians do not believe in hell or eternal punishment. "Universalism" refers to the conventionalities in universal salvation.

Other Views. People who follow Jainism, Scientology, New Age Religion, Wicca and Hare Krishna believe in some form of reincarnation, just the specifics vary. Indigenous Chinese and Tibetian religions have similar, merely singled-out, beliefs almost the afterlife to Buddhism. Members of the Unification Church believe in a spirit world with God and eternal families.

Some religious groups that accept some basis in the Bible or who cocky-identify every bit Christian only have additional sacred texts pigment a different flick of the afterlife than the one found in the Bible. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are two of these groups.

Members of the Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter-solar day Saints (Mormons) believe that people were office of the spiritual kingdom before coming to globe and will render to their spiritual land when they die. Immediately after expiry, peoples' spirits enter the spirit world. The faithful will be in paradise, but others volition be in spirit prison, where they tin can cull to accept God or non.

Mormons believe in resurrection for all that reunites body and spirit. Afterward the terminal judgment, the faithful will enter the Celestial Kingdom with God and their eternal families. Those who are skilful but did not have God until the spirit globe will live in the Terrestrial Kingdom. Those who are non skilful and rejected God volition exist in the Telestial Kingdom. Endless punishment is reserved for the devil, his angels, and those who served him or totally turn down God.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe the soul is not separate from the physical trunk and dies with the body. For almost, death means nonexistence. A pocket-sized group of the most faithful (144,000) will be function of the first resurrection and reign with Jesus in heaven. Others who choose to serve God will be function of the 2d resurrection and live on a new earth forever.

Non-Religious Worldviews

Agnosticism. The word "agnostic" can refer to someone who does not know if God or anything supernatural exists or to someone who does non believe it is possible to know if God or the supernatural exist.

Disbelief. Atheists do not believe in God or gods and mostly do non believe in an afterlife. Most believe that at death, a person simply ceases to exist. Some people who do non believe in God, and are therefore technically atheists, practise still believe in some sort of afterlife.

Confucianism. The Chinese philosophy of Confucianism is more of a philosophy and a fashion of life than a religion, and information technology does non promote the idea of an afterlife. The focus of Confucianism is on this life, with an emphasis on family and society equally well every bit respecting the wisdom and traditions passed down from previous generations. Ancestor worship is of import in Chinese civilization in general and is practiced past many who follow Confucianism.

Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a motion that came out of Mainland china in the 1990s and does not merits to be a faith or promote a belief about the afterlife. It does promote attaining a grade of salvation or enlightenment in this life through the exercises and teachings of its founder, Li Hongzhi.

Humanism. Humanism teaches that the physical world is all there is and there is no life after expiry. Humanists believe people should focus on the human experience considering at death they will finish to exist.

Going Deeper Into What Christianity Says About Life After Expiry

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The Bible teaches that God has set up eternity in the hearts of humans (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This is one reason why death makes us sad; we were not made to terminate. There are many passages in the Bible that brand information technology clear nosotros practice non cease to be when our earthly bodies die.

Daniel 12:2 says, "Many of those whose bodies lie expressionless and buried will ascent upward, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace."

Jesus said, "I tell yous the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent Me have eternal life. They will never exist condemned for their sins, just they have already passed from decease into life" (John 11:25).

When people die, their souls proceed to live on. Where their souls go is based on whether or not they take Jesus' sacrifice on their behalf.

Where Practise People Spend Eternity?

Heaven and Hell. The Bible teaches that at that place are two alternatives: eternity with God and eternity separated from God, oftentimes referred to as sky and hell. From an eternal standpoint, to be present in one is to be absent from the other.

Eternity with God is safe, peaceful and void of all evil. Hell is the terrible alternative where God and all the good things that come from God are completely absent.

What Happens Immediately After Death?

When Jesus hung on the cantankerous where He was being executed, there were 2 criminals existence crucified on either side of Him. Luke 23:42-43 describes a chat betwixt one of those criminals and Jesus: "Then [the criminal] said, 'Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.' And Jesus replied, 'I clinch you, today you will be with Me in paradise.'"

The paradise Jesus mentions is where people who have a relationship with God go immediately after they die. When people say "heaven," this is often what they mean.

Sky will be an amazing place, but it'southward not designed to be the eternal dwelling of God's people. That even more than amazing place is unremarkably referred to as "the new creation" or "the new heaven and new earth."

Judgment Day

The Bible describes a time when all people will come back to life, or be resurrected, and will stand earlier God to exist judged. This is often referred to as judgment twenty-four hours. This is when God will declare who will enter the new creation and spend eternity with God and who will spend eternity with Satan in a place of eternal suffering.

Revelation 20:11-xv describes judgment day:

And I saw a not bad white throne and the one sitting on information technology. The globe and heaven fled from His presence, simply they plant no place to hibernate. I saw the dead, both great and modest, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Volume of Life. And the expressionless were judged according to what they had done, equally recorded in the books. The sea gave upward its expressionless, and death and the grave gave upwardly their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of burn. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not institute recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

God's Standard

The fundamental question is, What will be the standard on judgment day? How good do you have to be to go to heaven?

Many people call up that equally long as your good deeds outweigh your bad, or as long as you make a good effort and exercise non do annihilation too bad, you volition go to heaven. In reality, God'due south standard is much higher. He requires perfection.

But Romans three:23 says, "Anybody has sinned; nosotros all fall short of God'southward glorious standard."

Since anybody falls short, how can anyone get to heaven? The respond is in the next verse: "Yet God, in His grace, freely makes the states right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed u.s. from the penalty for our sins" (Romans 4:24).

No one can meet the standard of perfection on judgment day by their own efforts, but God made a way for people to spend eternity with Him. Jesus lived the perfect life that we cannot, then died in our identify to have on the penalty we deserved for our rebellion confronting God.

No one can make themselves perfect; merely God can do that:

God presented Jesus as the cede for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking alee and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

Can nosotros boast, and so, that we take done annihilation to exist accepted past God? No, because our acquittal is non based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. And so we are made correct with God through faith and non past obeying the police. (Romans 3:25-28)

If yous accept Jesus' cede on your behalf, yous're forgiven for your sins and can begin a personal human relationship with God.

God does non force you to have a human relationship with Him; every person must decide whether they want that.

Yous tin can accept that what Jesus has done is sufficient to save y'all from an eternity apart from God, or y'all tin pass up it and rely on your own efforts to relieve you lot.

God showed His great love for usa by sending Christ to die for the states while nosotros were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, He volition certainly salvage united states of america from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while nosotros were nevertheless His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. And then at present we tin can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God considering our Lord Jesus Christ has made the states friends of God." — Romans five:8-11

The New Heaven and New Globe

Revelation 21:one-8 describes the ultimate destination of those who accept Jesus' sacrifice and have eternal life with God:

So I saw a new sky and a new earth, for the old sky and the erstwhile earth had disappeared. And the ocean was too gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of sky similar a bride beautifully dressed for her hubby.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, maxim, "Look, God's habitation is now amidst His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself volition be with them. He volition wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever."

And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!" And then He said to me, "Write this downwardly, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." And He likewise said, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega — the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be My children.

One of the most astonishing things about the new creation is that people will get to spend eternity in God'due south presence. In the new creation, God'south people will live in a beautiful identify free of pain and suffering and experience the joy of a perfect relationship with a perfectly loving God.

The Second Expiry

Those who do not accept God'south free gift of forgiveness through Jesus will spend eternity away from God. Since God is goodness and love, being apart from Him will hateful existence in a identify of suffering and pain.

The Volume of Revelation also describes this destination:

Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the peppery lake of burning sulfur, joining the brute and the imitation prophet. There they will be tormented twenty-four hours and nighttime forever and ever. (Revelation xx:10)

Only cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who do witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars — their fate is in the fiery lake of called-for sulfur. This is the 2nd decease. (Revelation 21:8)

Whether there is literally fire and burning sulfur or not nosotros cannot know, but it's clear that hell is non a place you lot want to be.

All of united states of america do things we know are incorrect or immoral to some extent or another, and we choose to go our own way instead of following God. If you lot take this passage out of context, it seems rather hopeless.

Only God has made a way through Jesus to receive forgiveness for all of these things. Without Jesus' sacrifice, each person is responsible for their own choices and every bit a result will never be good enough to enter into eternity with a perfect God.

Thankfully, God can wipe out our wrongdoings and make people worthy of eternity with Him. We tin can be resurrected into a new life if we trust in Jesus.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, gear up your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right paw of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you likewise will announced with him in glory. (Colossians 3:one-4, New International Version)

Bodies and Eternity

It is natural to wonder what people will be like in eternity. The Bible makes it articulate that eternal bodies will be dissimilar from earthly bodies. Paul, an early follower of Jesus who wrote much of the New Testament, wrote most this in his first letter of the alphabet to the church in the city of Corinth:

Someone may ask, "How will the dead exist raised? What kind of bodies will they have?" What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the basis, it does non grow into a institute unless it dies get-go. And what y'all put in the footing is not the plant that will grow, merely simply a blank seed of wheat or whatsoever you lot are planting. ... Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will exist raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried every bit natural human bodies, just they will exist raised as spiritual bodies. For but as there are natural bodies, at that place are too spiritual bodies. (1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 43-44)

In his 2d letter of the alphabet to the Corinthians, Paul explains farther that our new bodies volition exist better, stronger, and not subject to disease or decease like our earthly bodies.

We know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when nosotros dice and leave this earthly body), we will take a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human being hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we volition put on heavenly bodies; nosotros volition not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, merely it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe usa. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:1-4)

Unlike the cartoon version of heaven, where people become spirits with wings that float around on clouds and play harps, people in heaven will have existent bodies. People will not get ghosts or disembodied spirits.

Other Views Within Christianity

Though most Christians agree on the basic behavior virtually the afterlife described to a higher place, in that location are some differing views on aspects of life after death.

Catholicism. The Catholic church teaches the doctrine of Purgatory, that Protestant Christians do non ordinarily accept. Co-ordinate to the official teachings of the Catholic church building, chosen "The Catechism of the Cosmic Church," Purgatory is a "final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the penalty of the damned."

Pope John Paul II said Purgatory "does not point a place, only a condition of existence."

Catholicism teaches that those who have a relationship with God but are not fully purified volition have eternal salvation just still need further purification afterwards death. Later on purification in Purgatory, they achieve the perfect holiness required to exist in the presence of a perfectly Holy God.

The Catholic Church building partially bases the doctrine of Purgatory on Scripture passages referring to a cleansing burn. It also draws this concept from a passage where Jesus said that those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit will not exist forgiven in this age or the age to come up. The Canon of the Catholic Church building farther states, "From this sentence nosotros sympathize that sure offenses can be forgiven in this age, only certain others in the age to come up."

Most Protestants believe that Jesus' cede fully paid for all of our sins and fully purified all who believe in Him, then there is no demand for farther purification after death.

Universalism. There are some people who identify as Christians who merits there is no literal hell. They believe that everyone goes to heaven. These people are chosen universalists (though they shouldn't be confused with Unitarian Universalists).

Religious and Nominal Christians. At that place are a significant number of people who cocky-place equally Christian but have their ain individual views on the afterlife. They may accept grown up going to church building regularly or just for religious holidays and may or may not proceed attending church.

They do non necessarily have all of the Bible every bit true, so their beliefs vary about heaven and hell. Many people in this category think that as long as y'all're a pretty good person and do not practise something as bad as, for example, killing someone, you get to heaven. Others believe hell is only for especially bad people or that at that place is no hell, and people who do not go to heaven only stop existing.

Though these views are common, they do not represent what the Bible says about life after decease.

Different Views About the Cease of Days in Christianity

Christians more often than not agree on the ultimate destination of people and that trusting in Jesus' cede of His own perfect life is the only mode to spend eternity with God.

The Bible makes the about important things clear in the Bible: What God is like, why we can trust Him, what Jesus has done for united states and why that matters to every person on globe. These are the fundamentals on which Christians agree, because the Bible makes them very clear.

Only some details near the afterlife remain unclear enough for Christians to hold differing beliefs well-nigh them. This does non mean they differ in their understanding of how you tin know God personally.

Then how practice Christians reconcile themselves to believing in things that are non completely articulate to them? Christians do not trust God because He always explains Himself but because they know He is good. God Himself is beyond the level of our understanding. But we can know Him and trust Him without completely understanding every aspect of His nature or the way He has designed this life and the next.

Because there is room for interpreting the Bible in dissimilar means, Christians sometimes understand the afterlife with slight differences.

At that place is a whole branch of theological study called eschatology, which is the study of the end of fourth dimension, life later on death, and Jesus' return.

The Bible talks about Jesus returning at some time in the hereafter. Jesus' return someday is a doctrine shared past all true Christians, and the Bible teaches it clearly.

After maxim this, He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer encounter Him. Every bit they strained to see Him rising into heaven, two white-robed men all of a sudden stood among them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why are you standing here staring into sky? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, merely someday He will render from sky in the aforementioned way you saw him go!" (Acts ane:9-eleven)

Christians accept different views about when exactly that will happen and what it will be like before, during and after Jesus' return.

Some, but not all, Christians believe the Bible teaches that there volition be a time of cracking persecution for people who follow Jesus. This time is frequently referred to as the tribulation. These Christians as well believe that at some point before Jesus returns, He will accept His followers away to exist with Him and leave other people on world for a time. This is called the rapture. Many of these Christians believe that earlier all people reach one of the final, eternal destinations described above, and later on the tribulation, there volition be a menstruum of 1000 years, called the millenium, when Jesus' followers will prosper and rule on globe. Amidst the Christians who believe these things, many differ in their beliefs most what order the events will happen in.

Some believe that prophecies in the Bible that talk about the end of the earth, including the book of Revelation, really refer to historical events that have already occurred. Others believe some of these prophecies refer to events that accept happened but that other prophecies refer to future events. Still others believe all of these passages refer to events that will occur in the future.

Some believe most or all of the things written in these passages are literal, while others believe they are metaphorical.

Some things about heaven actually are beyond our earthly understanding. These can simply be described metaphorically by comparing them to earthly things nosotros can empathize. For instance, when the Book of Revelation describes the new Jerusalem, the beautiful city of the new globe, information technology compares information technology to a precious stone, jasper and crystal. The author, John, could not fully capture what he saw in his vision considering it was unlike anything he had ever seen.

So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of sky from God. Information technology shone with the glory of God and sparkled similar a precious stone — like a jasper as clear equally crystal. (Revelation 21:10-11)

The Ultimate Question: Where Volition You Go When Y'all Die?

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Though views differ and questions remain virtually the afterlife, in the end each person must find for themselves the answer to the most important question: Where will you go when you lot die?

Co-ordinate to the Bible, every homo that dies volition spend eternity either with God or separated from God. A natural response might exist to wonder why there are two options.

The Eternal Dilemma

Because God is perfect and good, He cannot allow u.s., imperfect people who have rebelled against God, to enter eternity with Him in our electric current state. The Bible teaches that all of humankind has fallen short and missed the mark of perfection, which is referred to every bit sin (Ecclesiastes vii:20; Romans 3:23).

Left to their ain devices, no one will get to heaven when they die. Although most people assume they volition go to sky unless they are peculiarly bad, the Bible explains that everyone is especially bad in comparison to God's standard of goodness — or holiness — and needs to be rescued.

Fortunately, God does not get out the human race without hope.

God'southward Solution

Christianity's principal bulletin is that God loves u.s.a. and so much He was willing to send His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalisation we deserved.

This is what John 3:xvi, one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, explains: "For this is how God loved the earth: He gave his one and only Son, and so that everyone who believes in him volition not perish merely have eternal life."

The concept of love might experience similar a contradiction with the idea of eternal hell. How can a loving God send people to hell?

The Bible tells u.s. we earn eternal separation from God because of our decision to live life autonomously from God. This is why the story of Adam and Eve that we read in Genesis is so meaning. They chose to consume the forbidden fruit because they thought it would give them equality with God. The issue of their action was that death came into the world.

The natural consequence of choosing to live your earthly life autonomously from God is that God will respect that choice and not bring you lot into an eternity spent with Him.

Jesus' expiry paid for our sin, creating a mode for us to come up back into the relationship with God we were designed for. Jesus altered our eternal fate, but nosotros still have to choose our eternal destination.

It is no longer a question of, "Why would a loving God transport people to hell?" Instead, the real question becomes, "Why would you choose not to receive the free gift of heaven?"

What Will You Choose to Believe?

So, how will you reply? You lot can cull to have God's invitation to spend eternity enjoying His love and forgiveness, or you can reject Him.

It is no longer a question of, "Why would a loving God ship people to hell?" Instead, the real question becomes, "Why would you choose not to receive the free gift of sky?"

None of us knows how many days we accept left to alive, then we cannot know how long we accept left to take God'southward offering of eternal life.

If you, or someone you know, has yet to accept God's invitation, consider your options. God provides a mode for you to know for sure where you lot'll spend eternity.

And then how will you answer the question, "What will happen when I die?"

Where Tin You Go From Here?

Practise yous desire to cull to spend eternity with God? Yous can begin a human relationship with God right now and know for sure where you volition go when you dice.
- Read a more detailed explanation of how to starting time a relationship with God, including a prayer yous can apply to express your decision.
- If you have committed your life to Christ and want aid getting established every bit a Christian, sign upwardly for our "Spiritual Starter Kit."
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Read about the inverse lives of people who chose to start a relationship with God
- A skeptic who asked "Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going?"
- A adult female who plant promise and purpose in the midst of severe depression.
- A grad student who feared expiry because of the violence he witnessed in childhood merely is now sure he'll spend eternity with God.
- A scientist whose studies have helped convinced Him God is real.

Read more than most sky and hell.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale Business firm Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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Source: https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/core-christian-beliefs/what-happens-when-you-die.html