whats the point if were all going to die
The present state is where you lot are now. You exist in this present country. From the moment of formulation, you became a homo being, that is, a "soul." Your soul is eternal. Scripture teaches us that we exist from formulation until death, from death until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the General Resurrection from the dead, and and so, the New Heavens and the New Earth. This article will seek to reply what happens at decease to both your body and soul.
What Happens Afterward Death?
It is important to admit that the word "soul" is not only a disembodied entity. In the Bible, "soul" is who you are. Consider Genesis:
God "breathed the breath of life" into Adam, and he became a "living soul" (Genesis ii:7; the New Revised Standard uses the word, "being"). Thus, in the biblical view, Adam does not have a soul; Adam is a soul (i.due east., a person, a living being). The soul is, literally, ". . . that which breathes, the breathing substance or being.[1] In his article "Soul," G.Westward. Moon says "In Christian theology the soul carries the further connotation of being that part of the private that partakes of divinity and survives the death of the body."
Augustine and Thomas Aquinas rejected Platonic dualism, which saw the soul as good and the torso as corrupt. These two theological giants, separated by centuries, agreed the Bible teaches that the spirit is the eternal person, just will one day accept an eternal torso:
"According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, who follows Aristotle in his definition of the human soul, the soul is an individual spiritual substance, the 'form' of the trunk. Both, body and soul together, constitute the homo unity, though the soul may be severed from the body and atomic number 82 a carve up beingness, every bit happens after death. The separation, however, is not final, as the soul, in this differing from the angels, was fabricated for the body.[2]
The Psalmist spoke of our soul equally the very inmost beingness of our person: "Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name" (Psalm 103:ane NIV).
Jesus spoke of the inestimable value of the human soul (and simultaneously taught that soul and body volition be reunited for either eternal life with or, in that case, without God):
"Do not exist afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be agape of the Ane who can destroy both soul and torso in hell" (Matthew 10:28 NIV).
Your trunk and soul, like all of Creation, are marred by the Fall and its consequences. Or, as John Milton titled the state of affairs in his epic poem, Paradise Lost.The fallen soul must be redeemed. This is the plan of God, the Covenant of Grace, that constitutes the single scarlet thread that binds the entire Bible together.
Therefore, we must acknowledge:
Your Body and Soul Need Redeeming From the Fall
David wrote in Psalm 19 about the wonder of God's world, His cosmos. But in verse seven David makes a plow. The "full general revelation" gives evidence of Almighty God, only "special revelation," God's Word, is necessary to do this one affair: "revive" the man soul. Psalm nineteen:17 says "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (KJV).
Indeed, we are to exist built-in again, the soul undergoing a supernatural transition, making it "fit" for sky. Our souls are "lost" without redemption.
The Bible teaches that there is no other redemption available except that "way" that Almighty God has provided through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other proper name under sky given amongst men by which we must be saved" (Acts iv:12 ESV).
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer According to the Covenant of Grace
When the Gospel is proclaimed and received by religion, the terms of the Covenant are imputed to yous (the terms are expressed in "a great exchange:" the repentant and believing sinner receives Christ'south righteousness and His atoning sacrifice on the Cross; Christ received the sinner's sin and punishment for sin). Y'all pass from decease and judgment to forgiveness and eternal life. "Truly, truly, I say to you lot, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment just has passed from decease to life" (John five:24 ESV).Not so the unrepentant. The soul remains in a fallen state, responsible for the terms of the Covenant of Works (the soul that sins must die). It is for this reason that the Psalmist, speaking in the voice of the Messiah to come, declares that God volition non leave his soul to perish. This truth is also picked up by Peter in his outset sermon at Pentecost. The soul without God will undergo unimaginable loss that is described by Jesus with the most severe imagery (e.g., Matthew 25:46: "And these will go away into eternal penalization, but the righteous into eternal life.").
My dear reader: your soul and mine must be redeemed from the sale block of sin and the devil lest we — that is, our souls — face certain loss and penalization. And the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent. Trust in the resurrected and living Christ while you are still reading this article. Stop what you lot are doing and plow to Jesus Christ by faith.
Our report leads us, then, to the place of the soul between death and the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ.
When we say, "the intermediate state," nosotros are not speaking of "limbo" or "purgatory" or any such thing. Nosotros are speaking of that period in which the soul is in sky and our remains await resurrection. That is the "intermediate land" in our personal eschatology.
Where Do Bodies Go After Death?
The redeemed are ushered into the eternal presence of the Lord, and those without an abet (righteousness to see God'due south Law and sacrifice to atone for sin) are ushered into hell to await the New Heaven and New Earth.
The Bible teaches that the homo spirit, upon departing the body, goes immediately into the presence of God for either His welcoming or His disapproval. Thus, our blessed Savior taught this truth when He gave the parable of the wicked in Hell crying out to Abraham for refreshment:
"In that location was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every twenty-four hour period. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man'southward table. Moreover, fifty-fifty the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor homo died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, take mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the cease of his finger in water and absurd my tongue, for I am in ache in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, recall that you in your lifetime received your adept things, and Lazarus in similar manner bad things; only now he is comforted here, and you lot are in anguish (Luke 16:xix-25 ESV).
At that place is no more than concise and thoroughly Biblical expression of faith well-nigh the soul going immediately to be with God until the resurrection than the 38th question in the Westminster Shorter Canon:
Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers existence raised up in glory (i Cor. 15:42-43), shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the 24-hour interval of judgment (Matt 25:33-34), and fabricated perfectly blest in the total enjoying of God (Rom. viii:29, 1 John three:2) to all eternity (Ps. 16:11, 1 John 3:2).
At expiry, the trunk returns to the elements: "dust to dust . . ." Just the soul resurrects with a new heavenly body.
At the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the General Resurrection commences. The redeemed bodies are renewed with the eternal soul and rise to see Jesus Christ, joining Him in the air, taking their identify with the glorious visitor of angels, archangels, prophets, apostles, martyrs and the whole company of heaven. The Great White Throne Judgement has been the subject of classical Christian teaching throughout Church history: "And I saw a cracking white throne, and him that saturday on it, from whose face the earth and the sky fled away; and there was found no identify for them" (Revelation 20:11).
The unregenerate bodies are also resurrected. United with soul, each appears earlier the Great Final Judgment. Without the Advocate, our Lord Jesus Christ, these suffer the righteous sentence of God for unbelief. The redeemed besides announced before the Lord. But Jesus Christ is their Advocate. His perfect life is deemed to theirs to run across the Divine requirement of perfect obedience (Christ fulfills the Covenant of Works). The Lord Jesus' atoning death on Calvary'due south Cantankerous provides the blood cede of the only Son of God applied to their lives. The punishment of their sins has been placed upon the Second Person of the One truthful and holy God.
The redeemed are fully acquitted, past God in Christ, their Savior. The unredeemed are cast into eternal hell with the devil and his angels (demons). Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel summarized it in their commodity "Eschatology" with brilliant concision and brevity:
"All who accept died will come to life. This volition be a bodily resurrection, a resumption of bodily existence of each person. For believers this volition take place in connectedness with the 2nd coming of Christ and will involve the transformation of the body of this present flesh into a new, perfected trunk (1 Cor 15:35-56). The Bible also indicates a resurrection of unbelievers, unto eternal death (Jn 5:28, 29).
The great Dutch commentator, William Hendriksen, wrote with unsurpassed theological and Scriptural fidelity as he described this result in his book "More than Than Conquerors: An Interpretation of the Volume of Revelation":
"Christ's coming in judgment is vividly described. John sees a great white throne. Upon information technology is seated the Christ (Matt. 25:31; Rev. fourteen:14). From His face the earth and the sky abscond abroad. Not the destruction or annihilation but the renovation of the universe is indicated hither. Information technology will exist a dissolution of the elements with great rut (2 Pet. three:10); a regeneration (Mt. 19:28); a restoration of all things (Acts 3:21); and a deliverance from the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:21). No longer will this universe be field of study to 'vanity'. John sees the dead, the great and the modest, standing before the throne. All individuals who take ever lived on world are seen earlier the throne. The books are opened and the records of the life of every person consulted (Dn. 7:10). Also, the book of life, containing the names of all believers is opened (Rev. 3:5; 13:eight). The dead are judged in accordance with their works (Mt. 25:31 ff.; Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). The sea gives up its expressionless; and then do Decease and Hades. Hither is the one, general resurrection of all the dead. The entire Bible teaches but 1, full general resurrection (read Jn. v:28 f.). This 1 and just and general resurrection takes place at the last twenty-four hours (Jn. vi:39 f., 44, 54)."
Even Later on Decease - The New Heaven and the New Earth
The universe, earth, and all things are both burned then renewed as the New Heavens and the New Globe is unveiled. While the souls (and bodies reunited) of the unrepentant are cast into eternal hell, believers are welcomed into the New Heaven and New Earth. 1 of the most remarkable passages among and so many equally phenomenal passages is found in St. Paul's offset epistle to the Church at Corinth. In Chapter fifteen, the inspired Apostle makes the resurrection the centering point for "eternity by" and "eternity hereafter." Paul seeks to give words to what he sees at the farthest reaches of the hereafter land: "When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself volition besides be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may exist all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28).
Thus, the human soul. From the breath of life at formulation to the inscrutable upshot in ages to come when, body and soul, we witness the climactic fulfillment of the ancient Covenant, this is the soul of a believer. The soul without Christ is in peril. The soul of whatsoever who calls upon the name of the Lord to be saved will be gloriously transformed.
Answering "What happens to my soul when I dice?"
As a pastor and a instruction theologian, this is one of the most frequent questions I receive. However, the inquiry virtually frequently comes to me, not in the form of an abstract question, but in the context of crunch. Indeed, this is how the question was posed by Mrs. Henley: in a defining moment of her faith on trial.
I was a young pastor. I was on consignment as a pastoral care intern for a congregation not my ain. I was a pastor "on loan," ane might say. My mission? I was dispatched by the church leadership to provide pastoral ministry to a family unit I didn't know. I was told that the Henley family unit was gathered at a nearby nursing home and that they had requested a pastoral presence. The elderberry who telephoned me gave instructions that I would observe Mr. Henley, a long-fourth dimension member, in room 201. Mrs. Gladys Henley, his wife of sixty-some-odd years would exist there to greet me. Mr. Henley's forty-something-year-old son and his married woman would also be at that place. They had flown in from the Westward Coast to be with the matriarch and patriarch in this difficult time.
I rehearsed the coming pastoral visit in my listen as I pulled into the covered parking garage. I guided my trusty quondam Buick sedan into that about appreciated of privileges — clergy parking. I put her in park. I killed the engine. I drew in a breath of promise as I exhaled a prayer for help: "Lord, guide me."
Before departing for the brief stroll to the nursing dwelling, I opened my Bible. I needed a passage that would serve as my "pastoral prescription" for the spiritual cure to the predictable spiritual status of this family. I keep a listing of familiar Bible chapters and verses for infirmary visits. The passages are arranged, in smeared fountain ink from my own manus, according to spiritual cure of common conditions — crumbling, bereavement, conflict, and so forth. I came to "vigil." The family vigil is the gathering of family members (and shut friends) in anticipation of a loved ane'south passing. My eyes found the words of Luke's Acts of the Apostles and Saint Peter's quotation of
Psalm sixteen:10, "For you will non abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy I see corruption. Yous have fabricated known to me the paths of life; yous will brand me full of gladness with your presence" (Acts ii:27, 28 ESV).
The family greeted me at the lobby of this elegant elderly intendance facility. Formal introductions in hushed tones formed the introduction to the family unit. The Henley son, Robert, Jr., asked me to follow them to Mr. Henley's room. Mr. Robert Henley, Sr., Esq., was near 100 years sometime. The wise old jurist was a long-fourth dimension follower of Jesus Christ. Others recognized his gift of gentle leadership and patient wisdom. He was a well-beloved elderberry, a lay officer, in his dwelling church building. Robert Henley had been a prominent attorney in the customs where I served. The phrase "urban center begetter" comes to mind. Mr. Henley was known as a godly, devoted family homo, who also gave much of his life, and non a minor corporeality of his fortune, to the service and needs of his neighbors.
He never had political aspirations. However, if you were a politician and wanted to increase your chances of election, you likely would pay a visit to Robert Henley before you fifty-fifty filed equally a candidate. I guess one could say that Mr. Henley had gravitas. He was a big man, a corking man, and a faithful man. His firsthand family—Mrs. Henley and her adult son, Robert, Jr., and his wife, Katherine—were gathered in a family acuity. For, by and so, Mr. Henley was a dying human.
It would be a familiar scene in my ministry for years to come up. A grieving family gathered around a weakened effigy. Prayers, hymns, silence, and memories converge to class a needed coating of peace for the one about to depart if not more so for those remaining. Being with a family at such a tender fourth dimension remains ane of the greatest honors of my life. Ask whatsoever pastor. He volition tell you the same.
I had been in Mr. Henley'south room at the nursing dwelling house — for all intents and purposes, it was a hospital room — for more than than two hours. The family unit had been there much longer. I was thinking virtually the man earlier me, the man I didn't know, but the man I was called to prepare for a journey domicile. My contemplations were pleasantly interrupted when a cheerful nurse came in to check for vital signs of her patient. As she finished her monitoring, she looked at Mrs. Henley and smiled. The kind woman leaned over and put her arm around Mrs. Henley and spoke softly: "Hon, why don't you go to our café and get you some coffee and a sandwich? They have got some skillful sandwiches! And you sure demand a pause." I certainly agreed. Poor Mrs. Henley looked so tired. The nurse encouraged Mrs. Henley with another whisper, equally she helped her upward, "Come on, now, Mrs. Henley. At that place we become . . ."
Reluctantly, Mrs. Henley agreed and stood cock in the room. Her son, Robert, Jr., and Katherine, his wife, the younger Mrs. Henley — a demure but smartly-dressed young lady with a pretty and seemingly permanent smile — guided the weakening wife away. I listened to the echoes of their steps in the hall. I heard the elevator band its arrival. Then a sacred stillness seemed to descend on the scene like someone's mother casting a cotton sheet on a bed in ho-hum motion. Still. Wearisome. Silent. Holy.
I was solitary in the hospital room with Mr. Henley. The various medical mechanisms mimicked the beating of his centre, inhaling, and exhaling of his lungs. I listened to the rhythmic beep-beep of a monitor, and the oscillating hiss of oxygen. I had taken a seat when the family had walked out. All the same, at that moment, I felt led to stand up. I too felt led to speak, "Mr. Henley, I am not certain if you tin hear me, Sir. Mr. Henley, I have a Scripture for you from God's Word. It is a very simple and powerful truth. I am certain that you lot know it."
The blips, beeps, and hisses were unimpressed by my annunciation. The groundwork noises continued as a kind of technological witness. "Mr. Henley, this is the Discussion of the Lord: 'We are confident, I say, and willing rather to exist absent from the body, and to exist present with the Lord' (2 Corinthians 5:8 KJV). Did you lot hear that Mr. Henley? Jesus volition never get out you nor forsake you. And if He comes for you, your spirit — the real yous! — will be with Jesus. The 1 you have loved throughout all of the days of your life will receive you." He moved non. Even so, I was not deterred. I was bedevilled by early on experience in my internship to read Scripture even if a patient was in a coma. I would follow for over three decades, occasionally with memorable results. This was one of them.
I began to pray the Lord'southward Prayer audibly: "Our Father . . ." Suddenly, and quite astonishingly, Mr. Henley's lips began trying to motility. I drew closer, however praying, "who fine art in heaven . . ." The old saint was seeking to pray with me. I continued. "Hallowed be Thy Proper noun . . ." This love man of God was giving the concluding measure of strength to exercise what he had washed for about five k Sundays. He began to worshipGod. It was as if the words to the Lord's Prayer sparked an autonomic response of the soul. He opened his dry, cracking lips for simply long enough to pray with me. He uttered the adjacent phrase as if waiting to catch up with me. "Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be washed . . ." As I continued, more confident in my own faith considering of his, his vocalization went silent. The small motion of his lips ceased in mid-sentence. And as suddenly as he had begun, he stopped praying. Mr. Henley had stopped breathing. At only about "Thy Kingdom come . . ." Mr. Henley's prayer was answered. Mr. Henley was in the presence of the Lord.
I stood without motion. I was transfixed past the sight. There was fifty-fifty a kind of beauty, though I was holding the mitt of a dead man. I thought of the Psalmist's words, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15 KJV). My stock-still gaze of wonder was interrupted by the necessary practicality of nurses, residents, and orderlies hastening to the scene. In witnessing this miracle of the migration of the human soul, I didn't even detect the alarms. The mechanical sentries had sounded their phone call. The compassionate health care professionals answered in a second. But as I watched them, the scene was less of an emergency and more than of, well, more of a tender moment of confirming what all were anticipating.
Soon enough, the family unit returned. Robert Jr. and Katherine both put their arms around Mrs. Henley. It was a holy moment. Soft sobs replaced the electronic sounds of the medical machinery. I knew the power of the ministry of presence as Mrs. Henley moved from her son to look at me. This new widow needed the promises of God, the assurance of the love of God, and the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this reason, I was at that place. I embraced her — perhaps, better put, she embraced me — and she wept, always and so softly. This elderly woman of God, smaller than I, nestled her gray caput on my chest. I was beingness inaugurated into the ministry building by Mrs. Henley.
And so information technology happened. Correct after I spoke these words, information technology happened: "Mrs. Henley, the Bible says that your dear husband is in the presence of our Lord Jesus at this very second. He passed from this life into the loving arms of Jesus. I was with him every bit his soul departed this room. He is more alive than ever."
She confirmed my words by nodding her head as I held her. Merely something happened that I volition never forget. The all the same, quiet sobs were broken by a rather stern discussion from her son. "Mother, I am sorry, but that is not right. Daddy is not here. And Daddy is not anywhere else. He is, well, for all practical purposes, simply comatose." He spoke the words for his mother, but he aimed his arrows at me. I was stunned, not by the theological error every bit much as the inappropriateness and fifty-fifty callousness of his words. "Mother, come up out hither and allow me talk to yous." Mrs. Henley followed obediently. Scolded as her husband had died, she had, in the opinion of her son, succumbed to "nonsense." She followed obediently. What else could she exercise? I stood motionless as both the family departed, and the medical professionals began procedures for removal of the body.
It could not have been more than well-nigh three minutes when Mrs. Henley returned. By this time, her belatedly hubby's remains had been removed from the room. I extended my hands to welcome Mrs. Henley back. She took my hands without ever moving her eyes from mine. I smiled as if, perhaps, a warm gesture could erase the recent unpleasant words. Mrs. Henley bankrupt down in heaving tears. I could barely hear her words: "Oh Pastor, my son says that my husband's soul is just comatose! He is not with the Lord! Oh Pastor, everything I take always known, e'er believed, must exist wrong!" I held Mrs. Henley and felt the deep grief rise through her sobs. "He is gone, Pastor. Just where? Where is my husband?
I shared that intimate story with you lot because I believe that it illustrates the deep emotions that are involved with the question, "What happens to the soul at the time of death?" The question is non an esoteric inquiry into the unknowable. God has revealed to usa in his give-and-take what happens to the human soul at the moment of expiry. In order to understand the reply to this question according to the Scriptures, we would practise well to employ a systematic theological studyof the Christian faith concerning the question of the soul. To exercise and then, let us arrange the biblical material according to the Bible's explanation nigh the soul and the soul's destiny. We will run into that there is a present land, an intermediate state, and a final state. Theologians call this a personal eschatology. Eschatology speaks near the concluding things. Nosotros often think of eschatology in more cosmic terms, for example, what happens to the heavens and the world in the future. That is a catholic eschatology. But a personal eschatology is concerned with what happens to y'all. So let us begin.
As I opened my Bible and asked his grieving widow to read the Scriptures, she wiped her optics, sought to compose herself, and adjusted her 1960s-framed-spectacle earlier leaning in to read: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians five:8 KJV). Mrs. Henley looked upwardly again, her silver-haired, intelligent head raising, her eyes meeting mine. "Pastor, I read that according to the Bible my Robert — my husband, Mr. Henley — is with the Lord. As presently as his spirit left his body he went to be with Jesus. That is what I had always been taught. Only my son . . . Oh, pastor, is this the truth?"
I put my correct hand on her shoulder seeking to agree. "Aye, Mrs. Henley. I watched as the soul of your husband departed his body. According to the Discussion of the Lord, there is no doubtfulness that he is in the presence of the Lord Jesus." I gently placed my left hand to a shoulder, now looking at her intently, holding her shoulders, directing my gaze with the strongest possible position of attention: "My beloved Mrs. Henley," I paused to prepare for an unequivocal declaration to this grieving woman: "Ma'am: Co-ordinate to the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ I say to you that in the name of God, you lot willencounter your husband again."And she rested in the promises of God.
But have y'all? I say to anyone reading: God created you as a person: soul and body.The soul lives forever in 1 of ii places: with your Creator or without Him. The adjudication of your eternal life rests with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And He welcomes any and all who volition turn from all other persons and plans and plow unto Him. For Jesus our Lord says, "Come to Me, all yous who are weary and encumbered, and I will give you rest." Rest from the frantic search for answers. Trust in Christ Jesus the resurrected and living Lord of life. His Covenant of Grace — Christ's righteousness accounted for what you lack, and Christ'due south sacrifice practical for your sins — has secured your destiny. And you will never walk alone.
God'southward promises are your destiny: when you die, your soul goes immediately to the Lord. Your earthly remains are precious to God. "If the farmer knows where the corn is in the barn, and so our Father knows where His precious seed is in the earth." And in Christ, God volition raise those remains to eternal life. If you have received Jesus Christ every bit Lord, you volition exist acquitted of all sins by the righteousness and the cede on the cross past your Savior. And safe in the arms of Jesus. Why not pray with me?
Lord, our Heavenly Father: I am in awe of Your mighty creative power demonstrated non only in the wonder of the stars above or in the microscopic invisible world, but, particularly, in the coming of Your Son Jesus our Lord; and in Him, in His perfect life lived for me and His sacrificial decease offered for me on the cross, I exercise repent — turn away from — my sin of unbelief, self-sufficiency, and trusting in anyone and affair other than Your Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth; I know that I am a soul and body, and I ask that You transform my soul co-ordinate to Your promises and Your power; I ask that you forgive me and receive me as Your child; and I believe that when I depart from this life I will become immediately to You, O dear Lord; So, take me and apply me for Your glory. In Jesus' proper name I pray. Amen.
Notes:
[1] Richard Whitaker, Francis Chocolate-brown, et al., The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English language Lexicon of the Quondam Testament: From A Hebrew and English Dictionary of the Erstwhile Testament by Francis Chocolate-brown, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, Based on the Lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius (Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906).
[two] F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1531.
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