What
Happens To Us When We Die?
And it came
to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's
bosom; the rich man
also died and was buried
Luke 16:22
In my Father's house
are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you! I am going
there
to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come back
and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:1-2
This passage
has bought comfort to many people that have lost loved ones. What
happens to me after I die? Well the Bible tells us angels collect
us and escort us to heaven.
I thought before
we study what the rapture is, we should study what happens to our bodies
after we die. What happens to our bodies between the time we die
and the time of the rapture?
I think this will
be fascinating for you, I hope you will take time to read it, and share
it with others.. there is a great deal of information, so I will try to
keep it as concise as possible.
First off, the Bible
says at the time we die, we will be escorted into "Paradise" by angels.
We will be
instantly in the
company of angels. Paradise
was created when Jesus overcame death and the grave through his death and
resurrection. He fought hell, death and the grave and overcame them,
that we might also!
The word paradise
only occurs 3 times in the New Testament. The word paradise is of
Persian origin
and means an orchard
or park or garden, many Bible scholars both Jewish and Christian believe
it
is a place much like
the garden of Eden. One of the most revealing verses about Paradise
is
2 Corinthians
12:2-4
I know a man in Christ
who was taken up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. I do not
know whether the man was in his body or out of his body, but God knows.
I don't know if he
was in his body or away from his body, but God knows. He heard things
he is not able to explain, things that no human is allowed to tell.
Paul wrote this about
Himself, but because He did not want to brag, he taught it in those terms.
You see there are many references in the bible that are so interesting,
little talked about yet, they are truly mysterious. One of them,
is that Paul, on
more than one occasion, was in one place one minute and transferred to
another place. I believe God can do supernatural things we have no
idea about.
And when God gave
Paul a vision about Paradise,
it was so powerful that words were not permitted by God to tell us what
Paul heard.
We do know it is
a blissful place and we have fellowship with God.
WE also find a reference
to Paradise
in
Revelation 2:7
He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches, to him that overcometh,
I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise
of God.
When Jesus was being
crucified, he told the thief on the cross who had accepted him as SAviour,
today you will be with me in paradise.
Literally today you
will be with me.
Not asleep in death,
but alive next to Jesus.
Immediate, and sure
the promises of God promising eternal life from the lips of Jesus.
Believers who have died are now in the very presence of God and are in
the very presence of other saints of God awaiting the rapture. Paul
speaks of how they are conscious and among a great cloud of witnesses.
We will talk more about the cloud of witnesses in
a minute.
So what are the three
heavens?
The first heaven
is where the birds, clouds and winds dwell.
The second heaven
is where we have the sun, moon and solar systems, the universe.
The third heaven
is called the Heaven of Heavens, because it is the place where Almighty
God dwells.
Hebrews 12:1
1 Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Can people see us
from heaven? Well there are many different opinions on this, but
most Bible scholars believe that they will not be able to see this until
they receive the glorified body we get after the rapture.
1 John 3:2,
1 Corinthians 13:12
There are three
different bodies we have.
The earthly one..
which is a shell that contains our soul and spirit,
A celestial
body that is the one that is inbetween
death and the rapture.
And a glorified
body that we will receive at the time
of the rapture.
Jack Van Impe has
this to say about how we will know each other in heaven:
"Yes, we will recognize
our loved ones. In Matthew chapter 17,
Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, beginning with verse
1, to an high mountain and he was transfigured
before them. This is a picture of that coming day when we get our new bodies
through transfiguration. And there appeared Moses and Elias. Now Peter,
James and John had not ever seen these people. They had lived 3,000 - 4,000
years before. They didn’t have pictures, but they immediately knew Moses
and Elias. And they said, should we make three tabernacles: one for you
Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elias? And the Father, Yahweh, said no.
Jesus is my beloved son. But the point is they knew those individuals they
had never seen for they lived thousands of years before. "
Death is nothing
to fear.
It is like changing
our clothes, we are transformed from one dimension to another, from one
body to another.
But we will be in the presence of God immediately.
At the death bed
of saints, we are surrounded by angels, and satan nor the angels of darkness
can come near us. Upon our death we are accompanied to heaven.
When my father died,
I went through all of his papers about Heaven, I had such a longing to
know where he was, and would I see Him again, and what he
believed. I
found a chart that forever changed my thinking about
death. And
I knew my dad had found comfort in this. And so, it bought comfort
to me.
For Non Christians
Life..............................................Death
For Christians
Life.....................Death............Life
My friends, we have
so great hope.
We have a eternal
home with God to look forward to, if we have received Jesus
Christ as our Saviour.
We also know that
there is eternal suffering and seperation from God for those who deny Him,
and refuse salvation. And there are many scriptures to back up both
of these places.
In the parable about
the beggar going to heaven, it shows that the beggar after death was fully
conscious and able to use his mental faculties. The sinful rich man
was also tormented from the
time of his death,
and was unable to change the destiny of his brothers who also rejected
God.
So we are conscious
and not asleep in God, but resting In his very presence.
Therefore we must
give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.
For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression
and disobedience received a just reward.
How shall we escape
if we neglect so great a salvation?
Hebrews 2:1-3
Do not neglect your
salvation my friend.
Keep your heart right
with the Lord.
We are talking eternal
realities here.
Do not neglect
the things of God.
Remember
Only one life
will soon be past
Only what is done
For Christ will last
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