WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE – A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE

Many people have different ideas on the entire question of what happens when you die. Some believe in reincarnation where you come back to life in the form of someone else or another animal. Others believe then when you die you go to heaven or hell depending on how you lived your life. Then there are those who claim that when you die the lights go out and that is the end of your journey. What I want to share with you today is what the bible tells us will happen when you die.

Before delving into the topic of what happens when you die let us see what the bible says about the beginning of life. The Bible says in Genesis 2: 7 that God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. I want to emphasis here that the verse did not say God formed man out of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and gave man a soul. It says man BECAME a living soul and not man contained a living soul. We are told further that in 1 Corinthians 15:45 – 48 that all of us who are born on the earth after Adam was made in this same fashion, so we are all living souls like Adam was.

What then happens when you die? It says in Ecclesiastes 12:7 that the dust shall return unto the ground as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. This is the reverse of the process that took place in Genesis 2:7. From dust we are and when we die we shall return to dust and the breath of life which in this context is the spirit, returns of God who gave it. Job says in Job 27:3, that the spirit of God is in his nostrils. Additionally, remember the words of Jesus before he died? “Father, into your hand I commend my spirit”, and then he died!

Therefore, the belief that man has an immortal soul that lives on after death is not true according to the bible. It says in Ezekiel 18:4 that the soul that sins shall die. When a man dies he is rendered unconscious until the resurrection of the dead. It says in Ecclesiastes 9:5 that the living know that they shall die but the dead know nothing. He is in the grave, awaiting the resurrection (John 5:28, 29. Daniel 12: 1, 2). Job again further reaffirms this “So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be awakened out of their sleep. Who will grant that You would hide me in the grave, that You would keep me secret, until Your wrath is past, that You would set me a fixed time and remember me? If a man die, shall he revive? All the days of my warfare I will wait, until my change comes. “ – Job 14: 12 – 14. Job here mentions that he will wait in the grave until his change comes. What is this change? The bible again has the answer in 1 Corinthians 15: 51 – 53, “Behold, I speak a mystery to you; we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet. For a trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality”. Paul is saying in these verses that not everyone will die before Jesus Christ comes again, some will be alive but nevertheless, all who are in Christ will be changed. We shall be changed from mortal to immortal and from corruptible or incorruption.

This all begs the question, why is it that the many people including Christians believe that man has an immortal soul that lives on at death, and some go as far as believing that you can communicate with the souls of those who are departed? Well consider this. We know that in the old testament this was not the belief according to all the scriptures previous provided. We know that this belief was maintained in the New Testament era. In fact, after Lazarus died and Jesus told Martha that she will see her brother again, she responded by affirming that indeed she knows she will see him in the resurrection at the last day. Notice she did not say that she will see him when she dies because her soul would go meet his soul. Well the fact is that idea has its origin in Greek Philosophy. Way back around 400 – 500BC and possibly before that, philosophers such as Plato and Socrates began developing their ideas on the soul and what happens after a man dies. If you research what these men believed and taught, you would realize that it is very similar to what many Christians believe today.

It is from this basis of these unbiblical beliefs, that men then try to twist a few verses from the bible to support it but anyone with a clear mind who searches the scripture would determine this belief is false. I will leave you with these words from Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 – 18, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”