what happens to other religions when they die

Benjamin Franklin said, "In this globe goose egg can be said to exist certain, except death and taxes." His words, though slightly humorous, remind us of a very real truth: One of the things we all have in mutual is that everyone dies.

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

To assist yous find some answers to this question, let'due south explore some dissimilar views on this topic, including what the Bible has to say nearly information technology.

If you already know what you're looking for, you tin apply these links to get straight to the topics that are almost relevant for you:

Historical Beliefs About the Afterlife

When you enquire, "What happens when yous die?" you 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 Bang-up Plains tribes saw information technology as a "happy hunting footing."

Fifty-fifty before recorded history, people buried the dead with nutrient, weapons, valuables and other useful items. The living apparently idea the dead would need these things afterwards death, implying a belief in an afterlife.

A Option of Perspectives

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At that place are many ways to approach the question, "What happens when you lot die?" People have looked for answers through science, philosophy and religion. Even inside those schools of thought, people take a wide diverseness of behavior about the afterlife.

Science and Medicine

People who written report scientific discipline and medicine accept come to very different conclusions nigh the afterlife. Some call up that to believe in science means the supernatural, including life afterward expiry, is not possible. Others believe that science proves, or at least points to, the possibility of life afterwards expiry.

Physicist Stephen Hawking compared decease to a calculator that stops working when it breaks. He thought of the afterlife equally a fairytale.

In dissimilarity, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Max Planck believed physics shows that consciousness is not a product of physical matter (such as encephalon cells). Since information technology exists outside of physical matter, it could outlast concrete expiry.

Others fence that the commencement law of thermodynamics, which states that free energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed, means life cannot end at decease.

Doctors and scientists accept also studied the experiences of people who have been alleged clinically expressionless, merely to be revived later. One big-scale scientific study, past a team from the Academy of Southampton in England, found testify of consciousness during a period of cardiac arrest and no encephalon activity.

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

Philosophy

Philosophy also has a lot to say on this subject. Aboriginal philosophers like Socrates and Plato believed that when the body died, the soul lived on. Years later, Immanuel Kant ended that morality requires life afterward death likewise as the being of a just 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 ane of the almost common ways people reply the question of "what happens when you dice?" At that place are many dissimilar religions and almost equally many behavior about the afterlife, even if information technology's 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 accept very consequent beliefs beyond all followers. Other religious teachings leave more open to interpretation, which can outcome in a wide variety of beliefs among members.

Christianity. Followers of Jesus believe that there is an afterlife and that Christ is not merely the key to life and dear on this world, He is the key to what will happen when you dice. The Bible teaches that when people die, their souls live on. People will spend eternity either with God (unremarkably called heaven) or separated from God (unremarkably chosen hell).

People try to reach God through being very moral, doing expert deeds, or behaving in ways they think of as very religious. But the Bible teaches that no one is actually worthy of spending eternity with God based on their ain efforts. In fact, trying to become to sky on the basis of our own attempt is really part of the trouble the Bible refers to as sin. This is the problem Jesus' decease and resurrection solved for anyone who trusts in Jesus.

Simply why exercise we need Jesus to solve the problem of sin?

Christians believe information technology'southward because nosotros've all chosen to go our ain way, or rebel against God, and and so do not deserve to be in heaven with Him forever. Trying to earn your way to heaven or make yourself proficient enough for heaven is substantially an try to be your own god. People remain imperfect, despite their all-time 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 past coming to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, living a perfect life and dying on behalf of all people so their wrongdoings and rebellion can be forgiven.

When people accept Jesus as their but way to God, they will be given the righteousness of Christ and 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 means they will be separated from God for eternity.

People who do not trust Jesus cannot go to heaven considering of what heaven is.

Find out more than well-nigh what Christianity has to say.

Islam. Muslims believe people have immortal souls. After expiry, the destination of the soul depends on a person'south good and bad deeds. Islam teaches that anybody volition be resurrected (be raised to life again) and face final judgment. People who are true-blue and practiced will enter paradise. People who are unfaithful and wicked will enter hell.

Judaism. There are unlike beliefs about the afterlife within Judaism. Most sacred Jewish texts depict some form of afterlife. The Hebrew Bible talks nearly "Sheol," and the Talmud describes "the World to Come," though what exactly these are is not clear.

Some Jewish people believe only the faithful and good will enter the afterlife but that the afterlife is open to proficient people of whatsoever worldview. Others believe there will be a resurrection of everyone that will include a judgment of every person's good and bad deeds to determine their eternal fate.

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

Baha'i. The Baha'i organized religion teaches that at death, the torso dies, but the immortal, rational soul continues on in the spiritual realm and grows toward perfection. The prayers of people nonetheless on world and good deeds done in the name of the person who died tin help a soul make progress in the adjacent globe.

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

Buddhism. There are several types of Buddhism with distinct teachings almost the afterlife. In general, Buddhism teaches that eternal, individual souls do not exist but that after death, people ordinarily experience reincarnation based on their actions and desires in this life. The ultimate goal is to end the cycle of reincarnation and accomplish an enlightened land called Nirvana. This is achieved through meditation, religious practice and the elimination of want, hatred and ignorance.

Nirvana is characterized by liberty from suffering. Information technology's not a physical location, but a higher state of being than the physical world.

Hinduism. Hinduism includes a large variety of beliefs and practices and is both a religion and a culture. The core Hindu belief well-nigh what happens after death focuses on reincarnation. About 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 automated and cannot be avoided.

A person may suffer in one life for bad karma from the current life or a previous life. The ultimate goal in Hinduism is to attain moksha, or freedom from reincarnation. This is achieved past eliminating bad karma through expert actions, meditation, spiritual devotion or liberty from ignorance and want.

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

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

Only God can crusade someone to accomplish mukti, but people should strive to exist close to God. When liberated, the individual becomes i with God.

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

Almost Shintoists do not necessarily believe in an eternal soul, merely many exercise believe people tin can get kami, or sacred spirits who can protect their descendants. People ofttimes worship their ancestral kami and honour them through festivals.

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

Taoism. Taoism, also known as Daoism, teaches most the Tao — the key energy of life. There are a broad variety of behavior and practices inside Taoism. In general, Taoists seek to achieve immortality through rituals and pursuing harmony and oneness with the universe.

Unitarian Universalism. Unitarianism does non have a core set of beliefs and does non promote universal truth. It 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 end to exist later death, while others believe there is some sort of afterlife or unification with God or the universe.

Unitarians exercise not believe in hell or eternal penalty. "Universalism" refers to the belief in universal salvation.

Other Views. People who follow Jainism, Scientology, New Age Organized religion, Wicca and Hare Krishna believe in some form of reincarnation, merely the specifics vary. Indigenous Chinese and Tibetian religions accept like, but distinct, behavior nigh the afterlife to Buddhism. Members of the Unification Church building believe in a spirit earth with God and eternal families.

Some religious groups that accept some footing in the Bible or who self-place as Christian but have additional sacred texts paint a dissimilar moving picture of the afterlife than the one found in the Bible. Mormons and Jehovah'due south Witnesses are two of these groups.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) believe that people were part of the spiritual kingdom before coming to world and will return to their spiritual state when they die. Immediately later on death, peoples' spirits enter the spirit world. The faithful will be in paradise, but others volition be in spirit prison, where they can choose to accept God or non.

Mormons believe in resurrection for all that reunites trunk and spirit. Later the final judgment, the faithful will enter the Celestial Kingdom with God and their eternal families. Those who are good but did not accept God until the spirit world will live in the Terrestrial Kingdom. Those who are non good and rejected God will be in the Telestial Kingdom. Endless punishment is reserved for the devil, his angels, and those who served him or totally reject God.

Jehovah'south Witnesses believe the soul is not separate from the concrete body and dies with the torso. For about, expiry means nonexistence. A small group of the most faithful (144,000) will be part of the first resurrection and reign with Jesus in sky. Others who choose to serve God will be function of the second resurrection and live on a new world forever.

Non-Religious Worldviews

Agnosticism. The word "agnostic" can refer to someone who does non know if God or anything supernatural exists or to someone who does non believe information technology is possible to know if God or the supernatural exist.

Disbelief. Atheists practice non believe in God or gods and more often than not practise non believe in an afterlife. Nearly believe that at decease, a person just ceases to exist. Some people who do not believe in God, and are therefore technically atheists, practise yet believe in some sort of afterlife.

Confucianism. The Chinese philosophy of Confucianism is more of a philosophy and a mode of life than a religion, and it does non promote the thought of an afterlife. The focus of Confucianism is on this life, with an accent on family unit and society as well every bit respecting the wisdom and traditions passed downwards from previous generations. Ancestor worship is important in Chinese culture in general and is practiced past many who follow Confucianism.

Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a movement that came out of People's republic of china in the 1990s and does not merits to be a organized religion or promote a belief about the afterlife. It does promote attaining a form 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 afterward death. Humanists believe people should focus on the human feel because at death they will cease to be.

Going Deeper Into What Christianity Says Virtually Life Later Death

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The Bible teaches that God has set eternity in the hearts of humans (Ecclesiastes iii:xi). This is 1 reason why death makes us sad; nosotros were not made to end. In that location are many passages in the Bible that make it articulate nosotros exercise not terminate to exist when our earthly bodies die.

Daniel 12:ii says, "Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise upwards, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace."

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

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

Where Practice People Spend Eternity?

Heaven and Hell. The Bible teaches that at that place are two alternatives: eternity with God and eternity separated from God, often referred to as sky and hell. From an eternal standpoint, to exist 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 up from God are completely absent.

What Happens Immediately Afterwards Death?

When Jesus hung on the cross where He was existence executed, at that place were two criminals being crucified on either side of Him. Luke 23:42-43 describes a conversation between 1 of those criminals and Jesus: "So [the criminal] said, 'Jesus, recall me when You come into Your Kingdom.' And Jesus replied, 'I assure you, today you lot will be with Me in paradise.'"

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

Sky volition be an amazing place, merely information technology's not designed to exist the eternal home of God's people. That even more amazing place is commonly referred to as "the new creation" or "the new heaven and new world."

Judgment Day

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

Revelation twenty:eleven-xv describes judgment day:

And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from His presence, but they found no place to hibernate. I saw the dead, both slap-up and pocket-size, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, equally recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of burn is the second expiry. And anyone whose name was non establish recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

God's Standard

The key question is, What will be the standard on judgment twenty-four hours? How skilful do you have to be to become to heaven?

Many people call back that as long as your adept deeds outweigh your bad, or as long as you make a skillful effort and do non practise annihilation too bad, y'all will go to heaven. In reality, God's standard is much higher. He requires perfection.

But Romans 3:23 says, "Anybody has sinned; we all autumn short of God's glorious standard."

Since everyone falls short, how tin anyone go to heaven? The answer is in the adjacent verse: "Notwithstanding God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the punishment for our sins" (Romans 4:24).

No i tin run into the standard of perfection on judgment twenty-four hours by their ain efforts, but God fabricated a way for people to spend eternity with Him. Jesus lived the perfect life that we cannot, then died in our place to take on the punishment we deserved for our rebellion confronting God.

No 1 can make themselves perfect; merely God can do that:

God presented Jesus equally the sacrifice 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 off-white when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would practice in this present fourth dimension. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners correct in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

Can we avowal, then, that we have done anything to be accepted past God? No, considering our acquittal is non based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through organized religion and non by obeying the constabulary. (Romans 3:25-28)

If you accept Jesus' sacrifice on your behalf, you lot're forgiven for your sins and tin brainstorm a personal human relationship with God.

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

You can have that what Jesus has washed is sufficient to save you from an eternity autonomously from God, or y'all can turn down it and rely on your own efforts to save you.

God showed His great love for us past sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been fabricated right in God's sight by the claret of Christ, He will certainly save us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored past the expiry of His Son while we were still His enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of His Son. And then at present we can rejoice in our wonderful new human relationship with God considering our Lord Jesus Christ has made u.s. friends of God." — Romans 5:viii-xi

The New Heaven and New Globe

Revelation 21:1-8 describes the ultimate destination of those who accept Jesus' cede and have eternal life with God:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new world, for the old heaven and the old world had disappeared. And the sea was as well gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven similar a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Expect, God's abode is now amid His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their optics, and at that place will exist no more expiry or sorrow or crying or hurting. All these things are gone forever."

And the i sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!" And then He said to me, "Write this downwards, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true." And He also 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 volition exist their God, and they will be My children.

One of the most amazing things nearly the new cosmos is that people will become to spend eternity in God'due south presence. In the new creation, God's people will live in a beautiful place free of pain and suffering and feel the joy of a perfect relationship with a perfectly loving God.

The 2d Decease

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

The Volume of Revelation also describes this destination:

So the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will exist tormented twenty-four hour period and night forever and always. (Revelation twenty:10)

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

Whether there is literally fire and burning sulfur or not nosotros cannot know, but information technology'due south clear that hell is not a place you want to exist.

All of us practice things we know are wrong or immoral to some extent or another, and we choose to go our own manner instead of following God. If you take this passage out of context, information technology seems rather hopeless.

But God has made a way through Jesus to receive forgiveness for all of these things. Without Jesus' sacrifice, each person is responsible for their ain choices and as a upshot will never be adept enough to enter into eternity with a perfect God.

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

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For y'all died, and your life is now subconscious with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, so you lot also will announced with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-iv, New International Version)

Bodies and Eternity

Information technology is natural to wonder what people will be similar in eternity. The Bible makes it clear that eternal bodies will be different from earthly bodies. Paul, an early follower of Jesus who wrote much of the New Attestation, wrote nearly this in his first letter to the church building in the metropolis of Corinth:

Someone may inquire, "How volition the dead be raised? What kind of bodies volition they have?" What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the basis, it does not grow into a institute unless it dies first. And what yous put in the footing is non the constitute that volition abound, but only a bare seed of wheat or any you are planting. ... Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human being bodies, but they will exist raised as spiritual bodies. For but as there are natural bodies, at that place are also spiritual bodies. (1 Corinthians xv:35-37, 43-44)

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul explains further that our new bodies will be better, stronger, and not field of study to disease or expiry like our earthly bodies.

We know that when this earthly tent we alive in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), nosotros will accept a business firm in heaven, an eternal trunk made for us past God Himself and non by human 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; we will not be spirits without bodies. While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, merely information technology's not that we desire to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. (two Corinthians v:one-four)

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

Other Views Within Christianity

Though about Christians concur on the basic beliefs about the afterlife described above, there are some differing views on aspects of life afterwards death.

Catholicism. The Catholic church teaches the doctrine of Purgatory, that Protestant Christians practice non usually accept. According to the official teachings of the Cosmic church building, chosen "The Catechism of the Catholic Church building," Purgatory is a "final purification of the elect, which is entirely unlike from the punishment of the damned."

Pope John Paul II said Purgatory "does not indicate a place, just a condition of beingness."

Catholicism teaches that those who have a relationship with God merely are not fully purified will have eternal conservancy but still need farther purification afterward death. Subsequently purification in Purgatory, they achieve the perfect holiness required to be in the presence of a perfectly Holy God.

The Catholic Church partially bases the doctrine of Purgatory on Scripture passages referring to a cleansing burn. Information technology as well draws this concept from a passage where Jesus said that those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit volition not be forgiven in this age or the age to come. The Catechism of the Cosmic Church building further states, "From this judgement we empathize that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come."

Most Protestants believe that Jesus' sacrifice fully paid for all of our sins and fully purified all who believe in Him, so there is no need for further purification after decease.

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

Religious and Nominal Christians. In that location are a significant number of people who self-identify as Christian just accept their own individual views on the afterlife. They may have grown up going to church regularly or just for religious holidays and may or may non continue attention church building.

They do non necessarily have all of the Bible as true, so their beliefs vary well-nigh heaven and hell. Many people in this category call up that as long as y'all're a pretty good person and practice not do something as bad equally, for example, killing someone, you lot go to heaven. Others believe hell is but for especially bad people or that there is no hell, and people who do not go to heaven but terminate existing.

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

Different Views About the End of Days in Christianity

Christians generally agree on the ultimate destination of people and that trusting in Jesus' sacrifice of His own perfect life is the but way to spend eternity with God.

The Bible makes the well-nigh of import things clear in the Bible: What God is similar, why we can trust Him, what Jesus has done for usa and why that matters to every person on world. These are the fundamentals on which Christians hold, considering the Bible makes them very clear.

But some details near the afterlife remain unclear enough for Christians to hold differing beliefs about them. This does not mean they differ in their understanding of how y'all can know God personally.

So how do Christians reconcile themselves to believing in things that are not completely clear to them? Christians exercise not trust God because He always explains Himself only considering they know He is skilful. God Himself is beyond the level of our understanding. Only nosotros tin 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 ways, Christians sometimes understand the afterlife with slight differences.

There is a whole co-operative of theological report called eschatology, which is the study of the end of fourth dimension, life after expiry, and Jesus' return.

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

After saying this, He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see Him. As they strained to see Him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why are you continuing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, just anytime He will return from heaven in the same fashion yous saw him get!" (Acts 1:ix-11)

Christians have different views nigh when exactly that will happen and what information technology will exist similar earlier, during and after Jesus' return.

Some, but non all, Christians believe the Bible teaches that at that place will be a time of great persecution for people who follow Jesus. This fourth dimension is oftentimes referred to every bit the tribulation. These Christians besides believe that at some point earlier Jesus returns, He will accept His followers away to be with Him and leave other people on earth for a time. This is called the rapture. Many of these Christians believe that before all people achieve i of the last, eternal destinations described above, and after the tribulation, at that place will be a period of 1000 years, called the millenium, when Jesus' followers will prosper and dominion on earth. Amidst the Christians who believe these things, many differ in their beliefs about what society the events will happen in.

Some believe that prophecies in the Bible that talk about the cease of the world, including the volume 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 time to come.

Some believe well-nigh 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 agreement. These can only be described metaphorically by comparing them to earthly things nosotros can empathise. For example, when the Book of Revelation describes the new Jerusalem, the cute city of the new earth, it compares it to a precious stone, jasper and crystal. The author, John, could not fully capture what he saw in his vision because it was unlike annihilation he had ever seen.

So he took me in the Spirit to a not bad, loftier mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a jewel — like a jasper equally clear equally crystal. (Revelation 21:10-eleven)

The Ultimate Question: Where Volition Yous Get When You Dice?

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Though views differ and questions remain most the afterlife, in the stop each person must find for themselves the reply to the almost important question: Where will you get when you lot dice?

According to the Bible, every homo that dies will spend eternity either with God or separated from God. A natural response might be to wonder why in that location are two options.

The Eternal Dilemma

Because God is perfect and skilful, He cannot permit us, imperfect people who have rebelled confronting God, to enter eternity with Him in our current country. The Bible teaches that all of humankind has fallen short and missed the marking of perfection, which is referred to equally sin (Ecclesiastes vii:20; Romans 3:23).

Left to their own devices, no one will go to heaven when they dice. Although about people assume they will go to heaven unless they are especially 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 leave the man race without promise.

God's Solution

Christianity's main message is that God loves us then much He was willing to send His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty nosotros deserved.

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

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

The Bible tells us 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 and then significant. They chose to eat the forbidden fruit because they thought it would give them equality with God. The issue of their activity was that death came into the earth.

The natural outcome of choosing to live your earthly life apart from God is that God will respect that choice and non bring you into an eternity spent with Him.

Jesus' death paid for our sin, creating a way for us to come dorsum into the human relationship with God we were designed for. Jesus contradistinct our eternal fate, merely we even so have to choose our eternal destination.

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

What Volition Yous Choose to Believe?

Then, how will you lot respond? Y'all can choose 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 send people to hell?" Instead, the real question becomes, "Why would you lot choose not to receive the free gift of sky?"

None of united states knows how many days we have left to live, so we cannot know how long we have left to accept God's offer of eternal life.

If you lot, or someone you know, has still to take God'due south invitation, consider your options. God provides a manner for you to know for certain where y'all'll spend eternity.

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

Where Can Y'all Go From Here?

Do you want to choose to spend eternity with God? You can brainstorm a relationship with God correct at present and know for certain where you will go when y'all die.
- Read a more detailed explanation of how to offset a relationship with God, including a prayer you tin utilise to express your conclusion.
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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 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