What Happens When We Die? Part 2 - Con't.

What Happens When We Die?

Part II - Con’t.

 

When Believers die, where does their spirit go?  To answer this question, we need to look at several scriptures.  When Jesus was still alive on this earth, he told the story of a beggar who died and the angels took him to ‘Abraham’s Bosom’; the rich man died and was in Hades (Hell) Luke 16:22-23

When Jesus died, he first went down into the lower parts of the earth which is called “The Bosom of Abraham.”  Prior to Jesus resurrection, when believers died, their spirit went to that place.  He preached to them and then they were set free.  Many came with him out of ‘Abrahams Bosom’ as it tells us in Matthew 27:51-53, “Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

How could that be?  There are two scriptures that speak of a place deep in the earth.  1) Ephesians 4:9 Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?  2)

I Peter 3:19-20 “Through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”  And also in chapter 4:6, “For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.”  Both scriptures are in [NIV].

While Jesus hung on the Cross one of the criminals believed in Jesus and asked him to remember him.  And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

Luke 23:43

After Jesus died and rose again he told Mary, “Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” John 20:17

From this time of his death, Jesus held the keys of Death and Hell in his hands and Paradise became the place for the ‘dead in Christ’.  Where is Paradise? Paradise is in the “Third Heaven.”  2 Cor. 12: 2-5 “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago; whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows; such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man; whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows; how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities.”

This is why we know Paradise is in the third heaven.  Most Bible scholars believe Paul was speaking about himself in this scripture.  Let’s look at the layers of heaven. 

            a.         The sky above us is considered the first heaven

            b.         The second heaven is believed to be out in space where the stars are.

c.         The third heaven is above that and where Paradise is.  However

 it is not where the Throne of God is or within the pearly gates.

 

It is believed that Hell, Hades, Sheol; which ever you call it, is in the lower parts of the world.  Even the Old Testament speaks of this place:  Psalm 63:9 “But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.” It has long been considered there were two compartments under the earth; a place for the unrighteous dead and a place for the righteous that died before Jesus came to set them free.  After he did that they came into Paradise.

To further explain this place, turn to Rev. 9:1 “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.”

Vs. 11: And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.  Sometimes the pit is called the ‘Abyss’ meaning a bottomless gulf.

             When Jesus returns to this earth he will bring all the souls in Paradise with him.  I Thess. 4:14 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” We know that flesh and blood can’t inherit the Kingdom of God.  I Cor. 15:50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”. 

Now Paul called this a mystery in I Cor. 15:51 “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

We must remember one thing; our new body will not have any blood in it.  All the blood came out of Jesus at his death, so when he was resurrected, his body was without blood.  We know we shall be like Jesus when we return.  Jesus had five senses working and so will we.

            1.         Sight

            2.         Feeling

            3.         Taste

            4.         Ability to walk through solids

            5.         Move at the speed of thought.

            There are some things that happen before a person actually is dead. When a baby is born, the umbilical cord that is attached to the stomach of the baby is also attached to the mother.  Only when that cord is cut that separates the baby from its mother, can the infant begin to breathe on its own.  I’ve read many testimonies of people who thought they died and how they are hovering over their body and looking down at it.  Then they feel themselves floating upwards, but later on they come back into their body.  This is a strange thing to take place, but I believe there is an explanation.  Let’s go to Ecclesiastes 12:6   “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well.  Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

I believe that just like the umbilical cord, until the silver cord is severed, there can be no life in the spiritual world.  This scripture gives different explanation for the same thing, but there must be a severance from this world to remain in another.

Eternity is without time and the marvelous things God has planned for us have no explanation. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."  I Corinthians 2:9

 

I know this: Either I will go up in the Rapture and be changed in the 'twinkling of an eye', or my heart will stop beating and two angels will lift me out of this body and carry me to Paradise.  I will be given a new and glorious body and will be with Jesus forever.

 

"For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”   1 Corinthians 15:53-55 (NLT)

 

 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE?

What Happens When We Die?

Part I 

 

Over the years of teaching, many have asked me what happens when we die.  Of course not having experienced this event, it was difficult to answer.  I love to study the Word of God, so I’ve spent a lot of time searching for answers.  I read many books by different preachers and not all agreed with one another. 

            I have noticed most pastors, when giving a funeral service; say the same thing, “Your loved one is now in heaven”.  Of course that is not always true, even if it makes those remaining feel good about it. I want to share some of the miraculous things the Bible tells us, along with some insights from Perry Stone and myself.
            There are four (4) things we know for sure:

1.               All people must die (except for Elijah and Enoch and those taken in the Rapture).

Heb. 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”

                       Notice we are ‘appointed’; we have an appointment with death and it’s one we can’t    
                       call up and cancel.  We don’t know our appointed time, but we all have one.  It was
                       this way from the beginning.  Turn to Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall
                       eat bread until you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken; for dust you are,
                       and to dust you shall return.” 

2.         Every one who ever lived will be resurrected some day.  Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

            When Jesus rose from the dead He defeated the enemy, Satan.  This scripture tells us those who are born again will also rise from the dead.  I Thess. 4:16-17 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will 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 thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

 

                       Dead or alive, we will be resurrected, “Acts 24:15 “I have hope in God, which they
                       themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
                       and the unjust.”  There it is; all that died, the good and the bad, will be resurrected on
                       that great day.

3.         Where will they go when they are resurrected?  Let’s take a look at Matt. 25:46 “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."  This tells us that some will enter eternal life with God and others damnation.  I know there are those who believe everyone will go to heaven when they die, but the Bible tells us differently.

             Matt. 25:32  "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.”  There is not much more to be said about this.

4.         Every person will be judged.  John 5:26-29 “For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

 

Let’s look at what the bible tells us about judgment after death.  There are two judgment events: 

1) The judgment seat of Christ which is for the Believer and 2) The Great White Throne Judgment which is for the unbeliever.

            1)  Romans 14:10 “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”

 
            2)  Revelation 20:11 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.” Who are ‘them’ this speaks of?  These are the ones who never accepted Jesus as their Savior.
 

Resurrection is both a physical and a spiritual thing.  Gen. 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man

of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living being.”  Here we see a physical side to it.  We can see that dust is a physical thing and what
is created from it returns to it.

Daniel 12:2 explains it even further.  “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.”   

I Cor. 15:53 “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”   What does this mean?  Is it physical or spiritual?  It seems quite clear that it is both.  We will change physically from dust to an immortal body and spiritually from our sinful thought life to pure spirituality.

            Our body is the ‘Temple of the Holy Spirit’ and that makes it invaluable, but in the physical it only worth about $14.00.  It has enough sulfur to make a box of matches, enough salt to fill a salt shaker and enough iron to make a 3” nail among other things.  It’s almost ridiculous that you put $50 shoes on ten cent feet; a $40 hairdo on a fifty cent head and $400 teeth in a five cent mouth.
 

Think of this; a $14 dollar man gets up and puts on $20 dollar slippers; takes a shower and puts on a $200 suit; a $25 dollar tie and $85 dollar dress shoes.  He leaves a $400,000 dollar house and drives a $40,000 car.  He gets to work and sets behind a $1,500 desk and turns on a $2,000 computer. 

 
He works 8 hours a day to make some money and eventually goes home to his $14 wife and his two $7.50 dollar kids.  He sets down and eats a $10 meal, picks up a $1.00 newspaper and sits in a $450 recliner.

Suddenly he has a heart attack and dies.  Then they buy a new $300 suit to put on him and lay him in a $2,000 coffin and bury him in a $3,000 cemetery plot.  Then they cover him up with the same thing he’s made out of – DIRT!  [Perry Stone]

If he, or she, is serving God, two angels will descend and lift the spirit out of his $14 dollar body and take him to Paradise.  He has the promise to someday be resurrected.  I Cor. 15: 21-22  “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coming Millennium

The Coming Millennium

            Let me begin this last teaching and 7^th in the end times series by saying the Battle of Armageddon is over and the mess is being cleaned up.  We cannot leave out some important events that take place prior to the battle following the Rapture of the Believers; this is the Judgment Seat of Christ where true Christians will be given rewards or lose rewards according to his/her service.  No believer will lose their Salvation because that is a gift of God, but as the Bible says in Romans 2:6 TLB “He will give each one whatever his deeds deserve.”  

            Those in Christ have been judged; “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)  We are speaking of the saints which are made up of those believers from the beginning and those who were still alive and taken up in The Rapture.  I Thessalonians 4:16 tells us that only the ‘dead in Christ’ would be caught up to meet Jesus. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a mighty shout and with the soul-stirring cry of the archangel and the great trumpet-call of God. And the believers who are dead will be the first to rise to meet the Lord. Then we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (TLB)

            The Marriage Supper of the Lamb has taken place; the Judgment Seat of Christ is over and now begins a thousand years of peace. 

            The Millennium begins:  “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. Rev. 20:1-3 Can you imagine a life on earth without Satan temping and deceiving people?  What will it be like?  What will be different from what we know now?  Think of it; there will be no wars, violence or murders for 1000 years.  No one will have to be afraid of anyone. 

            Look at Isaiah 2:4, “For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Here are some things that will be different on earth during this time.

a.      Restoration of the original creation

b.     Life spans restored to their original length of over a 100 years.

c.      Animals will no longer be a threat or be threatened

d.     No one shall be sick or dying

e.      Jesus will sit on the throne and rule the world

f.       No one will be deceived any longer

g.      A time of prosperity and peace

            Isaiah 65:20-25 “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old.” At this time, food will be so abundant that people will have to wait to plant because the harvest isn’t completed.  You can see there will be no hunger on the earth.   Amos 9:13 “The time will come," says the LORD, "when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine!”  NLT 

As kings, priests and teachers, we will have the privilege of assisting Him in governing and teaching mankind the way of God.  We will also have help from the angels; they will be under our judgment.  I don’t think they will actually need judging, but will move and do things under our direction.  Remember – they were created for service as well as worship and praise. I Cor. 6:2 “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?  Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” 

          People will marry, have children and all will be offered salvation during these thousand years.  They will be able to see Jesus and learn about him first-hand.  It will be a wonderful period of time and leads into a glorious eternity. 

At the end of the thousand years, God said, “Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, which deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” 

Next comes the time when Satan is released on earth again.  Many question why God would do this?  Obviously, not all people living on earth during Christ’s reign accepted him as their Savior and not all nations bowed to his rule. Satan appears to still want to overcome God as much as he ever did.  We are not told how long he was loose but it must have been for a length of time until he got the nations of the earth stirred up to come against Jerusalem.  At last God says enough is enough and he literally scorched them with fire and cast them into the lake of fire. 

You may be wondering what happened to the countless dead people who never had salvation and the answer is very clear in the Revelation 20:5, “ But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.  This is the first resurrection.” Revelation 20:5 (NKJV) At this time there is another judgment the Bible speaks of in Revelation 20:11-15 and it is called The Great White Throne Judgment.  This will take place at the end of the thousand years of peace on earth.  This trial is for all those who have rejected God's salvation by not accepting Jesus as their Savior.  Those who have died over the centuries and those who lived through the Tribulation times will not escape this terrible judgment.  At this time they will kneel before their Creator, and acknowledge that He is God; that he is Christ is Lord!

In Matthew 7:23, Jesus told this to those who did not accept who he was, “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.”  Then they will then be cast into the Lake of Fire, which will be their place throughout Eternity.  You can read more about it in Revelation 20:11-15.

 

 

 

 

          Ever wonder what happens to you after you are gone from your body?  There is a lot more to it than you can imagine.  Next week begins a 2-part teaching on, "What Happens When we Die?"  Be sure and read it; you might be surprised.