What Happens After Death

[Bible Question] Shalom! Where go people when they die? We all know that the saints go to paradise, but was the one that was crucified with Jesus a saint? He was saved in the last minute. So we never know who is saved or not. Somebody said, if we make it to Heaven, we will be surprised, who is there and who is not there….My mother took me to church when I was a child, she taught me to pray to Jesus. But I went the way of a sinner and was lost. When I was depressed and life was heavy for me, I prayed and the Lord saved me. I went to the Lutheran church, where I found some old lad’s and a pastor who did not know that there was a God at all. I did not speak to anyone. I knew these people were not true believers. I had no bible and I was young and became a backslider. Only after three years I found true believers in another church and began to read the bible and they taught me the word. I stopped drinking alcohol. Through my wife I came to the Pentecostal church. I was baptized in water. But I was ignorant of my sins I had committed. They said if you believe in Jesus, all your sins are forgiven, past, present and future, so I did not repent of my sins. One day I preached in the street in Germany, that I know I’ll go to Heaven. The next morning when I slept I went to hell through the black tunnel into the earth. It was absolute terror. The Lord rescued me, and I thought He has shown me hell. It took two other experiences till I woke up and repented….God bless!

[Bible Answer] Greetings in Jesus’ name. After death, a person immediately goes into the presence of God (if he died a righteous person) or into fiery torment (if he died an unrighteous person). Just as an unrighteous person can become righteous through Biblical repentance and faith in Jesus (Acts 20:21; 1 Cor. 6:9-11), a righteous person can become unrighteous (lost) again by turning to wickedness (Eph. 5:5-7; Gal. 5:19-21; etc), as the prodigal did (Lk. 15:24), but that too can be reversed through repentance.

We know the dying thief entered God’s kingdom after his death because Jesus said he would be with him in Paradise (Luke 23:43). Paradise is up in the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2,4) or God’s home. He became an instant saint when he was forgiven. That is also when his spiritual identity changed from thief to saint. If one is a saint, he is one this side of the grave and made so by the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus.

The Lutheran religion is false. (I was raised Roman Catholic, which is a false religion too.) Lutherans actually teach one is forgiven at infant baptism (like the Roman Catholics)! There is not the slightest hint of infant baptism in the entire Bible, yet various denominations believe in that non-Christian practice and some believe that is how to get forgiven! Shocking! Furthermore some of the same falsely claim to go by sola scriptura (the Bible alone), like the Calvinists!

While it is true that God can give dreams, it is also true that the devil can use dreams (and other means like visions, experiences, feelings, etc.) to deceive. Therefore, be careful to base all of your doctrinal beliefs on the written word of God (2 Tim. 3:16,17). Your eternal destiny depends on what you do with the message of the Bible. Go 100% by the Bible. It is God’s eternal truth.

The resurrection refers to our physical bodies being raised incorruptible (1 Cor. 15:52,53). All of the saved (those who have a saving faith in Jesus, which do good and endure to the end) will be of the first resurrection (John 5:29a cf. Rev. 20:4-6; Heb. 3:14; Mt. 10:22; Rev. 2:10,11). The wicked dead will be resurrected too (John 5:29b), but not until after the 1,000 years reign of Christ, then thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

God is just. No one will go to eternal fiery torment who shouldn’t be there! If your loved ones did go to fiery torment, they would want their living relatives to repent to avoid such a place, like the rich man did (Luke 16:27-31).

We are now in a worldwide apostasy, which precedes the rise of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:1-3). Open and unashamed sin is rampant, even among the professing Christians! The primary accepted gospel in the churches is connected with the heresy of once saved always saved and is powerless to set one free from their sin addictions (Jude 3,4; Rom. 6:22 cf. Col. 2:23). It is a terrible day for all Christians, especially the new converts. However, Christians still have the best this life can offer and a glorious exciting future throughout all eternity! Thank you Jesus! Remember, to reap eternal life one must sow to please the Spirit and not give up (Gal. 6:8,9). God bless you.