What Happens When You Die?
What happens when we die? Do good people go to heaven, floating among the clouds, playing harps, and watching over their loved ones? Do bad people go to hell to be tormented forever and ever, writhing and screaming in the flames, being stabbed over and over again by pitchfork-wielding demons? Do we simply cease to exist?
God’s Word tells us plainly that all go to one place: the grave (Eccl. 6:6). Wise, foolish, rich, poor, kings, beggars — all will end up in basically the same place: lowered into a hole and covered with earth (Eccl. 2:14-16). Everyone’s body will return to dust, and everyone’s spirit (or life) will return to God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7).
The dead are asleep; no one has ever gone to heaven, and no one has ever gone to hell. The Apostle Peter declared, “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day” (Acts 2:29). A few moments later, he added, “David did not ascend into the heavens” (Acts 2:34). Only one Man has ever ascended into heaven to the presence of God: Jesus Christ (Acts 2:30-33). But that was after His resurrection, not while He was dead!
God’s servant Job understood that the dead do not rise from their graves (Job 7:9-10; 14:12) until God calls them in the day of resurrection (Job 14:13-15). He spoke of the grave (or sheol in Hebrew) as the place where the body decomposes, and where one rests in the dust (Job 17:13-16). Yet, Job also knew that he would one day be resurrected and that God would call him out of his grave: “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer you” (Job 14:13-14).
Indeed, the Bible speaks of everyone who has ever died as being asleep, awaiting the resurrection. David fell asleep and was buried (Acts 13:36), the martyr Stephen fell asleep (Acts 7:60), and many in Christ have fallen asleep (1 Thes. 4:13-15). Before Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from the dead, He told His disciples that Lazarus was asleep (John 11:11-15). Likewise, God has taken away many of the sinful and put them to sleep (1 Cor. 11:30).
David, in the midst of his trials, pleaded with God to deliver him from his enemies, lest he “sleep the sleep of death” (Psa. 13:3). All the kings of Israel and Judah who died peaceful deaths, righteous and wicked alike, are said in the books of Kings and Chronicles to have rested with their fathers.
Speaking through an angel, God told the prophet Daniel, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt…. But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days” (Dan. 12:2, 13). We can see, then, that all the dead are now asleep. The righteous have not gone to heaven; the wicked have not gone to hell. All are asleep, awaiting the resurrection and God’s judgment.
What does it mean to say that the dead are asleep? It means that, as David prayed to God, “In death, there is no remembrance of You; in the grave, who will give you thanks?” (Psa. 6:5). It means that, as God spoke through Solomon, “The dead know nothing…. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going” (Eccl. 9:5-6, 10).
In other words, the dead have no knowledge of anything, no consciousness of anything. No pain is felt by the dead, but only by their loved ones left to go on without them. When they awaken in the resurrection, when God calls them out of their graves, it will seem to them as though it had been an instant! When they fall asleep, their next waking moment will be in the presence of God their Creator. Though one has been dead for a thousand years, that person will have no knowledge of it; it will seem like an instant.
Everyone who has ever lived and died will be resurrected one day and stand before God. We can see this plainly in Rev. 20, as well as in the other verses we have already referenced (if you haven’t looked them up, please do so). Everyone will have to give account to God for his or her actions, even “for every idle word” (Mat. 12:36)! This topic will be explored further in an upcoming post on the first and second resurrections.
Some proponents of the “heaven and hell” tradition have used a handful of poetic or symbolic passages in the Bible to support their point of view. These are chiefly, 1) the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), 2) those in Sheol (the grave) being awakened and excited at the arrival of the king of Babylon (Isa. 14:9-11), 3) the souls of the martyrs crying out to God for vengeance from under the altar (Rev. 6:9-11), and, 4) the witch of En Dor calling up the prophet Samuel from the dead to speak to King Saul (1 Sam. 28:7-20).
First of all, it must be emphasized that the parable of Lazarus and the rich man is a fictional story that Jesus used to illustrate a point He was making. We find similar proverbs in the Old Testament, such as in Ezek. 17, where Ezekiel spoke of an eagle planting a tree and gathering and planting seed. Obviously, eagles do not plant and cultivate trees! The purpose of a parable is not to be true to life, but to make an important point. What was Jesus’ point? That if unbelievers refuse to heed God’s Word, signs and wonders won’t convince them either, not even if someone rose from the dead (Luke 16:31).
As for those in the grave (Sheol) being excited at the arrival of the king of Babylon (Isa. 14:9-11), remember that this, too, is symbolic and not meant to be taken literally. Rotting corpses covered in maggots and worms, as described in v. 11, are not going to be speaking to one another! Furthermore, if it were meant to be taken literally, then v. 18 of the same chapter would contradict it, for it says that all the kings of the nations are asleep (dead), not awake!
The account of the souls under the altar in Rev. 6 is also symbolic, as are most of the other visions in Revelation, such as the four horsemen. Remember that, in a similar manner, God told Cain, after Cain murdered his brother Abel, that Abel’s blood cried out from the ground (Gen. 4:10). Did Abel’s blood literally cry out from the ground? Of course not! Both accounts simply mean that the martyrdom of the righteous calls for God’s vengeance.
Finally, the account of the witch of En Dor calling up Samuel the prophet is an interesting one. Though the Bible speaks of mediums, spiritists, and those who call upon the dead (Deut. 18:11), nowhere does it say God has given them authority to actually speak to the dead. Instead, it speaks of them as seeking “familiar spirits” (Lev. 19:31; 20:6) or demons, and says to give no regard to them (Lev. 19:31). God’s Word also describes Satan’s servants, such as false prophets, as being liars just as their master is (John 8:44). Was the witch of En Dor calling up a demon masquerading as the prophet Samuel? Probably! And though the spirit spoke the truth to Saul and foretold his death in battle, remember that God can force anyone to speak the truth if He sees fit, whether a false prophet and his donkey (Num. 23-24) or a demon.
An alternative possibility is that God showed Saul and the witch a vision. God can show anyone a vision at any time if He so chooses, as if showing the person a movie. Either way, it’s not likely that God allowed a Satan-worshiping witch to call up one of His servants from the dead!
Thus, there is no evidence in God's Word for the tradition of heaven and hell. It's a manmade tradition that many have tried to read into the Bible, but it isn't there. In fact, it contradicts God's Word!
God’s Word gives us a straightforward answer to the age-old question of what happens when we die. We will simply go to sleep and await the resurrection, when God will call us out of our graves to stand in His presence! This should be both a joyful thought and a sobering one. We do not know when or how we will die, so we ought, with each moment we have left, to prepare ourselves and to seek God with all of our being.
“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16).
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