What Happens After We Die?

[byronarn]

After we die, are we unconscious until Judgment day? Or is there a particular judgment?

I believe in soul sleep for those who die as unbelievers. Believers, I think, are instantly raised to heaven to be with Christ. Christ said, “He who believes in me, though he die, yet he will live.”

At the start of the Millennium, believers have their bodies resurrected (this is the First Resurrection mentioned in Revelations) and they rule with Christ over the Earth for a thousand years. The rest of humanity will be raised in the Second Resurrection, be judged, and face chastisement until they be redeemed by Christ.

[corpselight]

After we die, are we unconscious until Judgment day? Or is there a particular judgment?

I believe in soul sleep for those who die as unbelievers. Believers, I think, are instantly raised to heaven to be with Christ. Christ said, “He who believes in me, though he die, yet he will live.”

At the start of the Millennium, believers have their bodies resurrected (this is the First Resurrection mentioned in Revelations) and they rule with Christ over the Earth for a thousand years. The rest of humanity will be raised in the Second Resurrection, be judged, and face chastisement until they be redeemed by Christ.

that’s a very interesting theory, Byronarn…i was favouring “soul sleep” for everyone, based on Solomon and David’s opinions on the matter (which i believe reflected the general Jewish beliefs). but i suppose that makes sense. i was also considering the strange thing of what Jesus said to the repentant thief…“this day” He said. not some time in the future. “this day.”
i can see why to God the Father that a day is as 1000 years and vice versa, but Jesus living in a human body at the time would’ve been more than conscious of what time means to us, and would’ve spoken thusly. it could be soul sleep was universal before Christ’s death and resurrection…it would make sense. also, it’d be yet another insentive for someone to follow Christ while alive, if the next thing they saw upon opening their eyes was His loving face.

i may have to amend my views as per yours. that sounds like a very reasonable way to look at the Scriptural evidence and philosophical implications. thanks!

[byronarn]

After we die, are we unconscious until Judgment day? Or is there a particular judgment?

I believe in soul sleep for those who die as unbelievers. Believers, I think, are instantly raised to heaven to be with Christ. Christ said, “He who believes in me, though he die, yet he will live.”

At the start of the Millennium, believers have their bodies resurrected (this is the First Resurrection mentioned in Revelations) and they rule with Christ over the Earth for a thousand years. The rest of humanity will be raised in the Second Resurrection, be judged, and face chastisement until they be redeemed by Christ.

that’s a very interesting theory, Byronarn…i was favouring “soul sleep” for everyone, based on Solomon and David’s opinions on the matter (which i believe reflected the general Jewish beliefs). but i suppose that makes sense. i was also considering the strange thing of what Jesus said to the repentant thief…“this day” He said. not some time in the future. “this day.”
i can see why to God the Father that a day is as 1000 years and vice versa, but Jesus living in a human body at the time would’ve been more than conscious of what time means to us, and would’ve spoken thusly. it could be soul sleep was universal before Christ’s death and resurrection…it would make sense. also, it’d be yet another insentive for someone to follow Christ while alive, if the next thing they saw upon opening their eyes was His loving face.

i may have to amend my views as per yours. that sounds like a very reasonable way to look at the Scriptural evidence and philosophical implications. thanks!

I believe what the Old Testament says of soul sleep was absolutely right for when it was written. But the cross changed a lot of things. IMHO, the Old Testament saints were raised up from sheol into heaven with Christ at His ascension. And all those who, from that day on, died having put their faith in Christ find themselves with Christ at death.

It does seem unpopular, however, in the universalist faith, to say there is distinctions between believers and unbelievers after death. I think that is why soul sleep for everyone is so popular among Christian universalists. I respect their opinions, and definitely empathize with their sentiments. I just respectfully disagree. I think the example of the thief on the cross is a great example of what I like to call the new order of the universe that was brought about by Christ’s Work.

[Sherman]

Frankly, I don’t know. Right now I think we come into the full reality of the spiritual/eternal realm once we die and shed these physical bodies. Believers come into the presence of the Lord, which purges us from all evil - judgment. And unbelievers come into the full reality of separation from the Lord and then are saved, brought into the presence of the Lord, judged and purged from evil and reconciled to God and others. I think the concepts of “Judgment Day” and “raising from the dead” are means of communicating and conceptualizing these realities. But I could certainly be wrong and hold this perspective lightly, though it does make the most sense to me of the different perspectives I see in scripture.

[Lefein]

I’ve rarely gotten along with soul-sleep.

My opinion is that we “go to God” and in God continue to reside as we do here. Soul-sleep, I would think, is not a permanent state (or permanent until resurrection); but if it should exist would be a state like sleep in the body. You become unconscious, but you also wake up on your own accord.

I don’t believe in the dissolution or cessation of the individual at death, as some variants of soul-sleep teach; because I believe that demonstrates separation from God, and God’s love which is himself - and God promised this would never happen. It also feels to me to be far too much like Materialism to be readily connected with Theism. I also do not believe that the individual is unconscious, remaining tied to, or embedded in a body until it is resurrected.

I believe the spirit (which is “the person”, the individual) goes back to God, and there in God experiences a multitude of conscious states, from sleep, to waking and enjoying paradise (or correction), and even perhaps dreaming.

The Resurrection is an important consummation of the complete restoration of the whole soul, or the whole being, but I do not believe in the cessation of the soul, or its unconsciousness beyond what might account for a daily nap.

For unbelievers, I believe they too return to God; to what end they have I cannot tell as of yet.

[Melchizedek]

That is an interesting perspective, and it does make some sense; particularly since Jesus (our model of the new creation life) was only dead for three days before his bodily resurrection. It’s possible that believers are judged “instantly” upon physical death and pass into a form of spiritual life before the resurrection, and others have to wait, although it seems all will have to wait for the general resurrection to get their body back. It’s also possible that those who are not believers simply pass into a spiritual disembodied state as well until the resurrection. The problem is, we aren’t going to know for sure until we get to the other side.
There is enough ambiguity to remain agnostic on the subject.