Death, and what happens after we die, is something that most people fear. To ease fears, people often define the afterlife in their own terms.
Some believe this life is all there is, and that we shouldn’t waste time even thinking about what comes after it. They believe when we die it’s over, therefore a person should, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”
Others believe in the idea of heaven. They see heaven as the place where people will go who have lived their lives with good intentions. Heaven, therefore, is filled with those who have tried their best to be good people.
Cynics view heaven as a place for boring people to go, and hell as a place where people will go who like to party and have fun. Hell is a non-stop party with the best music and drugs in the universe.
The afterlife seems so shrouded in mystery that people, included many Christians, aren’t sure what to think. And as a result, people resort to nice clichés, hoping for the best. However, the Bible speaks with candid clarity and detail about what happens when a person dies.
The Bible tells us where heaven and hell are, what they’re like, and who will go to them. It lets us see what are people doing in heaven, and the hope of seeing people we know again who are there. The Bible makes clear what the final destinations waiting for us are, and gives us the possibility to not have any fears about death.
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:1–8)
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