When you die, where is your soul going?

We are told from a very young age that when we as believers die, we will go to heaven or that we will stay in heaven with Jesus and the Father. When you are an unbeliever you will go to hell!

Is this true or is this a lie?

Perhaps no other topic is as mysterious to Christians and non-Christians as “Heaven” and hell.

Well, let’s looked in the Bible where we can see some light on this!

What will happen to me after death, … well … let’s make a study of this and find the truth TOGETHER.

I am going to look at the heavenly aspect … will discuss hell later …

Wikkipedia dictionary: Heaven may refer to the physical heavens, the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the universe beyond, the traditional literal meaning of the term in English. Since at least the 11th century, it has typically also been used to refer to the plane of existence of an afterlife (often held to exist in another realm) in various religions and spiritual philosophies, often described as the holiest possible place, accessible by people according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith or other virtues. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven

The prevailing belief among most Christians is that they will go to heaven when they die.

In fact, many priests and ministers of various religious denominations do not hesitate to claim that many deceased individuals are already in heaven, waiting to be reunited with their families and loved ones.

Revelation 21:7: He that overcome shall inherit all things; and I will be His God, and He shall be my son.

What did Jesus mean when He said “… great is your reward in heaven …” (Matt. 5:12)?

We know first of all that Heaven is the spiritual realm in which the glory of God’s presence is manifest, and in which dwell the angels of God, and all believers (souls) who have departed this world.

Hebrews12:22-24 - But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the Assembly of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

As you can see here it talks of the heavenly Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem is also seen in Revelation 21:2 and in John 14:2, So it seems that we are going to the new Jerusalem, For now somewhere in the heavenly but that will come to the earth for us to inherit, not to inherit Heaven as we are told.

You will also notice that there names are written up in Heaven, not that they are in Heaven, but that they are in the New Jerusalem, that is for now in heaven!

Traditional we believe Matthew 5:11-12 ”Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

What did Jesus mean when He told His disciples to rejoice when persecuted “and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven….”?

Yet a few verses before, in verse 5, Christ also said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

Do the persecuted go to heaven to collect their reward, while the meek inherit the earth?

Once again, the Scriptures provide us with the answer:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (I Peter 1:3-4).

Notice very carefully what these verses say! The reward of the saved “the inheritance of God’s Children” is reserved in heaven.

The word “reserved” in the Greek is “tereo“, meaning “safeguarded; watched closely” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, 1985).

That is where the reward is currently kept.

The reward is reserved, safeguarded and watched closely in heaven by our Lord Jesus.

Revelation 2:26-27 : “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’ as I also have received from My Father…”

Clearly, from the word of God, the reward of the righteous saved is temporarily reserved in heaven, or rather in the New Jerusalem, where Christ Jesus presently is.

Nowhere do you find the Scriptures saying that God’s Children will inherit their reward in heaven. Rather, the reward ruler-ship, positions of authority, leadership and service in Government of God will be brought to the earth by the returning Yeshua, the Mighty King of God’s Kingdom.

The danger of thinking that we will go to heaven or inherit it or go live in heaven was the downfall of Satan because he wanted to do this and to be above God.

We were not made or created to live in heaven, or above or equal to God but the angels alone were made for heaven. We have one life, then death and judgment.

I believe that when a human die, he goes into a state of sleep.

He stops or is on hold for a time, then Christ will call all as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and it will be for the dead as if he just died even if he was dead for 1000 years, the same with the living, all will be changed (die in mid-air, as they are transformed into there new body).

All believers will be with Christ and will enter the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be placed on the earth, and from there we will rule for a 1000 years with Christ.

I believe the New Jerusalem will be like an Ark, when God the Father burn up the earth after the 1000 year. Only those inside the ark (New Jerusalem) will be save and will survive.

I believe only a few selected people are taken up into the new Jerusalem before time, for God’s purpose and for his work, but most will be called as in 1 Thessalonians 4.

To inherit the earth, the thought almost makes one sick because when you think of the Earth in its present state, death, pollution, crime act. It makes you sick to the thought and we are going to inherit this?

Yes we are but not in this fallen state but renewed as stated above, something to look forward to.

Man was made to live on the Earth, go read Genesis again.

The good news is that God will come and live with us in the New Jerusalem on the new Earth, forever as what He did when Adam was in the garden.

Earth will be restored to its previous glory and splendor, but with more!