Subject: Bible Questions
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 01:47:33 _
From: "Virgil & Martha Gooselaw" <vgoose@concentric.net>
To: <Archie@clarksville.net>
Hello again Archie:
You asked:
My question is this: When a person dies "WHEN" does a person go for judgement, "immediately" after physical death or upon our Lord's "second coming"? What Bible verses state this?
Reply:
In addition to the passages mentioned in the following writeplease consider 1 Thess. 4: 13_and 1 Cor. 15: 20_. These passages speak of the final judgment and when. The final judgment will happen when Jesus comes again. It will happen at the time of the resurrection.
We know that immediately upon death our spirit enters Hades which is an interim realm. Consider Luke 23:43, the "thief" would be with Jesus in Paradise that day. Yet Acts 2:27 indicates Jesus went to Hades after his crucifixion. So Hades has a place in it called Paradise. When Jesus was raised, after three days, He left Hades and was seen by many for a space of forty days, Acts 1:3 and then He was taken up into heaven Acts 1:9_. Hades is an interim place and will exist only until the end, Rev. 20: 13, 14.
When we die our fate will have been determined while we lived and we will enter into either Paradise or be tormented, Luke 16: 19_. There, we will await the final judgment and when Jesus returns, we will give account and experience the pronouncement of sentence, "Shall give account", Rom. 14: 11,12 and "He shall separate them one from another", Matt. 25:32.
The following was prepared by one of my associates for a question very similar to yours, please consider.
James tells us death is simply a separation of the soul and body (Jas.2: 24_). Since death is something we shall all experience (unless the Lord returns first), we should be interested in what really happens when we die (Heb. 9: 27). Luke 16 19_1 serves as a great source of information relative to the events immediately following the separation of the spirit from the body. You will
observe that both (the righteous and the unrighteous) were in a state of awareness. Their state, however, was significantly different _one (Lazarus) was comforted, the another (the rich man) was in torment. The state of each was determined by how they had lived in this life (cf. Rom. 2: 6). Also, there was a "great fixed gulf" which prevented the punished from exiting to the place of comfort (vs. 26). This intermediate place is called "hades." Hades is simply the place of the dead, the receptacle of disembodied spirits, to be more exact. All the dead shall be raised (at Jesus' return) and officially sentenced (Jn. 5: 28, 29, Matt. 25: 31_). Hades, then, must not be confused with the final destiny of the soul, heaven and Geheena, respectively (Matt. 25: 31_, Mk. 9: 43_). After the judgment, the saved and the lost will go to heaven and hell, respectively (cp. 2 Pet. 2: 4).
The Christian has nothing to fear at the prospect of death (Phili. 1: 21). The wicked, however, should have great anxiety (cf. Rev. 6: 16).
Archie, I hope this will help. I wish you the best in your pursuit of those things that are right.
Cordially,
Virgil Gooselaw