At death, a
person’s spirit returns to God, but the body goes to the grave.
The Preacher said, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it
was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecc
12:7).
God judges the
dead according to their works.
The Revelator revealed, “I
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God . . . and they were
judged every man according to their works” (Rev 20:12-13)
The wicked
spirits go to hell.
The Bible states, “The wicked shall be
turned into hell” (Ps 9:17).
The righteous
spirits go to paradise.
Jesus said, “Verily I say unto thee,
To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Lu 23:43).
Jesus preached to
those in hell after his crucifixion.
Before his death, he said,
“The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God” (Jn 5:25).
Peter taught, “Christ . . . went and preached unto the spirits in
prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering
of God waited in the days of Noah” (1 Pet 3:18-20).
Jesus is ruler
over hell.
Jesus said, “I am he that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of
hell and of death” (Rev 1:18).
Hell eventually
delivers the spirits confined there.
The Bible states, “Death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were
judged every man according to their works” (Rev 20:13).
Jesus taught that
there are two resurrections:
“All that are in the graves
shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done
good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil,
unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29). Paul said,
“There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and
unjust” (Acts 24:15).
The just were
resurrected after Jesus’ resurrection.
The Bible states, “The
graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
and came out of the graves after his [Jesus’] resurrection, and went
into the holy city” (Mat 27:52-53).
The rest of the
just will be resurrected at Jesus’ second coming.
Paul wrote, “The
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ
shall rise first” (1 Th 4:16).
Satan will be
bound in hell when Jesus descends.
The Revelator foresaw, “He
laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and
Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up” (Rev 20:2-3).
The rest of the
dead are judged at the end of the thousand years.
John saw, “The
rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were
finished” (Rev 20:5).
Those
resurrected in the first resurrection will reign with Jesus.
The Bible states, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the
first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a
thousand years” (Rev 20:6).
Death and hell
are destroyed at the second resurrection. John said, “Death
and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death”
(Rev 20:14).
hose not listed
in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire.
John
continued, “The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake
of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are . .
. and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:10, 15).
There are three
glories in the life to come.
Paul taught, “There is one
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory
of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So
also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:41-42).
Jesus said that
there were three rewards:
“Other fell on good ground, and
did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth,
some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:8).
The first
Christians taught that there were three abodes in the resurrection.
Papias, a hearer of Jesus’ disciples, wrote, “There is this
distinction between the habitation of those who produce an
hundred-fold, and that of those who produce sixty-fold, and that of
those who produce thirty-fold.”
People raised to
celestial glory will always live with the heavenly Father.
John
envisioned, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself
shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death” (Rev
21:3-4).