Christian Beliefs About Death And The Afterlife In The Bible

Death and the Afterlife Talking about death and more specifically about the afterlife is a topic that humans throughout history have struggled with. Though most find the realm of death confusing and terrifying, those who are believers in Christ can find some comfort in the teachings of the Bible that pertain to Death and the Afterlife. The areas within this topic are chronicled as follows: the experience of death, life after death, the day of judgement, and lastly a description of heaven. Scripture speaks of the promise of God to judge all humans upon Judgement Day whereby each and every human will either be rewarded or punished according to God’s justice. The righteous will be rewarded with eternal life in the heavenly paradise, while the evil will be punished by burning in hell and this is precisely why God actually allows death, because it is his way of rewarding those who submit themselves to him.

However, if there were one main concept that surrounded the idea of death from a christian perspective, it would be that death for a person whose life has had Christ at its center, is essentially the bridge to eternal life in paradise. When we die, our immaterial soul and spirit are immediately separated from our physical body, which is followed by God’s judgement in order to determine if we will or will not obtain eternal life in heaven. We see evidence of this in 2 Corinthians 5:8 where it says, “We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” This passage also illustrates that this progression is immediate as there is no occurrence of time spent in something like purgatory. Hebrews 12:23, states that at this point, “the spirits of righteous men made perfect,” meaning that we will be made perfect and free of all