Question: .

Do Christians go directly to heaven upon their death? If so, why does the Bible talk about the good and bad being raised and judged on the last day when Jesus returns? Thank you!

-John

Answer:

Hello John!

The Bible simply says that we are present with the Lord when we die. The thief on the cross was with Jesus in paradise on that day. However, the body of the believer is in the grave - that is scientifically observable. The body goes only to the place of burial, as in fact the body of Jesus did. But the soul/spirit goes to God.

Christians use the term heaven not as a geographical place, or a place in time and space, but as a descriptor of where God "is" (God is omnipresent, so he isn't somewhere at one moment to the exclusion of some other "place"). So, at death we go to heaven - we go to be with God - we are in his loving arms, his care, his presence. To be with God is paradise.

The Bible says little else about the intermediate state (the condition of the souls/spirits of the dead while they await the resurrection of the body). Some Christians believe that the soul is conscious while it is with God, others (a minority) believe in what is called "soul sleep", taking a metaphor (sleep) that the Bible used for death literally.

Of course, the Bible speaks of the resurrection of the body at the second coming of our Lord. And it speaks of the resurrection, as you put it, of the good and the bad. There is and will be a judgement. Everyone who has ever lived will be judged. God is holy and just, and evil is being judged now, has been in the past, and will be in the future. No one will "get away with" anything. The wages of sin is death.

Hell is a term used in the Bible to describe eternal separation from God, just as heaven is a term used to describe paradise, being in the presence of God for eternity. Exactly where, when, and how "hot" hell is is a matter of debate, primarily because the Bible is not specific.

Paul tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death - that is what we have all earned. But - the passage continues, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The free gift, by the riches of God's grace, is eternal life. We may be given that if we trust and believe in Jesus Christ, giving him our life, asking him to forgive our sins, and asking him to live his life in us (Gal. 2:20).

Hope this helps.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht