What happens after you die? Is heaven for real? Is there a hell? Can you know? What comes after death? Why do we die?
What happens to people after they die? This is a very profound question that we owe ourselves to look into. If you were in a group of people marching in lockstep heading off a cliff, wouldn’t it be a good idea to learn as much as you could about the other side of the cliff beforehand? Wouldn’t you want to understand your options & make the best possible decision? As the saying goes, “The only things for certain are death & taxes”. And since the only prerequisite for death is life, let’s not just go on whistling past the graveyard. But can we be certain about what comes afterward?
We are all part of this march of humanity, bound by time & headed for the unavoidable cliff at the end of our lives. You are only next in the line of all your ancestors that have already marched & made the leap. But what set humanity on this death march in the first place? Not to mention, where did humanity even come from? Answers to these questions will help us sort out the truth from falsehood about the other side of the cliff.
Human beings were specially made by God above all other creatures. Among other things, this means we have been given superior capacity for intelligence, emotion, moral awareness (conscience) & most importantly, the ability to know & relate to a holy God. As such, the parents of humanity, Adam & Eve, had perfect communion with God. And in the paradise of Eden, God gave them only 1 rule & mercifully warned them of the dire consequences if it was broken. Well, they broke it (sinned) & chose to define their own morality apart from God. Because God is a God of justice, He had to make good on the consequence or He’d be a liar. Part of the forewarned consequence involved the initiation of death. Thus, when Adam & Eve chose to sin, they also chose to set humanity on this death march in a subsequently cursed & fallen world.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned – Rom 5.12
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us – Acts 17.26-27
Like it or not, we’re all now locked in the march for the cliff. And while it’s easy to point fingers at Adam & Eve, each of us chooses whether or not to obey God. Every one of us has a corrupted sinful nature where we too want to define our own morality apart from God (Rom 3.10-12, 23). And just as God dealt with our first parents, He will also have to deal with us. Since humanity came from God & was made with special ability & purpose for God, each one of us is headed back to face God (Eccl 12.7) & give an accounting for our lives. What happens on the other side of the cliff very much depends on what happens on this side – but it may not be like many suppose.
It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment – Heb 9.27
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. – Heb 4.13
Since other marchers have the same corrupted condition, reliable information cannot come strictly from them. We need information revealed by God Himself. And the Bible is the only reliable source of God’s revealed truth (see: Can you trust the Bible?). Many fellow marchers have conjured up a variety of ideas from reincarnation to spurious & narcissistic notions of heaven, yet they were all imagined before said marchers made their leaps.
Then there are stories of some folks having “near death experiences" (NDE's) ranging from seeing a light to alleged detailed encounters of heaven such as by Colton Burpo chronicled in the book “Heaven is for Real” & the movie by the same title. While they may have experienced something, none of these people had actually made it entirely off the cliff or they wouldn’t be here to tell us about it. Although, someday they will take the final leap like the rest of us.
And there are a handful of instances in the Bible where people actually died & came back to life (resurrected), yet nothing is noted about those individuals having any inside information about the other side of the cliff. And they too have long since made the unavoidable leap.
Yet, it would be truly remarkable if someone thoroughly made the leap, then not only came back from the cliff for good, but exited by some other means altogether. They would thereby permanently evade the cliff while authenticating their claims & authority on the matter. Such a person would need to be a fellow human marcher, yet would obviously be privy to information outside the march of humanity. And if they were aware of a place far better than these marching grounds, they would not want to stick around.
History does record 1 person that died & permanently came back to life – Jesus Christ. And because the Bible explains that Jesus is God & that He “became flesh” (Jn 1.14, Php 2.5-9, Col 1.15-16), Jesus is not only a trustworthy source providing information about what’s beyond this life, but He also verified its authenticity by His own bodily life, death & resurrection (1 Cor 15.3-6). Being God, He had knowledge of things unknowable by humanity; Being man, He personally experienced human life & death – and He defied the cliff.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. – Rom 6.9
God raised him (Jesus) up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. – Ac 2.24
Furthermore, Jesus not only predicted His own death & resurrection, but explicit details about Him were foretold by ancient Scriptures centuries beforehand. It was Jesus who had come to fulfill all of these prophecies as the Messiah (see Messianic Prophecies of Christ). Jesus also quoted as fact & discussed numerous Old Testament Scriptures in the Bible. Consequently, by conquering death Jesus not only authenticates His own claims about God, mankind & the other side of the cliff, but He authenticates the rest of God's revelation in the Scriptures as well.
While He (Jesus) blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. – Lk 24.51
But what would we expect Jesus to tell us about what lies beyond the cliff? What would He want us to know? It’s important to note that in today’s culture, it’s not politically correct to talk about anything uncomfortable. Then again, it’s probably never been enjoyable to discuss topics like death. However, if Jesus really loves us & had full knowledge of what lies beyond the cliff, we wouldn’t expect Him to hold anything back – even if we didn’t want to hear it or it weren’t popular.
Jesus spoke of only 2 eternal destinations for us that we usually refer to as heaven & hell, so these will be our main focus. There are some alternative teachings others have that we will touch on briefly for clarification. Nonetheless, we would do well to listen to Jesus (Mt 17.5) & understand from the Bible not only what’s beyond the cliff, but also what you need to do beforehand to gain eternal life & avoid eternal destruction.
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. – Jesus in Mt 7:13-14
Click on one of the icons below to learn more.
We are all part of this march of humanity, bound by time & headed for the unavoidable cliff at the end of our lives. You are only next in the line of all your ancestors that have already marched & made the leap. But what set humanity on this death march in the first place? Not to mention, where did humanity even come from? Answers to these questions will help us sort out the truth from falsehood about the other side of the cliff.
Human beings were specially made by God above all other creatures. Among other things, this means we have been given superior capacity for intelligence, emotion, moral awareness (conscience) & most importantly, the ability to know & relate to a holy God. As such, the parents of humanity, Adam & Eve, had perfect communion with God. And in the paradise of Eden, God gave them only 1 rule & mercifully warned them of the dire consequences if it was broken. Well, they broke it (sinned) & chose to define their own morality apart from God. Because God is a God of justice, He had to make good on the consequence or He’d be a liar. Part of the forewarned consequence involved the initiation of death. Thus, when Adam & Eve chose to sin, they also chose to set humanity on this death march in a subsequently cursed & fallen world.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned – Rom 5.12
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us – Acts 17.26-27
Like it or not, we’re all now locked in the march for the cliff. And while it’s easy to point fingers at Adam & Eve, each of us chooses whether or not to obey God. Every one of us has a corrupted sinful nature where we too want to define our own morality apart from God (Rom 3.10-12, 23). And just as God dealt with our first parents, He will also have to deal with us. Since humanity came from God & was made with special ability & purpose for God, each one of us is headed back to face God (Eccl 12.7) & give an accounting for our lives. What happens on the other side of the cliff very much depends on what happens on this side – but it may not be like many suppose.
It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment – Heb 9.27
And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. – Heb 4.13
Since other marchers have the same corrupted condition, reliable information cannot come strictly from them. We need information revealed by God Himself. And the Bible is the only reliable source of God’s revealed truth (see: Can you trust the Bible?). Many fellow marchers have conjured up a variety of ideas from reincarnation to spurious & narcissistic notions of heaven, yet they were all imagined before said marchers made their leaps.
Then there are stories of some folks having “near death experiences" (NDE's) ranging from seeing a light to alleged detailed encounters of heaven such as by Colton Burpo chronicled in the book “Heaven is for Real” & the movie by the same title. While they may have experienced something, none of these people had actually made it entirely off the cliff or they wouldn’t be here to tell us about it. Although, someday they will take the final leap like the rest of us.
And there are a handful of instances in the Bible where people actually died & came back to life (resurrected), yet nothing is noted about those individuals having any inside information about the other side of the cliff. And they too have long since made the unavoidable leap.
Yet, it would be truly remarkable if someone thoroughly made the leap, then not only came back from the cliff for good, but exited by some other means altogether. They would thereby permanently evade the cliff while authenticating their claims & authority on the matter. Such a person would need to be a fellow human marcher, yet would obviously be privy to information outside the march of humanity. And if they were aware of a place far better than these marching grounds, they would not want to stick around.
History does record 1 person that died & permanently came back to life – Jesus Christ. And because the Bible explains that Jesus is God & that He “became flesh” (Jn 1.14, Php 2.5-9, Col 1.15-16), Jesus is not only a trustworthy source providing information about what’s beyond this life, but He also verified its authenticity by His own bodily life, death & resurrection (1 Cor 15.3-6). Being God, He had knowledge of things unknowable by humanity; Being man, He personally experienced human life & death – and He defied the cliff.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. – Rom 6.9
God raised him (Jesus) up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. – Ac 2.24
Furthermore, Jesus not only predicted His own death & resurrection, but explicit details about Him were foretold by ancient Scriptures centuries beforehand. It was Jesus who had come to fulfill all of these prophecies as the Messiah (see Messianic Prophecies of Christ). Jesus also quoted as fact & discussed numerous Old Testament Scriptures in the Bible. Consequently, by conquering death Jesus not only authenticates His own claims about God, mankind & the other side of the cliff, but He authenticates the rest of God's revelation in the Scriptures as well.
While He (Jesus) blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. – Lk 24.51
But what would we expect Jesus to tell us about what lies beyond the cliff? What would He want us to know? It’s important to note that in today’s culture, it’s not politically correct to talk about anything uncomfortable. Then again, it’s probably never been enjoyable to discuss topics like death. However, if Jesus really loves us & had full knowledge of what lies beyond the cliff, we wouldn’t expect Him to hold anything back – even if we didn’t want to hear it or it weren’t popular.
Jesus spoke of only 2 eternal destinations for us that we usually refer to as heaven & hell, so these will be our main focus. There are some alternative teachings others have that we will touch on briefly for clarification. Nonetheless, we would do well to listen to Jesus (Mt 17.5) & understand from the Bible not only what’s beyond the cliff, but also what you need to do beforehand to gain eternal life & avoid eternal destruction.
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. – Jesus in Mt 7:13-14
Click on one of the icons below to learn more.