If several years ago you had asked me what happens when you die, I would have given you a pathetic answer. I would have told you that when you die your soul goes to sleep until the Lord returns. At the return of the
Lord, your soul is resurrected and judged, and you are either consigned to Hell or allowed to enter Heaven. My conception of Heaven was that of a spirit world where the saved spend eternity as disembodied spirits,
floating around on clouds, playing harps.
A Mistaken View
Needless to say, I couldn’t get very excited about all that. I sure didn’t like the idea of being unconscious in
the grave for eons of time. Nor could I develop any enthusiasm for the prospect of being a disembodied spirit with no particular identity or personality. And the idea of playing a harp for all eternity was downright scandalous,
for I had been taught that instrumental music in worship was an abomination!
You can imagine, therefore, the sense of shock I felt when I started studying Bible prophecy and discovered
that all these ideas of mine about life after death were foreign to God’s Word. But my shock quickly gave way to exhilaration when I discovered what the Lord really has in store for me.
The Biblical View
I learned from God’s Word that when those of us who are Christians die, our spirits never lose their
consciousness (Philippians 1:21-23 and 2 Corinthians 5:8). Instead, our fully conscious spirits are immediately ushered into the presence of Jesus by His holy angels (Luke 16:22).
Our spirits remain in the Lord’s presence until He appears for His Church. At that time, He brings our spirits
with Him, resurrects our bodies, reunites our spirits with our bodies, and then glorifies our bodies, perfecting
them and rendering them eternal (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).
We return with Him to Heaven in our glorified bodies where we are judged for our works to determine our
degrees of rewards (2 Corinthians 5:10). When this judgment is completed, we participate in a glorious wedding feast to celebrate the union of Jesus and His Bride, the Church (Revelation 19:7-9).
Witnesses of Glory
At the conclusion of the feast, we burst from the heavens with Jesus, returning with Him to the earth in
glory (Revelation 19:14). We witness His victory at Armageddon, we shout "Hallelujah!" as He is crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, and we revel in His glory as He begins to reign over all the earth from Mt.
Zion in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-9 and Revelation 19:17-21).
For a thousand years we participate in that reign, assisting Him with the instruction, administration, and en-
forcement of His perfect laws (Daniel 7:13-14, 18, 27 and Revelation 20:1-6). We see the earth regenerated and nature reconciled (Isaiah 11:6-9). We see holiness abound and the earth flooded with peace, righteousness
and justice (Micah 4:1-7).
At the end of the Millennium we witness the release of Satan to deceive the nations. We see the truly despicable
nature of the heart of Man as millions rally to Satan in his attempt to overthrow the throne of Jesus. But we will shout "Hallelujah!" again when we witness God’s supernatural destruction of Satan’s armies and see Satan
himself cast into Hell where he will be tormented forever (Revelation 20:7-10).
We will next witness the Great White Throne Judgment when the unrighteous are resurrected to stand
before God. We will see perfect holiness and justice in action as God pronounces His terrible judgment upon this congregation of the damned who have rejected His gift of love and mercy in Jesus Christ (Revelation 20:11- 13).
Jesus will be fully vindicated as every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Then the
unrighteous will receive their just reward as they are cast into Hell (Revelation 20:14-15).
Witnesses of a New Creation
We will then witness the most spectacular fireworks display in all of history. We will be taken to the New Jerusalem, the eternal mansion prepared by Jesus for His Bride, and from there
we will watch as God renovates this earth with fire, burning away all the filth and pollution left by Satan’s last battle (2 Peter 3:12-13).
Just as the angels rejoiced when God created the universe, we will rejoice as we watch God superheat this
earth and reshape it like a hot ball of wax into the New Earth, the eternal earth, the paradise where we will live forever in the presence of God (Revelation 21: 1-7).
What a glorious moment it will be when we are lowered to the New Earth inside the fabulous New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2). God will come down from Heaven to dwell with us (Revelation 21:3). He will
proclaim: "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). We will see God face to face (Revelation 22:4). He
will wipe away all our tears (Revelation 21:4). Death will be no more (Revelation 21:4). We will be given new names (Revelation 2:17), and we will exist as individual personalities encased in perfect bodies (Philippians
3:21). And we will grow eternally in knowledge and love of our infinite Creator, honoring Him with our talents and gifts.
Now, I can get excited about that!
