13 June 2024
What happens to people who die?
Answering this is going to sound at first like I'm contradicting what I said in yesterday's post. Stay with me; I'm having to deconstruct a lot of common misconceptions about what the Bible teaches.
The standard western notion is that your soul goes into Eternity. There's some confusion about how God handles the initial placement in Heaven or Hell, but most agree that the souls stay there until it's time for the Day of Judgment. This is where it gets fuzzy, because most people don't understand why there is a second round of judging. They have no clear idea what the Lake of Fire is all about, nor what is suggested by a New Heaven and New Earth.
That's because Church History in the West is dominated by Catholic mythology, which is based largely on Roman (Latin) justice concepts injected into the Bible. Let's make one thing clear: Romans 5:12 does not say that we inherit guilt from Adam. It says that we inherit mortality. And with mortality comes the inability to avoid sin. A fleshly nature is wide open to temptation until you make a conscious effort to embrace the Covenant.
Being trapped in this fleshly nature is the penalty of Adam's choice, and that's what we inherit. Creation is inherently feudal and Adam was empowered to choose that for us. What he chose was to accept a mortal fleshly frame. All his descendants are born in his fallen condition. It is not punishing you and I personally for his sin, but it is putting us under a serious test. The testing is not really being staged for our benefit, but so that God can prove that He was justified in condemning Lucifer. That's about as much as we can know about things.
God didn't ask our permission. And we are not born in neutral territory; we are morally compromised from birth, doomed and on the way to Hell. That's what irritates most fallen people. But those who seek peace with God will be granted an understanding that this is simply the situation in which we exist, and we have a duty to make some choices now that we are in this mess.
So, we have a clear statement that some people are Elect and some are not. The latter are apparently the majority of the human race, when you count all the souls born into this fallen world from start to finish.
Keep this in mind from the previous post: spirits are eternal and souls are not. The New Testament says that people who die are "asleep". That indicates, with very little actual explanation, that we all pass into a sort of suspension. If the parable of Lazarus and Rich Man means anything, some will enjoy it ("go to heaven") and others will not ("go to hell"). The distinction is whether someone kept the Covenant. I can make it only so precise as this: If God thinks of you as part of His Covenant family, you get to enjoy that rest. Otherwise, you'll be in His Presence as an enemy.
The Day of Judgment is the Last Day -- the last day of humanity under space/time restraints. Everyone will be pulled back out of "heaven" and "hell". On that day, the Elect will be sifted out from the others. The "Lake of Fire" means the others cease to exist. Going with them will be the rebel elohim and Lucifer. Once the Covenant people are resurrected, we'll join Jesus in Heaven's Courts to pass judgment on those beings. We will take their places.
What the Day of Judgment looks like is impossible to grasp right now. It's just a characterization to help us stay faithful to the Covenant. Is that enough motivation?
Again: Souls go to "heaven" or "hell" (as most people think of it), but only spirits can live eternally after we are released from time/space. What constitutes a "spirit" in that sense is ineffable. The period of time between the Fall and the Last Day is not "eternity". It's just a very long time. It's a silly question to wonder if there are souls that can make peace with God without being Elect. The New Testament makes it clear that only the Holy Spirit can enable you to make peace with God.
I freely admit that I cannot cite a passage that says clearly that only the Elect ever receive the Holy Spirit that way. I arrive at that conclusion based on the bulk of the New Testament teaching.
This document is public domain; spread the message.