Ressurection?

Question

Do the dead go to Heaven at death or when the rapture happens? Or is that the spirit goes immediately THEN the body meets the spirit at ressurection?

Answer 1

There is no consistent answer within Christianity, across the board anyway. that is probably why you are confused.

Most denominations (Catholics and Protestants) think that when we die our souls go immediately to heaven. Then at the apocalypse our souls are unified with our glorified body (not sick, not old, no disabilities, etc.).

Just to make things a little more complicated. The seventh day aventists believe that when we die our souls sleep in the earth for a thousand years after the apocalypse before we are raised.

The Jehovah Witnesses believe that only 144,000 go to heaven, and the rest of us stay on a glorified earth.

Most Protestants believe in the rapture and the Book of Revelations as a book of prophecy. However the Catholic official line is that the Book of Revelation describes things that have already happened. So the apocalypse is one big event.

Basically we don't really have a good idea, and will find out when we die. I personally believe in (1) my soul going immediately to heaven, (2) rapture, and (3) book of revelation as prophecy.

I hope that helped, and did not make you more confused.
God Bless
-Vic

Answer 2

Once you die, you merge out of your dead physical body with a new body. An angel escourts you and leads you across a divide into the other realm. At this point, you are outside this world's timeline. You go immediately to Judgment which is like time-traveling to the future after the end of the world. Non-believers go to hell. Believers to the Bema seat judgment, which is a kind of Purgatory, a judgment of fire where you must give an account for everything you did. After that, Heaven.

Answer 3

Not having died, all I can answer is what I glean from the Bible. When Jesus died on the cross, he told the "thief" next to him that he would join Jesus in heaven that day. The beggar Lazarus went to heaven, while the tight-fisted rich man went straight to hell,(do not pass go, etc). So it sounds as though the body and spirit will be re-united at end days. Just that the body will be a much better one than what was left behind.

Answer 4

When we die in this physical incarnation our eternal soul leaves the body immediately and is raised to a higher consciousness. It will know the freedom of the restraints of the physical body and will come into an expanded awareness or consciousness. Heavenly consciousness, if you will. We will be conscious that we are not the physical beings we thought we were in this lifetime, but eternal spirits connected to the source of creation. Many people refer to this source in various names including God, Jehovah, Allah, Yaweh, take your pick.

Answer 5

WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT DEATH

Jesus Christ spoke about the condition of the dead. He did so with regard to Lazarus, a man whom he knew well and who had died. Jesus told his disciples: “Lazarus our friend has gone to rest.” The disciples thought that Jesus meant that Lazarus was resting in sleep, recovering from an illness. They were wrong. Jesus explained: “Lazarus has died.” (John 11:11-14) Notice that Jesus compared death to rest and sleep. Lazarus was neither in heaven nor in a burning hell. He was not meeting angels or ancestors. Lazarus was not being reborn as another human. He was at rest in death, as though in a deep sleep without dreams. Other scriptures also compare death to sleep. For example, when the disciple Stephen was stoned to death, the Bible says that he “fell asleep.” (Acts 7:60) Similarly, the apostle Paul wrote about some in his day who had “fallen asleep” in death.—1 Corinthians 15:6.


The Bible teaches that the dead “are conscious of nothing at all.” They are not alive and have no conscious existence anywhere. The account of Lazarus confirms this. Upon returning to life, did Lazarus thrill people with descriptions of heaven? Or did he terrify them with horrible tales about a burning hell? No. The Bible contains no such words from Lazarus. During the four days that he was dead, he had been “conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Lazarus had simply been sleeping in death.—John 11:11.
The account of Lazarus also teaches us that the resurrection is a reality, not a mere myth. Jesus raised Lazarus in front of a crowd of eyewitnesses. Even the religious leaders, who hated Jesus, did not deny this miracle.

Think about this too: If Lazarus had been in heaven for those four days, would he not have said something about it?— And if he had been in heaven, would Jesus have made him come back to earth from that wonderful place?— Of course not!

Yet, many people say that we have a soul, and they say that the soul lives on after the body dies. They say that Lazarus’ soul was alive somewhere. But the Bible does not say that. It says that God made the first man Adam “a living soul.” Gen. 2:7, Adam was a soul. The Bible also says that when Adam sinned, he died. He became a “dead soul,” and he returned to the dust from which he had been made. The Bible also says that all Adam’s offspring inherited sin and death too.

The Scriptural teaching of the resurrection, however, is not compatible with the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. If an immortal soul survived death, no one would need to be resurrected, or brought back to life. Indeed, Martha expressed no thought about an immortal soul that was living on elsewhere after death. She did not believe that Lazarus had already gone to some spirit realm to continue his existence. On the contrary, she showed her faith in God’s purpose to reverse the effects of death. She said: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:23, 24) Likewise, Lazarus himself related no experiences of some afterlife. There was nothing to report.

Clearly, according to the Bible, the soul dies and the remedy for death is the resurrection.

Answer 6

When you die, you either go to Hell or Heaven and those who have died before the rapture, in heaven or hell, will just alreay be there. For the believers that go to Heaven , God said they will get a Holy, renewed body.

Answer 7

Your body and spirit are reunited at the time of the second coming..

Answer 8

The dead are raised at the second coming of Christ.

This I believe; http://homelessheart.com/testimony.htm