Do Chrisitains/Jews believe that when a perosn dies they go Heaven/Hell straight away?

Question

if that is the case then whats judgemtn day about, whats resurrection day abt in Christianity, do the Muslims believe the soul waits then one is judged either to go Heaven/hell when judgement day comes?

Answer 1

Jews have no such concept as 'Hell'.

There IS a place of purification, but it is said that no one alive is so evil as to persist for a full year in that place. 364 days is the max.

Answer 2

One answer I've seen about heaven/hell vs. Judgment Day and resurrection:
When you first die, you are judged for what has happened during your lifetime. After the Messiah comes, we will be judged based on the ripple effects of our deeds after we've gone. For instance, if you give charity to a stranger, that goes on your immediate account. If that stranger becomes financially secure with your money, and decides to have another child, and that child's great-great-great-granddaughter comes up with the solution to world hunger, the lives that she's saved goes to your Judgment Day account.

(Darn! I can't remember where I read this. It was some rabbi, but that isn't saying much...)

Also, I've gotten the impression from various Jewish sources that the great judgment will be a collective, large-scale thing. The rabbis mostly talk about nations and countries being rewarded or punished. The judgment after death, on the other hand, is personal.

Answer 3

Jews don't have a hell. We have a place where you go to atone for your sins, but the longest amount of time you can possible stay there is 12 months. And you have to be really bad to warrant a 12 month stay. Heaven, it depends on your beliefs. Some Jews believe everyone goes there, some believe there are many levels and you only get as high up as you deserve, etc.

Answer 4

You are just dead

(Psalm 146:4) . . .His spirit goes out, he goes back to his ground; In that day his thoughts do perish. . .

(Ecclesiastes 9:5-6) . . .For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun.

The dead will not be resurrected until after the war of Armageddon.

(Acts 24:15) . . .and I have hope toward God, which hope these [men] themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous. . .

(Revelation 20:11-15) 11 And I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it. From before him the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Ha′des gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds. 14 And death and Ha′des were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire. 15 Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the book of life was hurled into the lake of fire.

Answer 5

The afterlife is a fundamental of Jewish belief.

The creation of man testifies to the eternal life of the soul. The Torah says, "And the Almighty formed the man of dust from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the SOUL of life" (Genesis 2:7). On this verse, the Zohar states that "one who blows, blows from within himself," indicating that the soul is actually part of God's essence. Since God's essence is completely spiritual and non-physical, it is impossible that the soul should die. (The commentator Chizkuni says this why the verse calls it "soul of LIFE.")

That's what King Solomon meant when he wrote, "The dust will return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes 12:17)

For anyone who believes in a just and caring God, the existence of an afterlife makes logical sense. Could it be this world is just a playground without consequences? Did Hitler get away with killing 6,000,000 Jews? No. There is obviously a place where good people receive reward and bad people get punished. (see Maimonides' 13 Principles of Faith)

The question of "why do bad things happen to good people" has a lot to do with how we look at existence. The way we usually perceive things is like this: A "good life" means that I make a comfortable living, I enjoy good health, and then I die peacefully at age 80. That's a good life. Anything else is "bad."

In a limited sense, that's true. But if we have a soul and there is such a thing as eternity, then that changes the picture entirely. Eighty years in the face of eternity is not such a big deal.

From Judaism's perspective, our eternal soul is as real as our thumb. This is the world of doing, and the "world to come" is where we experience the eternal reality of whatever we've become. Do you think after being responsible for the torture and deaths of millions of people, that Hitler could really "end it all" by just swallowing some poison? No. Ultimate justice is found in another dimension.

But the concept goes much deeper. From an eternal view, if the ultimate pleasure we're going after is transcendence - the eternal relationship with the Almighty Himself, then who would be luckier: Someone who lives an easy life with little connection to God, or someone who is born handicapped, and despite the challenges, develops a connection with God. Who would be "luckier" in terms of eternal existence? All I'm trying to point out is that the rules of life start to look different from the point of view of eternity, as opposed to just the 70 or 80 years we have on earth.

So what is the afterlife exactly?

When a person dies and goes to heaven, the judgment is not arbitrary and externally imposed. Rather, the soul is shown two videotapes. The first video is called "This is Your Life!" Every decision and every thought, all the good deeds, and the embarrassing things a person did in private is all replayed without any embellishments. It's fully bared for all to see. That's why the next world is called Olam HaEmet - "the World of Truth," because there we clearly recognize our personal strengths and shortcomings, and the true purpose of life. In short, Hell is not the Devil with a pitchfork stoking the fires.

The second video depicts how a person's life "could have been..." if the right choices had been made, if the opportunities were seized, if the potential was actualized. This video - the pain of squandered potential - is much more difficult to bear. But at the same time it purifies the soul as well. The pain creates regret which removes the barriers and enables the soul to completely connect to God.

Not all souls merit Gehenom. It is for people who have done good but need to be purified. A handful of people are too evil for Gehenom, and they are punished eternally. Pharaoh is one example.

So what about "heaven?"

Heaven is where the soul experiences the greatest possible pleasure - the feeling of closeness to God. Of course not all souls experience that to the same degree. It's like going to a symphony concert. Some tickets are front-row center; others are back in the bleachers. Where your seat is located is based on the merit of your good deeds - e.g. giving charity, caring for others, prayer.

A second factor in heaven is your understanding of the environment. Just like at the concert, a person can have great seats but no appreciation of what's going on. If a person spends their lifetime elevating the soul and becoming sensitive to spiritual realities (through Torah study), then that will translate into unimaginable pleasure in heaven. On the other hand, if life was all about pizza and football, well, that can get pretty boring for eternity.

The existence of the afterlife is not stated explicitly in the Torah itself, because as human beings we have to focus on our task in this world. Though awareness of an eternal reward can also be an effective motivator.

For further study, see Maimonides' Foundations of the Torah, "The Way of God" by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzatto, and the commentary of Nachmanides to Leviticus 18:29.

from "Ask The Rabbi" - http://www.aish.com/rabbi/
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Answer 6

No Heaven is not open yet. We go to a place called spiritual paradise & not repentant sinners go to a place called spirual prison. There the spirits will stay until resurrection day & judgement day. Only then will the gates of heaven be opened & the nonrepentant will be cast to outer darkness (hell).

Answer 7

As a non practising Christian I am not aware of any departure lounge or tax free stop-over arrangement.

I assume that once we depart this mortal veil we go straight to jail. We do not pass go or collect £200.

My plan is to breathe my last and slowly pan to a wide shot of Audrey Tautou beckoning me to join her in a post coital breakfast of fresh fried lobster and devil fruit.

But then...I never did have much ambition.

Answer 8

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin -- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Romans 6:6,7 NIV
wow it doesn't say we go anywhere and if we die and is released from sin then what is hell for?

Answer 9

When Jesus was on the cross he turned to the repentent thief being crucified with him and said, "TODAY you will be with me in heaven." Emphasis on the today.

Answer 10

i'm christian and i believe that if a person is saved they will go to heaven after they die. judgement day is when god decides based on ppl's deeds where they will go and then the ppl are separated for eternity to heaven or hell.