Where do we go when we die?

Question

If something lives on, where does it go?

Answer 1

Humans do not have an "immortal soul". Nothing lives on. They are all dead in their graves. Only God has the ability to bring the dead back to life. This will happen at the return of Jesus Christ....The popular teaching is that when Christians die they immediately go to heaven, where they take up residence in their permanent abode.

But can we find such a teaching in the Bible?

Notice John 3:13: "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] who is in heaven."

This scripture makes two significant points. First, these are Jesus Christ's own words. If anyone had gone to heaven, Jesus would know about it. Second, John recorded these words many years after Jesus died and ascended to heaven-still affirming that no one other than Jesus had gone to heaven.
The concept of the soul’s supposed immortality was first taught in ancient Egypt and Babylon. "The belief that the soul continues in existence after the dissolution of the body is . . . speculation . . . nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture . . . The belief in the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was led to it through Orphic and Eleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and Egyptian views were strangely blended" (Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1941, Vol. VI, "Immortality of the Soul," pp. 564, 566).

Plato, the Greek philosopher who lived 428-348 B.C., as a student of Socrates taught that the body and an "immortal soul" separate at death. The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia comments on ancient Israel’s view of the soul: ". . . We are influenced always more or less by the Greek, Platonic idea, that the body dies, yet the soul is immortal. Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite consciousness, and it is nowhere found in the [Old Testament]" (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1956, Vol. II, "Death," p. 812).

Early Christianity was influenced by Greek philosophies even as the gospel of Christ was preached to the Greek and Roman world. By A.D. 200 the doctrine of the immortality of the soul became a controversy in the established church.

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology notes how Origen, an early and influential church theologian, was influenced by Greek thinkers: "Speculation about the soul in the subapostolic church was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy. This is seen in Origen’s acceptance of Plato’s doctrine of the preexistence of the soul as pure mind (nous) originally, which, by reason of its fall from God, cooled down to soul (psyche) when it lost its participation in the divine fire by looking earthward" (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1992, p. 1037, "Soul").

Secular history reveals that the concept of the immortality of the soul is an ancient belief embraced by many pagan religions. But it is not a biblical, Hebrew or apostolic teaching.

Answer 2

The spirit leaves the body at death and the shell remains and goes back to the earth.
At birth the spirit enters the body and grows and developes until the appointed time of death.
Think of a seed that becomes a flower and is beautiful,then begins to wilt and die and goes back to the earth.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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.


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.
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.” 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. You enjoy the best sleep ever, until Jesus resurrects you, sometime in the future.

Answer 5

That's it! "IF" something lives on, but there is nothing that lives on. Ecclesiastes 9:5,10 teaches us that there is no knowledge or wisdom after we die. The only thing that survives after death is our memories; the mere fact that God can remember us after we die and bring us back to life after the war of Armageddon.

Answer 6

What if our life is recycled but, in this infinite universe are placed in a different role, in a different time? With no knowledge, save for some minor tidbits here and there from the past?

Answer 7

Nothing survives except gradually decomposing flesh and organs. The bones may last a LOT longer. Where YOU go is up to you. By that I mean your corpse.
I will be cremated and the residue scattered along my favourite south china sea beach.

Answer 8

Heaven or hell. You are free to choose.

There are two choice, of your own free will:

1) Choose to repent, accept Christ as the Son of God'
"I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." - John 4:6

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. - Matthew 7:21

2) Choose not to believe in Christ.
"Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear."
- Matthew 13:41-43

Answer 9

To Disneyland! Yeah!

Answer 10

Well, first we go to a morgue. Then, we are prepped and embalmed in a room that looks like an OR. We have our funeral, and we are either buried or cremated, in which case we head for the crematorium. In extreme cases, our ashes are turned into jewels and set in rings and whatnot.

Hey, you didn't specify if you wanted a physical or spiritual answer.