Where Do We Go When We Die?

Blog post by Jeff Smith (2022) |

http://www.saltandlightmin.org/blog/where-do-i-go-when-i-die

"My friend Ann and I like to talk when we work out at the gym.  Sometimes, she’ll pose a question about the Bible, which I love to talk about.   Here was her most recent questions: 

What happens to us when we die?

I told her that it might be better if I wrote down my answer to that instead of trying to explain it between short puffs of breath. 

That was about a week ago and I’m still writing.  Since I’ve spent a good bit of time on it, I thought I would just share with all of you.

Before I begin, let me say two things:

WHERE you spend your afterlife is not even remotely as important as WHO you spend your afterlife with.  If you confess Jesus as YOUR Savior in the present life you will be WITH Him in the afterlife.   (Luke 9:26)  The primary difference between heaven and hell is not location as much as the company you will be keeping.  Jesus is in heaven.  Jesus is NOT in hell. 

Because I love the subject of Eschatology,  I’ve formulated some ideas about it based on a Judeo-Christian worldview found in the Bible.  The Bible frames the way I look at everything.   So, this is my understanding (at this point) of what the Bible says about the afterlife.

To begin with, I think that where we go when we die will move around a little bit based on the timeline of human history and then eternity.  I will provide my scriptural basis for each phase of this progression.  Generally, I believe it will go something like this FOR THE BELIEVER.

Charlie Kirk’s Assassination Feels Like a Hinge Point (by Peggy Noonan)

 

What a disaster for the young. It will forever shape their understanding of politics in America.

-- The Wall Street Journal: September 11, 2025

During recent national traumas we’ve heard the side argument over “thoughts and prayers.” Something terrible happens, someone sends thoughts and prayers, someone else snaps, “We don’t need your prayers, we need action.” They denounce the phrase only because they don’t understand it, and give unwitting offense. (I always hope it is unwitting.)

Prayer is action. It’s effort. It takes time. Christians believe God is an actual participant in history. He’s here, every day, in the trenches. He didn’t create the universe and disappear into the mists; his creation is an ongoing event, he is here in the world with you. When something terrible happens and you talk to him—that’s what prayer is, talking to him, communicating with concentration—you are actively asking for help, for intercession. “Please help her suffering, help their children, they are so alone.” “Help me be brave through this.”

It’s active, not passive. Catholics, when they’d pray over and over or with friends, used to call it storming heaven. It isn’t a way of dodging responsibility, it is (if you are really doing it and not just publicly posing) a way of taking it.

So pray now for America. We are in big trouble.

How To Tame Your Thoughts

[Taken from an article by Leah Marie Ann Klett | published by christianpost.com]

Four years ago, Max Lucado was sitting with a diagnosis that could have ended his life. Doctors had just informed the bestselling author and pastor that he had an ascending aortic aneurysm, an alarming and potentially deadly condition.

“I spiraled,” the 70-year-old Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, told The Christian Post. “The first three or four days after I heard the diagnosis, I’m not proud of the anxiety level I permitted.”

Then came a moment that changed everything. During a time of prayer, Lucado said he received a vision: God’s hand gently wrapped around his aorta.

“It may sound supernatural or mystical,” he said, “but I can’t deny that God gave me that vision. I believe His hand is on it, and it always was, even when I didn’t recognize it.”

The aneurysm, he shared, has grown only slightly since the diagnosis, and today, he’s grounded in a peace that can only come from God, regardless of what the future holds. 

“I do not want to leave my family. I do not want to leave my precious wife. But I’m excited to see Jesus whenever that time comes,” he reflected. “I really am at peace. That doesn’t mean I want to leave. I don’t. But I don’t have a bucket list. My best life is after this life. I’m very, very grateful for that blessing.”

The Joy of Obedience

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." (John 12:23-26)

In this Gospel lesson, Jesus reminds us, as he had proclaimed many times before to his disciples, "If you really want to be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me." And if we listen carefully and deeply to the lessons of today for a few moments, I think we will discover in a very deep way what Jesus means by that, and also we will be aware of the challenge it takes truly to follow Jesus. And first of all, I think it's important for us to realize that in what Jesus is to undergo.

You see, we have to understand that the incarnation, Jesus in his humanness, is totally separate from his identity, and so he's one like us. He had to trust in God just as we do, and he found that very difficult, just as we do. If you listen carefully to that passage from the letter to the Hebrews, you find Jesus described in a way that I think is almost shocking: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." (Hebrews 5:7-9)