What happens when we die?

If Jesus is your baseline for identifying truth, then the Bible is absolutely clear where your soul (the essence of who you are) will go after you take your last breath on this earth. There’s no ambiguity and no doubt about it.

The great news is, we all are given the choice to decide where we will live for all eternity! Depending upon your decision, you will either be present with the Lord … or, you will live in torment eternally separated from the presence of God.

Not only will you have nothing to worry about surrounding your impending death, you should be overjoyed with anticipation of your eternal future … if you believe, accept, and live out what the Apostle Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4:

“Now brothers and sisters, let me remind you [once again] of the good news [of salvation] which I preached to you, which you welcomed and accepted and on which you stand [by faith]. By this faith you are saved [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose], if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain [just superficially and without complete commitment]. For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold], and that He was buried, and that He was [bodily] raised on the third day according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold].”

However, if you die having decided to reject putting your faith in Jesus, then the Bible says this in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9:

“For after all it is only just for God to repay with distress those who distress you, and to give relief to you who are so distressed and to us as well when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in a flame of fire, dealing out [full and complete] vengeance to those who do not [seek to] know God and to those who ignore and refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus [by choosing not to respond to Him]. These people will pay the penalty and endure the punishment of everlasting destruction, banished from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

If the Bible is true, both heaven and hell are real and eternal. God has given us a free will to decide where we will live forever. The ball is literally in our court … but this is definitely not a game that any of us should take lightly!!