what happens when we die?

I must admit that one religious question that has haunted me for a long time is: what happens when we die?

I suppose if you were to poll 100 people you would probably have at least 10 different answers.  At different points in my life, I have subscribed to various ideas of what death could be.  Of course in all cases it was a hope or desire, but never a definite answer.

Unfortunately Bonnie was unable to make the study session on Friday morning (my new day and time), as her older brother died on Thursday.  I just got off the phone with her, and I can't help but think the topic of our discussion came with such dramatic irony.  We began chapter 6: Where Are the Dead?

In her place she sent Lori and Wendy, two very dear friends of hers.  Our conversation was fascinating, even without my dear friend, and a few really interesting points were brought to light.  What exactly is death?  Biblically speaking, death is the payment for our sin.  When Adam and Eve took the fruit they began the long line of sin that we continue to inherit today.  Whether you subscribe to the belief of original sin, the Bible states that death is the payment for disobedience.  In Genesis 2:17 the scriptures state, "But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die."  God said that man would die.  Man would cease to exist; no longer inhabiting the Earth.

Lori and Wendy asked me if I believed in hell.  I told them that as a child brought up in the Lutheran faith I was certain there was a heaven and a hell.  If I didn't believe in Jesus Christ, participate in Communion, and have been Baptized, I would go to hell.  Hell was a place, a fiery pit.  Lori suggested that a belief system like that would suggest God and Satan were in cohorts with each other.  If God rejected you, Satan has a crack at it.  But it's been quite a long time since I believed in a true hell (i.e. the illustration in Dante's Inferno).  So I was pleased to see that the word hell is another word for Hades or Sheol.  The word Sheol is all over the old testament, but it doesn't mean the illustrations many have been taught.  In fact, it means "the common grave."


Witnesses believe ALL go to the common grave, and the righteous and the unrighteous will be resurrected.  Which made me understand the Apostles Creed a bit better.  It states, "He was crucified, died and was buried.  He descended to hell.  On the third day he rose again."  So as a kid I thought that maybe Jesus was in a fiery pit for a few days.  I just really never understood why he had to go to hell.  Even as an adult I found the creed to be odd.  However, if hell is a "common grave" then Jesus was in the grave for 3 days before he rose to heaven.  Which of course is parallel with the story of Jonah and the Whale.  I always liked the Nicene Creed better which states, "He suffered, died and was buried.  On the third day he rose again..."  No journey to hell.


So what happens when we die?

I have grown up believing that everyone has a spirit.  I always believed that the body returns to dust, but that our spirit moves onward (to heaven).  Those that are unrighteous just stay in the ground, and those that are righteous get to go to heaven.  I really never knew if I would be righteous enough, but I figured I better be a good person and live a good life.  However, the Witnesses have a different view on this.  I am supposed to read more about this topic for next Friday.  There is a lengthy appendix in "What the Bible Really Teaches," that I am to use in preparation for the conversation. 


So my internal conversation continues, and I gladly except all thoughts and feelings on the topic.  More to come.