The below article is what our team has come up with for this topic, but we would love to hear what you think. At the bottom of the article there is a comments section which is open for anyone’s opinions, we would really like to encourage disscussion on these topics so please feel free to join in.

Question: do you go to heaven when you die?

This is a question that came in on our instant chat service but wasn’t answered, but we figured it was an important and misunderstood question by the vast majority of Christians, so we thought it was worth discussing.
The idea of going to heaven after death first relies on the idea of having an immortal soul, I think the best way to explain the soul is with the below video from The Bible Project.

So from this clip we see that we don’t have a soul, rather we are a soul. The soul is the physical body of a living thing, human or animal. The “immortal soul” does not exist in the bible. If you find this anywhere, please drop a comment and let us know! Without the idea of an “immortal soul”, the idea of going to heaven isn’t a reality.

So then what does happen to us when we die?

When we die, we simply die. Here are some quotes about death that make it painfully clear that we do not have an “immortal soul”, and that we do not go to heaven:

  • By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3:19
  • When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. – Psalm 104:29
  • If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust. – Job 34:14-15
  • For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
    All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. – Ecclesiastes 3:19-20
  • For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. – Ecclesiastes 9:5-6

So what’s the point to life?

If we die “in Jesus” then we wait for the return of Jesus in the ground completely dead without thought or knowing what is happening. If we die and are not “in Jesus” then we die for ever, that’s it.

So then what is being “in Jesus”?

When Jesus was here on this earth, he lead the way by showing that we must be baptised. This ritual signifies the death of ourselves and is a public declaration that we now live to God, we are leaving our own ways behind and choosing to follow God’s ways. See Romans 6:3-end

I hope this answers you question?
Please feel free to leave your comments below, help us in our journey of discovery of the bibles truth by being critical or ask questions.

Thanks to everyone who has been on this journey so far and I pray that may more will join as we continue.