What Happens After
Death
With
death comes the separation of the soul from the body. The body returns to the
earth from which it was taken. It decomposes but it is not lost. The time will
come when it will be resurrected, spiritualized and made incorruptible, at the
time of the just judgement. And then it will be united with the soul to be
judged along with the soul. In the meantime, the soul which was separated,
through death, from the body, lives in a middle state. It undergoes the
particular judgement. "It is appointed for men to die once, and after that
comes the judgement"(Hebrews 9:27). This means that immediately after
death the soul is judged individually. It remains after this particular
judgement until the final judgement, at the second Coming of Christ, having a
foretaste of paradise or of hell.
At
the final judgement, which will take place at the Second Coming of Christ, all
people will be presented before Him to be judged. The evangelist Matthew tells
us the following: "Before Him will be gathered all nations"(Matthew
25:32). At the final judgement, the souls will not be the only ones to be
presented. We will be presented wholly, with our body and soul--with all our
personhood. Body and soul will be judged. St. Paul tells us: "For we must
all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive
good or evil, according to what he has done in the body" (2 Corinthians
5:10).
At
the final judgement everyone will be judged according to their faith and their
works. Christ will then separate the just from the unjust or sinners.
"Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34), and to the sinners He will
say: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). Then "they [sinners] will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life"(Matthew
25:46). This will be the final judgement. After the final judgement, there will
either be eternal life or hell--eternal punishment. There will be no changes
after the final judgement. The just will be grounded in their righteousness and
will always be righteous, and will live eternally. The sinners will be
stabilized in their sin. They will not be able to change. They will live in
hell. They too will live. They will not vanish, as some fools say. The above
verse makes that vividly clear.
This
will occur to man after death. In order for this to happen, two things must
come first: the resurrection of the dead by which the soul will be reunited
with the body, and the Second Coming of Christ. We will write about this in the
next sections.
Triune God, Who out of
love created man, on whom in his disobedience and sin You had compassion, and
out of love Your Son became man to save man, You, Lord, know our problems and
weaknesses. You also know our love for You and our longing for our salvation.
We do not want our condemnation. We want eternal life near You. And still, we
continue to sin. Show, Lord, upon this also Your understanding and love. Now,
help us to be stable in faith--to prove it with works of love. Give us a
Christian ending to our earthly lives, a good defense at Your Second Coming. Do
not allow any of Your creatures to be lost. We know that we are responsible for
our future. We are not throwing the burden on You. We are not blaming You. We
are not making You responsible for our mistakes. But we ask You, help us. All
of us, without any exception. Help us to do works of repentance. How dreadful
it would be for You to have prepared Your Kingdom, for us and then for us to
inherit eternal punishment apart from You. Creator, do not allow such a thing
for anyone. We thank You, our Creator.