What Really Happens To Us When We Die?

What Really Happens To Us When We Die?

To be clear, this article is specifically more about human beings. What happens to us - human beings - when we die? Perhaps somewhat obvious ... but still just to clarify.

First of all, what are souls and spirits? In a way, they could be seen as the same thing, but let's differentiate for a bit. Keep in mind the use of the word "spirited". (An Example: "They are a very spirited person.") That could be taken as a hint / a reminder as to the meaning of the word. A soul is basically a life.

"Nephesh" (a Hebrew word) means "a breathing creature", and it is used in the untranslated Scriptures for the word "soul". So: breath, life, a soul. Our souls are not a separate entity from our body. Our souls are mortal.

The spirit is kind of like a USB flash drive for a human being. Who we are is recorded into our spirits. Our personalities, our characters, our minds, our consciousnesses, our thoughts, our memories, et cetera.

Only the Creators are immortal. They breathed life into us. They created all of us, gave all of us life, and gave us all free moral agency (AKA: free will and personal choice, basically). We are all the Most High's children, whether we acknowledge him or not, believe in him or not, and / or choose to follow him or not.

Believing in the Creators alone is not what "saves" people; Even the demons believe in the Creators and know the truth (even when deception and corruption are parts of their agenda). Are you going to search for and to follow the truth? Are you going to choose to keep the Most High's commands? Or just cherry pick from the Scriptures and keep some of his commands whilst tossing the rest of them out of the window (such as resting on and keeping the Sabbath holy [Deuteronomy 5:12-15])? Again, people have the choice. The Father can influence their hearts, but he doesn't force people to choose which path to follow.

But what happens to us when we die? Do we go to heaven? To hell? To purgatory? Re-Incarnated? 

Is the story about Lazarus and the rich man about purgatory and hell? Seemingly not. Purgatory is an idea that came from Catholicism. It is believed that the story has to do with when Lazarus and the rich man are resurrected and possibly both the millennium kingdom (where Lazarus will be comforted) and the lake of fire (where the rich man will be tormented), but - apparently - the lake of fire judgement is believed to happen after the millennium kingdom.

Why do the Scriptures state it as if it has already happened? Why did the Messiah state it as if it has already happened?


And re-incarnation would negate the individuality of who we are as people. It would negate that we are all separate individuals with a purpose for life. That (the theory of re-incarnation) would be more like a random life generator.

When we die, we simply die. "The dead know nothing." Ecclesiastes 9:5 talks about this.

"The soul that sins shall die". That's from Ezekiel 18:20. The soul. The person. The wicked will perish. We are all sinners, but the sinner that rejects the Creators and doesn't repent for their wrongdoings and turn away from them will die. The first death is the physical death. The second death is the spiritual death.


Before sin, people did not die. Only after the fall of man did death become something that happened to us. Not that we wouldn't physically die if we just tried not to sin. Sin led to the physical death, and continuing to sin without repentance to the Creators and turning away from it leads to the spiritual death. 

Then the Father will resurrect us during one of the two resurrections. We will still have a chance at that point. The first resurrection is for the saints, the people that followed his word and kept his commandments. The Scriptures talk about how the dead in the Messiah shall rise. The people that didn't do so - or didn't even know very much about that stuff - will be resurrected in the second one and will still have a chance. But between these two resurrections is apparently when the millennium kingdom will occur.

"Remember the final answer in all of this is: 'no man knows the day or the hour, only My Father in heaven.' One of the last things that the Messiah told the disciples, when they wanted to know if Israel was going to receive the Kingdom immediately, He says, 'It's not for you to know the times and seasons, which the Father has put in His own hands. You go and you preach and you witness to the ends of the earth.'" - "The Truth About the First Resurrection" by Fred R. Coulter.

Well, what happens after the resurrections? After the judgement? Then do we go to heaven or to hell?


The Scriptures about the Tribulation (the tormenting of the people that don't have the mark of the Father and are not written in the Lamb's book of life by creatures that come out of the pit), the millennium kingdom (the Creators' kingdom on earth for one thousand years), and the wicked that will be thrown into the lake of fire. Not "hell", because "hell" is the grave, and death and the grave will be thrown into the lake of fire.

"After the Great Tribulation, the Messiah will "officially" and visibly return to the earth to fight against His enemies in the great Battle of Armageddon." - "Does the Bible Really Teach A "Secret Rapture"?" by Philip Neal.

Also, since the Scriptures state that the wicked will be cast into the lake of fire and have their eternal punishment (instead of "eternal punishing"), some people believe that the wicked will not be punished in the lake of fire for eternity.

The Scriptures also talk about how Sodom & Gomorrah will be burning forever, and - though they seem not to be burning forever - it has been discovered that that place is still burning underneath the surface even if the people, themselves, have long since perished.

Hell = Hades / Haidês (Greek) = The Grave. Death & the grave will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). Hell =|= the lake of fire. Technically, everyone that dies goes to Hell, because it is the grave. When we die, we're dead. The dead know nothing (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

— ☽ Amy Rose, Main Character ☾ June 3, 2018

*note (as of 31 March 2023): I just want to add that I do not claim to know for sure what does or will happen. also, I've edited this post a bit, such as removing certain terms like "g*d", "j*sus", "b*ble", etc.*