Short Answer
After death, believers go to be with Christ and unbelievers go to a place of separation, but this is not the final state. The final judgment and eternal destinations come later, after resurrection and God’s complete plan unfolds.
The Overview
When a person dies, their soul does not immediately enter its final, eternal state. For believers, Scripture teaches that to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord,” meaning they go into Christ’s presence. For unbelievers, there is also an immediate experience of separation and discomfort. However, both are temporary in the sense that they are not the final, permanent destinations.
The Bible describes a future resurrection where both believers and unbelievers receive new bodies. For Christians, this leads to rewards and participation in God’s kingdom, followed by eternal life in the new heaven and new earth. For unbelievers, this leads to final judgment—often referred to as the Great White Throne judgment—and then eternal punishment.
This raises the question: why is there a delay between death and final judgment? One explanation is that human actions continue to have effects even after death. The influence of a person’s life—whether good or bad—can extend through generations. Final judgment takes into account the full impact of a person’s life, which unfolds over time.
In the end, this timeline shows that God’s justice is complete and thorough. Immediate existence after death is real, but it is part of a larger process that culminates in resurrection, judgment, and eternal destiny. This ensures that every aspect of a person’s life and influence is fully accounted for in God’s final judgment.
Key Takeaways
- Immediate Presence, Not Final Destination
Souls go to a temporary state after death. - Believers Are with Christ
They experience His presence immediately. - Unbelievers Face Separation
But not yet the final judgment. - Resurrection Comes Later
Both groups receive new bodies. - Final Judgment Completes the Process
Eternal destiny is assigned afterward. - Life’s Impact Continues
Judgment considers long-term effects of actions.
Read Full Raw Transcript
[00:00:00 – 00:01:02] Let me tackle some of those. Sandra asks, “When you die, your soul immediately goes to heaven or hell. Why would your soul need to go to hell to await judgment or heaven and await the great white throne judgment?” Okay, got issues there. Uh, it seems like the decision’s already been made. If your soul is somewhere immediately, well, you don’t die and have your conscious awareness, your soul, your spirit as I would put it, go to um, heaven or hell. That’s uh that’s not the case. Let’s put
[00:00:31 – 00:01:27] it this way. Uh you if you are a Christian will go according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 to the right hand um of of Christ who is at the right hand of the father. You will be there in his presence and you will um you’ll have time with Christ because you’ll be with Christ to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord. Uh to die in this world as we know it is to be present in the uh presence of Christ. So if Christ is at the right hand of the father, the father’s enthroned in a place called
[00:00:59 – 00:02:02] heaven, whatever that is, uh yes, you will be there until you get your body back. And then when your body comes back to you at the time Jesus is dispatched to get his church, then you will um be um you’ll be put in a place first of all on this earth that has been uh reworked. It’s been reformed in the way that Satan is no longer causing trouble here. Something’s different about it enough to let people live long periods of time. God is going to uh sustain life for longer periods of time for those that
[00:01:30 – 00:02:27] inhabit that physically. It’s called the millennial kingdom. And after that, you’ll have the eternal state. All of those realities will put you in a place of enjoying whatever rewards you will be granted at the at the bema seat judgment. Bema seat is for Christians. The great white throne judgment is for non-Christians. So you are going to experience an existence in an eternal place that is not like the existence that you have in a disembodied state before God. So Sandra uh you don’t
[00:01:59 – 00:02:48] immediately go to the eternal place where you’re going to be. Let’s just put it that way. And when it comes to the word hell, we usually mean by that more specifically the lake of fire. That’s where people go assigned a particular level of judgment based on uh their deeds. And you say, “Well, why would we have to wait for that?” Well, wherever they’re going now, it’s not the lake of fire where they’re going to someplace that’s not pleasant as Jesus clearly taught, but it’s not their end home.
[00:02:24 – 00:03:17] It’s not the it’s not the endgame for them, nor is it for us. So, let’s say today uh my non-Christian neighbor dies and I die. We both die and uh I’m going to go and be disembodied to a place uh that is going to be a place of comfort and I will be judged at some point on the timeline and then I will be getting my body back and then I will be assigned a place in uh the millennial kingdom to rule and reign with Christ and then I’ll be assigned a place in the eternal state, the new heaven and the new earth.
[00:02:51 – 00:03:43] and I’m going to spend my time on the new earth because God’s going to spend his time in the new heaven. And we will uh now experience the fullness of all the rewards, whatever those will be, which includes reputation and relationships and riches and real estate, all those kinds of things, you will experience those and and that’ll be your permanent home. All right. If you’re non-Christian, my non-Christian neighbor dies, he goes to a place that’s not comfortable. It’s uh it’s not
[00:03:16 – 00:04:09] pleasant. and he is there until he gets his body back, which I’m seeing qu uh a second question here. Sandra, you now said um those who go to hell, will they have a resurrected body? Yes, they’ll get a resurrected body. They’ll go and stand before uh the great white throne and they’ll be put into a place that’s a real literal physical place because they’re in a real lit literal physical body that is put on immortality and they will go to this place to be punished according to their deeds. Now, one of
[00:03:43 – 00:04:37] the questions really the essence I think of your question, why await? Well, number one, I’m telling you, you don’t go to the same place when you die that you’ll inhabit eternally either as a non-Christian or a Christian. So, that’s I mean, there’s a difference there. Now, you say, why wait? Well, we can only speculate about that. And we speculate just on the basis of what just seems very logical, and that is that some of the things that you have done, both good and bad, right? They’re going to rack up
[00:04:10 – 00:05:02] some kind of reverberating effect that is going to go on for a long time. And others have rightly illustrated this by people that have uh started movements or cult groups or things that deceive people or things that hurt people or whatever it might be that may reverberate for a long time. Let’s say say I’m um you know the founder of Scientology, Elron Huard, right? I’ve started this thing and there’s a lot of stories about how he started this and I’ve pulled people away from the truth
[00:04:36 – 00:05:31] of Christianity. What is his judgment going to be? Well, a lot of what he’s going to be judged for is not only what he wrote, not only what he taught, but what he started and how that thing that he started is affecting people for for generations. Uh now, you may your pastor may write a pamphlet on prayer, let’s say, and uh that may provoke a lot of people to do righteous things like give themselves to prayer. And in that uh he may be racking up rewards for a long time based on the actions of sitting
[00:05:03 – 00:05:54] down and doing the hard work of saying no other saying no to other things and writing things down that are going to help Christians or preaching a sermon that by God’s grace is going to be recorded let’s say and broadcast on the radio. Think of Jay Verna McGee. Jay Verna McGee is uh broadcast probably on the station you’re listening to me on right now. He’s been dead for a long time. this Southern California pastor that is still preaching as though he sounds like he’s from Arkansas. U but
[00:05:29 – 00:06:25] you can look up the story of why he sounds like that. Uh Jay Vernon McGee is still being broadcast and he’s being broadcast and people are hearing him for the first time and some people are being brought to faith in Christ. I was just texting with someone this morning about the effect and impact the lasting impact of Jay Verna McGee’s preaching. So there are things like that that I think necessitate the waiting until this era of time is completely played out before we get judged and assigned the proper
[00:05:56 – 00:06:12] rewards or the proper punishment. So Sandra, I think that’s why uh this is going on.
