Go to any Christian church website today, and you will find statements that declare when humans die we go to heaven or hell.  On the surface that seems like a basic common-sense position. If you talk to almost any pastor or leader about the topic of when humans go to heaven or hell, they will either look at you with a puzzled faced about why you are asking or simply say, as soon as you die. Why would the answer be anything different?

Whilst I was building the biblical case against forever burning, I began to notice that this topic of “Soul Sleep” was not just a benign topic of little importance. The more I investigated the more absurd this position of immediately going to heaven or hell became.

If things are the way the majority believe, and humans go straight to heaven or hell, lets reason with the following questions,

• If a lost person died 2000 years ago, did they go straight to hell?
• If they did, have they paid the price of burning for the last 2000 years?
• If they have, what if their sins were minor compared with lost people dying today? Aren’t they paying a greater price?

If people do indeed go straight to hell, there seems to be a contradiction here. And as we work our way through God’s word this contradiction gets worse. When we include position that the saved also going straight to heaven, we find ourselves in an untenable position of causing the word of God to contain error in numerous verses.  However, when the bible is read word for word and accepted as it is written, and we accept the lost and saved indeed do not go straight to hell when they die, all the contradictions instantly disappear.

Once again I am bewildered, Almost every pastor I know peddle this false doctrine of going to heaven or hell immediately, whilst the word said something completely different. Why is this so? What drives these men to misrepresent the bible? Why can something so clear be ignored? As I’ve previously hypothesized the options are, it must be tradition, religion, denominational alliance, ignorance, institutional education or in rare cases malice.

Let’s make the following assertions on what the word of God says on this topic,

• Humans do not go straight to heaven or hell when they die.
• When the lost die, they go to the grave, their soul awaits being called by God to judgement on the last day.
• When the saved die, they go to the grave, their soul awaits being called to meet the lord in the sky on the last day.

• There is no one in heaven today.

• There is no one in hell today.

The Lost

let’s look at some bible verses that declare when the lost die they do not go straight to hell,

• 2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.
• John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

The bible states here the lost are reserved to judgment. They are not judged till the last day. Very clear folks they do not go straight to hell.

The Saved

let’s now look at some verses that declare when the saved die they likewise do not go straight to heaven,

• John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day
• John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Again, the word of God could not be clearer, the saved are raised up at the last day, they do not go straight to heaven when they die.

Here are some more verses which set this doctrine in concrete,

• John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
• Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
• John 5:28-29 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Reader, there is no room in the word of God to state that anyone is in heaven or hell today.

The Basis for going Straight to Heaven or Hell

As always, we find that the majority build absurd doctrine based on single verses or single concepts from the bible. This topic also suffers from this same problem,

• Luke 23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

This verse can be interpreted in a many ways, and I shake my head at the fact that Christians choose the way that contradicts dozens of other verses. The Greek word in the above verse “g4594” has the following meanings,

• This very day
• What has happened today

So we have some options,

• we can state that Jesus meant this exact 24-hour period and you will go to paradise in this exact 24 hour period, contradicting the entire bible.
• Or we say that Jesus said that what has happened today will cause you to be with me in paradise. No contradiction.
• Or we simply say that when this man dies, and goes to his grave in waiting, once called on the last day will be with Christ in paradise. I am sure this man will not feel any time between his death and being called.

What we must do is select an available option that does not contradict dozens of Bible verses.

Conclusion

The bible is clear and absolute, we do not go straight to heaven or hell when we die. If we try and make the bible say that we do, we cause dozens of contradictions and therefore are teaching heresy. What the bible is not clear about is where our souls are precisely between our deaths and the last day. Some are uncomfortable with not knowing the precise location, but this is not a basis for building a false doctrine.