A young boy once asked me, “What happens to people when they die? Where exactly do their spirits go? I believe this is one question a lot of people, including adults, ask within themselves. First, you must understand that the human body is an image, an outward figure, of the real person. Whenever you smile, for example, it’s not the “body” that smiles; rather, it’s your spirit. But your body gives expression to what your spirit does. Without a body, otherwise, no one would know about that material aspect of life when you’re smiling. Hence, man is a spirit; he has a soul and lives in a body.
When someone who hasn’t accepted Christ dies, he goes to hell. Hell is a place of great torment, terrible pain, and regrets. Yet as bad as it is, it’s just a waiting place. The final destination of Satan, his cohorts, and all those who didn’t accept salvation is the lake of fire.
However, when a born-again Christian dies, his spirit goes to God in heaven. But he goes first to a waiting place. This is the place of glory which precedes the greater splendour to be experienced at the rapture of the Church. The Bible says, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). For the Christian, there’s a more glorious life hereafter.
