Last December, my father lost his battle with Stage 4 lung cancer, passing away on December 6, 2025. Preaching his funeral ten days later, I found myself wrestling deeply with what Dad experienced the moment he took his last breath on earth. My understanding of what Scripture teaches on this brought me tremendous hope—a hope I pray comforts fellow followers of Jesus Christ and prompts those who do not know Him to surrender to Him as Lord and Savior.
As a pastor, I am often asked what lies beyond death, usually by those carrying the fresh weight of loss. To answer this vital question, I turn first to the Bible as our ultimate authority in all matters of faith and life. We will also look at how theologians throughout church history have understood it, and finally, consider how these truths directly impact our everyday lives.
What the Bible Teaches
Scripture may not answer every curiosity about the afterlife, but it gives us sufficient light to understand what lies immediately ahead. While we will not cover every nuance of eschatology in this post, we will explore what God’s Word clearly reveals about the moment we step into eternity.
Luke’s Gospel offers several clear insights into what happens to people after death. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus teaches, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” (Luke 16:22–23 ESV)
From this account, we see that the souls of both men immediately enter a state of sorrow or a state of joy. Although his body was buried, Lazarus’ soul went to Abraham’s bosom—otherwise known as paradise. The rich man’s body was also buried, but his soul immediately entered a place of suffering called Hades. Commenting on the immediate post-mortem existence of both souls in this passage, John Calvin wrote:
The general truth conveyed is, that believing souls, when they have left their bodies, lead a joyful and blessed life out of this world, and that for the reprobate there are prepared dreadful torments, which can no more be conceived by our minds than the boundless glory of the heavens.[i]
Later in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus assures the penitent thief on the cross, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 ESV). This statement underscores the immediacy of the believer’s soul appearing in a place of joy. In his commentary on this passage, New Testament scholar Robert Stein writes:
The criminal would experience salvation. He would not “today” experience the resurrection, for the resurrection of the dead will only occur at the parousia. Whatever the temporary state may have been, however, he would have a conscious experience with Jesus in paradise (cf. 16:19–31).[ii]
Again, Luke’s Gospel reveals that while the physical body is buried, the soul immediately enters a place of conscious joy or suffering.
The Apostle Paul expands on this immediate transition in his epistles. To the church in Philippi, Paul writes that death would be gain because he would “depart and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:21–23). Expounding on Paul’s meaning, Richard Melick asserts that Paul “simply expressed his conviction that if he died he would gain because death was a departure whereby he would be in the presence of the Lord (syn Christō, 1:23).”[iii]
Paul reiterates this conviction in his second letter to the Corinthians, declaring:
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 ESV)
New Testament scholar David Garland notes, “The picture he paints shows that as soon as we are away from the physical body we are present with the Lord in a new dimension that is qualitatively different from our experience of the Lord’s presence in this body.”[iv]
While these passages do not exhaust every question regarding the afterlife, they clearly establish that while the mortal body perishes at death, human souls immediately transition into either a place of joy or a place of suffering. The individual maintains conscious identity, personhood, and recognition. Furthermore, death marks an unalterable division, closing any opportunity to change one’s eternal destination.
What Church History Reveals
Throughout church history, the broad consensus of orthodox theologians affirms that death brings an immediate transport of the individual’s soul to either a place of joy or a place of suffering, while the body awaits the final resurrection unto judgment. Whether a person has repented and trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the sole determining factor of their post-mortem destination.
The Early Church Fathers argued that, though the mortal body awaits an immortal resurrection, the conscious souls of individuals immediately go to torment or peace after death. Tertullian affirmed that the body awaits resurrection while the soul immediately enters Hades, contending: “Why, then, cannot you suppose that the soul undergoes punishment and consolation in Hades in the interval, while it awaits its alternative of judgment, in a certain anticipation either of gloom or glory?”[v] Addressing the interval between death and the resurrection, Augustine of Hippo asserted: “During the time, moreover, which intervenes between man’s death and the final resurrection, the soul dwells in a hidden retreat, where it enjoys rest or suffers affliction just in proportion to the merit it has earned by the life it led on earth.”[vi] The early fathers agreed that death brings an intermediate state where the body awaits resurrection while the soul immediately experiences joy or torment.
The Protestant Reformers likewise maintained that, at death, bodies perish and await the physical resurrection, but souls immediately enter bliss or agony. John Calvin asserted: “Scripture goes no further than to say that Christ is present with them, and receives them into paradise [cf. Luke 23:43] that they may obtain consolation, while the souls of the reprobate suffer such torments as they deserve.”[vii] Arguing against the concept of soul sleep, Huldrych Zwingli contended: “We believe, then, that as soon as they depart the body the faithful fly away to God, joining themselves to God and enjoying eternal felicity”[viii] With the exception of Martin Luther’s nuanced pastoral metaphors regarding sleep, the Reformers affirmed that souls depart from their bodies at death to experience conscious joy or pain until the resurrection finalized their eternal state.
Early Baptist Reformers shared this consensus. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) explicitly repudiated soul sleep and affirmed the immediate post-mortem consciousness of the soul:
The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies; and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell; where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day; besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.[ix]
Expository preacher Benjamin Keach stated that his goal in expounding Luke 16 was “To shew, that the soul of man is immortal and that when a wicked man dies his soul goes to hell, or into torments; and the soul of a godly man at death goes to Heaven or into joy: and that as the pain and anguish of the one will be easeless, intolerable, and endless; and so the joys and comfort of the other, will be sweet and inconceivable, as well as eternal.”[x] Keach’s words and those from the Second London Baptist Confession (1689) are indicative of the views of Baptists during the era.
Modern Baptist theologians stand in continuity with this historical witness. Wayne Grudem asserts: “Death is a temporary cessation of bodily life and a separation of the soul from the body. Once a believer has died, though his or her physical body remains on the earth and is buried, at the moment of death the soul (or spirit) of that believer goes immediately into the presence of God with rejoicing.”[xi] Millard Erickson concurs, noting that “upon death believers go immediately to a place and condition of blessedness, and unbelievers to an experience of misery, torment, and punishment.”[xii] Baptist scholars such as David Dockery, Danny Akin, R. Albert Mohler Jr., and Russell Moore consistently affirm this immediate transition, while reminding believers that this intermediate disembodied joy is provisional—eagerly awaiting the ultimate climax of the bodily resurrection on the New Earth.
What This Means for You Today
The question “What happens right after we die?” is far more than an abstract academic debate; it is intensely practical for our everyday lives. On this side of eternity, we continuously face the grief of losing loved ones, and we naturally wonder about their condition after death.
For believers in Christ, there is profound comfort in knowing that when our Christian family members and friends close their eyes in death, they immediately enter the conscious, joyful presence of the Lord. This truth provides steady anchor-hope in the midst of our sorrow. Furthermore, knowing that physical death immediately ushers the believer into Paradise emboldens us to live courageously and proclaim the gospel faithfully, even in the face of peril.
As I reflect on the passing of my father, I am filled with immense gratitude and hope. When he breathed his last breath on this earth, he instantly breathed his first breath in the presence of his Savior in Paradise.
[i] John Calvin, Harmony of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol 16, Calvin’s Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 188.
[ii] Robert H. Stein, Luke, vol. 24, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 593.
[iii] Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 86.
[iv] David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, vol. 29, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 265.
[v] Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul (De Anima), in Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, trans. Peter Holmes, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), chap. 58, 234.
[vi] Augustine, Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love, in St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. F. Shaw, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 3 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), chap. 109, 272.
[vii] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian Classics, vol. 21 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), III.25.6, 997.
[viii] Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli and Bullinger, ed. G. W. Bromiley, Library of Christian Classics, Vol. 24 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1953), p. 275.
[ix] https://www.the1689confession.com/1689/chapter-31
[x] Benjamin Keach, Gospel Mysteries Unveiled: or, an Exposition of All the Parables, and Many Remarkable Similes Contained in the Four Gospels (London: Printed for L. Meredith, 1701), bk. IV, 272.
[xi] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 816.
[xii] Millard Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998), 1189.
