The world is full of opinions that lead us to confusion. Death can be devastating especially when the death is a close family member. We have all experienced this pain or will experience it in the future. I have attended funerals where families are devastated by the loss of their family members. The families would rather die than live without the person who has passed on. I have also attended funerals where people are at peace. They mourn the loss of their loved one but rejoice that their loved one is now with Jesus and know they will see them again.
The difference between these funerals is what those left behind believe. If anyone believes that Jesus is the son of God and accepts the salvation that He offers us, that person will be with Jesus when he or she dies. We all have a choice to make and can chose our destiny. We can live with Jesus forever, or we can choose to live separated from him.
To fully understand where we go when we die, we need to look to the Bible. In the Old Testament, believers and unbelievers went to a place called Sheol. This place was made up of three areas called the unseen world (a place of torment), the great gulf fixed (a chasm 
between the unseen world and paradise), and paradise which Jesus described as Abraham’s bosom in Luke 16:19-31. The righteous dead went to paradise. Before Jesus came to the scene, the three areas were together in one place. Once Jesus came, the New Testament uses a new word for Sheol; it is now called Hades.
Let’s look at the three areas. The most desirable area is called paradise. It is a place of comfort. We can assume that righteous believers were taken to this place of comfort by angels (Luke 16:25). The great gulf fixed is wide chasm that keeps believers and unbelievers separated; there is no way for either side to cross over to be with the others but during Old Testament times, they could converse with each other from either side (Luke 16:26). Jesus spoke about the unseen world more than He spoke about any other areas. Jesus did this because He did not want anyone to go to the unseen world (Luke 16:22-23). This a place of torment for those who rejected God and chose to follow their own way.
During the time of the Old Testament prophets, the three areas were joined in one place. When Jesus came to this earth, was crucified, and was resurrected, paradise was separated from the other two areas. Jesus went to Hades and took paradise and all of the Old Testament saints with Him to Heaven (2 Corinthians 5:8). Since Jesus’s resurrection, 
every believer has gone to paradise to be with Jesus instead of going to Sheol-Hades. Our souls immediately go to Heaven to be with Jesus.
How do we know that Jesus took paradise with Him to Heaven? In Luke 23:43, we know that Jesus told the thief hanging on the cross next to him “today you shall be with Me in paradise.” From this, we know that Jesus went to Sheol-Hades and entered the area known as paradise. Ephesians 4:8-10 reveals that paradise is no longer in Sheol-Hades. When Jesus died, He went to Sheol-Hades to unlock paradise from Satan’s domain and took paradise with Him when He went to Heaven to be with His Father.
When we die, there are only two places for us to go. We either go to Heaven to be with Jesus and God because we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior or we go to the unseen world because we did not accept Jesus. What we believe in this world, determines where we will spend all of eternity. The choice is fully ours. It’s important to remember that it doesn’t matter what your status is in this life. Rich or poor, black or white, male or female, we will all have the same two choices in front of us: believe or not believe in Jesus. Choose to believe. One day you will look back and will be glad that you made the right choice.
For more information on this subject read “Charting the End Times” by Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice. I highly recommend you read this book and should be an essential part of your biblical library. I bought mine at Mardel.
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Tony on the Border 