Question: When we die, do we go straight to heaven? The Bible says that when Christ comes back, those who have died will be raptured first, and then those believers who are alive on Earth will go next. So, if we die before Christ returns, does our spirit go to heaven, or do we go do a resting place somewhere?

Answer: When Christians die, they immediately go into the presence of the Lord. When the thief on the cross said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” Jesus told him he would be in “paradise” that very day (Luke 23:42-43). And Paul writes that he longs “to go to and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23).

However, departed Christians will not receive a resurrected, glorified body until the future resurrection when Jesus returns to Earth (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Paradise, then, is not a final destination but, as the theologian N.T. Wright explains, “the blissful garden, the parkland of rest and tranquility, where the dead are refreshed as they await the dawn of the new day.” Once Jesus returns, and we are given our resurrection bodies, we will enjoy heaven forever with Him. With this view of paradise in mind, we can properly view heaven as “life after life after death” rather than simply “life after death.”

For non-Christians, there’s no garden, no rest, and no tranquility. Upon their death, it’s off to hades (the Greek word) or sheol (the Hebrew word), where they “wait’ for judgment.