[Ghostlyguy90]

I'm sure plenty of you have had this question before, but it really bugs me, where does everyone think they go when they die? I am a catholic, but I sometimes question the churches belief.

Worm food until resurrection. No heaven, no consciousness, nothing.

[Ghostlyguy90]

That sucks

The resurrection makes it worthwhile 

[westerhaus!]

No heaven, no consciousness, nothing.

~I certainly agree nothing but darkness surrounding everything.... yeah... kinda...eternal sleep... !!!

~the fallen~

[westerhaus!]

Worm Food until resurrection. No heaven, no consciousness, nothing.

~But , what 'bout people who ask for  being cremated or something else before die...!?!?!!! , well i guess fire is purifying!! , most people prefers to be cremated than buried...i like this choice too , the cemetery is full of nostalgia and what 'bout corpses?!? , It's very loaded with 'em... i gladly prefer to be carried away by the wind... my ashes fleeing across the wind in search for the sea....or i could end-up in trash ...hell...hope not!! !!

~the fallen~

Worm food until resurrection. No heaven, no consciousness, nothing.

I've always heard of this, but I'm not sure. 

What about the thief who hung next to Jesus at Golgotha?  Jesus said, "THIS DAY thou shalt be with me in paradise."

I never understood how all the different viewpoints fit together.

And Ghostly, either way it won't matter.  We'll be so sound asleep it will be like a state of non-existence.  Like being put under for a surgery - you faintly recall going to sleep, but have no idea how much time has passed when you wake up.

I kind of like the idea of being worm food.  I like earthworms.  They do great things for the flowers.

I'm also registered as an organ donor.  I think God will OK that one.

~Morticia

"Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43)...

When the Bible was first written, it had no punctuation within each sentence. It was only centuries later that the punctuation marks we see in our English versions were inserted. With this in mind, it is important to know that "Assuredly I say to you today" was a very common Hebrew idiom used for emphasis - much like our, "I'm telling you right now" or "Mark my words" or similar. Now look at what Jesus said again:

"Assuredly I say to you today you will be with Me in Paradise"

Understanding the language is one thing, but how can I be so sure that that is what He meant? Because the Bible clearly states that He did not ascend to Paradise but went to the grave: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) He lay in the grave for 3 days and 3 nights; He died and was buried. Scripture does not say He died and was buried and His soul went elsewhere. After His resurrection He said to Mary "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father" (John 20:17) This was 3 days after His death, and He still had not Himself ascended to Heaven.

[Ghostlyguy90]

If our body decays, do our souls just hange aroung or do they stay with the body in the eternal slumber?

There's no immortal soul.

[Ghostlyguy90]

Then how are we resurrected?

"There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; and the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one thing, the splendour of the earthly another. The sun has a splendour of its own, the moon another splendour and the stars yet another; and one star differs from another in brightness. So it is with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown as a perishable thing is raised imperishable. Sown in humiliation, it is raised in glory; sown in weakness, it is raised in power; sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:40-44, Revised English Bible).

[Ghostlyguy90]

Then why does the church talk about saving our immortal soul? Were they just scaring us to not sin?

The Roman Catholic church has a lot to answer for in the doctrines it has taught... Nowhere in the Bible do the words "immortal" and "soul" appear together! It was made up by the Catholics.

The question is, then, if it doesn't explicitly say that, does the Bible instead actually teach that we have an immortal soul? Some believe that various scriptures support belief in an immortal soul. But you have to look at these passages and understand what they really say.

Matthew 10:28

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).

Does Jesus teach in this verse that the soul is immortal? Not at all. If you look at this scripture closely you see that Jesus actually says that the soul can be destroyed.

Jesus is here warning about the judgment of God. He says not to fear those who can destroy only the physical human body (Greek soma), but fear Him (God) who is also able to destroy the soul (psuche).

Simply stated, Christ was showing that when one man kills another the resulting death is only temporary; God can raise anyone to life again either in this life (see Matthew 9:23-25; 27:52; John 11:43-44; Acts 9:40-41; 20:9-11) or the life to come. We must revere God, who alone can obliterate all possibility of any later resurrection to life. When God destroys one in "hell," that person's destruction is permanent.

What is the "hell" spoken of in this verse? The Greek word used here is gehenna, which comes from the combination of two Hebrew words, ge and hinnom, meaning "valley of Hinnom." The term originally referred to a valley on the south side of Jerusalem in which pagan deities were worshiped.

Because of its reputation as an abominable place, it later became a garbage dump where refuse was burned. Gehenna became synonymous with "a place of burning"—a site used to dispose of useless things.

Only God can utterly destroy human existence and eliminate any hope of a resurrection. The Scriptures teach that God will burn up the wicked, turning them to ashes (Malachi 4:3).

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Many are confused by an expression the apostle Paul uses in his letter to the Thessalonians: "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

What does Paul mean by the phrase "spirit, soul, and body"?

By "spirit" (pneuma), Paul means the human mind, which gives us the ability to reason, create and analyze our existence. By "soul" (psuche), Paul means physical life and its consciousness. By "body" (soma), Paul means the flesh of a physical body. Paul wished for the whole person, including the mind, vitality of life and physical body, to be sanctified and blameless.

Revelation 6:9-11

"When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'" (Revelation 6:9-10).

To understand this scripture we must remember the context. John was witnessing a vision while he was "in the spirit" (Revelation 4:2). Under inspiration he was seeing future events in symbol. The fifth seal is figurative of the great tribulation, a time of world turmoil preceding Christ's return. In the vision John sees under the altar the martyred believers who sacrificed their lives for their faith in God. These souls symbolically cry out, "Avenge our blood!" This can be compared to Abel's blood symbolically "crying out" to God from the ground (Genesis 4:10). Though neither souls nor blood can literally speak, these phrases figuratively demonstrate that a God of justice will not forget the evil deeds of mankind perpetrated against His followers.

This verse does not describe living souls that have gone to heaven. The Bible confirms that "no one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven" (John 3:13). Even righteous King David, a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), was described by Peter as being "dead and buried" (Acts 2:29), not alive in heaven or some other state or location.

[Ghostlyguy90]

Then what is heaven if no one has gone there? From what you are saying, when we die we just stay in a hole in the ground and wait for the resurrection. Then what? Do we go to heaven if we are just? Or do we stay on earth? Or can we rot away completly? Body and soul.