Do you really go to heaven after dying?

Answer 1

Only if you have earned a place there- so work on it now.

Answer:

According to The Bible... the dead go to the grave, just as we know it to be:

"...for IN THE GRAVE, where you are going..." (Eccle.9:10 NIV).

The Bible further reveals that there is a "spirit IN man" that:

"...returns to God who gave it." (Eccle.12:7 NIV)

Nowhere does the Bible say anything about "bad spirits going to hell" or "good spirits going to heaven" -- but everyone's spirit returns to God who gave it.

The Bible foretells of a future "Judgment" at the conclusion of man's allotted time God gave him to rule on earth that it calls "The Last Great Day"... or "Judgment Day." It's slated to occur at the end of Jesus' "thousand year rule on earth" [Rev.20] after He returns from the heaven, into which He ascended long ago.

Men's spirits, that returned to God at death, will then be returned to a "resurrected body" to then face Judgment:

"...(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)... ...I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne... The dead were Judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books." (Rev.20:5 & 12 NIV)

And Jesus tells us:

"No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from heaven -- the Son of Man." (John 3:13 NIV)

Therefore, according to the Bible: No... no one goes to heaven after dying. We all go to the grave [if there's a body to bury]... and every man's [unjudged] spirit returns to God who gave it. And the dead are what the Bible says: "asleep" [see John 11:11-14] and awaiting the "Last Great Day" of "Judgment."

"...man is destined to die once, and after that to face Judgment ..." (Heb.9:27 NIV). [the time of that Judgment foretold elsewhere in Revelation 20, a thousand years after Jesus returns to earth.

"...the dead know nothing..." (Eccle.9:5 NIV).