Q: I can’t understand why someone would think we go to heaven or hell the second we die. Doesn’t the Bible say Christ will raise all the dead and judge them in the end?

A: If we bring some order concerning judgment into focus, then our ETA in heaven or hell will come into perspective.

Because God loves us, He sent His Son to die in judgment in our place. Jesus paid this price in order to give us His very life. The Bible says, “By judgment He was taken away. He was cut off from the land of the living for the sins of people to whom the stroke was due,” (Isa 53:8). Thus your sins as a believer and receiver of Jesus Christ have already been judged at Calvary.

God made a way, through the cross, to fairly exchange our existence for His everlasting life. We live in a world that rewards performance, but nobody has performed with perfection and love like our Savior Jesus has for us.

Paul then wrote of the judgment of believers. (See Rom 14:10‑12.) The Christian will one day give an account of his or her life while standing before the Lord at the bema seat. The bema is where the Olympians stood to receive their crown. Here we will be rewarded for the motive with which we served God while on earth. (See 1 Cor 4:6.) There is no condemnation at this judgment. (See 1 Cor 3:11‑15.) It’s the quality of our eternal life which will be determined at the bema.

Although Jesus will judge the nations at His return, I’d like to focus on the great white throne judgment. (See Rev 20:11‑15.) After the coming rapture, tribulation, return of Christ with His saints, and His thousand‑year reign on earth, the last judgment will occur. (See Rev 20.) The great white throne judgment has to do with the dead, even as you said, who reside in Hades. Two thousand years ago Jesus’ very words described a conversation among people in Hades after their physical death. (See Luke 16:19‑31.) The people are hot, agonizing, thirsty and, worst of all, they retained their memory. These are those rejecting Christ, not found in the Book of Life.

Concerning believers, Paul wrote, “We prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord,” (2 Cor 5:8). Thus our last breath here is our first breath there, and we are quite conscious the second after we die. God corrected Job’s assumption of soul sleep. (See Job 38:17.) Jesus told the thief on His right, “Today you shall be with me in Paradise,” (Luke 23:43).

Today, many are either functioning for acceptance or from acceptance of God. I sincerely hope you are resting in His finished work on the cross.