Christian teaching about Life after Death.

1. Evangelical Protestants – they believe in resurrection of the body, they believe that when people die, their soul waits until the time when God will end the world (the Last Day before which Jesus will return to the earth).  Then the dead will be raised and join the living in the presence of God.  Those who have been dead for a time will not be aware of any passage between their death and the Last Day.  

On the Last Day everyone will become before God and be judged.  The judgement will be based on Christian faith and behaviour.  Good Christians will then go to heaven for eternity, whilst Christians who have sinned and not repented and non-Christians will go to hell for eternity.

These beliefs are based on the teachings of St Paul and the resurrection of Jesus whose body was raised from the dead.

2. Other Protestants - they believe in immortality of the soul.  They believe that when people die their soul lives on in a spiritual realm.  They believe that souls go immediately before God to be judged and that good Christians will go to heaven.  Some believe that bad Christians and non-Christians will go to hell.  However, many of these Christians do not believe in hell, they believe that their will be an after life for all people and all religions, but what happens to people in that after-life will be affected by how they have lived this life.

These beliefs are based on Jesus saying to the thief that he would be in heaven on Good Friday (Luke 23:43); Jesus’ statement about the many rooms in his father’s house (John 14:2); the belief in the communication of saints (that their can be communication between living and dead Christians) and the evidence of parapsychology (things like ghosts, mediums, telepathy).

3. Roman Catholics – they believe in both resurrection and immortality.  They believe that at death: The souls of those who have not sinned since their last confession will go straight to heaven; the souls of Christians who have sinned will go to purgatory for their souls to be cleansed; the souls of those who have refused to believe in God or who have committed mortal sins (a deliberate very evil act which has not been repented of) will go to hell.  

Then Jesus will come back to Earth, the dead will be raised and the souls will be reunited with their bodies.  The God will judge everyone.  God will make a new heaven and a new earth, the souls who are in heaven or in purgatory will go to the new heaven and the souls in hell will return to hell.

These beliefs are based on the resurrection of Jesus, the teachings of the New Testament and the teachings of the Church.  They are stated in the Catholic Catechism.