Have You Ever Wondered What Happens After Death?

By Roger Henri Trepanier

This very interesting book deals with a subject that is little talked about and rarely understood, namely what happens at the moment of death and immediately thereafter in the afterlife. The author first examines our makeup as human beings, since our various parts go to different places at death. This is followed up with what death actually is, where it originated and why, and what happens when it occurs. Then the various places relating to the afterlife are examined, followed by the two resurrections which occur in time, the final judgment, and the events which take place as time as we know it ends. There is also an Addendum dealing with questions, such as: Are babies which die prematurely in Heaven? Is cremation of God? Will we know each other in the afterlife? What is important for the reader is knowing what happens at death and afterwards so that one can be prepared, for although not all human beings die in time, yet all with definitely experience the afterlife. This life after all is just a passageway to the next!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Henri Trepanier
• Release date: Jul 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310912405

Roger Henri Trepanier

Roger Henri Trepanier is an evangelist, author, and counselor, who has been serving God on his field of service since 1999. One hundred and seven books have been published so far in five different series, all available in print format and as an eBook for any type of eBook reader. He is a widower with three adopted children, all now married.The author's two websites have been closed. To access the author's books, please type, "Roger Henri Trepanier, books" in any search engine. All the author's books are available in print and ebook formats for all devices.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

As we begin, it would be helpful to think of death as being our passageway into the next life, which can be called the "afterlife," as simply meaning life after death. Once created and brought into this world through a human birth, ALL human beings go on to live eternally! The only thing which varies for human beings in the afterlife is one’s final destination.

In my first book, which is titled "God did not create human beings to die… but to live on… eternally," we saw that God not only did not create human beings to die, but we also saw that God made provision for people to be able to avoid death altogether. Yes, there are people on earth who will enter the afterlife without going through death at all. You may want to also obtain and read that book to find out how this is possible.

Since there is yet death for the time being in God’s perfect original creation, then we might as well know what happens at death and afterwards, so that it is not a mystery to us. Once we know what awaits us if death should come, then we can be better prepared for that moment. If a child of God already, then we can rejoice that our homegoing has come. And if not yet a child of God, then we can become one, so that death and afterwards does not become something to fear at all. There are many things in this life which can be avoided, but eventually entering into the afterlife is not one of them. In other words, we must ALL pass from this life to the next life, whether we like it or not. So we might as well know what awaits us, good or bad, so that we can prepare ourselves if we are not satisfied with our lot!

And so what awaits us in the pages to come is first examining how God created us at the beginning of time, in terms of what our makeup is as human beings. This is important to know because at death and afterwards, different things happen to the different parts making up our human person. Another subject which will be discussed, because it cannot be avoided, is what death is, in terms of where it originated, why it did, and what its components are. We need to know this in order to know what occurs when it happens. Then we also need to talk about the different places which are associated with the afterlife, to which our component parts go to, first on a temporary basis, and then on a permanent basis.

We will then look at what happens if death should come, in terms of where our component parts go to, looking at this from two perspectives, since what takes place at death is different for one who has a personal relationship with God than for one who does not have a personal relationship with God. And then we will look at God’s resurrection program in time, for what needs to be grasped here is that when time ends, God will have removed death from His Presence forever, which He does by raising every human being from the dead! Then before closing the book with a personal word, there are a few chapters dealing with what happens at the end of time, in terms of God’s final judgment, the two eternal destinies, and the eternal state. This is followed by an Addendum, where we deal with possible questions one my have about death and the afterlife, such as: Do infants go to Heaven that die at birth or before?

And now one last thing is necessary before bringing this Introduction to a close, which is to let the reader know a little about the author. We are all curious by nature, so a few brief details are here in order.

I have had a personal relationship with God for over 34 years now, which is by far the best event that has ever happened in my life! At John 5:24, our precious Lord Jesus Christ tells us that anyone who believes in Him has "eternal life, and as a result will never experience God’s judgment, but such a one has passed out of death into life."

After completing 21 years of formal education and then spending almost 28 years working in project engineering in the corporate offices of a large utility, God called His servant as an evangelist in early 1999, then sent him out over 2000 miles away from family and friends, to the place of service God assigned, and where His servant has been and is still serving Him.

It has also been my great pleasure to write, under God’s guiding Hand, nine Commentaries on books of the Bible, with some of these Commentaries taking from 3 to 4 years each to complete. Also, there have been over 535 Devotional Commentaries on portions of the Bible, including more than 100 studies on various subjects encountered in the Bible. The foregoing work has been the foundation material that God has used in His servant’s counseling ministry these last 20 years, and also the background information for giving the sermon in a local church for 52 Sundays over a period of almost five years. And now God is using much of this material as background for the writing of the first three books, and now also this one. All of this is to the glory of God alone, for the author knows full well that apart from God’s grace and power, he cannot do anything that will last for time and eternity!

The author was widowed in 1994, his one and only wife having died of cancer at a young age. When the author married his wife, she herself was a widow of two years, with three children. At the time of our marriage the children were 9, 12, and 15 years old respectively. The author did adopt the children, who have since gone on to each marry a Christian spouse, and then for each of these couples to have two children each.

One last thing to mention here is that I have established a website at:

http://www.pilgrimpathwaypublications.com

for the purpose of interacting with readers such as yourself!

And now my prayer is that God will richly bless you as you read this book, and greatly minister to your every need in your life, as only God can do

THE IRONY OF IT ALL IS THAT THE PRESENT

CULTURE OF DEATH RUSHES TO LEGALIZE THE

KILLING OF THE UNBORN, THE SICK, AND THE

ELDERLY, WHICH THINGS ARE NOT OF GOD; YET

SEEKS TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS CAPITAL

PUNISHMENT (THE DEATH PENALTY), WHICH IS

OF GOD!

SECTION 1

_______________________________________________________

FIRST THINGS FIRST: LEARNING WHAT THE MAKEUP OF MAN IS AND GAINING AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT DEATH IS

LEARNING WHAT THE MAKEUP OF A HUMAN BEING IS

We must begin the book with what the makeup of a human being is, in terms of what the component parts are, for at the moment of death these component parts go to different places in the afterlife. If we do not know what the component parts are, then this would make it difficult to understand our present subject.

And as is the case with all the books in the present series, our information needs to be gathered from what God says about mankind. In other words, only God, as Designer and Creator of us all has all the information needed for an accurate understanding of our subject. What God reveals in the Bible is that all mankind, as originally created by God, has the same makeup and nature, since all human beings come from the same first man and first woman God created. And to learn what our makeup is as human beings, we need to start with Adam, the first man, noting what we read at Genesis 2:7:

"Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."

What we are to see from this very important verse of the Bible is that the component parts in the makeup of a human being consists of a body, "formed… of dust by God, into which God then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, which is the human spirit, so that man became a living being," that is, a living person, also known as a soul. And so we see that a body, spirit, and soul are the three component parts making up a human being which God speaks about in His word, the Bible, noting for instance what we read at 1 Thessalonians 5:23:

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

What is also important to know is that God gave the human "spirit" for man to be able to commune with God, Who is revealed in the Bible as being a spirit Being, noting what we read at John 4:24:

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

We are then to see that the "soul" is the human component of human beings, which renders us a person and which God brought into existence so as to be able to communicate with other human beings. It is the soul of man which contains our will, our mind, our emotions, our heart, and our conscience. There is also a heart of the body, which is the organ which pumps our blood to keep us alive physically. In contrast to this, the heart of the soul is the inner part of the soul of man, while the human spirit is the inner part of the whole human being.

And what is important to remember about the spirit, soul, and body at this point is that the spirit and soul are immaterial and unseen, while the body, is the only part of us that is material and can be seen, being the shell that holds the spirit and soul of man. Once created by God in the first man, Adam, and then passed on to all generations of mankind afterwards through childbirth, the spirit and soul never die, but go on for eternity! Only the body ages and dies, although as we shall see in the next chapter and following, God has full power over death, as He does over all things, not only having authority to determine when a person dies, but also if a person dies, and also how a person dies. And here we can note what God declares on this very matter at Deuteronomy 32:39 (in part):

"See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life…"

And God is also The only One Who has authority over a human being escaping death noting what we read at Psalm 68:20:

"God is to us a God of deliverances; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death."

Therefore, the important truth to keep in mind as we proceed is that ALL human beings have a body, a soul, and a spirit; and that only the body of a human being dies, while the soul and spirit of a human being are eternal once brought into existence, in that both the soul and spirit go on to exist for all eternity!

GAINING AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT DEATH IS IN ALL ITS ASPECTS: THE WHERE FROM, THE WHAT, THE WHY, AND THE WHEN

We have already mentioned in the previous chapter that only the human body ages and dies. What would now be useful is to gain an understanding of what death is, in terms of what does it involve, where and when did death originate, and why death even took place in human history. And here we must begin with Adam, who was the first man created by God, and although a literal human being, he was nonetheless but representative of all of us. In other words, in creating the first man, Adam, God knew that what this one man would do, then any other human being would do the same, since God created all of us with exactly the same makeup.

Another thing we need to know about Adam is that when God first created him, Adam was in innocence, that is, he had never sinned, for at that point in time he did not even have any idea of what sin was, since he had no knowledge of what was good, nor of what was evil. And it was while Adam was in this state of innocence that God tested Adam by putting him in a perfect environment, where everything was provided for him, which was a place called the Garden of Eden here on earth. And God’s test of Adam came to him one day in the form of a command, when God said to him what we read at Genesis 2:16,17:

"[16] The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; [17] but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

What is very important to notice here is that God gave Adam a command with a warning, in that the penalty for disobedience to His command was death! In other words, to disobey God, which Adam was to find out was a sin, would result in death. All the details for what we are talking about here can be found in my first book, which is titled, God did not create human beings to die… but to live on… eternally. You may go to my website mentioned at the beginning of this book to find out where one can obtain a copy. Here we will only concentrate