https://probe.org/why-did-jesus-have-to-go-to-hell-after-he-died/
I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-happens-at-death
believers will be taken into the presence of Christ in heaven. Christ is in heaven now (Acts 1:2; 3:21; 1 Thes 1:10; 4:16; 2 Thes 1:7), and believers will go to be with Him. Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). And on two different occasions Paul spoke of death as ushering us into the presence of Christ:
But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. (Philippians 1:23-24)
Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord–for we walk by faith, not by sight–we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be
absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (
2 Corinthians 5:6-9)
heaven is a place of resplendent glory, and being with Christ in the glory of heaven will be far superior to our present earthly lives. Notice that in the passages just listed, Paul says that departing this life to be with Christ “is very much better” (
Philippians 1:23) and that he would “
prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be
at home with the Lord” (
2 Corinthians 5:8).
when in heaven we will be continue looking forward (as we should be already in this life) to the resurrection of our bodies from the dead. Disembodied existence is not God’s ultimate and final and greatest purpose for us. As great as it will be to be in heaven after we die, God has something greater in store: being resurrected from the dead so that we will live soul and body forever in the new heavens and new earth.
at the moment of death believers will be made perfect and cleansed from all sin. This follows from the above point that believers are taken to heaven immediately at death. Heaven is fully pure and free from all tarnish and sin, and therefore when God takes us to heaven He makes us fit for the experience of it by making our hearts perfect in holiness. This accords with His purpose to make us completely like Christ (
Romans 8:29) and, at the return of Christ, to present us to Himself without spot or wrinkle or sin (
1 Thessalonians 5:23;
Ephesians 5:27).
those who did not trust Christ in this life will be separated from God and enter a reality completely devoid of His common grace and blessing. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus speaks of Lazarus as being taken to heaven when he dies but the rich man, because he did not heed the Scriptures, immediately entering into great torment and being excluded from the blessing of heaven (
Luke 16:22-26). Scripture speaks often of the painful reality that awaits those who do not place their faith in Christ to be rescued from sin (
Matthew 13:30;
25:41;
Luke 12:5;
John 3:36;
Romans 2:8-9;
Hebrews 10:29).
both in high school…44 years ago…wow..that happened fast Sometime back I started measuring wisdom instead of age…I am 18 now with 43 years experience July 1969, wanted to be Neil Armstrong My parents and my scoutmaster leaned hard on me until I completed becoming an Eagle Scout at 13..never regretted doing that Went to work at Gulf States Utilities in 1977 as a co-op intern Full time upon graduation in 81 Discovered what telecom was by rebuilding 55 hops of analog microwave paths Learned about broadband high speed relaying on 500 kv systems that used 500 KHz of analog signaling to achieve 4 millisecond-clearing time upon fault detection Designed a regional two way radio trunking system Redesigned a 5 parish nuclear emergency alerting system, and inadvertently activated all 92 one afternoon….a difficult after action report with the senior vp… Designed a containment distributed radio system in a nuclear plant Started rebuilding the early 1980s. analog microwave system to digital As a consultant redesigned a transcontinental pipeline microwave system from 2 GHZ to 6 GHz digital Numerous scada systems… 22 years a consultant. What a career, what experiences….I am blessed to do what I enjoy technically.
John Hargrove Seeking Truth and Reality 