God made Heaven VERY easy, VERY simple, to get to.
What should be our view of death?
As humans we sometimes don't know how to respond to death. It is so final. From our perspective it can seem almost impossible to understand. When someone we know dies, we all want to think that they went to heaven. It is easy to assume that God is a strict or even mean judge determining who will actually get to heaven.
God's perspective on death is radically different than ours. Lets look at some scriptures that show God's view of death. All of this set of verses are from God's perspective from heaven.
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." 1st Cor 15:22
"And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour?" 1st Cor 15:30
We should ask ourself, when shall we be made alive? (in Christ all shall be made alive?)
Does that happen at salvation or when we are lifted up to heaven? I would submit we are made alive in Christ when we receive salvation. Hang on to that thought as we will be coming back to it.
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Then from 1st Cor chapter 15, verses 35 to 49.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?”
36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.
37 And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain.
38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind [f]of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
40 There are also [g]celestial bodies and [h]terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.
43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
47 The first man was of the earth, made[i] of dust; the second Man is [j]the Lord from heaven.
48 As was the [k]man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we[l] shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
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Heaven truly exists, so does Hell.
God looks at death and Heaven completely different than we do. We grieve when a friend or a loved ones passes away. Sadly sometime's people rejoice at the death of people they don't like. If that person went to Hell, that is nothing to rejoice over. Once a person dies they no longer have any opportunity to choose salvation or Heaven. That door is from then forward forever shut.
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15)
If you have recently lost a loved one, my heart goes out to you. Know that God understands fully the pain you feel. God saw firsthand His son die so you and I could have real and eternal life. The greiving process, while it deeply hurts, it is part of your healing. It is not wrong to express your pain and heartache. Whatever happened, please do not blame God. Sometimes people think God could have prevented a situation. Know that sometimes God does. But many time God doesn't because that would overide someone's free will. Over riding some's free will would mean God would be guilty of forcing someone to do what they didn't want to do. God doesn't work that way. If we don't understand what or how it could have happened, remember God's promise that in the end all will be best if we trust Him.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." -- Ecc 3:11
What happens when a person dies?
Some want to believe that they just fade into nothingness at death. The Bible says our human spirit or breath of life, goes back to God.
Our soul has either made a choice to have the life that is had in Jesus Christ or it hasn't. If it has made that choice, then we go to heaven. If we have not made that choice, then we have made a choice with out declaring a choice. In that case, our choice is to reject real life so in effect we have chosen death. We often don't think of it that way, but as real life is only in Jesus Christ, any other existence at its conclusion leads ultimately to death. That may sound narrow minded to some, but it is the truth. If you are in Heaven looking back at those still on earth, you realize that is how It has to be. Forcing a person to go where they don't want to go is not love. That way Heaven stays Heaven. If someone is not happy in the life that is in Jesus Christ, they won't be happy in Heaven.
When we die our bodies decompose and return to the earth. Embalming slows it down but ultimately we go from dust to dust. Cremation also returns the elements of the body back to dust.
Heaven
God made it very easy to get to heaven. A person simply makes a real decision to give their life to God. That decision is the legal line that determines whether we are in God's kingdom or still in the kingdom of this world that we were born in. We don't get to Heaven because we are good. We don't get to Heaven because of our works. We don't get to Heaven because we believe we have followed all of god's laws.
We believe Heaven is absolutely beautiful, absolutely perfect. God's process where we can enter the kingdom of God is so simple, so easy. Yet behind the scenes the incredible complexity that is necessary to make it happen is hard to understand. Our understanding that there is such complexity behind the scenes does not change how simple or easy it is. It is easy and it works exactly as God says.
"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" Eph 2:8
Because God is perfect and we are far from perfect, there is no way we can justify ourselves to God our way. Even at our very best we are filthy in comparison. We are comparing ourselves to an absolutely pure perfect God. God's acceptence of us is based upon His grace. We choose to believe him at His word and he provides the abundant grace to make things happen. With God and Heaven being perfect, that is the only logical way things could ever work.
The Second Death
The Bible talks about the second death.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" Heb 9:27
"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years" Rev 20:6
We all will eventually come to where our physical bodies die. We all know that. As in the scripture above, when we receive salvation by sincerely choosing Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, that is the first resurrection. Then there is no power to the second death or physical death. Going to Hell is the second death.