now this is my opinion ,based on all the scripture I can find on the subject and I use many references since the King James used a lot of tradition and papal doctrine in its translation ,,and the Pope thinks he can open heaven and hell ,,He can't
I believe hell at this point is the grave ,not a literal place of torment a few scriptures on their own do seem to suggest that But when you study as the Bible tells us to ,line upon line ,precept ,and rightly divide scripture ,,,you get a clearer meaning of certain principles and you are able to reproof distorted doctrine
The Dead know nothing ,,the breath of God has returned to Him ,,,not a spirit He breathed into their nostrils and they became living souls ,,not that they got one
So I think we rest ,,Christ called it sleep And told us not to worry ,the ones that died before us would not see heaven any sooner then we would
At His coming we all die once ,,,,and then the judgment Now is your name still in the book of life or not ?
He warned us there were things we had better not do ,and things we needed to do if we wanted to see the kingdom of God
So when we are all dead ,,He calls His up from sleep ,,, to new bodies ,,ones that have never had sin tarnish them the ones that were alive ,and are His children ,same thing
All rise up to meet Him ,go to heaven The rest sleep for 1000 more years They are woken up ,,punished as their deeds were ,and then destroyed as if they never existed
Its more complicated then that ,,but that is my short version
And for those who do not think the Pope thinks he opens heaven and hell then explain the keys
We are beeings of light, we have one collective consciouness, our goul here is evolution. Every person is at his own stage based on his previous lifes, karma or the universal laws. Unfortunately the spiritual knowledge has been restricted by society...they do not want us to be awaken, to be self concious, they would lose control over us...it's just a matter of time i presume..ppl around the world are starting to open their "eyes"
Although I could quite frankly be wrong, I lean towards the idea that the ego dissolves back inside the Collective Unconscious. A bit of a Jungian answer. I think it's possible some sort of reincarnation happens though.
It along with the soul , waits for the appropriate time to take birth again.Your cycle of karma decides when you will be reborn and the type of life you will have.
@MarkPaul We don't know how he'll accomplish it but neither do we know how he created us in the first place. It'll solve with faith in him, that's what we know.
@MartinTheFirst That's why I am working on keeping my faith strong and genuine... and learning more about his words each day (with your help, sometimes).