This is the 20th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

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No matter how people consider death, we can’t escape the truth that one day we breathe our last. But what then? Everyone who’s thought seriously about this question has an answer – or at least an opinion. 

Those who embrace a naturalistic worldview say death is the end of our existence. We may live on in the memories of loved ones. Meanwhile, our contributions to mankind – or our crimes against humanity – may outlive us, but our consciousness ends permanently and irreversibly once we stop breathing.

Tibetan Buddhists believe the spirits of the departed embark on a journey lasting 49 days and divided into three stages. At the conclusion of the third stage, a person either enters nirvana – a place of liberation from the cravings that cause suffering – or returns to earth for rebirth.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe most of the departed (except for the 144,000 of the anointed class) go into a state of soul sleep until a future date with destiny. At that time, many of the dead are resurrected and given an opportunity to prove themselves worthy to enter an eternal paradise on earth.

But Scripture paints a different picture. At physical death, the immaterial part of human beings – that is, our souls and spirits – enter an intermediate state, either with Jesus in heaven or in torment in hades. Meanwhile, our lifeless bodies await future resurrection, at which time our souls and spirits reunite with our resurrected bodies so we may stand before Jesus in final judgment. 

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