Hmm..
Well! My personal belief structure has changed a bit. Instead of being a "Sheeple Christian" (whereas I just went by what I was told Christianity was as apposed to what the Hebrew, Syriac, and Latin manuscripts say), I decided to do some in-depth, multi-language studies on these sorts of topics ("Why are we here?", "Where do we go when we die?", etc).
So; MY belief on this matter (based on my studies, which I put my faith into 200%) is quite simple. Death is simply a transition from one plane to the next; Body simply does what it does; rots.
Contrary to common Christian belief; instead of the "bad" going to hell for their transgressions; the "unfruitful" and "workless" (not jobless, but rather people who have not made use of themselves in a meaningful manor, a way that helps others, impacts others livelihood, etc), find themselves in the same place everyone else is... but separated from the fruitful and goodly people. Most refer to this as "Abraham's Bosom"; and it resembles the river Styx in parabol. On one side, theres people who wish they could cross, but cannot. Theyre just there in waiting for judgement, whereas on the other side are the ones who did not fall short of salvation, with the ability to cross back and forth to either side of the stream (as teachers). This is the same place Yeshua went to in the manuscripts to go forth and teach to all of the fallen before the redemption from his ressurection; giving an equal chance of salvation to people on both sides of the stream. Again though; this "stream" was mentioned in the manuscripts in parabol form. It is NOT a literal stream, as far as I know (or anyone else for that matter lol)
In common Christian practice, Heaven and Hell are places; however, my thoughts are much... much different on this as well. Heaven and Hell arent places, but rather "conditions". "Hell" in its original form in the manuscripts is derived from ~16 different words, none of which meaning the Greek underworld; "Hades", but rather, mostly means "Death". A place of eternal torture does NOT exist in true Christianity, its not scriptural at all, and its just a scare tactic for bible thumpers. The only place a "Hell" even remotely resembles the bible thumper hell is in Revelation; and even at that, it simply means the "Destruction of the Soul"; which is simply ceasing to exist; or the "Blotting out of the book of life". In other words, its life or death, not life or eternal torture. From this, scripturally, when spiritually rotten people die, they go to what is commonly known as "Abraham's Bosom" and wait for when the creation of Hell (basically, judgement) takes place, and from that point simply die if they don't wish to be with God. Heaven on the other hand is "wherever God is". From this; when people die, either way they're in the spiritual plane that God is in; so in essence EVERYONE goes to heaven. Some wait for judgment, some are already granted salvation, but all are in the same general area.
My personal belief; ALL religions are capable of achieving heaven even after death. Fate is not sealed in death. Do I believe you NEED to be a Christian to be granted salvation? Yes. Do I think things are finalized in death on this plane of existence? nope :p. Quite simply, someone could die, find themselves on the "Wrong side of the gulf" (that river); and think "Oh snap, theres Yeshua... I didn't believe it until now", and then BOOM. Instant salvation. lol Besides, Salvation is determined not by the sins of man, but MORE SO their works. There is no unforgivable sin, even in death, except for one that is IMPOSSIBLE to commit right now anyway, lol so I dont think anyone really has to worry too much.
But ultimately the point is; we didn't just randomly appear here sandboxes and told "YOU MUST FOLLOW GOD OR BURN FOR ETERNITY"; its more than that, and actually if people cant understand why we're here to begin with salvation is just going to be one big huge wall for them because they cant either grasp it or explain it. The whole reason we're here is because when we existed before this (Yes, Earth is MILLIONS of years old. Genesis itself took 6000 years, and it starts out in Hebrew as "The World was turned void and empty" not "The World was made void and empty" as most translations put it; so the earth existed long before the events of Genesis. It was made for us, but not our flesh selves. The reason we're here, is because God did not want to have to kill off all of his children during the catabol (the rebellion of Satan, before Genesis); when a 3rd of his children fell, he didn't want to start fresh, because he loved his creation. Instead of destroying everyone, he fixed what damage had been caused on earth from the catabol (which quite literally is a ripping of the sky), and as an act of undying love, decided to give the remaining 2/3rds of his children a chance to decide what they want, Him (God), or rebellion. Which also gives more explanation towards why the traditional hell does not exist; torment is not an act of love, and its just stupid lol... This is also why, even in death, its not about what religion you are, because even after death you can find redemption; this is just one plane of existence.
Most of this stuff mentioned is found in Job (a lot of stuff on WHY we're here), Ezekiel (chapter 26+ leads into more stuff for Revelation), the Gospels, Revelation, etc, all in their original languages.
But anyway, yeah, thats what I think happens when we die. lol we pretty much just go to a nifty lil river thingy if we're evil, and if not we're enjoying our original existence from before we had bodies. Pretty much it...
