Frankly, I'm disgusted by the previous posts on this subject that ignore the passages that they don't like. We need to be willing to look at everything regardless of where it leads us. I've read the entire Bible at least three times. I've probably read the New Testament twenty times. There are 293 verses of the Bible with the word dead but very few of them refer life after death. Let's look at some of them:
(Job 26:5 NIV) "The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.
(Job 10:19-22 NIV) If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! {20} Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment's joy {21} before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, {22} to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness."
Job is going by his own knowledge. God hadn't revealed heaven to him.
(Ecclesiastes 4:2 NIV) And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive.
(Ecclesiastes 9:4-5 NIV) Anyone who is among the living has hope --even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! {5} For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.
Solomon abandoned God to worship the false gods of his foreign wives. He's in hell now. He received no special revelation about heaven or hell or what happens to you when you die.
There are only a few passages in the entire Old Testament that talk about an afterlife.
(Psalms 23:6 NIV) Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
(Daniel 12:2 NIV) Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
It's different once you get into the New Testament. Jesus has a perspective nobody has had before or since. Jesus has memories of heaven before he came to earth!
(John 8:56 NIV) Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
Abraham died. He went to heaven before the resurrection and he met Jesus.
What did Jesus say about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
(Matthew 22:31-32 NIV) But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, {32} 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
(Matthew 17:3 NIV) Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Elijah had been taken into heaven while he was alive. The Bible is clear that Moses died. Yet he was speaking with Jesus so it should be clear to anyone that he was alive in heaven before he talked to Jesus. And so is everyone else who was saved.
(Luke 23:39-43 NIV) One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" {40} But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? {41} We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." {42} Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." {43} Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
We can get distracted by what Jesus means by "paradise" but it's clear he would be there the same day he died.
(Revelation 20:4 NIV) I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
This is a pivotal verse. People who had been killed during the Great Tribulation were in heaven. They were referred to as souls. Apparently without a body. They received a body later.
And now let's get to the most enlightening verses about death and the afterlife:
(Luke 16:19-31 NIV) "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. {20} At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores {21} and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. {22} "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. {23} In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. {24} So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' {25} "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. {26} And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' {27} "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, {28} for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' {29} "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' {30} "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' {31} "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
Jesus never said that this is a parable. If it is a parable it's the only one that gives someone's name. And if it's a parable then what's the interpretation? I've heard that "Abraham's side" means something else but it's at least a place of special favor. There are also people who think "fire" is not literal but it's something much worse than fire.
It should be clear to anyone willing to look at the truth that you immediately go to hell or heaven after you die.