Life, death, eternity -- in a nutshell

The Bible teaches:

Man is mortal. He does not have an immortal soul.

Death is an unconscious state. God's antidote to death is physical resurrection.

Eternal life is a gift of God's grace made possible by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, where He took on Himself the guilt and blame for the sins of every sinner.

Eternal life is conditional. It will be given to all who do not reject God's gift.

There will be no eternal life of any kind for those who reject God's gift. They will bear their own sins in the final judgment and will receive just punishment for a finite period of time. Their punishment will end in what the Bible calls "the second death" – eternal oblivion.

The "saved" will live forever in a perfect universe. They will enjoy fellowship with God, with angels, and with each other. They will have endless opportunities for gaining wisdom, knowledge, skills, and the accomplishments for which they were originally created.

The "lost" will miss all that.

In eternity the greatest loss of all will be borne by God Himself, because He will miss all those He could not save – those who, by their own free will, chose not to accept His gift.