How to ensure whether once a person man or woman passes away, his or her soul (RIP) is resting in peace now?
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3By repentance toward God and by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is rest obtained from sinful works and from legal works and from death and hades. There is no other way. We cannot be certain of the condition of the dead. All will be reconciled at the Great Judgment when the Lord returns.– Nigel JCommented Mar 6 at 8:03
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My opinion is "If all person's wishes and desires were/are fulfilled" then his/her soul will remain in peace after departing.– Prashant AkerkarCommented Mar 7 at 1:10
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2My own pursuit in this life is to fulfil all the wishes and desires of God whom I serve. Then shall my soul 'Rest in Peace'. Not otherwise.– Nigel JCommented Mar 7 at 3:19
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2 Answers
God alone determines the state of those who have died physically, telling us that their bodies rot in the grave until the Day of Resurrection and Judgment, when every one who has died will be raised from the dead in a new resurrection body that God has made fit for the eternal state. Their invisible, spiritual part is elsewhere, awaiting that day when it will be 'clothed' in that new body, to then stand before the Great White Throne, for judgment. That is the orthodox Christian teaching.
No human who is alive can do anything to affect the eternal resting in peace of the deceased. However, quite a few Christians disagree with that, thinking they can actively help their departed loved ones to eventually 'merit' getting a place in heaven. But I'm not here to go into that as I want to stick to what the Bible says to answer your question.
The Bible has Jesus giving an account of two Jewish men who died, and their very different experiences with their spiritual part. He answers your question. It's in Luke's gospel chapter 16, verses 19 to 31.
The rich man died and found himself in torments in hell. The beggar who sat at his gate died and found himself carried by angels to bliss in "the bosom of Abraham". The formerly rich man cried to his Father Abraham for mercy due to the flame, to have the former beggar sent down to cool his tongue with some water. But Abraham said the beggar was now comforted [obviously at peace] while he was in torments. There was a great chasm between the two, which could not be crossed. So the rich man begged for Lazarus to be sent to Earth to warn his brothers of the terrible torments he was now in, so they could avoid ending up there when they died.
Abraham said that they had Moses and the prophets - to listen to those ones. The response to that? "Nay, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent."
Abraham's response in turn was, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Consider what Jesus was warning us of - Moses and the prophets are in the Old Testament part of the Bible. The prophet greater than Moses, who rose from the dead three days after crucifixion, is alive today, still warning us who read his words in the New Testament that he is the only assurance of resting in peace when we die, if we have found peace with him, through total faith in what he did to save us from the judgment we deserve. Only then can we experience the peace Jesus gives to believers in him. It's not the peace that the world gives - read John 14:27 & 16:33. Those who confess their sins and put faith in Christ, and in no-one or nothing else - experience that peace before they die. But not due to anything they do - entirely due to what Christ has done to deliver them from the condemnation of their sin.
This proves, from Jesus' own lips, that no human who is alive on Earth can do anything to affect the eternal state of the deceased. If they are in torments when they die, before the Day of Resurrection and Judgment, they will experience that for eternity. Read Revelation chapter 20 verses 4 to 15. The Bible is your best source of information on this topic. It will require hours of diligent, prayerful study to sort out this huge topic but I have directed you to a good starting point (Luke 16) and the conclusion of the matter (Revelation 20).
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1I solmenly agree with your teaching that the living cannot do anything to influence the state of the dead. Whether a dead person is peaceful depends on whether they accepted Jesus while they were still alive and kept his commandments. If they did then they are at peace with their eternal destinies but if they didn't then they are not at peace because the wrath of God remains on their souls which implies hell Commented Mar 8 at 18:56
The first thing is to not base your conclusions on mere feelings. Peace is not an emotion to pursue such that if you feel it very strongly you know that you are in good standing with God and will go to Heaven.
The surest foundation for a life of peace now that concludes with a promise of eternal peace is to pursue it consistently and comprehensively.
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 34:14)
Some of the dimensions of peace are:
- Peace with God
- Peace with your family and neighbors
- Peace with yourself
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12:18)
Part of the pursuit of peace is to not neglect any of the three aspects of your person that need to participate:
- mind: Learn the Bible's teachings on Peace, to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind"
- heart: Approve of God's teachings and make pursuing peace a priority
- hand: Discipline yourself to prioritize peace and bring your daily habits into line with this goal
The Bible has specific teachings on different aspects of peace.
- Ecclesiastes: Maps out a path to maturity from birth to peace, in the poem in chapter 3. Solomon's name means "peaceable"; he is an excellent teacher. The rest of Ecclesiastes comments on how to navigate the problems of key stages in life.
- Romans: Romans 5 is about peace with God. The Apostle Paul speaks of peace more than any other writer in the Bible by a factor of two, so read all his letters. Peace is in the list of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5.
- Matthew: Jesus is the prince of Peace and Lord of the Harvest. He describes how to reap a spiritual harvest, thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. In the Sermon on the Mount he preaches about how to overcome anxiety by treasuring the right things. A person who brings in a great harvest will be at peace.
- Exodus: The Ten Commandments speak of the sabbath rest. Hebrews 4:9 also says "So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God..." The Psalms are a commentary on the Law and many of them can guide the weary soul toward peace, like Psalm 23, where the good shepherd leads you beside still waters to restore your soul.
Meditating on the above will transform your mind, reform your heart, and spur you on to love and good deeds. When your life is so dedicated, eternal peace will invade this temporal world.
To all these things, add this from the Beatitudes:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matthew 5:9)
If you share with others the peace you have received from God, then nothing can take that peace away from you.
The above thoughts are distilled from my personal meditations during the first two years of the Covid pandemic, when my singular focus was to pray and meditate on the path to peace amidst troubling times.
