First, let's consider the options the Bible offers in regard to life after death. (All scriptures quoted are from the King James Version Bible.)
If Adam had not sinned, he and his descendants could have lived for ever on a perfect earth. After Adam received the sentence for disobeying God, "…for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19), he and his descendants faced eternal extinction. Only a small glimmer of hope was given when God told him, He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, that the seed of the woman would bruise (or crush) Satan's head. (Gen. 3:15)
Later, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob received God's promise, "in thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 12:3; Gen. 22:18; Gen. 28:14)
Although few details were given in these promises, people who were close to God began to have a faint hope of living again after they died. When righteous Job suffered great pain and anguish, he prayed, "O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." (Job 14:13-15)
Note: The term "immortal soul" is not found in the Bible. Those that had faith in God knew that death was a condition of unconsciousness. David wrote, "For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?" (Psalm 6:5) Solomon wrote, "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing." (Ecclesiastes 9:5)
Then Jesus, God's only begotten Son, came to earth. He became a perfect man who could die in Adam's place, to be the "ransom" to buy back Adam and everything that was lost through Adam's sin. The whole human race would now have an opportunity to come back to life on earth, in God's "due time." (I Timothy 2:5 ,6; I Corinthians 15:22)
But before all the dead would be brought back to life, Jesus gave even a greater promise to His closest followers. The night before He died, He told his disciples, "…"I go to prepare a place for you… that where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2, 3) However, the way to heaven would not be an easy one. Jesus said, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends…. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but…I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." (John 15:12, 13, 19) Jesus referred to His closest followers as a "little flock." (Luke 12:32)
Paul wrote that we could be heirs with Christ "…if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:17) He also wrote, "If we suffer we shall also reign with him." (II Tim. 2:12)
Jesus paid the ransom so that all of Adam's children can rise from the dead to life on earth. But to be able to be with the Lord in heaven, we must accept Jesus as our Savior, give Him our whole heart and being, and follow where He leads, even if the way is difficult and narrow. No one can "pray us" into heaven.
