What precisely happens at the time of death is a question that theologians have struggled over for centuries but have never answered satisfactorily.
It is therefore only in the moment of death than humans are able to elect for or against their Eternal salva.
The response to this question that Ladislaus Boros gives in his monumental synthesis, The Mystery of Death , is that in death we meet Christ fully for the first time and in doing so attain to full consciousness and freedom.
What precisely happens at the time of death is a question that theologians have struggled over for centuries but have never answered satisfactorily