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This is an experiment to see how honest people can be if they don't have to identify themselves. Some silly, some deep, but all require honesty.
Read this first.
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Most of these questions are now submitted. Please feel free to submit your question and see how others feel. Email me here with a subject line of "Anonymous Truth"
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11 comments:
I don't have my bible in front of me, but when I was younger, I was taught that you go to a waiting place before going into Heaven and I remember being taught that OC in a bible class. At church our bible class did a study and the teacher talked about that and he said he believed that you go to Heaven when you die and then when Jesus returns, heaven comes to earth along with everyone in it. I will be interested to learn what everyone's respones are.
Yes, look forward to other opinions as well. I don't have my bible in front of me either.
in Luke 23:42-43 Jesus promised the thief on the cross he would be with Jesus in Paradise. Is paradise heaven?
in Luke 16:19-31 The parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, Jesus implies that we are in a resting place (Abraham's bosom), but the rich man was already being punished.
in Revelation 21:1 we are promised a new heaven and a new earth, so heaven on earth.
I am no scholar, but perhaps we have to wait for heaven until judgement day, when the new earth is formed, but we are already in a place of peace and happiness where we are near God's glory.
I can't find the verse, but Paul was taken up into a level of heaven. Maybe when we die, we go to a lower level or something.
Check out 2 Corinthians 5:1 - 10. Paul says that to be absent the body is to be present with Christ. Doesn't seem to indicate ANY waiting at all. Plus, verses 4 and 5 say that our mortal bodies are going to be swallowed up by life -- that is, our eternal bodies. Then he says that God made us for this purpose and gave us the Spirit to guarantee the promise.
Now, if he made us just so that our new body can swallow up our old one, why would he make us wait for it after we die?
As for the Rich Man and Lazarus story ... I'm pretty sure the whole point of the story was NOT primarily to tell us what things were going to be like after we die, but to point people to the scriptures to "be warned" so they DON'T fall into torment. Check out verses 27 - 31, which will explain what the story is getting at.
There are other layers at work here, too, if you wish to consider them. If Jesus is outside time, and we're with him "there/then" when we die ... then there's no waiting. We "skip" whatever would happen between our death and The Judgment, including the Second Coming, and immediately find ourselves there at the beginning of Eternity. There would be no "lag time," since to us there would be no time at all anymore.
This is what makes sense to me. It doesn't have to make sense to anyone else, and I'm not hanging anyone's salvation on it. I'll be happy to discuss if anyone likes.
To say there's a place of waiting after we die discards the fact that when we die, time has no bearing on us, because we go immediately to be with the Lord. But it doesn't discount the New Heaven and New Earth happenings, because those things happen outside of time as well.
And this: "I don't have my Bible in front of me." I'd like to point you guys in the direction of BibleGateway.com. If you're at a computer, you have your Bible in front of you. Bookmark it, explore it, there's lots of great resources there, searchable text by keyword and passage, etc.
How many times have we said, "I don't remember where it's found, but it says something about _____." Well, enter those keywords in the search box and it's bound to come up. Saved my sanity MANY TIMES.
Plus, it will arm you in discussions like this, where we have an appalling lack of participation today, I'm sure because others don't have their Bibles and maybe don't feel confident enough to jump in.
BibleGateway.com -- Never get caught without your Sword again. :)
1Thess.4:13 says, "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope."
I always thought that we would kind of go into a sleep which would be like paradise until Jesus comes back. I am so interested to know what death will be like. I have heard people teach that our earth will be made new and will be what it should have been before Adam and Eve in the garden.
It is very sad the participation on biblical questions is so low. What is worse, is I am one that didn't participate. I kept saying to myself that I would take time to look it up and study it, and answer it, but I didn't. I make time for everything else but Christ. I suck. Bad.
Well, at least you suck anonymously and "nobody" knows.
And you're not alone.
I don't think we will have a clear answer until we die.
I remember being taught a bible class teacher that we will be greated by two angels, weather we go to heaven or hell to help take us to the place we are going or something like that. Sometimes I wonder what "all eternity" will be like. That seems kind of weird to have no end, but I know there are things our human brains can't wrap around.
I don't have a Bible in front of me either, but I've always thought that once we die everything is basically fast-forwarded to when we all go to heaven. I don't believe there is a waiting place. I think time disappears, because I know our idea of time is not like God's time. I would reference that to the verse in the Bible that talks about a day being like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.
Let's end the I-don't-have-a-Bible statement if you are going to speak based on the Bible.
if you have the internet and I assume you all do because how else could you post then you have a Bible...it's online with references and passage lookups and everything...biblegateway.com is one place.
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