Posted on 06/11/2006 4:21:52 PM PDT by DouglasKC
A drunken driver loses control of his car and careens headfirst into a van, killing a family. A mother dies of breast cancer, leaving confused children and a grieving husband. An infant boy succumbs to a birth defect. A gentle, elderly lady dies quietly in her sleep. A desperate, depressed teenager commits suicide.
Maybe death would be different if it were predictable or consistent. But death can be so capricious. It hardly seems fair.
To us life is precious. But death is everywhere! We don't want to die. We don't want to see our loved ones die.
Self-preservation is a powerful instinct. We design special diets and exercise programs to keep us young and fit. Through medical science we seek to isolate the gene that makes us age, hoping somehow to eliminate death. A few have even arranged for their bodies to be preserved cryogenically in the hope that they can be brought back to life when the cure for what killed them is finally discovered.
Yet, for all our efforts, hopes and wishes, death is the one thing in life that remains certain. Whether through old age, illness, accident or violence, whether we are rich, poor, male or female, no matter if we're good or bad, all of us regardless of race or creed-die.
Scientists cannot tell us what happens after death. Too many aspects of life itself are intangible-too elusive to measure and record. Philosophers disagree on death and the afterlife.
Religions also disagree. Traditional Christian denominations generally teach that the souls of the dead live on in a place or condition of heaven or hell. Many non-Christians believe in the transmigration or reincarnation of souls at death. Still others believe the dead will never live again, that this life is all there is.
What really happens at death? Why do we even have to die? Can we know if there is life beyond the grave? Where can we go for meaningful, believable answers?
Only the Creator of life can reveal its purpose and the state of the dead. By looking into the Word of God for answers to our questions about death, we can learn a great deal about both life and death.
Join us now for a look at what God, our Creator, says about life and death in His inspired Word, the Bible. You may be both surprised and challenged by what you learn.
Bump for a later read.
What happens when you die? Well, you, um, die hoping you get to be in the first resurrection.
Some of us get promoted, some begin their torment.
What Happens After Death?
WHO KNOWS?
I'm pretty sure though, that just before kicking off.....
..........people crap their pants.
That's what Mattt and Trey told me................
The worms play pinochle on your snout.
L
Taxes.
"If I knew God I'd be Him."
The writer has a problem with soul annhilation in his definition of hell. Rev.19:20 says that the antichrist and false prophet are thrown in the lake of fire and brimstone. In Rev. 20:10 it says after a thousand years Satan is thrown in the same place and the antichrist and false prophet are still alive and suffering.
The original Greek does not say that....in fact the word "are" has been added.
If one were to believe in the "Pagan concept" of soul immortality I can see where "are" would be a better translation. I believe the "Weymouth" translation renders it correctly by saying "were".....or had been. Nevertheless....the word "are" (or "were") in the original manuscripts does not appear.
I have read many of your posts and respect your intellect, but you of course realize that Satan is a "Spirit being". His torment will go on forever. On the other hand, humans thrown into the Lake of Fire will have a different kind of torment. That would be eternal separation from God. This is also called the second death [Rev. 20:14]. The dead are aware of nothing [Ecclesiastes 9:5].
Let me ask you a question. A man and a woman have children who turn out to be incorrigible sinners and unrepentant. The man and his wife, both God fearing and just, have failed in their efforts to convince their offspring of the error of their ways and you believe that a merciful God would allow these parents to eternally witness their children burning in a "Hellfire"? I think a merciful God, knowing that these children would be forever unrepentant, would destroy them in the Lake of Fire along with the Beast and False Prophet. I don't think a merciful God would allow these parents eternal anguish.
I can appreciate your feelings about this however Rev. 21:4 says that sort of sentimentality will be no more. Believing parents, just like the believing martyrs, will understand the just and righteous judgments of God and worship Him for it. Satan is a spirit being and the antichrist and false prophet are humans. That does not take away from the clear and explicit statement that they, not just Satan, will endure torment for ever and ever. Rev. 20:15 says that all those not found in the book of life will suffer the same fate; those are humans also.
Indeed, the immortality of the soul does make for some creative scriptural interpretation. How do you square 2 resurrections and judgement with going to heaven right when you die? Jesus was/is our example. He died and was resurrected. If when He died, His soul ascended, then why did he get resurrected in the exact same body with the same wounds and ask for some grub? And, if souls are immortal, then death is irrelevant and the following scriptures are fables, and Jesus is a liar:
Joh 11:11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Joh 11:12 Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Joh 11:13 Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Joh 11:14 Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Mat 22:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Mat 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, Mat 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Mat 22:33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Revelation 21:4 indeed says that the old order of things has passed.....except, I guess, in your ever burning "Hellfire".
The wicked will experience eternal death because death is the most merciful fate a loving God could impose on those who insist on breaking his law and reaping the resulting unhappiness. They will be put out of their misery and not make others miserable either. [Revelation 21:8][Psalm 37:20] [Romans 6:23]
"I walked down a long corridor, and into a room...and they had me take a number..."
"An examination of all the words translated "hell" shows that the traditional view of an ever-burning place of torment where the wicked are punished for eternity cannot be found in the Bible."
Mark chapter 9, 42 and 43:
"And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire: Where there worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.
Next.
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