Posted on 05/16/2010 5:24:35 PM PDT by lovesdogs
My neighbor was buried today. He was a Jewish man of devout faith. Now mind you he was no saint, he had his share of issues just like anyone else. But in his later years, he became much more involved in the temple and study of the Torah. His Rabbi was at his home every other day and sometimes every day for study and company.
I looked all over for an answer to this question and I cannot find it. My friend did not accept Christ as his savior. As a Jew he did not accept Christian belief. Can anyone help me with what will happen to his soul? Will my prayer help? I have no experience with this sort of thing and I am heartbroken with the loss of this good man.
The news of his death grieves me greatly. I am very sorry for your loss. I’ll pray for you and his family and other friends, too.
Only God knows. It’s not my business.
For the most part, the Torah describes the afterlife in vague terms, many of which may simply be figurative ways of speaking about death as it is observed by the living.
An early common theme is that death means rejoining one’s ancestors. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and other patriarchs are “gathered to their people” after death (see Gen. 25:8, 25:17, 35:29, 49:33; Deut. 42:50; 2 Ki. 22:20). In contrast, the wicked are “cut off (kareit) from their people” (Gen. 17:14; Ex. 31:14). Other imagery emphasizes the finality of death: the dead are like dust returning to dust (Genesis; Ecc. 3:19-20) or water poured out on the ground (2 Samuel 14:14).
Another recurring biblical image of the afterlife is as a shadowy place called Sheol. It is a place of darkness (Psalm 88:13, Job 10:21, 22) and silence (Psalm 115:17), located in low places (Numbers 16:30, Ezekiel 31:14, Psalm 88:7, Lamentations 3:55; Jonah 2:7, Job 26:5). In 1 Samuel 2:6, God puts people in She’ol. In Isaiah 14:9-10, the departed in Sheol rise up to greet leaders who have now been brought low as they are. The author of Psalm 88 laments his impending death with these words:
I am sated with misfortune; I am at the brink of Sheol.
I am numbered with those who go down to the Pit;
I am a helpless man
abandoned among the dead,
like bodies lying in the grave
of whom You are mindful no more,
and who are cut off from Your care.
You have put me at the bottom of the Pit,
in the darkest places, in the depths.
(Psalm 88:4-7)
Taken together, these early biblical descriptions of death seem to indicate that the soul continues to exist in some way after death, but not consciously. Later in the Torah, the concept of conscious life after death begins to develop. Daniel 12:2 declares, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence.” Neh. 9:5.
If he was exposed to the light of Christ and rejected it then he is lost. Otherwise, we trust in a loving God.
well, the jews didnt except christ as the messiah when he came.. jews are still waiting for the messiah to come.. so i guess if they die without excepting christ they are doomed..christians do believe that jesus was the messiah
Although I am a Christian, I feel it is incumbent upon us to respect the beliefs of others IF THEY DO NO HARM. Your friend seems to have led a largely decent life and paid due respect to the Creator and His laws. My view is to accept what others believe, as HOW people worship is more important than WHO they worship. My condolences on your loss.
Here's my take....Non Christians that are good people that have never heard about Jesus will have a type of heaven but They will NOT have JESUS or the SAINTS with them.
TRUE HEAVEN will have Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, and the Saints....imho.....UNLESS they have REFUSED to hear about Jesus, then it's a whole other ball game....imho.
Methinks that is a question for God.
There is a division of thought on the matter.
Even Moslems are divided. Many of them still believe in pre-Koranic religious standards, and for them he comes back as someone else.
Well, so much for reincarnation theories.
The only one everybody seems to agree on is that he will be judged on the Day of Judgment at the End of Time.
Jews have their own Covenant with God and He will know what to do when the time arrives.
I went to an all catholic girls’ high school. We were taught that Jews wouldn’t go to heaven. I told my teacher that was a ridiculous conclusion. I was disciplined for my opinion.
That is a VERY easy question. God made a covenant with the Jews. When a Jew lives up to that covenant God lives up to His part of the deal.
One thing is for sure...you can count on God not reneging on his covenants.
Ping!
Then the Message of Salvation was given also to the Gentiles.
Did I read that wrong?
I call BS on that.
Many people who call themselves Christians are just as lost as the Jew is because they failed to receive Christ as their savior.
According to the Bible, the only thing that matters is believing God (the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) that He sent the Messiah of Israel for the salvation of mankind, and for one's own personal salvation, and that one accepts that for themselves.
It's like what the Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans, in how Abraham was justified -- we're all justified the same way.
Jew or Gentile doesn't matter... what church one goes to doesn't matter.
Romans Chapter 4 1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin." 9 Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, 12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. 13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness." 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Sorry...asnwering such questions is above my pay grade.
Geesh....of course they taught you that!! That is what our religion says...because that is what JESUS SAID!! <P.When a person outright rejects Jesus, do you think He says “Yes, of course. come into MY house”!! I DOUBT it!! THINK...don’t just FEEL...THINK.
The God I know is a merciful God. You will get as many different answers as there are religions on this earth.
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