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Beloved. You go straight to Heaven. To be absent from the flesh, is to be in the presence of God. Remember too, what Christ said to the two malefactors on crosses on either side of him: That today, you and I will be in Paradise. Your spirit cannot reside in a dead body and your spirit cannot be contained by any force, within or without. You belong to the Father, and He wants you back. Christ said of His sheep: "No one can pluck them out of my hand" and "My sheep will never perish". You are begotten of the Father, you are of the Elohim, you are a son of God. There is no place in the universe you can go to that He cannot find you.
But fear not, you will return, without Him having to seek you out. We are family. Celestial in nature, but family nonetheless.
But fear not, you will return, without Him having to seek you out. We are family. Celestial in nature, but family nonetheless.
Y
The concept of “soul sleep” is not biblical. When the Bible describes a person “sleeping” in relation to death (Luke 8:52; 1 Corinthians 15:6), it does not mean literal sleep. Sleeping is just a way to describe death because a dead body appears to be asleep. The moment we die, we face the judgment of God (Hebrews 9:27). For believers, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:23). For unbelievers, death means everlasting punishment in hell (Luke 16:22-23).
God and spirit is spiritual, we are physical. Often God tries to explain our purely spiritual existence by using the physical as illustrations, or sort of shadows of the spiritual, but there is no way for the physical mind to comprehend all the spiritual knows. When we are separated from our physical body at death, no human has followed that happening. Some feel that they have in near death experiences, but we can't be sure.
Here are some scriptures to check. Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38, and Luke 23:45. These tell of what happened when the spirit left Christ on the cross. Death had never been explained in the OT as going to heaven, but such as asleep. Something profound happened to these who had been asleep when Christ was crucified.
Find the story of the thief that died with Christ on the cross, Jesus told him that he would be in heaven that day.
Christ talks of living after His death in this verse: John_14:28 You have heard Me tell you, 'I am going away and I am coming to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.
In the gospel of John, chapter 14, Christ speaks of preparing a place for us in heaven.
Joh_14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
This is just from the gospels.
I was in the room when my Dad died, to give a sort of first hand experience. I watched two spiritual beings come help him change from our physical world to the spiritual. An hour later when I checked his body, it was simply an empty shell, it had been my Dad only an hour before.
Here are some scriptures to check. Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38, and Luke 23:45. These tell of what happened when the spirit left Christ on the cross. Death had never been explained in the OT as going to heaven, but such as asleep. Something profound happened to these who had been asleep when Christ was crucified.
Find the story of the thief that died with Christ on the cross, Jesus told him that he would be in heaven that day.
Christ talks of living after His death in this verse: John_14:28 You have heard Me tell you, 'I am going away and I am coming to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.
In the gospel of John, chapter 14, Christ speaks of preparing a place for us in heaven.
Joh_14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
This is just from the gospels.
I was in the room when my Dad died, to give a sort of first hand experience. I watched two spiritual beings come help him change from our physical world to the spiritual. An hour later when I checked his body, it was simply an empty shell, it had been my Dad only an hour before.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
(1Th 4:14-17)
(1Th 4:14-17)
That's correct. It will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to an imperishable BODY.
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
(1Co 15:42-54)
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
(1Co 15:42-54)
D
I was raised a Christian. As I grew I progressively fell away from God from time to time. A global event destroyed my life and I became angry at God. I fell into deception and forgot I believed in God. I was a staunch atheist (although this was rebellion essentially) and a heretic for about a decade. It went from atheism->heretic->Eastern philosophy (to remedy the hate I was consuming) -> general interest in mythologies -> now the people I hang around are pagans -> the pagans were only the beginning -> right in the lap of satan (mostly setians and crowley followers -> near death from suicide by starvation -> seizures -> a quickening and realization of deception -> a vision of hell before death -> another quickening and then a plea to God -> God answering me and filling me with an overwhelming presence of love and a full explanation of all I had been through and of Christ. He encouraged me to walk, to drink, to eat, to survive. Hell is real, so is Jesus.
When people saw the miracle of how God saved the disgusting person I was (I actually really died that day, I don't even know that person) - it glorified him. And my life in him continues to glorify him. Jesus Christ is my lord and my Savior.
When people saw the miracle of how God saved the disgusting person I was (I actually really died that day, I don't even know that person) - it glorified him. And my life in him continues to glorify him. Jesus Christ is my lord and my Savior.