The idea of Lazarus being poor in the spirit is supported by scripture, what does Mt. 5:3 have to say about being poor in the spirit ? Does it not say that theirs is the KOG ?
Matt:5:3 has nothing to do with Lazarus being poor in spirit. As I demonstrated to you, the context is comparing Lazarus who is was said to be a poor beggar, to the rich man who lived in luxury every day. The mention of Lazarus desiring to be fed with the crumbs (food) from the rich man's table also supports that the context is speaking about literal material abundance vs. Lazarus' lack of material needs.
The idea of looking at this as just a story would make no sense because we would already draw the conclusion of the poor man and the richman but rather what does this have to do with the gospel ?
If read in its plain literal sense, the conclusion is that, the bodies of both men died, but their spirits were conscious and aware in Hades, with Lazarus being in a place of comfort and the rich man, because of his lack of love and mercy, went to the place of torment in flame which was separated by that great chasm. It also teaches that once a person dies in their sins, there is no coming back.
What ? The Richman is screaming, he is crying for water in order that his tongue may be cooled he is desiring for a drop of water.
I can see that you cannot fathom the torment that the rich is in, because if you did, you would understand that anyone in that situation would greatly welcome even the slightest, briefest relief from torment in flame.
I'm sorry then you have not done enough searching; death is death for the unsaved.
I have studied everything that can be studied on these Biblical subjects for over 40 years, so I have indeed done enough study and will continue to do so. And if you would do your own studies on this subject instead of repeating someone else's, the scriptures would lead you to the understanding that both life and death are states of conscious existence in relation to an individuals status with God.
Eternal Life = Never ending conscious existence, with immortal and glorified bodies in the kingdom of God
Eternal death = Never ending conscious existence, with a resurrected body, separated from God in the lake of fire.
The above is what the combined scriptures teach regarding life and death. The Greek words translated as destroy and punish are not defined as annihilation or extinction. There is no scripture that even suggests temporary punishment or annihilation. The supporting words are always, "torment, punishment, eternal, everlasting, forever and ever, no rest day or night, etc." I have never seen a scripture that says that a person will be thrown into the lake of fire and will be burned up immediately, or that they will be cast in and torment for a little while and then cease to exist. You won't find it!
Then where are they in a place of limbo ? The place sheol o hades the place of limbo is that it ? it can be readily shown that this refers to the grave.
Sheol/Hades, is a temporary place of punishment for the unfaithful throughout all of history. At the end Christ's thousand years, the unrighteous dead throughout all history will be resurrected and will stand before God at the great white throne judgment (Rev.20:11-15) and will be judged. Anyone's name not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire.
Neither Sheol nor Hades should ever be translated as "the grave." The proper word in the Hebrew referring to the grave, tomb or sepulcher is the word "qeber" with its NT counter part being "Mnemion." Both Sheol and Hades refer to the unseen realm of departed spirits. Below is the definition of the word:
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Strong's Concordance
hadés: Hades, the abode of departed spirits
Original Word: ᾍδης, ου, ὁ
Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
Transliteration: hadés
Phonetic Spelling: (hah'-dace)
Short Definition: Hades
Definition: Hades, the unseen world.
HELPS Word-studies
86 hádēs (from
1 /A "not" and
idein/eidō, "see") – properly, the "unseen place," referring to the (invisible) realm in which all the dead reside, i.e. the present dwelling place of all the departed (deceased);
Hades.
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So when God speaks of biding Satan with a great chain and casting or throwing him viscously into a bottomless pit we are to take this at face value or perhaps when Christ is called a Lamb this to should be taking at face value because it mentions nothing of the sort of these being a parable.
The binding of Satan is exactly what is going to take place. When the Lord returns to the earth to end the age, which is depicted in Rev.19:11-21 and which is also when the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire. Following that in Rev.20:1-3, a mighty angel comes down from heaven and seizes Satan and throws him into the Abyss and seals it over him during the same thousand years in which Christ will reign.
"The Lamb," the Sheep Gate, the Bread of Life, the Rock, Immanuel, eternal life, the Living Water and many, many more, are just other designations referring to the Lord Jesus. Just because Jesus is referred to by different names is no reason to include the angel seizing Satan as also being figurative, which is your error. Whether the chain is corporeal or incorporeal, the result is the same, which is the binding of Satan. It is also supported by the fact that at the sounding of the 5th trumpet, a star, which is figurative for an angel, has the key to the Abyss and opens it and which remains open until the Lord returns to the earth to end the age and which is then locked back up after Satan is thrown in. It's just a matter of being able to discern between what is literal and what is symbolic.
Yes really Ahwatukee, So a snake bit him, what we don't read that it was venomous snake and yet sometimes just because one gets by a venomous snake does not mean that he has been injected with venom.
Yes we do read that it was venomous. I truly wish that you people who spend most of your time resisting the truth, would consider what we are teaching.
"But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.
The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god."
The above tells us that the indigenous people of the island of Malta, knew that the snake that had bitten Paul was a deadly poisonous snake, for the scripture states that they were expecting him to swell or suddenly fall dead. Attention to detail is very important if you are going to debate scripture.
