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WHAT HAPPENS TO US WHEN WE DIE Do We 'Go to be with Jesus'?

Do we 'Go to Heaven' as soon as we die?

..from the free commentary which you can download athttp://sites.google.com/site/freecommentary

Summary:The Bible actually teaches us straightforwardly that we lie in the ground, deadand buried, as dust and ashes, until the resurrection. It does not teach 'aresurrection of our spirit' prior to the return of Christ.

There is a great need to set out the evidence from the Bible -- since a host of counter-theories surround the after-life, e.g. praying to the saints; spiritual

visions of seeing people who have died being taken to heaven by angels;reports of visions of hell; and spiritist practices of 'consulting the dead'.And then there are the differing beliefs from other religions which have takenover the airwaves.Consequently, the few instances of an apparent 'soul-life' in the Bible, such asthe New Testament parable of Lazarus being taken straight to heaven when hedied, need to be re-evaluated in view of the wealth of other material in theBible.

Don't let anything confuse for you the straightforward picture. Let me repeat:The simplicity of Judaeo-Christian revelation is that when you die, youare dead , until you are raised to life again. The flesh returns to dust; thebreath returns to the air, all your plans and hopes and thoughts and feelingsstop. God's spirit within you returns to God who gave it , but your own spirit'falls asleep'.

The Bible is also quite clear that the resurrection won't take place till Christ returns.

We are in a figurative 'SLEEP' in the ground UNTIL CHRIST RETURNS

(A full discussion can be found on the free commentary under QuestionableDoctrines\ "Heaven when we die".)

When does man rise?Job 14:12-15 So man lieth down and riseth not: Till the heavens be nomore, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep. 13 Oh thatthou wouldest hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldest keep me secret, untilthy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, andremember me! 14 If a man die, shall he live again ? All the days of mywarfare would I wait, Till my release should come. 15 Thou wouldest call,and I would answer thee: Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy

http://sites.google.com/site/freecommentaryhttp://sites.google.com/site/freecommentary

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'SLEEPING' TILL YOU 'AWAKE' -- more examples of plain and simple death

(Many examples of how the Bible portrays the ideas of death and resurrection,

as being like going to sleep and then waking up, are to be found on the freecommentary under Imagery\ Sleep and Awake)

'Asleep' seems to promise an awakening, later

Deu_31:16 And Jehovah said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep withthy fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the harlot after thestrange gods of the land, whither they go to be among them, and willforsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Psa_13:3 Consider and answer me, O Jehovah my God: Lighten mineeyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death ;

Psa_76:5-6 The stouthearted are made a spoil, They have slept theirsleep; And none of the men of might have found their hands. 6 At thyrebuke, O God of Jacob, Both chariot and horse [ Exo_15:1 ] are cast into adeep sleep.

Isa 43:17 who bringeth forth the chariot and horse, the army and themighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct,they are quenched as a wick):

Jer_51:39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will makethem drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and notwake, saith Jehovah.

Act_7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay notthis sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.Act_8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And there arose on thatday a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; andthey were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea andSamaria, except the apostles.

Act_13:36 For David, after he had in his own generation served thecounsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and sawcorruption:

Lying in a grave is pictured as going to bed:

Psa_139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed inSheol [death], behold, thou art there.

Isa_57:1 The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; andmerciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is takenaway from the evil to come . 2 He entereth into peace; they rest in their

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THE COMFORTING PICTURE

I find it quite comforting to have a straightforward picture that death maymean no more than going to Sleep at death, and then waking up with theDawn, at the resurrection. This is the imagery used in the Bible:

Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise fromthe dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.

Perhaps the Apostles will be the watchmen who will wake us up, or perhaps itwill be the voice of the Son of God, but perhaps I don't need to worry aboutthat.

1Th 4:16-18 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout,with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the deadin Christ shall rise first; 17 then we that are alive, that are left, shall

together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:andso shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another withthese words.

I do not know what happens in the spiritual realms of the dead, whether thereare such things or not, etc, or whether I will sleep right through it. But I doknow that common misunderstandings have easy explanations, and we reallydo not need to look past a straightforward interpretation, in this case.

This issue is a crucial one, in that the misunderstanding (of living on while youare dead), is responsible for much confusion, and prevents us each coming toa clear (and agreed upon!) view of our future hope.

Here is a confusing Bible passage...

'SOUL-LIFE' is wrongly based upon LUKE 16 -- THE PARABLE OF LAZARUS

(A discussion on this parable can be found in the free commentary under Hell\

Lazarus in Hades)

This parable does not support the idea that you go straight to heaven whenyou die, even while it says so.

Luke 16 contains a (Greek) view of Hades as a place of ongoing fiery tormentfor dead sinners. Notice that this is not the Bible's view, but something whichJesus had to tackle head on, when faced with Jewish leaders who denied theBible's teaching of resurrection . When you deny the later resurrection, youhave to substitute an immediate journey into the after-life.

The background is that the Sadducees and Herod didn't believe in theresurrection (nor miracles, nor angels, nor spirits), at least not until Jesus gavethem plenty of cause to wonder. Herod had beheaded John -- and immediately

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miracles in Jesus' name multiplied Mat 14:2, so much so that Herod said thatJohn had been raised from the dead (as Jesus)! Jesus had just anointed hisdisciples to go before him with miracles, like raising the dead .

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man who had enjoyed feasting, showsthem conversing after death. Its target is the rich Pharisees and the rich king

Herod who had killed poor John the Baptist at a feast . John the Baptist waskilled because he had objected to the adultery of Herod's wife -- which isexactly the topic immediately before the parable:

Luk 16:14 And the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all thesethings; and they scoffed at him.Luk 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they that justify yourselves inthe sight of men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is exaltedamong men is an abomination in the sight of God. [Herod had killed Johnto honour an oath he had taken before his dinner guests]

Luk 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: from that time thegospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man enterethviolently into it. ['violently seizes' -- John had been imprisoned by the richking Herod]Luk 16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for onetittle of the law to fall.Luk 16:18 Every one that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another,committeth adultery: and he that marrieth one that is put away from ahusband committeth adultery. [John had been killed at the feast atHerodias' request, because he objected to her marrying Herod]

The verses about the rich Pharisees are immediately followed by...

Luk 16:22-23 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and that he wascarried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom: and the rich man alsodied, and was buried. 23 And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being intorments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Remember that this is a parable , and that parables should be interpreted carefully . They are not meant to be taken as literally true in their details. Theparable uses Greek imagery (of torments in Hades), for instance. CertainlyJesus was needling the Pharisees, and perhaps he was turning their ownteaching parable to a new purpose.

The thrust of Jesus' teaching seems to be: 'Belief in Resurrection-resuscitation-reincarnation will do you no good later, unless you believe in Moses & the

prophets & Christ now '. The point of the parable is not to teach about Heavenand Hell, but to teach against rejecting Christ's miracles. It points out that theywho reject a true prophet, Jesus, to his face, can hardly be expected to reallybelieve in Moses or miracles or Hell or Messiah or resurrection; and so all theirtalk, about Moses, Hades, Abraham's Bosom, rising from the dead... is just afront. He is repeating their talk back to them, with the added twist that Moseshimself will reject them.

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For similar re-evaluations of other suggestive passages, see the fullcommentary.For instance, there is...Samuel talking to Saul after Samuel's death;Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.There is also a discussion on...the non-Biblical practice of praying to the saintsVisions and dreams of what death holds for relatives;How 'going' to 'Heaven' is a euphemism for 'entering' the kingdom of 'God' onthe renewed earth .

See you at the resurrection,and not before.