Where do we go when we die?

Do Christians go to heaven? Do we "sleep" until the end of time, when God will create a New Earth for us to live in? Give me some bible quotes to help me out People often say we go to heaven when we die, but I'm starting to think that we will not be in heaven, but in the new Earth.

Discuss.

Absent from the body means to be Present with the Lord (for those that are saved).

So for those of us in Christ, once we die, immediately we go into the presence of the Lord.

WOW!! It almost makes me want to be there now.

Well, from the story of the Rich man and Lazarus in the Bible, we know that when a person dies, if they are lost, their spirit goes directly to hell, which is the temporary holding place before the Great White Throne and the Lake of Fire.


We know also from the Bible that Enoch and Elijah both went directly to heaven, without ever having died. Must be nice. (Heb. 11:5, Gen. 5:22, 2 kings 2:11).

In Revelation, on two occasions, John actually speaks to a human being in heaven, whom he mistakes for an "Angel".(Rev. 19:10, 22:9).

Now these "Angels" might have been Enoch or Elijah, or someone else. At any rate, the implication is that John spoke to a human being who was already in heaven in a new body.

Also we have this.

2 Cor. 5
1For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
3If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
5Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7(For we walk by faith, not by sight 8We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.


The over all indication in Paul's teaching, plus the various other passages, seems to be that the mortal body dies, and the spirit and soul go directly to heaven or hell.



For reasons that I admittedly do not understand, some passages seem to indicate that the body will be resurrected at the second coming. in fact, this is specificly called the FIRST resurrection in the Book of Revelation, and it happens at the END of the Tribulation. (Rev. 20:6)


"Soul Sleep" is refuted simply by virtue of the fact that Revelation shows some human beings already in Heaven, and the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus showed Lazarus to be conscious and aware of his surroundings in "paradise" or "abrahams bosom" where he was comforted.

"Paradise" and "Abraham's bosom" are not the same thing as "heaven", which I believe I can show from scripture, but that is probably for another thread.

Suffice it to say, "Paradise" in pre-resurrection time was to "Heaven" as "Hell" is to "Lake of Fire". Because the Cross was not a historical fact, most believers appear to have gone to "paradise" temporarily while they waited for the promised redeemer.

Why Enoch and Elijah got to bypass this system entirely is unclear, but apparantly they really were just that much more faithful than the rest of us, at least that is what the writer of Hebrews implies.

I believe in what is called "soul-sleep" and it's not exactly an orthodox belief. No where in scripture does the word "heaven" refer to the kingdom of God. "Heaven" refers mostly to the sky. Jesus however DID promise a coming kingdom.... but he said that the kingdom was "coming". Therefore we will all die and than be resurrected on that fateful day. some of us will burn in the lake of fire, others will enjoy God's kingdom promised by Christ that has finally come.

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John 3:8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp. John Berry

"For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever,
it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting,
the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them
because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other,
and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other,
the sea engulfs us and the light goes out."

According to the music group Nirvana, bad folks don't go to heaven where the angels fly, they go to the lake of fire and fry.

Coach

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The only easy day was yesterday.

Also, according to them you can see them again at the 4th of July

Ahh double post!

Also, that's Meat Puppets cover. And now you've had your daily dose of pretension

I go for the new earth theory. I don't know if we're "soul-like" in "heaven" until then or not, but from my reading I sort of agree with the "soul-sleep" thing as well. It's not set in stone or anything, and it's not the top of my conviction list.
Daniel 12:9-13.

He said, "Go on your way, Daniel, for the words are secret and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified , cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; none of the wicked will understand, but the wise[Does wisdom imply righteousness?] will understand. From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches 1,335 days. but as for you, go on your way to the end; you will rest, the rise to your destiny at the end of the days."

Really only the last verse is why I believe it, but I wanted to give some context.

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What a waste of life.

You enter heaven and are with God until the resurrection. Then you will be with God on earth in a perfect, resurrected world.

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"Many Christians suppose that it makes no difference which church group a Christian joins, and they act accordingly. When they come to a place where any kind of Protestant church is found, they join it as members. There are people who were successively Reformed, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, depending upon the place where they lived. And we should not be surprised when this happens among the sects, for they are not certain about their distinctive doctrines, because they are not grounded in God's Word." - Franz Pieper

Some Scriptures hint that when you die, you instantly go where you're gonna end up. Others talk about "falling asleep". But when John had his Revelation, he saw martyred souls already there, beneath God's throne, begging for justice. So...?

It's an old, old mystery, and everyone will have varying beliefs.

I personally believe that when you close your eyes in death, you'll "wake up" with Jesus instantly. There are many tales of Christians seeing Jesus, hearing music, seeing dead relatives, etc...as they are dying.

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Something’s got to be wrong here. Our goal at Planned Parenthood is to decrease the number of abortions by decreasing the number of unwanted pregnancies. So why am I being asked to increase my abortion revenue? I came away from that meeting with the clear understanding that abortion was where my priorities needed to be because that was where the revenue was. - Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood director