Your right they aren't dead. For no one saved by Christ truly dies. Death, true death are only reserved for those who are not saved in the end. Death as we know it is just a beginning. Not an end. Christ said to the Sadducees that God is not God of the Dead but of the Living. So when I die, if I persevere to the end, I go home to my God and my Lord. My soul doesn't go into some strange suspended state.
You're right. Your soul doesn't go into some suspended state because you are a soul. The breath of God + the dust of the earth = a living soul. Man became a soul. He didn't receive one.
Again you are referencing something before Christ changed the game. Martyrs under the altar are quite aware of what is going on. Why because God gives them that grace as shown:
Rev 6: 9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord (Holy and True), dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11 And white robes were given to every one of them one; And it was said to them that they should rest for a little time till their fellow servants and their brethren, who are to be slain even as they, should be filled up.
Christ didn't change the game. He established the rules. Those rules said that when you died, you went back to the dust of the earth. It makes no mention of a soul departing and going to heaven or hell. And are you even considering that the vision of the "souls under the altar" was symbolic. I mean do you really think that there are souls held
under the altar in some temp containment unit or something?
I agree with you that God does look at death differently than us. The problem is I disagree with your understanding what happens after this flesh dies. Also you must understand that in the NT death is not what we think of it normally.
You are your flesh. That's what God made you. He created you as a fleshly creature, one sustained by the breath of life
Those who are dead are those in hell and/or living in sin on earth. Those alive are they in heaven and/or living in righteousness of Christ. It is easy to get the two mixed up, I understand.
There's no mix up. "The dead know not anything..." See how easy that is?
Really? Where in the Bible does it say that Enoch is one of the 24? Yet you made that comment. So don't apply to others what you are unwilling to apply to yourself.
It doesn't, and i didn't. I said "for all we know" I wasn't making a definitive statment, just posing an example. So I am applying to others what I'm applying to myself. It'd be better to ask than to assume, if you don't understand what I'm saying.
Now where is that in Scripture? The New Testament is full of passages that speak of possessing everlasting life: Mt 19:29; Mk 10:30; Lk 18:30; Jn 3:15,16,36, 4:14,36, 5:24, 6:27,40,47,55, 10:28, 12:50; Act 13:48; I can go on and on and on. I mean this kinda sounds like buddism to me to be honest.
Yes. We shall
inherit eternal life. That is true. We do not already possess eternal life. For example, your text - Mk 10:30, says "
in the age to come. Also note that only the righteous are promised eternal life, not the wicked. This has nothing to do with buddism, so let's stop that here. This is all about properly dividing the word of God.
Consider this, the
reward is eternal life. How is that a reward if you already posses it? If your "true self" is actually a spirit form, and your body is nothing more than a fleshly tent, then you already have that which the bible says is something to come. That's means the scriptures are lying. Even worst, that means Satan was telling the truth when he told eve "You shall not surely die..."
