Where is "go to heaven" in the Bible?

keras said:

My belief is that ALL Near Death Experiences, visions, meeting loved ones, etc; are demonic inspired. Jesus said that Satan is able to impersonate people and we are susceptible to deceptions.
The Bible teaching is that the dead know nothing. Why must anyone, esp Christians contradict scripture?

You are a Christian; are you now a Spiritual being that cannot die?

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I base this off my own experience at the death bed of my father. In which there were three of us (my brother and sister) praying. At this moment my father being an atheist and almost blind looked up and focused and his faced glowed as he expressed awe. Then he died that evening after we left.

We all witnessed it and strangley enough though I was a practicing believer my brother and sister were not. Since that time they have also come to God. But I believe as Christ said when two or more are gathered in my name. As I prayed this in Christ. That He will be there and my father seen something of Christs presense in that room.

Otherwise we are to believe that all these circumstances and witnessing and testimony is just delusions. As material science claims and nothing Godlike at all.

The visions that Christians have from the holy spirit are just delusions of the mind. I don't think so. The mind is not limited to the physical brain and we can have experiences beyond this world.

The key is that they are grounded in God through Christ.

keras said:

Right. God dwells in heaven, a Spiritual place, in another dimension; inaccessible to us humans .
No humans ever go to live there. They may visit it as John did and Enoch & Elijah are not said to be living in heaven. What Jesus said in John 3:13, holds true forever.
Only after the Millennium and the GWT Judgment, will God come to dwell with mankind. in the new, Spiritual earth and heaven, Rev 21:1-7

Again; right. If our names are Written in the Book of Life, then our place in the new Spiritual, Eternal heaven, is assured.

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I am not talking about actually being in heaven. But experiencing the spiritual realm. Which I would expect has something to do with the heavingly realm in that it is a real experience we have of it.

Such as that we can know the spirit, converse with it and have visions of a spiritual realm or recieve knowledge not of this world.

As the bible says those who disbelieve are blind to this spiritual aspect and truth. So those in Gods spirit are more than just the physical causes of their brains. God has enabled humans have have relationship with Him in spirit. We are more than the sum of our physical world.

We are made in Gods image and just like God has three aspects in one being Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So do we being our body, soul and spirit.

Our bodies obviously being the physical vessel that we can measure objectively. Our souls being the 'Life' we experience including the sense of the 'Self' being something real and not just the sum of our physical bodies.

In psychology this aspect is regarded as the higher human needs like self actulaisation and realisation. Or the transcedent needs like spirituality and a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves in the universe.

Then the 'Spirit' which is what we are united with in Christ. The aspect of humans that can have relationship with God in Christ. The aspect that can deny the body and soul to rise above and become Christlike.

I think all are real and we have access to them in various degrees within certain situations. But at the same time they are all part of the same person. Just different aspects.

PS I like what one of the astronauts said when he seen the earth behind the moon. Though an atheist he could not help but sense the presense of something greater like a creator. We are wired to be conscious of these aspects.

keras said:

You are a Christian; are you now a Spiritual being that cannot die?

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Yes (not saying that I no longer have a body, of course!) I believe that I have eternal life, and that when my body dies, my spirit will go immediately into the presence of the Saviour in heaven, eventually to be reunited with my body.

stevevw said:

The visions that Christians have from the holy spirit are just delusions of the mind. I don't think so. The mind is not limited to the physical brain and we can have experiences beyond this world.

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Of course; Jesus said: I will be with you always, until the end of time. Matthew 28:20
I myself have had wonderful experiences with the Lord. Our death is another matter.

But after death, there is nothing, until all the dead are [Spiritually] brought together for Judgment. Revelation 20:11-15
And as their standing before God on His Great White Throne, will be their next conscious moment, there will be no cognisance of the time; nearly 7000 years in the case of Adam and Eve, that has passed since they died.

David Lamb said:

Yes (not saying that I no longer have a body, of course!) I believe that I have eternal life, and that when my body dies, my spirit will go immediately into the presence of the Saviour in heaven, eventually to be reunited with my body.

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After death, it will seem to be immediate - to be standing before God, as the Book of Life is opened. Daniel 7:9-10
Our physical body returns to the dust from which it is made.

keras said:

After death, it will seem to be immediate - to be standing before God, as the Book of Life is opened. Daniel 7:9-10
Our physical body returns to the dust from which it is made.

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Does that mean that you believe that in the words of Jesus to the dying thief, the comma should come after the word "today" and not before? If so, why did Jesus say "today" at all? When else might the thief think Jesus was speaking to him?

keras said:

Of course; Jesus said: I will be with you always, until the end of time. Matthew 28:20
I myself have had wonderful experiences with the Lord. Our death is another matter.

But after death, there is nothing, until all the dead are [Spiritually] brought together for Judgment. Revelation 20:11-15
And as their standing before God on His Great White Throne, will be their next conscious moment, there will be no cognisance of the time; nearly 7000 years in the case of Adam and Eve, that has passed since they died.

After death, it will seem to be immediate - to be standing before God, as the Book of Life is opened. Daniel 7:9-10
Our physical body returns to the dust from which it is made.

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Yes I think the visions and experiences some have during death may be from the same source as the visions and experiences some have while living. Maybe so sort of door is opened to our consciousness that allows such visions.

But whatever it is it is testified as being real and not a hullucination. Tests have shown it occurs in the real lived experience part of the brain rather than the dreamlike or imagination area of the brain.

The vast majority of have these experiences usually speak of a life revision and they usually have dramatic change and come to believe in God.

But if they pass then I agree they are asleep so to speak until the final judgement.

David Lamb said:

Does that mean that you believe that in the words of Jesus to the dying thief, the comma should come after thed word "today" and not before? If so, why did Jesus say "today" at all? When else might the thief think Jesus was speaking to him?

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As I said in #545, the next conscious moment for that thief, will be the day he stands in Judgment and receives Eternal Life.
It will seem to him, just like a continuation of the day he died.

We know Jesus did not go directly to heaven at the cross, but 40 days after He was raised.

David Lamb said:

Does that mean that you believe that in the words of Jesus to the dying thief, the comma should come after the word "today" and not before? If so, why did Jesus say "today" at all? When else might the thief think Jesus was speaking to him?

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AND THE MAN on. the cross says where he went too !!

dan p

Dan Perez said:

AND THE MAN on. the cross says where he went too !!

dan p

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The man on the cross didn't say where he went to, if by "the man on the cross" you meant the repentant thief. Jesus told him, Today you will be with me in paradise." (I'd almost forgotten the post you were replying to; it was some 6 or 7 weeks old.)