- Dec 20, 2003
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I was talking to a hospice nurse , after the Good Friday service, in church today about her experience of patients dying. This conversation provoked some questions.
As a believer I believe that I like Jesus will one day die (unless he comes back before that) and then will be resurrected.
But what does it mean for me to die and be resurrected.
1) SOUL SLEEP: Do you believe that you are conscious when you die. that you experience death with some kind of consciousness. It seems that a large number of people have had out of body experiences which seem to imply that a person remains conscious even when clinically dead. Or will everything just go dark until God resurrects us with new glorified bodies.
2) DISEMBODIED SPIRITS: In revelation it talks about the martyrs under the throne exclaiming to God "How long O Lord until we see justice". Are these disembodied spirits waiting to be reunited with their bodies at the resurrection. Can some spirits get lost on their way or clinging to this life and its unfinished business become ghosts?
3) THE PATH THE DEAD TAKE: Jesus said to the thief on the cross - this very day you will be with me in paradise, but that same day he went to preach to the spirits of the dead in Hades. I have some difficulty getting my head around the fact he was somehow in heaven and hades in the same moment. When we die do we go straight to be with God and then later get resurrected to a judgment whose conclusion is already clear. Is our actual judgment at the end of time or at the moment of our death.
I would be interested to hear Christian reflection on each of these 3 main questions.
As a believer I believe that I like Jesus will one day die (unless he comes back before that) and then will be resurrected.
But what does it mean for me to die and be resurrected.
1) SOUL SLEEP: Do you believe that you are conscious when you die. that you experience death with some kind of consciousness. It seems that a large number of people have had out of body experiences which seem to imply that a person remains conscious even when clinically dead. Or will everything just go dark until God resurrects us with new glorified bodies.
2) DISEMBODIED SPIRITS: In revelation it talks about the martyrs under the throne exclaiming to God "How long O Lord until we see justice". Are these disembodied spirits waiting to be reunited with their bodies at the resurrection. Can some spirits get lost on their way or clinging to this life and its unfinished business become ghosts?
3) THE PATH THE DEAD TAKE: Jesus said to the thief on the cross - this very day you will be with me in paradise, but that same day he went to preach to the spirits of the dead in Hades. I have some difficulty getting my head around the fact he was somehow in heaven and hades in the same moment. When we die do we go straight to be with God and then later get resurrected to a judgment whose conclusion is already clear. Is our actual judgment at the end of time or at the moment of our death.
I would be interested to hear Christian reflection on each of these 3 main questions.