Sitting here viewing the post, since I have been absent so much this last week...looking at the different arguments for and against...people being in heaven now/or not...Looks like the "does not" out weigh the "does"...at least it looks like the evidence (God's Word) is in favor of the "NOT"... But I was wondering? Is there physical evidence that those who have passed have not gone to heaven? The bible certainly indicates that there is! So remember what you have read in these pasts post and read the following, then make your decision!
Notice carefully, Gal 3.16 and 3.29 “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made…And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Here Paul wrote to the gentile converts in Galatia. Paul states, that the Christians are heir to the promise. Please note that an heir is someone who will possess something and has not inherited what he/she shall possess; an heir to inherit. Not an heir to something imagined, the bible gives the answer.
Now what is he/she suppose to inherit? Lets look at the promises given to Abraham. Note: Rom 15.8 first! “Now I say Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, and to confirm the promises given to the fathers.” The fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Acts 3.13
Whatever, the promise is to Abraham that is what the true Christian shall inherit. It is important that we know. What did God promise Abraham? Turn to Gen 12. 6-7 “And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Eternal appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.” So the promise was the physical land of Israel. Turn to Gen 13. 14-15 “And the Eternal said unto Abram…Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” The promise was made forever! It’s an eternal inheritance! A PROMISE OF PHYSICAL LAND RIGHT HERE ON EARTH!
God conditioned the promise on obedience! Look it up Gen 22.15-18 and Gen 26.5 gives the answer! You remember that Isaac and Jacob were also the fathers. The same promise was made to them in Gen 26.2-5; and Gen 35.9-12…
Look what Stephen said, who paid with his life for these words. “And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotmia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and..removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell (Israel today). And he gave him NONE INHERITANCE in it, no not so much as to set his foot on…” Abraham as of Stephen’s time had not received his eternal inheritance, he remained an heir to the promise. “…and He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him when as yet he had no child.” Notice Heb 11.8-10, 13 “….By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country.” “dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise…for he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God…These all did in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off…” The bible says plainly that all these did not go to their reward at death! They died, without receiving the promises. Abraham is dead, just as Jesus spoke. Jn 8.52-53
When shall the true Christians receive the promise? Christ said, “When you see these things come to pass, know you that the kingdom of God is near.” The Kingdom of God is a government of God to rule this earth! The saints are to be “kings and priest forever”. Look it up! Why not now? Since “eternal inheritance” of the earth constitutes the better promises of the New Testament, and since the message which Christ delivered in confirming these promises was the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, it follows that the land of this earth, and Jesus confirmed it, is the territory occupied and governed by the Kingdom of God!!! At Christ second coming, is when the children of God shall “rise up” out of the graves to receive their inheritance. 1 Cor 15; 1 Thess 4 “For the Lord himself shall descend (just Christ descending) from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ (not out of Christ) shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds (clouds surrounding this earth), to meet the Lord in the air (air around the earth): and so shall we ever be with the Lord” 1 Thess 4:16-17
Abraham has not received yet this promise of land. We can look toward Jerusalem now, and know that those who have died in Christ have not yet received their reward! That government of God is not established right now in Jerusalem. That area of the world is full of murder, adultery, strife a powder keg ready to explode. God speed the day!
Oh, no!!!!
ressurection is not a term applied for life in heaven, but rather life on earth.
