Superhero Sam asked in Post #3:
Was Lazarus in heaven, and then brought back?
Suppose a friend of yours was pronounced dead and then came back to life in the funeral parlour a few days later?
What would you ask them?
Would the most natural and pressing of questions not be, “What was it like?”
Had an important question like that been asked of Lazarus, it would have been recorded, along with the answer.
The question was not asked by those people because they were familiar with what God had revealed in the inspired Scriptures He had given them (what we call the “Old Testament”), and because they had been personally taught by their knowledgeable friend Jesus.
They knew that such a question (had anybody thought to suggest it) would have been meaningless.
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The “Apostles Creed” says Jesus descended into Hell.
The original Nicene Creed of 325AD which added Jesus to God, and the later Constantinople creed of 381AD which added the Holy Spirit as a third element (it is presented to us as the “Nicene Creed”), say he was buried, and ascended into Heaven after his resurrection.
A number of churches teach that prior to Jesus' death, dead people were conscious in Hades, either in the part reserved for righteous people or in the part reserved for unrighteous people (without necessarily defining what “righteous” means).
A belief such as that would also have sparked the question to Lazarus, “What was it like?”.
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So what
did God reveal about the death state in the Jewish Scriptures? Whatever it was, Jesus taught the same thing.
The answer to that question might just be the direct and accurate and fulfilling response that Superhero Sam is looking for.
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Brinny in Post#7 suggested regarding Superhero Sam's initial post:
Excellent question.
This would be a great Bible study.
I agree. I have suggested a good place to start.
(By the way, I suggest we employ a degree of precision when dealing with God's Holy Written Revelation to us. Would the reader agree that Acts Chapter 7 in no way indicates that:
Upon His resurrection, He took all these souls and spirits to Heaven, and since then, the saints go directly to Heaven. See Acts 7.
Only with precision comes true understanding.