Immediately after death… sleep or heaven? (genesis, atheist, agnostic, Holy Spirit)
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If so, that does not make sense. How would that explain spirits speaking through mediums? Now, I a, Catholic and am not supposed to believe in that or ever go to a psychic or medium. But, I know one and he is spot on every time with everyone who ever saw him. My sister went to him a year after her husband died suddenly. He told her that her husband said thank you to the friend who dropped a cigar in his casket at the funeral. Now, there is no way this medium could research that. That information came from somewhere. That means, at least to me, that the spirit, or energy, lives on. I imagine that some can claim that spirits get their messages from Satan. Even if that is true, the information had to have Ben retrieved from my sister’s husband, whose soul could not possibly be asleep. .
I don't spend my time fretting over the various scriptures that allude to post terrestrial existence. I've tried, and always end up with more questions and more uncertainty.
Talk to a bunch of scholars, and you'll get a bunch of different answers.
I merely rest in the assurance of a loving and merciful God. And try in my feeble way, to emulate the example of Love I was given.
You misunderstand what resurrection is. Just as in the Bible Jesus was resurrected, not in his mortal body, but in an immortal and imperishable body, so will all believers when resurrected.
My impression is that you are not very familiar with the Bible.
Thanks. You are correct that I am not familiar with the Bible. I could never cheat through it. I am lost in every paragraph with all of the thou, and hasts, and old English. I need a child’s Bible or Bible for Dummies.
I'm assuming you are referring to Tyler Henry? The thing about mediums and I've never seen or heard anyone ask this is....how does the medium know that the spirit or energy they are communicating with is the spirit or energy of the deceased loved one? What happens if they are communicating with an evil spirit disguising themselves as the loved one?
I don't know what happens once we die, but logic would say that "something" happens. Our spirit or soul or whatever goes somewhere.
I never heard of Tyler Henry. I believe the Bible says that no one can tell the future or past other than him. If someone gives that info to them, it will be demonic forces that masquerade as God. But no matter where the info comes from, it is originally coming from the deceased. So their spirit or conscious cannot be at sleep.
Thanks. You are correct that I am not familiar with the Bible. I could never cheat through it. I am lost in every paragraph with all of the thou, and hasts, and old English. I need a child’s Bible or Bible for Dummies.
Just get a modern translation. I don't care for the King James translation either.
Whatever the translation, the answer to the OP's question is found in ANY version of the Bible. So, no need to look for a version that will tell us any different regarding what occurs when a person dies. The dead rest in the grave until the resurrection. This is found in the KJV, the NIV, the NLT, the ASV, the TLV, and any of the other 102 completed versions of the Bible. If I'm wrong, then so are all the versions of the Bible that are my only source.
Whatever the translation, the answer to the OP's question is found in ANY version of the Bible. So, no need to look for a version that will tell us any different regarding what occurs when a person dies. The dead rest in the grave until the resurrection. This is found in the KJV, the NIV, the NLT, the ASV, the TLV, and any of the other 102 completed versions of the Bible. If I'm wrong, then so are all the versions of the Bible that are my only source.
And that is what I said in my original post. I guess the question is why the priest would say that angels met him and he is up in heaven now. Doesn’t he know what the Bible says? It would not be any worse to hear that the deceased is sleeping and awaiting the resurrection, along with the rest of us.
Is this similar to what many of my co workers ridicule me about regarding penance, or confession. They all say there is no reason to confess sins to a man (priest) when the Bible states you must confess directly to God. So, again, the Catholic Church is not following the Bible and making up their own rules. And this is what makes me have some doubt about religion. Just saying that makes me feel evil because I am not supposed to question my faith and I wouldn’t other than the fact that my religion seems to be practicing differently than what the Bible states. Let’s not get into me not eating meat today or any other Friday during Lent.
Thanks. You are correct that I am not familiar with the Bible. I could never cheat through it. I am lost in every paragraph with all of the thou, and hasts, and old English. I need a child’s Bible or Bible for Dummies.
One feature I really like about this version is that footnotes (in the NT) are linked (often) directly to OT passages,
that provide a more comprehensive understanding since the apostles would have already been familiar with the OT scriptures as they wrote the new (NT).
The introductions for each book of the bible are helpful too.
There is no consistent teaching in the various denominations concerning "soul sleep". The Bible is actually pretty vague on the topic, and there's room for interpretation. Although of course there are people with particular points of view who will fulminate to the contrary.
In a sense I don't see how soul sleep really matters since the transition would presumably seem instantaneous to you either way.
As an evangelical, I was taught that you went straight to heaven or hell but not with a physical body until the resurrection. Your presence in either place was purely "spiritual". There's also a lot of argument about what happens when. Is there a "rapture"? Is it before, in the middle of, or after the Great Tribulation? Is there a thousand-year reign of Christ yet to come after that? Are the dead resurrected before or after that? Or after the new heaven and earth are created? Where in the midst of all this fever dream does the resurrection happen? Is it spiritual, physical, both, or neither? Who lives in heaven and who lives on earth in the afterlife, and does it matter?
There's also the questions of purgatory, limbo, and other halfway house concepts between heaven and hell.
Personally I just consigned all of it to what phet calls "woo", long ago. Good luck getting straight answers to questions like yours.
Hah, great outline of the numerous variables in play here. This is the stuff i used to ponder/occasionally obsess about when I was religious. Like the OP, I was Catholic, and I even did a year of weekly 'Eucharistic adoration' with my mother, where the two of us would show up to our parish's rectory, enter a tiny chapel, and admire a displayed Communion wafer for around an hour. I'd spend maybe five or ten minutes of that hour praying, but after that, your mind is left to wander, and I'd often spend the remainder of the time contemplating the nature of the afterlife, what it would 'feel' like to be a disembodied spirit, etc.
It's so much easier to have a materialistic/naturalistic view of the world and operate under the firmly held assumption that one's life is over, permanently, when brain activity, circulation, and respiration cease.
Is this similar to what many of my co workers ridicule me about regarding penance, or confession. They all say there is no reason to confess sins to a man (priest) when the Bible states you must confess directly to God.
NOWHERE in the bible does it state to 'confess your sins ONLY to God'.
In fact, at James 5:16, we are shown "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another"
and
John 20:23 "If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; "
Last edited by CCCyou; 03-03-2023 at 11:46 AM..
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