Where we go when we die?

2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

We will go straight to the Lord when we die.

 

You have gotten several good replies thus far and I would ask you to read Matt. 27:50-53. Here you will find that all the Saints, the Old Testament Saints, were raised, in their bodily form, emptying Paradise. Since these were and are God´s saved, where did they go?

They are, today, in Heaven with God the Son and God the Father. This is a fascinating subject and is worthy of doing a study on it. I have a copy of Where To Find It In The Bible and a copy of the Naves Topical Bible. The Naves is hardbound but I have seen it on line for less than thirty dollars and the other is softbound (paperbacked) and cost me sixteen dollars locally. The ISBN for the Where To Find It is 0785211578 (pb).Both of these books have great subject listings for a complete Bible study on any subject your mind ever seeks to know.

Hopping this will bless you!

 

I don't believe that the Old Testament Saints, were raised, in their bodily form. I do believe they are with the Lord however as any believer today is.
About the thief on the cross and the Lord going into the deep. I don't believe that Jesus was actually saying that the man would be in every place the Lord was. Rather the Lord was speaking more general and the thief would be in paradise that day because that is where the Lord would be.
Also the scripture does not say that the Lord went immediately on death to preach to those in the deep. Also he is now in spirit form and I assume not limited to being in one palce at a time.
Third please give a reference to the three days of preaching to those in the deep you mentioned.
It is not as cut and dry as it may seem. So when we die we who are saved go to be with the Lord. If that is called heaven so be it. That is usually how we define it.

 

the death of Christ, there appeared to be 2 regions set up for the after life..
Abrahams Busom for those who were 'saved" and other side for "lost"

Had to wait for messiah to come to earth and die and rise again...

After that, jesus took back with Him to heaven those "stuck" in Abrahams Busom

Since His ascension ALL died in Chrsit have souls/spirits go IMMEDIATLY tot he Lord in heaven, while bodies to be resurrected at time of Second Coming

 

Fifty days after Matthew 22:52,53 Peter full of the Holy Spirit said this,"Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. For David is not ascended into the heavens:

I believe that in bold says he is still in it.

 

I Have One Explanation!

I'd love to believe that when I die, I go immediately to be with my Lord. However, if those who say we sleep until the rapture has it right, then let me explain what I think could happen.

When I was 28, I had to have an emergency operation, as my tonsils were heavily infected, and about to send my body into septic shock.

I'd never been under general anaesthetic so it was an entirely new experience, and it proved to be one that opened my eyes to what may happen to us should we fall asleep when we die, and lit in waiting for the rapture.

Everything happened so quickly, that all I remember was being told by the anesthesiologist to count backwards beginning with 100. The next thing I remember is a nurse standing over me, calling my name and saying, "Wake up Paul, your surgery is over, and everything went well!"

Days later, as I dwelled upon that experience, I thought that if a person does fall asleep until the rapture, and if it's anything like going under anaesthetic then we could actually close our eyes in this life. Years could pass, and we could actually wake up in His presence, not knowing just how long we were asleep in the grave, so-to-speak.

Time is truly not relevant, and time could pass so quickly from the time we pass to the time we stand before Him, that it would seem like a mere blink of the eyes. Closing our eyes in death to opening them in heaven, without ever realizing that maybe a year, of thousands of years passed in the flash of time.

Either way, I believe I will close my eyes to life, and open them (a mere blink away) in His presence and Glory.

I hope that makes some sense to you, because it meant a lot of sense to me, and it still does.

Shalom, I'll see you all there in the end!:wavey:

Pastor Paul :type:

 

What happens to those of us who think the so-called rapture is mythical, and we just rest on that verse that says, "Absent from the body; present with the Lord..."?

Cheers,

Jim:thumbsup:

 

"UP" if we are saved.

"DOWN" if we are lost.

 

I, being a non-dispensationalist, do concur with a lot of this post, Brother Paul. I think that when I close my eyes in death, that when the Lord comes in the cloud, and calls my name, even if it were 1,000,000 years later(though I do not believe it will be that long), it will seem like a quick nap. When we leave this world, our souls will go back to God Who gave it, and the body will molder back to the dust of the earth.

 

Same as happens to ANY of we Christians!
Alive when jesus comes back, "raptured" to glory
Dead before that, soul/spirit goes to the Lord!

 

When you say raptured to glory. What does that mean, what is glory?

When Jesus said this, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Do you believe he received this when he said, "Father unto thy hands I commend my spirit." Or do you believe he received it at the same moment he by inheritance obtained a name better than the angels? That being, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."

Just what was this glory he once had that he wanted again?

Jesus said he, Jesus would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. I would say we could debate what that means however I believe Jesus meant he would be in Sheol/Hades for that period of time and Peter confirms that the soul of Jesus was not left in Hades due to his resurrection.

So the spirit of life that came from God Jesus commended back into the hands of God at the moment of death, his soul to the realm of the dead, Hades at the moment of death and his corruptible body was entombed a few hours later. All for three days and three nights. Christ died for us.

That was Jesus, what about the dead in Christ? What would Jesus himself say?

In ancient times when there were walled cities, how did one enter the city?
He entered through the gates.

I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Through the gates of death the soul enters the realm/city of the dead, however in the case of those souls who when they were alive that had the gift of the Spirit and were in Christ, that is in the body of Christ, the church went through the gates of death in Hades, those gates of death shall not prevail against them.

Jesus will return and deliver them up by resurrection as the kingdom to God, even the Father. 1 C 15:24 and 1 Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Even so, that is in the same manner, by resurrection They will be brought with Jesus into, as the kingdom inherited. The next verse even says those alive will not precede the dead. Precede where? Into the kingdom.

The gospel of the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. Resurrected/changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump.

I believe the hope of glory and the hope of eternal life are one and the same.

Is this not what the word of God states or not?