letstalkbible

The scripture does not say that the believers are in heaven, else there wouldn't be any need for a rapture (please read 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-17, they are however in a place, the believers in a place of rest and unbelievers in hell. The dead are asleep (St John 11: 11-14). as to the part about being conscious, I believe that they are not conscious of what is happening on earth Eccessiates 9:5-6) but to some extent apart of them liveth. Yes, the scriptures teach us that when we who are believers die, we are instantly with our Lord. It has no bearing on the Rapture, in which the BODIES of the dead in Christ will rise with their new physical bodies, and be united with their spirits. The dead are NOT asleep. The only reason you see 'sleep' in scripture in reference to death is that it was the ancient description of what physical death is. show me scripture to say they are instantly with the Lord, then i will believe. What the bible however says is that when Jesus returns then both the dead and living will rise to be with him 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-17. The word sleep in the scripture when talking about dead is just a change of word. This shows that apart of them, that is their spirit is alive, but they are not conscious of what's happening on earth, just like when your asleep, apart of you is conscious but your not aware of your environment or whats happening on earth. The bible clearly teaches that the dead in Christ go directly to God. Our confidence is in this: 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. why then a rapture? why then a judgment where the bible said we'll be judge whether we do GOOD or BAD? why then will he separate the sheep from the goats (is it goats?)? I don't beleive he was literally saying he'll go to heaven. Again i'm no expert and thus could be wrong

I always believe that we should take the Bible literal as much as we possibly can.We can spiritualize the Bible to death and then we have all kinds of weird beliefs. I don't believe that everything in the bible is literall, eg when the bible talks about God's hands its not literally talking about a physical hand. Now to comment on Brother Paul post, i believe the thief, as Jesus said, went to paradise, not to heaven. Abraham bosom is a place of rest that all believers go to. In revelation you mention I believe that the church was already rapture, keep in mind that the book of revelation wasn't written in chronological order but is a bit, can I use the word, mixed up? so at that time the saints were already rapture. Again we all can come up with different interpretations using scriptures from the bible, like the one that was use with absent from the body and present with the Lord. I guess we will never know everything until God returns. We just have to make sure our life is pleasing to him so that when He returns whereever heaven will be, we will be with him. Whether you want to agree or disagree that their is a hell, I personally don;t want to disbelieve and then find out at the end. I believe when the bible talk about a physical hell it was not being symbolic but literal. There is a heaven and there is a hell

The scripture does not say that the believers are in heaven, else there wouldn't be any need for a rapture (please read 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-17, they are however in a place, the believers in a place of rest and unbelievers in hell. The dead are asleep (St John 11: 11-14). as to the part about being conscious, I believe that they are not conscious of what is happening on earth Eccessiates 9:5-6) but to some extent apart of them liveth. Yes, the scriptures teach us that when we who are believers die, we are instantly with our Lord. It has no bearing on the Rapture, in which the BODIES of the dead in Christ will rise with their new physical bodies, and be united with their spirits. The dead are NOT asleep. The only reason you see 'sleep' in scripture in reference to death is that it was the ancient description of what physical death is. show me scripture to say they are instantly with the Lord, then i will believe. What the bible however says is that when Jesus returns then both the dead and living will rise to be with him 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-17. The word sleep in the scripture when talking about dead is just a change of word. This shows that apart of them, that is their spirit is alive, but they are not conscious of what's happening on earth, just like when your asleep, apart of you is conscious but your not aware of your environment or whats happening on earth.

The scripture does not say that the believers are in heaven, else there wouldn't be any need for a rapture (please read 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-17, they are however in a place, the believers in a place of rest and unbelievers in hell. The dead are asleep (St John 11: 11-14). as to the part about being conscious, I believe that they are not conscious of what is happening on earth Eccessiates 9:5-6) but to some extent apart of them liveth. Where is that place of "rest" you are talking about?If the believers are not in paradise or heaven then where are they?The unbelievers are waiting their judgment in Sheol.No one will go to hell until after the judgment.I do not think the believers are in paradise any longer but in Heaven with Jesus. yes there are in paradise.paradise is not heaven. Its a place of rest. this place was near hell (remember the story when Saul went to the witch?). The story which Jesus told in Luke 17 speaks to where they are. Remember also the bible said the death and HELL will be thrown into the lake of fire, this is the second death. Thats in revelation 21. don't have my bible near me right now to give exact scriptures

The scripture does not say that the believers are in heaven, else there wouldn't be any need for a rapture (please read 1 Thessalonians 4: 14-17, they are however in a place, the believers in a place of rest and unbelievers in hell. The dead are asleep (St John 11: 11-14). as to the part about being conscious, I believe that they are not conscious of what is happening on earth Eccessiates 9:5-6) but to some extent apart of them liveth.

To answer your 1st question: One becomes born again when they give their life to Jesus through water baptism and then recieve the gift of the holy ghost (one can come before the other but both MUST be done). When you have done these you must continue to live a holy life according to the scriptures, the bible MUST direct your life. Born again means to have a change of life, you become a new creature and old things are past away (2 Corinthians 5:17). If you use to lie, you stop lying etc. I must add that some of your old nature will still show up as Rome wasn't built in one day, but you must have a made up mind to have a change life 2. To answer your second question. The bible said that if we are led by the Spirit of God then we are the children of God and that the Spirit beareth witness that we are the sons of God (Romans 8: 14, 16). Our life will show that we are born again and we will feel a change. 3. Being born again means that we are converted christian. We are renewed, a new person through the blood of Christ. When we are born again we are change and now has a hope of being with JEsus when he returns. If we are not born again then we will be lost

based on my understanding of these verses, Paul was telling them that The death of Christ has brought his people liberty, freedom from under the bondage of the law with all its sacrifices. Imagine how much bondage the people were under to keep the law (the law was given because of sin, not because God wanted to or it brought him pleasure- Mt 9:13; Gal 3:19). We no longer have to entangle ourselves under the bondage of the law to gain God's favor, in fact if we continue to keep the law we have lost God's divine favor: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage...Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace"-Galatians 5:1, 4 They were told under the law that ton get God's favor one requirement under the law is that they MUST be circumcise (if you remember Paul was forced to circumcise TImothy cause of some contention about this- Acts 16). Circumcision is no more of importance, we should however circumcised our hearts. If we contunue to obey the law then we are fallen from Christ. I wrote a blog post on this. check out my blog for more information on this liberty. The post is name "Jesus Brings Liberty from the Law " CLick on the banner in my signiture to access my blog

No one claims the Big Bang was an explosion. That is just a blatant misrepresentation of the theory. The Big Bang Theory simply holds that the universe came into existence at some initial point as which space and time literally came out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo - something perfectly compatible with the historical Christian position) and now it is expanding outwards. The term was coined by a man named Hoyle who was a proponent of the steady state model and was according to some, trying to mock the model given by the Friedmann-Lemaitre equations. The name stuck. Also it depends on what you mean by apes. Apes is not really a scientific term. We descended from a common ancestor that we share with the modern great apes as they are known so we share a family in terms of taxonomy. okay. I will go along with anything the bible says

The big bang theory though its sounds and look logical, goes contrary to the bible on creation. The theory is tided in with evolution. If you or anyone else accepts this theory then your telling me that you came from monkey, I certainly didn't (Genisis 1:26-27; then chap 4-5). why is it then men and animals stops evolve into something else? Yes I do believe we change and adopt to our environment, but not according to evolution and BIg Bang Theories Evolution doesn't imply that we 'came from monkeys'. We share a common ancestor with modern monkeys, that is the assertion. sorry i shouldn't say monkeys but APEs. Thats not according to books i've read. According to evolution theory (I work in a library so saw books on evolution) the human race came about through species evolving, eg. look at this picture. THis is what evolution theory asserts, and is a direct contradiction to the word of God. I even find it insulting to man and God. One contradiction between theorist on the Big Bang is that there was a big explosion. "Experts however say that there was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion. Rather than imagining a balloon popping and releasing its contents, imagine a balloon expanding: an infinitesimally small balloon expanding to the size of our current universe."(http://www.big-bang-theory.com/)

The big bang theory though its sounds and look logical, goes contrary to the bible on creation. The theory is tided in with evolution. If you or anyone else accepts this theory then your telling me that you came from monkey, I certainly didn't (Genisis 1:26-27; then chap 4-5). why is it then men and animals stops evolve into something else? Yes I do believe we change and adopt to our environment, but not according to evolution and BIg Bang Theories

Evidence that scientist they themselves disprove. What I get to understand from theory is that God didn't create the universe, amonsgt other things which I can't talik about right now

I believe that persons who accepts the Big Bang theory is because they don't want to be accountable to any higher power. If there is no God then they are not accountable to anyone for the evil desires and deeds. People just want to live anyway the choose. Also most persons just can't come to teh grip that there is someone out there, God, that is capable of doing things man kind only dream of doing, not even dream. Thats my take for now. I am sending a big shout out to the MOst High God for creating the universe